As the end of the school year is approaching, the seniors have decided whether or not they are attending college and if so, where that might be. Almost all the seniors are going to college next year, which presents a few questions about college to them.

“What type of housing will I have? Will I like my roommate? What will it be like not having my parents around? What clubs will I join? Will I join a fraternity or sorority?”That last question for me, is a difficult one. I will be attending Doane College (Crete, NE), where 30% of the student body is in Greek life. Greek life is somewhat big at Doane, but it isn’t the only thing that goes on there; still it’s a tough decision. I think it would be a lot of fun and I would make a lot of friends; but will I be able to deal with the pledging and some of the questionable aspects (drinking, hazing, etc.) of it. Talking with my friends, I noticed that this is not an easy question to answer and there are a lot of opinions about it.

I wanted to find out more, so I created a survey that was sent to all the seniors in both of the divisions at Regis Jesuit High School. 135 seniors responded anonymously. The majority of seniors attending college are going to a college that has Greek life. So I know I am not the only one posed with the question about Greek life next year.

In addition to college’s academic endeavors, it has a lot of opportunities for fun. The media, in my opinion, portrays parties as one of the most common forms of this, typically associated with Greek life. Needless to say, 30% of the seniors in the survey said they would be planning to join Greek life and 36% said that they wouldn’t join Greek life but would still go to parties. Only 4% said specifically that they wouldn’t go to parties. The rest were undecided. Considering that the two most common answers for joining a fraternity or sorority was “for the parties” or that “it seems like it would be fun”, I am going to conclude that parties are very prominent in college. But you don’t need to join Greek life to go to parties. So that shouldn’t be the only reason to join a fraternity for me.

From what I see on Total Frat Move, in movies, and on the media, I am aware that the drinking and hazing in Greek life may be out of hand. Will this be too much for me? Well for the majority of seniors in the survey, it is too much. Out of all the reasons people said they wouldn’t be joining a fraternity or sorority, “the drinking culture”, “the hazing”, and “the media portrayal” comprised 58% of it. However, in opposition to this, the majority said that the media exaggerated what Greek life is like. So maybe there is a lot of binge drinking and pledging, but it is not as much as we really think because of the media presentation of it.

I am lucky that my school next year rushes in the spring semester. This will give me a chance to see what the Greek life is like specific to Doane College, or if there is a fraternity that is better for my specific needs and wants when the time comes. Something I noticed is that people seem to have forgotten that fraternities and sororities are supposed to be philanthropist clubs. Regis Jesuit High School has instilled a desire to serve within me, so maybe if I can find a frat that does a lot of service that will be a good option for me.

I do think there is a chance I will be to busy to join a frat with my school work and extracurricular activities as do 41 other people that said they would be too busy.

After taking time to review the survey and think more about Greek life next year, my decision will have to be made next year. It is a lot to think about, however I am comforted that there is a considerable amount of people planning on doing Greek life and an even larger group that will go to parties. I am not alone in this difficult decision, but we can all conclude that having fun at college is a necessity in addition to academics.

By Nick Iwata ’15