Anyone here been or currently involved in any frats at UT? I just want to learn more of the different frats here at Texas before I pledge in the fall. I'm at orientation currently and I've been staying with the Pikes (Pi Kappa Alpha) this week and I was wondering if anybody had any comments on them (good or bad). I really like these guys, they are really chill and accommodating. Also, what other fraternities are good to check out? Also, to the people who have been in frats, I'm definitely a frat guy, but I'm also very smart and take my studies seriously. I was wondering how does being in a frat affect you in your studies? Im a biology major but im thinking about switching to business next year and you need a 3.8 generally to switch into business school.
It really depends on you...if you are serious about your studies, then you will do fine. I joined a sorority and it did not affect my grades...in fact, it brought my grades up. Do your research on the organizations and make sure you will still like it years later. Being greek is not for everyone but being in a greek organization is really awesome..you'll learn many things like how the org is run, network and etc. LTA for life!
If you're sure that you want to transfer, start talking to the business school advisers now. Dump all the bio courses and load up on English, History, Government, etc. Much easier to get a 3.8 that way. This is what I should've done when I was at UT 10 years ago.
How in the world could you know you're a "frat guy" already? If you're saying you think you could seeing yourself joining in on the stereotypical fratty activties, then that's not saying much. There's far more to fraternities than just the party scene/social life. What happens to a person once he joins a fraternity depends mainly on two things: type of frat and the type of person. Some frats are more studious overall than others; some are just glorified 4-year social clubs where the members don't worry about much else than having fun. It also takes a certain kind of person to see all the great opportunities for distractions, ignore them, and get their **** done. Intelligence may decrease the amount of time you have to study but I wouldn't say it buffers you from possibly becoming totally academically worthless if/when you join a frat. I've seen plenty of that. I personally enjoyed the time I spent in my frat and spent the past year as an officer in the frat. I graduated with my bachelors in May and will graduate with my masters of science in late July before starting med school in August. It's a balancing act. If I really thought being in the frat would have put any of that in jeopardy I would have dropped the frat in a heartbeat.
3.8 what? You needed like a 3.6 at best when I was there if you were a current UT student. 3.8 was if you were coming from UTSA or something and you generally needed a 4.0 if you were coming from community college. You can do fine if you're in a frat, just dont go overboard. Frats have a lot of stuff that can even help your studies. I also agree with the person saying dont take bio classes. Look up the business prereqs and take those. There's some pretty easy stuff like Sociology 301, English, etc.. Just load up on those and you're set.
well back to the whole me being smart thing, i took a **** load of ap classes in high school so i have credit for us history, world history, government, calculus, statistics, and English 1. the adviser told me that they only care about your calculus and economics grades, and im taking those 2 courses in case i switch to business and im still taking bio and chem in case i stick with biology.
Is that a business advisor because unless things changed in the last 3 years that's total nonsense. The business school literally takes a list of the GPA scores of people who applied and just make a cutoff. Has nothing to do with extra-curriculars or which classes you took. Unless you are app'ing to business honors (which sort of takes that stuff into account but really just demands higher GPAs) Get a good GPA and you get in, period. (obviously things might have changed but from when I worked at the business school, that was how it was done, not to mention I was a transfer to the business school about 5 years ago as well)
I know you're just out of high school and are still somewhat in "pat yourself on the back" mode for having all that college credit, but two things: -AP classes may be difficult for high school but they're are not that indicative of college-level work. -Where I went to school that amount of AP credit was closer to the norm than the exception. You're quickly going to realize that what you did in high school has little to no bearing of what you can/will do in college. Your smartest move is to pick a route and go with it. There's no sense in doing pre-business and pre-med classes together. Taking bio and chem together is tough enough as is, much less taking them together with pre-business classes that you need to do well in AND potentially pledging a fraternity. You'd be setting yourself up for a pretty epic failure.
