On the outside looking in

This article by someone who is not a Greek shows how confusing it must seem to those who have not been exposed to the culture of college fraternities and sororities.

On the surface, using Greek letters for the name of your organization seems mysteriously cool, as if you were some sort of secret society with your own exclusive tree house guarded by a stuffed tiger who would make potential visitors recite delightfully frivolous poems about the proper way to get rid of slimy girls.
[...]
...it’s hard as hell to tell all the fraternities and sororities apart. No one really knows what Greek letters look like, so trying to find a party on campus can get really confusing when you’re trying to figure out whether you’re in front of Sigma Nu or Sigma Chi. If it weren’t for handy puns and mnemonic devices like Theta Delta Airlines and Sexual Assault Expected, I would never be able to remember the names of half the Greek organizations on campus. Even then, I often confuse Theta Delta Chi with Kappa Alpha Theta, since everyone just refers to both as Theta; and Sigma Phi Epsilon with Sigma Alpha Epsilon, since the label SigEp could apply to both.

Hey, we liked slimy girls. At least until the house lights went up.

The Stanford Daily Online Edition

Tags: Fraternity, Greek Letters