Sororities: what are they, how do you join one?
For a lot of college students the most important part of school is sorority life. Of course there are plenty of others who have no interest in it at all. Either way you should know what a sorority is so that you can decide if you are interested in joining one.
A sorority is a social organization for female college students, they are called fraternities for male students. Almost all colleges in the US have sororities and many students consider them to be an important part of college life. There are several different sororities at each school and membership in them will be determined in different ways. Some will target students with good grades others students of a specific ethnic group. Many students will join a sorority because it was the one that their mother was a member of, often membership goes back several generations in a family.
Almost always all sororities take their names from Greek letters, usually two letters are used in the name. This is largely because the early organizations thought of themselves as being similar to the ancient Greek academies. This is why you will often hear of sororities as being referred to as Greek houses. Most sororities maintain a great deal of ritual much of it coming from the ancient Greek world so this is another connection that they have.
Most sororities have chapters at each school so when you join a sorority you are not only joining the local group at your school but you are also joining the national group. There is a bond between members even if they went to different schools. This is one of the main reasons that people join, the connections that you form can really help you with your career down the road. Of course there is also the social aspect that attracts a lot of people. Sororities hold many functions and being a member will allow you to participate in a great many activities.
In order to join a sorority the first step is rush week. This happens right at the beginning of the school year. You will select the sorority that you want to join and you will attend a number of events and functions that allow the current members to get to know you so they can decide if you would be a suitable member. At the end of rush week those who have been selected are invited to join as pledges. Being a pledge is an initiation period during which you will be given a number of tasks to complete, if you are successful at this you will be invited to join as a full member. In recent years the pledge process has gotten a lot of bad publicity because of some of the tasks that were required. This has resulted in the schools becoming much more involved in the process and implementing a number of rules.