Clemson University - CU Greek Life Reviews

Party scene is ehh, not much compared to other schools I've seen and visited, tailgates are kinda weak also since there's not much hard liquor and tons of kids and cops around; off weekends during football season are pretty much dead, so if you're under 21 that sucks. Most frats are pretty cool and some have awesome houses but since Clemson hates greek life many have been thrown off campus and parties can get shut down by the cops way too early. Frat recruitment is pretty chill, though it's hard for out of state students, especially from the north, to go top tier; sorority recruitment is selective in a weird way, because who you know in the chapters and who wrote your recs matters much more than who you are during rush and how much the girls like you. This goes double if you're older, rushing as an upperclassmen is a waste if you're not from SC or best friends with half the chapter. In short, it's exactly what you'd expect from a southern school, except not as good, but if you don't go greek the party scene shrinks even more since you're in the middle of nowhere so you might as well

The frats haze, but it isn't crazy stuff. The sororities are all so competitive! Everyone in Greek life is hot. Clemson just needs houses for Greeks, not just specific dorms.

It's a southern school what do you expect?

Greek life at clemson is unique and highly elitist; there are highly defined social tiers that are very cemented by years of tradition and the law and of percentages. Essentially there are three tiers (top, mid, bottom) and there is little mingling between each respective tier especially between top and bottom. What chapter you get into relies heavily on three things: where you are from, how attractive you are and your ability to fake it till you make it. Don't be passive when rushing or else you will end up lost in the back of the pack. That being said, it really is not a huge issue with what tier you are in; this is clemson and there are good looking people everywhere and fun social functions abound. Housing here is cool because fraternities operate medium sized off campus house completely independent of clemson university which means parties can be thrown without the university interfering. Sororities don't have house but have on campus dorm halls devoted to each chapter, fraternities have this as well. Due to clemson not really liking Greek life and being forced to keep it by huge money donors couples with SigEp killing a pledge in '13, there are some major roadblocks that fraternities and sororities have to/frequently do work around. All in all, if you join Greek life you will have an experience that you will cherish the rest of your life and make connections that will catapult you once you graduate into great careers and have an incredible social network.