Pros And Cons Of Being A Member Of A Fraternity

Being a Member of a Fraternity/Sorority Greek letter organizations are social organizations at colleges or universities. The most popular aspect of a fraternity or sorority is the social life. Although, each Greek organization does emphasize its service and beneficial attributes. As popular as Greek life may be in the US, joining these organizations does have its pros and cons, and I will be presenting them to you. Let’s start with the pros. Students do benefit from being a member of a fraternity and sorority. Firstly, is academic performance. Most Greek organizations require you to keep a certain gpa as a member. Due to the demand of grade upkeep studies have found that these members have higher gpa’s than the non-organizational students.

One thing to take into consideration before deciding to join a Greek organization is the cost. The price of membership can be one of the biggest expenses for students. At an average public institution, dues for a semester can be as much as $1000. Students may pay $4000 a semester for their tuition. Going Greek can increase college expenses by twenty-five percent. This only considering dues. Other expenses are quite hefty as well including t shirts for the chapter’s members and even a membership pen that is between two hundred and five hundred dollars. One of the main causes of such high prices in these organizations is due to what’s called the National organization insurance bill. Organizations that have banned alcohol have a much lower annual bill. Organizations that have a history of alcohol or hazing related deaths pay very high amounts for insurance that members help with. This leads to our next point:

Hazing has plagued many colleges over the last few decades. For years, there has been at least one death reported in result of hazing in the US. More commonly now, pledges do pointless tasks that can be demeaning. The main point being to prove their worth or learn their role the fraternity or sorority. Many hazing-related deaths result from binge drinking. Another con of joining a Greek organization is alcohol and drugs. Some chapters force pledgers to drink as much as possible as part of hazing rituals. Fraternities and some sororities partake in many social events. For some, these events have a culture of alcohol and even drug abuse. Some students have developed drinking habits while in college that carried on into their adult life, that caused problems in their personal and professional