My Experience As A Brother In A Lame-Ass Bottom-Tier Fraternity

GrimaceGT1827 years ago

Before the shitshow starts, I’d like to start off by saying that the guys I met in my chapter were amazing and got me through a dark period after a close family member passed away right after pledging. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.

That being said, fuck.

There were a few signs that I was entering into the bottom of my school’s Greek culture. The first was that the school itself was not “Greek friendly” to begin with. They actually booted all of the Greek organizations off campus at one point because of housing issues. It’s easier to be at the bottom when even the top is mid-range at best. It didn’t help that the school was extremely small, too; they reported about 3,000 students enrolled, but it was probably more like 2,300 actually on campus.

The next was that the chapter I pledged was super defunct. Apparently they’d had a dispute with a former landlord over their house and ended up losing it along with 75% of the membership, which made up about 95% of the more fun members. It wasn’t until after I had been initiated that I found out that my chapter was known as the “loser” fraternity on campus. Do your research, kids.

Why did I join? Honestly, I went through high school with the idea that rushing and pledging a fraternity was something you were supposed to do. I’d like to thank movies such as Animal House and Van Wilder for spurring my crazy desire to be a Greek. So when I got there and my roommates turned out to already be in a fraternity, it was an easy in (I transferred in, so I got the choice housing on campus).

I realized not longer after joining that my fraternity basically initiated anyone who had shown up to an event with a pulse. Of the five guys I pledged with, only two of us were left a year later. One guy who was in the Criminal Justice program was kicked out for academics because he failed his handgun safety class, opting instead to play COD rather than going to the actual fucking range and shooting a live gun. The others dropped because dues were way too expensive for them.

Parties were few and far between. They were great when they did happen, but the frequency was laughable. When we’d try to do a joint party with one of the sororities, one or two girls would show up to show face then leave to go to the club or a different house party on the other side of campus.

Every chapter meeting basically boiled down to “How do we pay our dues to nationals?” My chapter actually ended up folding after our national office gave us an ultimatum of “recruit 30 new guys in the next year or we’re going to close you down.” The average rush on campus was 8-10 guys a semester between only three fraternities; they knew what they were doing.

No house. No members. Fuck this.

If you’re in high school or considering transferring to a four-year school, do your research before pledging a fraternity. It could easily save you a few thousand dollars in dues and initiation fees that would’ve been better spent on different letters. I love my brothers, but honestly a better fraternity experience would have been more worthwhile..