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The Greek system…

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dickiedawg

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Feb 22, 2008
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mstateglfr said:
The Greek system has 0 importance in college in 2025.
If it didn't exist anywhere, MSU and other universities would continue to exist. Even Bama, with its shallow materialistic Sororities being social media famous, would continue to exist and thrive.

But since it exists elsewhere, it sure as 17 needs to exist at MSU too.
If MSU got rid of it, and everywhere else still had it, MSU would for sure be at a disadvantage for quality students.
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First Half GIF


You're absolutely right about the second part.
I think you're mostly right about the middle- If there were no Greek system anywhere, universities would continue to exist.

I'm a long time removed from my college days. I'm a terrible person to opine on what's important to college life today. But I assume it's mostly the same as it was: great for some people.
 
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615dawg

615dawg

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Under 900 girls rushed at State, which was an all-time high. Georgia, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Alabama all have over 2400.

Its a big deal at our peer institutions, but we aren't attracting a lot of girls that are into it. I know a family very well with a freshman girl at State right now. Beautiful, valedictorian, Honors College - the sororities would have fought over her. She had zero interest. She's focused on becoming an engineer.

It appears that State will remain very attractive to girls like this. Its not a bad thing, but its a thing.
 
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8dog

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615dawg said:
Under 900 girls rushed at State, which was an all-time high. Georgia, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Alabama all have over 2400.

Its a big deal at our peer institutions, but we aren't attracting a lot of girls that are into it. I know a family very well with a freshman girl at State right now. Beautiful, valedictorian, Honors College - the sororities would have fought over her. She had zero interest. She's focused on becoming an engineer.

It appears that State will remain very attractive to girls like this. Its not a bad thing, but its a thing.
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Agree. I think it’s a great position. We have a healthy, robust Greek system, but it’s not a must.
 
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LOTRGOTDAWGFAN

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From AI,

Joining a Greek organization in college, whether a fraternity or sorority, can offer several benefits including a strong sense of community, leadership opportunities, and social connections. These organizations provide a built-in network of friends, opportunities to develop leadership skills through chapter roles, and a structured social life with events like mixers and formals. Additionally, Greek life can enhance academic performance, with many organizations emphasizing scholarship and providing resources to support members' studies.

I would also add greek life affords those members first hand experience in decision making skills, communication (written and oral), interfraternity/intersorority collaboration, financial management, and risk management. If you're worried about hazing, which i'm sure still happens to an extent, i think most chapters (not all but anecdotal) have snuffed that out since the 90s due to excessive liability and a genuine sense of repulse towards that behavior.
 
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thekimmer

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I went to State largely on my own dime. It was all I could do just to pay my tuition and keep a roof over my head. I did not have the money for the dues, nice car, clothes, and partying that seemed to be required for greek life. I had plenty of friends, participated in as much as I could, got two degrees and went on to be reasonably successful in my career. All I can say about Greeks from my perspective is they 100% made it crystal clear that they distained us 'GDIs' and so unsurprisingly, I did not care much for the system nor to I give a crap about it now.
 
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karlchilders.sixpack

karlchilders.sixpack

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LOTRGOTDAWGFAN said:
From AI,

Joining a Greek organization in college, whether a fraternity or sorority, can offer several benefits including a strong sense of community, leadership opportunities, and social connections. These organizations provide a built-in network of friends, opportunities to develop leadership skills through chapter roles, and a structured social life with events like mixers and formals. Additionally, Greek life can enhance academic performance, with many organizations emphasizing scholarship and providing resources to support members' studies.

I would also add greek life affords those members first hand experience in decision making skills, communication (written and oral), interfraternity/intersorority collaboration, financial management, and risk management. If you're worried about hazing, which i'm sure still happens to an extent, i think most chapters (not all but anecdotal) have snuffed that out since the 90s due to excessive liability and a genuine sense of repulse towards that behavior.
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Without reading the intro, I knew that was from AI.
 
Drebin

Drebin

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Xenomorph said:
How important is the Greek system to the overall health of the university?
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I think it's a culture thing. It's less in State's culture than at Ole Miss or Bama.

I do think a robust Greek system matters though. And there are places who do it much better than State.
 
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Beretta.sixpack

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615dawg said:
Under 900 girls rushed at State, which was an all-time high. Georgia, Ole Miss, Arkansas and Alabama all have over 2400.
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Drebin said:
I think it's a culture thing. It's less in State's culture than at Ole Miss or Bama.

