Rice is a family legacy for me; my parents went here, my sister is a senior here, and I'm starting my sophomore year. I knew I was going to be here in December of senior year of high school, so the issue of joining a sorority seldom came up.
I sometimes find myself looking at friends' Facebook pictures: bid day, rush week, and things like that. It all seems heartfelt and quite welcoming, from what I garner from the pictures. I have a good opinion of Greek Life, for the most part; it seeks to establish a tight bond with other people that is basically unbreakable. Apart from the scandals that happened at SAE and the white-washed Alabama sorority video, I think that Greek Life can do a lot of good in a community and across the nation.
I'm still not sure if I would have joined a sorority, though; I've never had to research Greek Life in depth because I never really expected to go to a school where there was Greek Life. I don't know the inner workings, and I probably never will.
However, I like to think of my residential college as its own little fraternity/sorority. The residential college system can be thought og as Hogwarts on steroids. We are divided into 11 colleges, each one equally representative of the Rice population as a whole. Though there are people of both genders in my college, I would still venture to say that my residential college provides much of the same experiences and opportunities that Greek Life does. We host bonding events, similar to those of many Greek Life organizations, to meet the new freshmen and make everyone feel welcome. We host public parties where people from other colleges can come dance and hang out. Rice's 11 colleges each have their own specific culture stemming from long-standing traditions, just like many Greek Life organizations do. We are randomly placed in these colleges, unlike fraternities or sororities, but I love my college all the same.
To the seniors in high school looking at colleges based solely on whether they have Greek Life or not: There are many unseen support systems in universities that don't have Greek Life. The system is not either-or; you will eventually find a group that instills a sense of belonging in you, no matter if that group is a part of Greek Life or not.
