reconsider rushing

The reality is, Greek life is not for everyone, but it can be great. Cornell is s big school and finding a "place" can be awesome. Just don't try to find a house because of what ppl say about it. If you rush with an open mind and stay true to yourself, the process works. Not everyone is catty, and not all guys are trying to get you into bed. That being said...I gotta tell you, from experience, the top "tiers" of frats and sororities do have more shallow, catty pl in them. Just a product of a vicious cycle...they think to stay relevant they need to chose based on looks and "perceived" money (you'd be surprised how many ppl don't actually have what ppl think they do!!). Many ppl who join those houses end up unhappy because they are living in a house with fake ppl, and are constantly dealing with keeping up appearances and dealing w/drama. Personally, my friends in middle and lower tiers tend to seem happier...just have eyes open during rush

It's catty and can be superficial, but the reality is that it's incredibly difficult to have a social life at Cornell and go to parties otherwise, even if you have a good group of friends. As a transfer who wasn't Greek my first semester here, I can attest to this - I knew a lot of people in sororities and frats before transferring, but that doesn't mean it was easy for my girl friends to bring me to mixers or for my guy friends in frats to get me into every party. Social labels are a huge problem at Cornell. Is it annoyingly circular that the way to prevent being victimized by the social label thing is to buy into it? Yes. Would I tell a rushee to go against the grain if I know from personal experience that it's really difficult to do? No, because I've been in that position, and it sucks.