I do think a robust Greek system matters though. And there are places who do it much better than State.
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I think it is important and it has its place, but definitely not a necessity. My daughter is going through Ole Miss rush as I type this, and sorority rush at Ole miss put the Cult in culture for damn sure.....the horror stories ive heard just this morning make me want to puke (my wife is a chapter advisor for one of them).....the irony of seeing this thread this morning i guess..
 
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skipperDawg

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Not the answer, but when I was at state 76- 81 (thanks for the victory lap dad)
The frat I was in cost $145 per month.
2 meals a day, unlimited hanging out with buddies, parties including bands (Eli, Larry raspberry and the high steppers)
Worth it for a poor boy from Tupelo.
Fast forward to 2015 my son joined same frat at a whopping $395 per month.
 
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Beretta.sixpack

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skipperDawg said:
Not the answer, but when I was at state 76- 81 (thanks for the victory lap dad)
The frat I was in cost $145 per month.
2 meals a day, unlimited hanging out with buddies, parties including bands (Eli, Larry raspberry and the high steppers)
Worth it for a poor boy from Tupelo.
Fast forward to 2015 my son joined same frat at a whopping $395 per month.
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I can't remember what I paid at MSU in the 90s, but i can tell you that the sorority that my wife is chapter advisor for at UM is $9800/ year. dues and meal plan only. Insane. They are coming due to me within the month i suppose.
 
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FrontRangeDawg

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I was in a fraternity when I was at State, and it seemed pretty important to me. But, I was also from a part of the state where that was the expectation coming from high school. And it was 30 years ago.

My kid didn't want to go through rush this semester, and we didn't push it. His roommate did. We'll see how it turns out.
 
The Peeper

The Peeper

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skipperDawg said:
Not the answer, but when I was at state 76- 81 (thanks for the victory lap dad)
The frat I was in cost $145 per month.
2 meals a day, unlimited hanging out with buddies, parties including bands (Eli, Larry raspberry and the high steppers)
Worth it for a poor boy from Tupelo.
Fast forward to 2015 my son joined same frat at a whopping $395 per month.
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and don't forget the tshirts, the raffle tickets, the pancake breakfasts, the charity donations, formal rentals, etc etc etc. I didn't do it and didn't feel like I missed anything at all, but both my kids rushed. One of them still regularly gets together with panhellenic friends made here and keeps in touch almost daily w/ some. The other one hasn't mentioned it since leaving and doesn't keep in touch w/ anyone from the "cultural cult" as someone else called it. Just depends on the individual
 
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BigWorm.sixpack

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Colonel Kang said:
I think the Greek system is important because it's my experience that Greek's stay more connected to the university, after they leave, compared to the average student.
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This is 100% correct. My wife, who was in a sorority over 30 years ago, went to campus yesterday to watch bid day for our niece. We live over 90 miles away. And she is one of hundreds of families who come back periodically for no other reason than to participate in Greek functions.
 
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johnson86-1

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thekimmer said:
I went to State largely on my own dime. It was all I could do just to pay my tuition and keep a roof over my head. I did not have the money for the dues, nice car, clothes, and partying that seemed to be required for greek life. I had plenty of friends, participated in as much as I could, got two degrees and went on to be reasonably successful in my career. All I can say about Greeks from my perspective is they 100% made it crystal clear that they distained us 'GDIs' and so unsurprisingly, I did not care much for the system nor to I give a crap about it now.
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That's just availability bias. There were definitely *** hats that thought being greek meant they were better than GDIs, but they were a pretty small minority and generally probably weren't well liked even in their fraternity or sorority. But they definitely stick out and make an impression to non-Greek people.

But I can honestly say neither I nor I don't think any of my friends thought we were better than anybody because we were in a fraternity. I think we generally recognized that it's mostly just something you do if you are fortunate enough to be able to afford it (although I and a few others paid our own way; I could not have done it without scholarship money covering school but some worked or worked and borrowed to pay for school and fraternity), and enjoy the social aspect as well as just the benefits of helping to build out a social network and make connections with peers.

We generally thought we were better GDIs because we generally thought we were better than everyone, including other Greek memebers, and joining a fraternity didn't really make that attitude better or worse.**
 
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Bjm021889

Bjm021889

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I am willing to bet that if we polled our top 100 mega donors. A majority of them were in our Greek system.

The Greek system has a higher average GPA than the average student. They are more likely to come from affluent families and have a greater chance to be business owners. They are more likely to stay connected to the university long term, season tickets etc
 
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karlchilders.sixpack

karlchilders.sixpack

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CochiseCowbell said:
Fine, I'll ask, since it's been used at least thrice in this thread. What is a GDI? Got Damn Independent? Individual?
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They are independent, and throw the G D in there , as a matter of 17U, pride and defiance. GDI has been around forever.
I'm not flaming anyone by posting this.
 
