Collegiate Times

 When the topic of Greek life gets brought up, almost 100 percent of first thoughts go straight to harlequinade antics seen in “Animal House,” but there is more to it than that.

Greek life can be a great way to enhance your college experience and be the proverbial icing on the cake that is the four years you will spend in college.

At a school of over 28,000, finding a niche is not always easy and can seem overwhelming at first. Joining a fraternity or sorority  — or, at the very least, going through the rush process, is a great way to make friends and make the Tech community feel more tight knit.

Regardless of whether you go Greek or not, the friendships you make in college will inevitably last the rest of your life. However, being able to say that someone is your “brother” or your “sister” can add an even deeper connection to a strong friendship.

But those life-long bonds aren’t the only benefits of Greek life.

Encompassing more than 3,700 students, or 16 percent of the Tech student body, the Greek community is made of students that want to a part of something bigger than themselves and look to be leaders outside of just the classroom.

These students are divided into 56 different organizations and each bring somethings unique to the table.

Last year, Tech’s fraternities and sororities combined to raise more than $150,000 for various charities and put in more than 80,000 hours of community service through philanthropy events.

So while being in one of these organizations can indeed be time consuming, much of it is spent helping others.

I can’t insist enough that it is not merely “paying for friends” as some would like to brand it, and if you afford it, there isn’t any harm in trying it out for yourself. After all, college is one of the few places where we have the ability to explore new things.

One piece of advice though: if you do choose to rush a fraternity or sorority, go into it without listening to gossip or stereotypes, and certainly don’t pretend to be something you’re not to impress people.

The organization you pledge will come to be your home for the next four years, and if you do so just because other people see them as the “best,” you are missing out on the real friendships you could be making.

Last but not least, once you’re in Greek life, it will be exactly what you put into it. You can just go through the motions, or you can be a contributing member of your chapter, but it’s only the former category that ends up regretting it.

A version of this article appeared in the Jun 8 issue of the Collegiate Times.