How do I know im a frat guy? Ive been in the party scene all of high school, i organized the beer pong tournaments at my high school, i organized the renting of a townhome between me and my friends, which was pretty much like a mini-frat house, I was Mr. ______ High School. Most of the friends i hung out with are going into frats as well, the guys ive been hanging out with this week are pretty much like my friends from high school and i get along really well with them. I really dont know what more to say. Btw i reread this paragraph and the tone reads like im attacking you, but im really not im just explaining why i know im a frat guy. I know i can keep my partying in moderation but im more worried about hazing and like doing **** for others that will take up my time. because i know of lots of my older friends having to quit frats because of it taking too much of their time. could you elaborate on any of this for me? like which frats are really chill and which ones are **** about it. im looking at the pikes very strongly, phi psi, and the delts. could you tell me anything on these frats? like if theyre cool or not, how the hazing works for them, and how their frat houses and parties are like. Also, does anyone know if any of the cheaper frats are good? My parents will not pay for one so I am paying for a fraternity entirely through my own funds. The max I can afford is 3500ish so Im not even looking into fiji, sig ep, or SAE. btw which frat were you in xcrunner?
You really want a head start? Just take calculus over the summer at a CC it's easier and you get credit at UT. You can replace Calculus with an easy class.
My courses for next year are biology, chemistry, eco, and like theatre dance? I don't think it should be too bad? Unless you know something I dont. And yeah same with my school, all those were the norm, i still have plenty of other AP credits for other classes, I only mentioned the ones that count for business. Geeimsobored, yeah i talked to a business guy, you are right about the GPA part, but they also want you to take eco and calc, besides that you can fluff up your schedule. What are you doing currently? How did you think of the business program, like what kind of work was involved in the coursework? Lots of essays? math? research?
Nothing you described makes me thing you need to be in a frat. I'm not saying you wouldn't fit in, but I know plenty of people who enjoy doing those very things that aren't in frats. Some of my best friends who enjoyed doing that were freshman hallmates that enjoyed stuff like that but wouldn't join a frat just to do it. If anything, college is a great time/place to meet people who don't fit your mold of what a friend/acquaintance should be. I believe that if you're joining a frat for just the social scene then you're pretty much just buying a group of like-minded friends. There's so much more that frats can do than just party. And especially if you'd be the one financing your dues yourself, why would you try and muster up all that cash just for the right to party with some people? If the partying is all you're really interested in, then just make friends with a lot of frats guys and have then invite you to their parties. And to answer your question: SigEp
Ah ok, so its basically the same as before. But seriously dont stress it, freshman year is by far the easiest and dont let it deter you from trying to rush. Just be conscious of your priorities. As for the other part, it really depends on the major. Things like finance, accounting, etc.. are all pretty specific, math oriented and frankly fields with tangible information to work with. From people I knew you had to like those fields to like the classes. (I absolutely hated the required accounting classes) On the other hand there are more abstract majors like management (which I took) that was just hit or miss with management classes. I took classes were literally we did nothing in class and had some fluff group project that everyone put off but managed to get As on. (and I'd say a majority of classes fit this description) We also had some pretty technical classes (mainly the operations management side) The same goes with marketing, etc.. They introduced some new majors that I'm not really familiar with. But bottom line if you arent picking a specialty field like finance or accounting, you'll take a really wide variety of classes. I was required to take finance classes, management, accounting, marketing, supply chain management, and even basic business intro classes (which I felt were by far the most useful of any I took) So to answer your question, you'll get everything you listed. The business core curriculum is really broad and most majors make it a point to get you to take a large variety of classes. I was a dual major with government and now work for a political consulting firm so I generally consider my business degree kind of useless. Anyway good luck, the business school has tons of resources that honestly make it worthwhile. I thought the classes themselves werent anything special but the recruiting system and the two business intro classes were great in helping me with little things like interviews, cover letters, business presentations etc.. that I think got me internship and my job. Plus the pool of internships and jobs that they give you access to is absolutely unbeatable. No other school at UT will come close in that regard.
