Correction appended
Northwestern usually uses its Greek system as a brochure bragging point. But to Communication sophomore Meixi Ng, it was just confusing.
“The Wildcat Welcome video said 40 percent of the school is Greek, and I thought they were from Athens. I did not get that at all,” says Ng, an international student from Singapore, who later joined Delta Zeta.
Because the Greek system is so unique to American culture, the swirl of rush, Gone Greek Night and formals at Northwestern every Winter Quarter, can seem, well, foreign to international students. Even those who knew about the Greek scene, such as Weinberg junior and India native Aaditiya Gopalan, certainly had a set of preconceptions from Abercrombie ads, reality TV and movies such as Animal House.
“Those movies are extremely stereotyped, those are the most extreme of the stereotypes, so I did have the preconceived notion that it was a bunch of guys who get together and do manly things all the time,” says Gopalan, a member of Pi Kappa Alpha.
Gopalan became aware of the exaggerations of film portrayals and joined his fraternity after attending rush events with friends from his dorm. However, convincing oneself is not always enough. Weinberg freshman Nayha Ikram says her parents were uncomfortable with the idea of her rushing. Ikram, who lives in Pakistan, had to convince them that the sorority wasn’t solely about partying. Social life does not play as prominent of a role for college students in Pakistan, Ikram says.
“In Pakistan, a lot of students take up jobs in teaching and tutoring,” Ikram says. “My best friend has class from six to nine, and has a day job as a teacher.”
But Jinny Lee, a Weinberg sophomore in Kappa Delta from South Korea, where there are no boarding systems, had no preconceptions about sororities and fraternities because she simply did not know of their existence.
“Then I watched [a] YouTube video on Northwestern sororities, which had a negative impact on me,” Lee says.
There still seems to be confusion about the purpose of the Greek community among some international students. “I think most people find it’s funny and kind of ridiculous sometimes, because it’s really weird for French people to just enter a group of people you don’t really know,” says Clara Guilliet, a sophomore from France on a one-year exchange program who did not rush.
But Ng, initially unaware of a Greek community, joined a sorority through “continuous open bidding” — the fall informal rush — and admits she is now more attuned to its purpose as a social organization rather than an academic one.
“I see it as a group of really cool friends that are from all different walks of life, and have really strong friendships,” Ng says.
Fraternal instincts abroad
The idea of a fraternity isn’t a total stranger abroad, but such groups appear to be more in the family of the original American fraternities that emphasized academics and debate than the socially-focused ones today. International students say the only student organizations in their home countries remotely resembling the tight-knit fraternities are based on common academic or extracurricular interests.
In Britain, for example, when you join a club based on a specific interest or hobby, “that’s essentially a fraternity,” says Gopalan, who studied in England. “It’s just more institutionalized here, it’s like, your fraternity, this is what we do, these are the boundaries, this is our constitution.”
Swedish universities have a compulsory student union system which provides “accommodation, operate restaurants, cafes and bars, arrange parties with live bands, run sports programs and organize orchestras and student theatricals,” according to a Swedish study abroad Web site. These unions are divided into “nations,” each representing different regions of Sweden. Latvia and the Netherlands also have fraternity-like organizations.
But some international students say that Greek life here is more firmly rooted in the social scene because American universities are more likely to have a specific campus community.
“I feel like Greek life, you see it in large campuses, large places, because in those situations, there’s the need to get together, and with the city, there’s people everywhere and you kind of avoid people,” Gopalan says. In England, Gopalan says, campuses are often in the city and students dwell in city apartments. Exporting this socialized fraternity system might prove unrealisitic in foreign universities where students commute to school and campuses do not exist.
“There also aren’t dorms everywhere and everybody lives off campus and most people stay in touch with their friends in high school. You don’t really get that tight-knit sort of setting in college,” says Hilde Knai, originally from Norway, about colleges in France, where she went to high school. Knai, a McCormick exchange student, decided not to rush.
Thanks to legal restrictions on drinking in American campuses, fraternities are able to use their alcohol-procuring powers as a source of popularity and prominence in social life, whereas students in countries with more lenient drinking laws tend to be more independent partiers, says James Graham, a Communication sophomore from Canada who is not in the Greek system.
“Canada has a lower drinking age — 18 in Alberta and Quebec, 19 in the rest of the country — which means going out is a lot easier to do especially in downtown campuses like McGill and the University of Toronto,” Graham says. “Because of this, Greek life is very small on most Canadian campuses and its place in a school’s party schedule would be minor.”
The root of the differences ultimately lies in the different roles college fulfills in a student’s life at Northwestern and abroad. Knai says that Europeans view college more as a way of achieving a career.
“The whole college experience in the U.S. is sort of unique, in terms of how people have to figure out who they are,” says Knai. “The whole college experience is sort of supposed to define you as a person.”
Correction: The original version of this article stated that Clara Guilliet was a transfer student. She is, in fact, on a one-year exchange program.
The original version of this article also stated that Hilde Knai was originally from France. She is actually from Norway, but attended high school in France.
Finally, the original version of this article quoted Knai as saying “There aren’t dorms anywhere…”. She actually said “There aren’t dorms everywhere…”. Thanks to Knai for pointing this out in the comments.