About a third of the current members of Congress participated in Greek life in college.  According to Nicole Glass of USA Today, the percentage of students in a sorority or fraternity who later work for Fortune 500 companies is 85 percent. This may prove that Greek Life is very effective in building leadership skills.

“Joining a sorority was the best decision I have made in my college career,” says Alpha Delta Pi member, and VHS alumna Caitlin Remler. Along with leadership skills, Greek life has many other benefits.

Sororities and fraternities are communities where college students can meet new people and build life-long friendships. They also benefit their communities by each contributing to a charity and having philanthropy events like “Pizza With the Pi’s” where a pizza truck comes for all students to purchase from and profits are donated, explains Caitlin.  

What Greek life groups really advertise to potential candidates is the brotherhood and sisterhood that comes with it. College is a whole new environment and can be scary but Greek life communities make big schools feel small. 

“One of my favorite parts has been working on the recruitment team to help induct more members to ADPI,” says Caitlin. The option to take on roles in sororities allows participants to choose how much they want to contribute.

One criticism of Greek Life is the cost; when asked how much Caitlin has paid to her sorority, she says, “too much.”  Constantly hosting social events and paying fees to the community adds up. For many, this cost outweighs any of the benefits of Greek life and rules out the possibility of joining a sorority or fraternity. 

Greek life, especially fraternities, also have a bad history of hazing new members. Hazing is the practice of cruel and sometimes dangerous tasks like required high levels of alcohol consumption and even physically assaulting new members. 

This bullying is very serious and is strictly banned by nearly every college. Unfortunately, this does not stop every fraternity and hazing still happens on rare occasions. The possibility of hazing is another reason many students chose to not participate in Greek life. 

Most students already decide whether or not they will join a fraternity or sorority by the time they begin their freshman year but sometimes change their mind once they begin school. These factors are the main influences on their decision but there is so much more to Greek life once a person decides to join. 

They each have their own meetings that bring members together and have secrets that are not to be shared with outsiders. Greek life definitely forms a community for making connections and staying connected socially, with all of its pros and cons, participating is definitely a personal choice.