For those of you involved or reading this thread, kudos on reaching this far.
I wanted to pipe up as another voice from the fraternity system, on behalf of Alpha Epsilon Pi -- which let me clarify, is officially the Hamilton Ontario chapter of the fraternity, not the McMaster chapter. Although all our brothers (29 + 14 alumni) are or were students at Mac, we are not a officially on campus because of school rules. Which really is fine by us, for now.
I think whoever started using the word "better" in this thread was the first to step out of line.
There are many great things to get involved in, and fraternities and clubs agree that bottom line - school still comes first.
I'm sure there are a lot of benefits and traditions to being a red suit, or a scico,
I can only speak on the benefits of being in AEPi; on a local scale we've done some pretty huge philanthropy events like Relay for Life, raising money for a number of causes and volunteering at an old folks home, so far... with much more planned for the future.
We encourage our brothers to be the best they can be. School is very important. Getting to know professors and getting involved with their work or in clubs is also crucial to university and to this brotherhood.
Coming together in a common goal of self-improvement, leadership opportunities, fundraising, networking, working on an executive board all provide amazing transferable skills and references. Hazing, binge drinking, and snobbish elitism are things of the past in the greek system and now just stereotypes we try and get rid of.
Internationally we are connected to 8000 undergrads and 85000 alumni across North America. We attend events which include international events (leadership conclaves, conventions which lead to amazing road trips all over North America). We've also been able to get really close to the boys at Guelph, Waterloo, Queens, and McGill... which is great cause most of us live in Toronto, so over the breaks and summers we have everyone around.
I'll finish rambling with something one of our alumni told me once: "Boys, you get the grades, and I'll get you a job at Sick Kids or Mount Sinai Hospital"
There's a lot to gain from belonging to a group who's aim is to provide the resources and dedication to force each of it's members to grow into respectable, accountable, well networked leaders.
That's what being part of a brotherhood is about, for us. But as long as you find something to get involved in and step up as a leader in all that you do, well then you already have it covered.
but we could use some awesome jumpsuits...
Noam Berlin
Master (President) Elect
AEPi - Eta Omicron (Hamilton Ontario)