University of FloridaGreek Life Summary

Written by Chris Kirschner

Chris Kirschner

Hometown

Bronx, NY

Major

Journalism

Grad Year

2014

View all previous student authors

Greek life is pretty big at UF. Only a little more than 15 percent of students belong to social fraternities and sororities, but Greeks tend to be very active in student government, the Student Alumni Association, and other campus organizations, which means you see and hear them pretty frequently. The one thing about Greek life is that you get to establish connections with so many people inside your house and on campus because Greeks are very involved. Greek life is not all about partying, either, unlike Hollywood movies. The true meaning of Greek life is to make connections between a group of guys and girls who you'll have at your wedding one day, to reminisce on the times you had in college.

If you decide to pledge, keep in mind that you’re going to have to budget your time uncommonly well. If you don’t pledge but have friends who do, try to stay supportive; it’s not an easy semester for the pledges. If you don’t care about this stuff at all, great—that’s one less (big) thing to worry about. But what everyone should remember is this: people joke around about the “differences” between Greeks and independents, which is something very different from actually using these "differences" to make decisions about who should and should not be friends. It should be noted, though, that if you are a guy and want to go to fraternity parties, you will not be able to get in because fraternities do not let other guys into their houses during the academic year.