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FrontRangeDawg

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My experience was that the fraternity was very important for freshman and sophomore year, where I made a few of my closest lifelong friends. After that, I knew more people in my major/field of study, worked off-campus, and had other avenues to meet people and made close friends with them including some lifelong friends. Some of them were non-Greek and others were also from other frats and had similarly tailed off of attendance.

I think that's how it goes for most of the guys, but I could be wrong.
 
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615dawg

615dawg

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thatsbaseball said:
As a father of a former sorority member at State I highly recommend it and say without a doubt it was some of the best money I ever spent.
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Greek participants have a higher GPA than average students and there have been studies that say that they make 30% more salary wise. There are standards that put up roadblocks to things like missing class. It isn't for everyone, but I have found that the people that are really against it rely on outliers to defend their stance. For the vast majority of people involved in Greek life, it is a wonderful experience and money well spent.
 
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mstateglfr

mstateglfr

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Bjm021889 said:
I am willing to bet that if we polled our top 100 mega donors. A majority of them were in our Greek system.

The Greek system has a higher average GPA than the average student. They are more likely to come from affluent families and have a greater chance to be business owners. They are more likely to stay connected to the university long term, season tickets etc
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This list of general benefits reads like the societal benefits of marriage and 2 parent households.

TIL
Greek life = traditional family values.
 
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FrontRangeDawg

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615dawg said:
Greek participants have a higher GPA than average students and there have been studies that say that they make 30% more salary wise. There are standards that put up roadblocks to things like missing class. It isn't for everyone, but I have found that the people that are really against it rely on outliers to defend their stance. For the vast majority of people involved in Greek life, it is a wonderful experience and money well spent.
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I'm not disagreeing with your assertions because I'm sure they're true. Speaking from personal experience as someone who was in a fraternity, most of the people who were in it with me came into college with a high GPA and test scores from solidly upper middle class families. I would posit that a lot of those characteristics were already formed before joining a fraternity.

I think it's good for some people and not for others. I loved being in mine for a few years, then kind of got over it when other opportunities presented themselves.

I think the principal benefit that they have is the networking because of that cohort of upper middle class folks. Isn't that why they called Phi Delt at Ole Miss the Million Dollar Boys' Club?
 
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615dawg

615dawg

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FrontRangeDawg said:
I'm not disagreeing with your assertions because I'm sure they're true. Speaking from personal experience as someone who was in a fraternity, most of the people who were in it with me came into college with a high GPA and test scores from solidly upper middle class families. I would posit that a lot of those characteristics were already formed before joining a fraternity.

I think it's good for some people and not for others. I loved being in mine for a few years, then kind of got over it when other opportunities presented themselves.

I think the principal benefit that they have is the networking because of that cohort of upper middle class folks. Isn't that why they called Phi Delt at Ole Miss the Million Dollar Boys' Club?
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I think that's the way it is for most people. A lot of networking early in their careers and a alumni meetup every once in a while - it doesn't encompass their lives like it does throughout college. But for many it invokes great memories of life before it gets really complicated.

My wife and daughters are watching the Lifetime series on sorority rush. There was a girl from Madison that went to Ole Miss on the first episode. Good kid, good family.
 
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coach66

coach66

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Being asked to be Kappa Sigma was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It changed my life and my son’s life for the better. My daughter was President of Kappa Delta and it was an awesome experience for her as well. Greek system is very important!
 
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skipperDawg

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The Peeper said:
and don't forget the tshirts, the raffle tickets, the pancake breakfasts, the charity donations, formal rentals, etc etc etc. I didn't do it and didn't feel like I missed anything at all, but both my kids rushed. One of them still regularly gets together with panhellenic friends made here and keeps in touch almost daily w/ some. The other one hasn't mentioned it since leaving and doesn't keep in touch w/ anyone from the "cultural cult" as someone else called it. Just depends on the individual
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im a dorkStill got my signed paddle
 
mstateglfr

mstateglfr

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mstateglfr

mstateglfr

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onewoof said:
115K views... apparently no one (better numbers than our football games last season lol)
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I wonder how many of those were people who clicked on the video because it popped up in their feed, asked why the 17 they are watching it, and then stopped watching it within 20 seconds because it's dumb.
 
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FrontRangeDawg

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coach66 said:
Being asked to be Kappa Sigma was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It changed my life and my son’s life for the better. My daughter was President of Kappa Delta and it was an awesome experience for her as well. Greek system is very important!
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A to B, no sh*t
 
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