【原创】Fraternities and Sororities at colleges and universities in United States.doc

Fraternities and Sororities at colleges and universities in United States陈洁/0855-1/20087270As our Chinese Universities have student associations, there are also similar organizations in American colleges and universities. But different with the ones in Chinese universities, student groups in America play a more significant role in college life. They have special names: fraternity and sorority. Fraternities and sororities (from the Latin words frater and soror, meaning brother and sister respectively) are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. The names of American fraternities and sororities generally consist of two or three Greek letters, often the initials of a Greek motto, which may be secret, such as Alpha Kappa Psi（）, Lambda Phi Epsilon（）, Pi Beta Sigma（）. So people also call them Greek Letter Organization and the life in Greek Letter Organization is called Greek life. Typically, Greek letter organizations are single-sex, initiatory organizations with membership considered active during the undergraduate years only, while male students join the fraternities, female students can join the sororities.The period when every fraternity or sorority recruits new member is called “rush week”, which usually consists of events and activities designed for members and potential members to learn about each other and the organization. After that, the candidates will be given a series of tasks to test their loyalty. These tasks are often embarrassing, such as stealing underwears, naked running or wearing dirty clothes for a week. At the end of the formal recruitment period, organizations give bids, or invitations to membership. Most organizations have a period of pledgeship before extending full membership. Another way to join a fraternity or a sorority is family lagacy. It means if your mother or father was a member of the Greek Letter Organization, you can have a priority in being a potential member of this fraternity or sorority.Often every Greek Letter Organization has its own houses. They can usually be identified by large Greek letters or flags on the front of the house. The members dont have to live in students dormitiry. Many colleges eventually came to support fraternity and sorority housing as they allowed increased enrollment without construction of costly dormitories. The nature of this benefit varied between campuses as some houses were paid for entirely by alumni, some were rented, and some were built on land leased from the college. It was further recognized that, while fraternities having chapter houses did not raise academic performance, it did have a tendency to keep it from falling as the chapters could not afford (financially) to have members leaving school and no longer paying for their rooms.The functions of fraternities and sororities can be powerful. It can not only improve your contacts, make more friends, have parties on campus, but also help your during after-graduated years. Some ancient fraternities have lots of brunches in varies universities. It must be pointed out that the Greek Letter Organizations are lifelong organizations. Once you become a member of it, you can benefit from the “brothers an sisters” in so many aspects, such as finding jobs, engaging in a lawsuit and so on. Your social network will spread all over the America.Based on so many advantages, it is not easy to join the Greek Letter Organization. Except for a lot of tests and impossible tasks, they may also have requirements on grade point average and considerable memb