College students w/ an ASD in a fraternity.

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Hey,

I am currently a college senior who was diagnosed on the autism spectrum at age 2 (Sub-Diagnosis: PDD-NOS).

I joined a fraternity during my second semester of college (Phi Sigma Pi).

I am wondering if there are any other college students/people who graduated from college here that are/were in a fraternity.

Is that considered a social fraternity? (At UConn, there are the social fraternities - aka party frats, but there are also service fraternities which do community work usually in a certain area as well as professional fraternities, which are for instance the Engineering Fraternity, the Finance Fraternity etc.) I would never join a social frat - they're basically sponsor get drunk and party and do illegal stuff activities which I want no part in. I'm an actuarial major, and Gamma Iota Sigma is the Actuarial Fraternity. I might join that some day.

Well, Phi Sigma Pi is a honors fraternity. But Phi Sigma Pi (PSP) is 1/3 social, 1/3 service, 1/3 scholarship. So PSP is like a social fraternity (except that we value our studies more than a typical social fraternity). However, PSP is more than just a fraternity for nerds, PSP also emphasizes on the three ideals of scholarship, leadership, and fellowship. PSP also does service work (i.e. for a service event in my chapter, some of my fraternity "brothers" and I visited the elderly and played bingo with them). Like a social fraternity, the brothers of PSP socialize and has events with other fraternities (i.e. I served as the alumni chair for my chapter during the previous two semesters and just last semester, I did my event "Game Night" along with Theta Tau's "Poker Tourney". Everyone seemed to have a good time (even if players ran out of chips early in the Poker Tourney, they could still attend "Game Night" and have fun.)).

To answer your question, although PSP is technically not a social fraternity, it is similar to one in many ways.

What's wrong with a "social frat"? I was in one of those, and it was awesome. Not all frats are full of meat heads.

To be fair though, we got f****d up. For better or worse it was a crash course in reality, both social and consequential. People deal and live it.

5 years after the fact I have 15 or so close friends I'm in touch with to this day that I made through that fraternity. The social scene is hectic and f**k the world confusing, but it can be dealt with.

At UConn, most social frats with any real presence on campus are basically about partying and getting drunk. Which is not my thing. Granted, the professional and service frats do sponsor social events, but they're generally less "party" oriented. For instance, at the beginning of this semester, GIS organized an ice cream social/meet and greet with some people from actuarial firms. Honestly, I don't remember the full details, but it was intended as somewhat social, but also somewhat with a professional goal in mind. It wasn't all about going crazy, partying, and doing stupid s*** (note to mods: I censored that myself).

For five weeks my freshman year I was in SAE, a very historic fraternity at Georgia Tech. I had ten SAE legacies, including two from Georgia Tech (father and uncle), one from Emory (grandfather) and one from MIT (great-grandfather). I got a bid on the second day (according to my sister, it wasn't the first day only because they knew I found out that's when they were planning to give it). All 48 brothers voted to give me a bid. However, after rush was over, a small group of the brothers seemed to take issue with me. They never bothered interacting with me, and after what I had perceived to be a very successful five weeks, I was dropped from the fraternity. SAE's bylaws say that only 25% of the brothers present need to vote to drop someone for it to happen. Since not every brother went to chapter that night, that total equated to nine brothers. 9 out of 48.

According to my sister, these brothers basically wanted to feel like they were powerful, and I got picked because I had the ridiculous amount of legacies and the sister who had a lot of friends in the fraternity (in fact, her boyfriend is a brother, and he is a great guy). It was pretty clear that absolutely nobody outside that group agreed, as I have always felt very welcome coming back for parties (I have not once even had to ask for a drink, always been offered as soon as I'm seen). At a football game a couple weeks later, I ran into the current president of the fraternity (blackout drunk) and he was so apologetic about the whole thing (kept giving me the pledge handshake and hugs, over and over).

So overall, it was a good, albeit brief, experience.

I was in a social sorority for two years and yes while some guys play up the stereotype not all frat guys are meat heads. The problem with joining a social one is that some don't like to rush seniors due to them leaving and usually focus on recruiting freshman and sophomores who will be there to carry on after they graduate especially on the executive board (president, vice president, etc.) In my sorority the majority of our girls were freshman and sophomores very rarely did we take any juniors or seniors so I would see if your class standing would be an issue if not good luck to you and happy pledging!

I am probably planning to join one when I transfer to a four year college. Right now I am focusing on getting the hell out of my local community college and pulling my grades up.

I don't like the fraternity/sorority mindset. What's up with calling acquaintances "brothers"? Isn't that really excessive? I mean, I wouldn't even call 99% of my friends "brothers" so why would I call these people "brother". I don't get it. I hate conformism... It screw up your individuality. I understand the social benefit though.

I was a member of Phi Mu Alpha, the professional music fraternity.

I never considered joining a social fraternity, since 1) I don't like parties and 2) I HATE DRUNKS!! !!

I was in a sorority and I loved it. Every month I was handed a social calender so I did not have to deal with trying to make and plan social activities (I am really bad at it and always last minute). The girls were wonderful and they all helped me and I helped anyone that I could (well of course you always have a few people that do not like you, but that is their problem and not yours) It also helped me start to understand social situations and politics that I would see in the real world and in any workplace and institution. This helped me prepare better for life afterwards. I know it is not for everyone, but for me it was great.