Who Has It Better, Urban Or Rural Fraternities?

Not So Sweetheart8 years ago

Big schools, small schools, private schools, state schools. When comparing Greek life by these standards, it’s pretty easy to tell which is going to be the best choice (big state school, duh). But how does it break down when you compare city-set schools with bustling life all around to more rural campuses that have backyards for bonfires and a bigger distance between the neighbors? Which is really more beneficial and conducive to being in a fraternity? Let’s take a look at some of the key points that make for a great Greek life scene and see how the two settings stack up.

Housing

City
City living can be rough for a fraternity. In truly city-set campuses, you’d be hard pressed to find a “house” that would fit more than half a dozen brothers. A lot of the time, chapters just live in campus housing that has been set aside for them to fill with brothers, or get apartments nearby one another. Even if you are lucky enough to have a place for your chapter to call home, it’s not gonna be the kind of place you can throw down in, what with close neighbors and noise ordinances preventing you from getting rowdy past 11 p.m. Space concerns make parties difficult, and the best you can manage for music is someone’s “totally fire” Spotify playlist or the token brother who’s “this close” to making it as a DJ.

Rural
Even if your campus is in the suburbs of the city, you’re already in a better setting, with more space where they build bigger houses that come closer to fitting your needs. Suburban campuses will have the closest thing to the stereotypical Greek row of houses where a drive down the street feels like you’re swimming through Greek alphabet soup. On the far end of the spectrum, you have schools that are so far out in bumfuck nowhere, the school is the only thing around for miles, and the only people around after dark are students. Your neighbors are other students and greeks, and assuming they aren’t complete goobers who actually expect quiet hours to be enforced, you’ll have an easy time letting loose. Live bands, anyone?

Winner: Rural

Girls

City
College students from your school, plus other nearby schools, and hookers.

Rural
College students from your school and townies.

Winner: City

Bars

City
Location, location, location. There’s an endless supply of bars to hit up when your campus is smack dab in the middle of a bustling city. You’ve got the whole spectrum at your fingertips, from the country bar to the cocktail bar, so you’ll never be bored. With public transportation and cabs to take you outside campus and beyond, the city is your oyster. You can hit a new place every night or keep going back to the same haunts. Plus, there are so many people at every bar on a given night that there’s no way the bouncer will remember you puking all over him that one time.

Rural
Slim pickings describes more than the female population at your school. There’s only a handful of places to hit past 9 p.m. and you’ve been thrown out of all of them on multiple occasions, but the bartenders still know your drink of choice because you’re a reliable customer. Only having a couple bars means you’re going to be surrounded by everyone you know at school. It’s great when you’re seeing all of your friends in one place, but it’s a drag when last week’s slam keeps staring daggers at you every time you talk up another girl. Make sure you stay on the move if you want to keep things interesting (unless you’re the homebody type that doesn’t mind sitting in the same stool every weekend). Wherever your watering hole is, it’s going to be better for your wallet than it would be in a city. Forget $15 for a Red Bull/vodka. How about $5 for a pitcher of margaritas?

Winner: Tie

Tiebreaker: Miscellaneous Resources

City
Liquor stores
Drugs

Rural
Woods for pledge activities
Clearings for golf or shooting practice
Bonfires

Winner: Rural.