Joining a fraternity and being a college runner?

nick symmonds did it, brah.

and he is a silver medalist.

I try to be open minded so here are both sides of what I know:

I am pretty strongly anti-frat. I feel that when you join a college track/XC team you have made a commitment to that team. Also, you have to have made that commitment before even having the chance to consider pledging. For every runner who went Greek, their commitment to the team wavered for at least a semester during pledge and for many, practice and even some meets are missed because of fraternity business. I am disappointed that this is allowed to happen. Second, I have seen a noticeable difference in the improvement of the runners who went greek vs. did not go greek. It was a small, non-rigerous experiment (I only looked at my team), but I found that the non-greeks improved more than the greeks (I think that the difference was about 1% or 1/3 less improvement for greeks). Finally, most of the people that I have known to drink excessively and make mistakes (end up in a hospital or get in trouble with the school or police) were pushed by their fraternity brothers.

On the other hand, I know people that credit going Greek with saving their lives and providing a fantastic support system. I know a lot of people for whom I believe pledging was a very good decision; however, none of them are runners.

Your XC and Track should be like a brotherhood anyway. Besides if its only the partying you are interested in then there are always parties around most college campuses (Wednesday night through Sunday night). I run at a smaller D1 school, (only 4 guys sub 26 last year) and we party every weekend and have a good time. I have a 3.6 GPA. Most of the guys have over a 3.0 gpa I know.

Balance it, Go out, have fun and don't join a frat.

on scholarship wrote:

I Division 1 school with an very good academic reputation on scholarship.

There was no way, and I mean no way, I was able to join a fraternity.

The academics were intense, and while my coach would not have forbade it, I needed that scholarship as my unemployed single mother could not have afforded the school, ever. It would have changed my relationship with him, and in a negative way.

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I guess my main point was that I don't feel that being in a fraternity had any material impact on my athletic experience. If anything, it gave me a group of people who supported me outside of my teammates.

I'm quite sure there are fraternities where that wouldn't have been the case, but I wouldn't have joined those even if I wasn't an athlete anyway. One of the recurring statistics that came out every year was that the Greek GPA was higher (I think considerably) than non-Greek.

What baffles me is the anti-Greek sentiment on this board. I would consider most runners more "exclusive" than fraternity guys, so just seems a bit hypocritical to me.

I'm an Enginer, in the Rocky Mountain West. Educated in the Rocky Mountain region a couple years after "Animal House" was released. I have cousins in Kentucky-and recognize fraternities and sororities are different in the south.

I would NEVER hire someone who put a social fraternity on their resume. I would NEVER hire someone recommended by a "Fraternity Advisor"-walking into my office on behalf of some college kid.

I always look extra closely at hiring college athletes-particularly with good grades. A 4:01 miler, particularly with an engineering degree-has a lot of capability in a lot of areas in life. A frat boy-in my experience-has an 80 percent chance of being an a55hole-and a 50% chance of being a functional alcoholic. Too much baggage. Why would I want to hire someone who joined a club to look at the test file controlled by the club. Is that not cheating? Why would I hire a cheat.

Hiring decisions/recomendations based on drunken rush week decisions-after 5, 10, 15, or 20 years? Just how shallow is the greek system?

Not quite - UCI does not have a football team.

You sound like a total hick. Test file? We never had anything like that. I majored in math and everything was proving theorems anyway. Two of my fraternity brothers and I finished our PhDs in math in the same year - I taught a lot of engineering students in grad school and the rancor they harbor against business/finance majors is risibly similar to that of runners against fraternity guys. I drank occasionally but a few brothers never touched alcohol, you clearly went to a s****y school my friend.

Way to be a small-minded clown. But go ahead and hire some self-absorbed college miler, I'm sure he'd be a great fit for you "engineers."

Don't do it Rooney.

"What baffles me is the anti-Greek sentiment on this board. I would consider most runners more "exclusive" than fraternity guys, so just seems a bit hypocritical to me."

Because running on a college team is earned, joining a frat is about your Daddy writing a check. See the difference?

ArloTheHousecat wrote:

"What baffles me is the anti-Greek sentiment on this board. I would consider most runners more "exclusive" than fraternity guys, so just seems a bit hypocritical to me."

Because running on a college team is earned, joining a frat is about your Daddy writing a check. See the difference?

You have to earn being in a Fraternity as well. You don't just get a bid and get initiated for having money. You have to prove you are a great guy that can contribute to a brotherhood just like you have to contribute to your team as a runner.

Pledging is about earning your spot, not just about getting hazed and messed with, just like you have to work hard to prove your worth to the team.

Get your head out of your butt and take the blinders off.

For athletes, it's a three legged stool: (1) Athletics, (2) Academics, (3) Social Life. You can only do 2 out of 3 really well. Picking #3 as your top pick may lead to subpar performances on the other two.

Pope T-Bag II wrote:

But if your track team doesn't serve as a brotherhood already, I'd ask why you chose that program in the first place.

This. You're above being in a fraternity. Fraternities are for average guys (who weren't good enough athletes) and want a social life. Being part of a collegiate sports is for above average guys and should serve as your brotherhood. If you want to get any more social than this or networking, you can join clubs or leadership stuff- forget the BS/paying money to a fraternity. As collegiate athletes, we took the running seriously in-season and partied when the time was right, with other athletes and going to frat parties. If you're on an athletic scholarship, put your priorities where they matter most.

youre above a fraternity wrote:

Pope T-Bag II wrote:

But if your track team doesn't serve as a brotherhood already, I'd ask why you chose that program in the first place.

This. You're above being in a fraternity. Fraternities are for average guys (who weren't good enough athletes) and want a social life. Being part of a collegiate sports is for above average guys and should serve as your brotherhood. If you want to get any more social than this or networking, you can join clubs or leadership stuff- forget the BS/paying money to a fraternity. As collegiate athletes, we took the running seriously in-season and partied when the time was right, with other athletes and going to frat parties. If you're on an athletic scholarship, put your priorities where they matter most.

"You're above being in a fraternity."??? I disagree and most of these posts seem to have been made by people who have never been in a fraternity. Many good athletes were in fraternities/sororities at my college and they never considered themselves "above being in a fraternity". Being in a fraternity was a great experience. Didn't mean I didn't like my team, but it was nice having experiences with people outside the team. If you are disciplined, it is possible to have success in academics and athletics, while also being part of a fraternity.

By the way, if you think you are above fraternities, why on earth would you want to attend frat parties? You sound like a hypocrite or someone who wasn't offered a bid. I agree with one of the other posters - it has been my fraternity connections who have proven beneficial in my post collegiate life - not my cross country/track team members.

Join a frat if you want to improve your date raping skills.

Dollarbill wrote:

For athletes, it's a three legged stool: (1) Athletics, (2) Academics, (3) Social Life. You can only do 2 out of 3 really well. Picking #3 as your top pick may lead to subpar performances on the other two.

I would disagree. I go to a very good engineering school with a dual major in nuclear and mechanical engineering. I ran xc and pledged my first semester. I ran 26:24 and had a 4.0. And I got at least 7 hours of sleep a night.

In college, my XC/Track teammates were like brothers to me.

Frats are for jerks, be your own person

I stand my ground- athletes are seen differently and have a greater level of respect. We were accepted as our own fraternity and always welcome anywhere at parties. I don't see why the OP would need to join a fraternity with average guys who have different priorities. We kept our social life separate, not forced or surrounded by it every weekend.

bro...track is a fraternity