Personally, I want to start off by sayign to the poster that it is a Fraternity (all spelled out and not just simply a Frat). It's a respect thing.
I personally belong to a Fraternity to this day, even though it's been twenty years since I was college. I attended a college in the far north upper midwest area (specifically speasking - North dakota State University in Fargo, ND). The Fraternity I joined was a social Fraternity and not strictly based on academics. I rushed, got an invite to pledge, went through initiation, and lived in the actual Fraternity house for a majority of my college experience. I want to say that it was one of the best experiences I've ever had and I still have some of my friends from those days.
I want to say that I believe some of your previous posters are off a bit on their idea of the Fraternity rituals and hazing that supposedly takes place. I may be mistaken by other ares of the country, but I do know the Fraternity I belong too has national guidelines against such things as hazing practices. I've attended other initiations ceremonies of my Fraternity at other campuses across the nation, and they all tend to very specific on their practices and treatment of incoming members.
Back twenty years ago, I was treated with respect, never asked to strip clothing and expose myself, or put through hazing type activities. I was asked about my knowledge of the Fraternity learned during the pledging classes, asked to submit my grades for the semester because of certain minimums required, I was asked about my possible leadership and what I believed I could bring to and benefit from the Fraternity, and some other misc. stuff. We were talked to by many of the senior members, sometimes kept up late over the course of a long weekend, and much of the Fraternity house was dark with windows covered and candles light to ad to the atmosphere, and at the end we had a closed party to celebrate those that made it through. But we were never physically abused, or asked to strip and run naked, or anything of the sort. The old Animal House idea's of Fraternity pledging, initiation & hazing are long gone and with good reasons. I would agree that Fraternities are tight cohesive units of Brotherhood and they do want to know about you and what makes you tick, but they aren't going to do a full in-depth background check on your name and such. They mostly want to find out if your a good person, straight up, have leadership qualities, and are financially capable of paying your dues.
I would say that if your willing to out yourself if needed and it isn't an issue for you, then just be selective on which Fraternities you rush and then from that see which one's offer you a chance to pledge them. Like one of the previous posters stated, they are selecting you, but you can also somewhat select them based on your attendence during Rush Week. I would caution being careful. All of them will put a good foot forward during the Rush Week, but you'll learn alot through pledging and learning about their Chapter & National Organization, and you can always decline prior to initiation if something doesn't fit you or you don't like where things are headed.
Let me know if you want to know more,
Thanks - Jenni
