When you think of sororities or fraternities you most likely automatically think of the national chapters that you hear stories about or you see in the media. Rarely do you hear about the non-national groups that exist at small colleges. At Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, a quarter of our school is involved in greek life, all of which are our very own chapters. Personally, I am apart of Delta Phi Delta that consists of twenty four other beautiful sisters that I love along with the hundreds of alumna that we hold close to our hearts. Here are just some of the reasons why greek life at a small school was one of the best decisions I've ever made!
Less Sisters = Closer Bonds
Don't get me wrong, having more sisters is always great but having hundreds would be a little overwhelming. Here at Cornell, our biggest group is only about sixty people. Because we have smaller groups, it becomes easier for us to truly get to know one another, get together, and spend quality time with each other.
We don't have restrictions when it comes to parties and recruitment
Unlike national sororities, especially in some of the southern states, we are able to party with whoever we want. We don't have to deal with being unable to party with other fraternities or groups because of any national rules. We have more freedom when it comes to recruitment because for one we wait until second semester and two we are able to make our pre-pledge season our own by not being rushed to pick our new pledge class.
Alumna always make a return
Although many of our alumna may be all across the nation as well as the world we still have tons of alum come back every year for homecoming, pledging, and other fun events!
You have time to find the perfect kiddo (little)
Because we aren't rushed the first week or even month of school to recruit new members, we also have time to make sure to find the perfect kiddo (yes it's kiddo and not little). You have all of first semester to build healthy relationship and truly get to know each other. It is the best feeling when you find the perfect kiddo because you will see qualities in them that you also see within yourself and you know that you are the luckiest mom (big) in the world!
We're all buds
With almost twenty greek groups on campus, of course there are going to be rivalries that may or may not actually stay true today. Overall, we are all pretty cool with each other because for one it's a small school and two we all have friends from different groups as well. In a small school atmosphere it is easy to keep rivalries going but even for some of the oldest rivalries there is never any hard feelings between us.
It is easy to say that if you have the choice, trying out greek life at small schools is definitely a great option! Building that community is a great opportunity especially because you will have friendships for life!
