[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. We love a strong woman, so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like dating a geek!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Having spent my college years at a *ahem* non-traditional school, sororities were never something I considered – we don’t even have a campus, let alone a Greek system. But nonetheless, I suppose I’ve always looked down a bit on sorority girls… at least until recently when one of my best friends told me she was going to rush this year. So now, in all fairness, it seems like I owe it to these Greek girls to re-examine my thoughts.

I can certainly see the appeal of a sorority - the belonging, the sisterhood, and it would definitely have been handy to have some older girls around as a kind of mentor for those times when I let myself get out of hand. You have a place to live (a place that’s probably nicer than the dorms); you have a choice of what kind of group you want to be with, so you probably have some things in common. By being thrown into a sort of automatic family, you up your chances of making friends, moreso than in most ordinary social situations, and you are more bonded with those friends because of all that you share. Read More »

“Come on– all the cool kids are doing it.” You probably thought you escaped peer pressure when you got your high school diploma and left all the “Queen Bees” at school behind to hold on to their prom queen crowns for eternity while you moved on to bigger and better things in college.

Sure, college isn’t a catty popularity contest like high school can be, but that doesn’t meant that peer pressure doesn’t exist. In fact, in college, there are thousands of kids on campus who are looking for an opportunity to twist your arm. It can be hard not to say “yes” to a party on a Tuesday night (when you’ve got a midterm at 8 a.m. the next day), or to something “experimental” that you’ll look back on and shudder with disdain in the years to come.

If you don’t think peer pressure exists in college, I have one word for you: RUSH. There are collegiates out there who would sell their souls to join a sorority or a fraternity, and they are willing to do some crazy shizz to get through rush. Get into the Greek scene, and you’ve automatically got a clique of a few dozen new friends. That’s reason enough for some students to go a week without changing their clothes or serve lemonade in a giant purple elephant costume (that is, if Will Ferrell’s running the frat). “Hazing” is now illegal at universities across the country, but that doesn’t mean that the peer pressure of rush week isn’t still in full effect. Some say it’s a college coming-of-age ritual. Hey, to each their own, but still: a rose is a rose is a rose. Read More »

So you’re going through recruitment! You’re excited, nervous, anxious and you can’t stop trying on your new wardrobe for the week and having pretend conversations with yourself in your mirror.

Oh…that was just me.

Whatever your feelings are towards the process of Greek recruitment, uncertainty is almost bound to be one of them. Your recruitment staff will help guide you through this tumultuous week (I say tumultuous only because I go to a school with an ENORMOUS and therefore competitive sorority recruitment period). Your Mom will be there to listen to how your days were. Your boyfriend will be absolutely baffled by the entire process so don’t count on much more than foot rubs. All these people all well and good, but who can you talk to about what’s really pressing you? How do you carry on a conversation with a complete stranger for 20 minutes?

Never fear lovely potential new members, I’ve got your back on what to say (and what definitely NOT to say). A simple Rule of Thumb is to Avoid (at all costs) the 5 B’s.

5. Boys.

Don’t talk about your boyfriend. You don’t want to be that obnoxious girl who only has one interest: her Snuggle McWonderful Honey Bear. Do not go on for hours about your last date night, his favorite foods or colors, or what the names of your future children are if you are seeking an invitation back to that house.

Do NOT name drop the names of your all time favorite Frat Boys. It may seem impressive to you that you can name all the older guys at XYZ house, but to the woman rushing you it might come off as desperate or weird. Some of the boys will most likely be her friends, and you don’t want any of your indiscretions from your wild Freshman Summer coming back to haunt you. Even worse, she may have dated any one of said studs and it might irk her to learn that her ex-boo has been gettin’ jiggy with the freshmen population. Just don’t talk about boys. This week is about sisterhood and finding the right house for you…not the men in your life. Read More »

I have never thought of myself as a “sorority girl.” Like many people, when I thought of the term “sorority girl” I didn’t have a whole lot of positive connotations. I thought they were fake, perky, skanky, High School queen bees, who did a lot of partying and a lot of drugs.

Okay, so I guess I let Hollywood feed me that stereotype.

However, once I started freshman year I started meeting some great girls (who were none of those stereotypical adjectives) and who were also in sororities. The contrast baffled me, so I decided to investigate.

Sororities are pretty big on my campus and something like 35% of girls go Greek. That fact and all the nice girls I had met led me to sign myself up for the 2 week long process of rush. My floor friends all signed up too, but I was still pretty iffy about the idea. I told a few home friends and their reaction was…well less than enthusiastic. I got responses like; “Are you serious?” “Why would you do that to yourself?” and “You are not a sorority girl!” Even my mom, who went Greek in college, said that it might not be for me. These people were the people that knew me best, so I thought that they were probably right, and I prepared to pull my name off the list of about 700 girls. Read More »

I’ve been home from college for what? Two months? And already, my parents are worried I am going to become an old maid, living with them for – gasp! – the rest of eternity. So what if I’m more into yoga than Jaeger bombs? I enjoy the time I spend in bed napping, DVD watching, and blogging for all of you about how I’ve turned into a grandma at the age of twenty-two. My parents (and now my whole surrounding world of people), however, will have none of that.

Aren’t parents supposed to be the ones who are against going out to the bar? I guess in that respect my ‘rents are so not 1969. But their dating tactics? Well, it’s more old school than any of my kick-ass, super-soft vintage T’s (and I have some verrrry old ones).

My parents met in the 70’s when they were set up on a blind date. Therefore, they think that I should be set up on as many blind dates as possible. Lovelyyyy. Read More »

Being in a sorority I have my reservations about ABC Family’s new show, “GrΣΣk”, since whenever a portrayal of us is attempted it’s almost always negative. Not to mention that it always drives me crazy when people spell “Greek” with sigmas in place of “E”. Every Greek knows that while “sigma” might LOOK like ‘E’, it has nothing to do with the letter; “epsilon” does. Of course epsilon is just represented by a plain ‘E’, so it’s not nearly as swΣΣt looking.

Anyway, another concern I have is that this is the kind of show I would have expected from The CW, not ABC Family. Aren’t they supposed to be strictly PG? They even have an odd advertisement gimmick where you can “rush” the frats and sorors of the show on the website. I can admit that sororities and fraternities have done a lot over the years to warrant a negative image, but it’s still a very present and ever thriving community on most college campuses, and its members are really sick of the constant fire we’re put under, personally and publicly.

I often feel like our campus does everything in their power to downplay our Greek societies, including our very own Greek office which disbanded a sorority this past spring. I think that often times our administration forgets that this is college, and these are sororities, not the Stepford Wives. As a result all of this Greek life is only about 3% of our school body, at a school which constantly complains about the lack of community on our campus. The hypocrisy is endless. Read More »