Greek life at Princeton: booze, social stratification, hazing

Long, thougtful, occasionally gossipy series on fraternities and sororities at Princeton in the [www.dailyprincetonian.com]

* Forced pledge drinking, stupid hazing (is that redundant?), hours spent on rushing/pledging hurt academics
* Social stratification: most members have family HHI > $150,000. 70% of Princeton sorority women went to private school (Part II, Whiter & Wealthier: Who Rushes and Why)
* Open question of whether Princeton U's choice not to recognize Greeks makes it harder to control / oversee what they do. Princeton (administration) still annoyed that at informal meeting 6 years ago, frats refused to move pledging from fall to spring to give freshman a chance to get grounded academically

Except for the fact that our fraternities are officially recognized by the University, this is different from Cornell in what respect?

A few differences between the campuses: Cornell requires that students wait until the Spring to pledge. We also don't segregate into eating clubs on top of becoming Greek. This anecdote is based on high school classmates of mine who were class of '09 at Princeton: they have far fewer campus/dorm/RA organized social events. In part, that's because they don't congregate to centralized dining halls (that also serve as community centers) the way Cornellians do as freshmen. On the other hand, they are not segregated in their housing during the first year as Cornell has been doing for the last 10 years. That means they're exposed to a much higher number sophomores during their freshman year as opposed only to the upper classmen who choose to live in program houses and stay on North.

I was Greek for a semester and a half. I realized I didn't need to pay to socialize and not even meet that many new guys because I had a boyfriend, and the single girls had "first priority" at choosing who they wanted to talk to at mixers. The houses at Cornell are not nearly as racially homogeneous as the ones at Princeton, but then again our student body isn't nearly as homogeneous either. Most of the girls in the house I was in had some form of financial aid and didn't flaunt money if they had it. It seems always backwards relative to Princeton that certain sports teams gravitate to certain houses instead of certain Greeks gravitating to certain eating clubs.