I am so lucky. Not only am I attending my dream school, but I am a part of one of the most philanthropic and inspiring female organizations on campus. A sorority may be your first guess… close but not precisely. My eating house is even better than an NPC sorority.
As far as I am concerned, being a part of an eating house is like being in an NPC sorority… but even better. An eating house at Davidson is an all-female organization that serves as a dining plan for members throughout the week. Each house has specific philanthropic work and organizes social events on campus. And the best thing? Your involvement is as much or as little as you want. Perfect for Davidson students who face copious amounts of school work and other commitments.
With Davidson’s size and the academic rigor the school demands of students, eating houses are the happy medium that is adapted for Davidson students. Greek life is great for lots of girls across the nation: a place where they can meet girls like them and form special bonds and make lifelong friends. My eating house provides all those same perks without the intense and stressful rush periods, without lengthy and formal chapter meetings, and without the extremely high dues. Despite our laid-back nature, we are still able to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars towards charity and designate hundreds of hours towards community service. While I have been in an eating house I have met girls outside my typical friend groups and have been able to dip into new social circles. I have also been able to get to know upperclassmen girls better. I have a big and am ecstatic to get my little in the spring–just like a normal sorority.
Becoming a part of an eating house in Davidson is also only dependant on each individual girl’s personal preference and lottery number. Students choose their house; houses do not choose them. During the spring semester, you and up to three friends can form a group called a “cluster” and together list your preferences of the four eating houses, with the house you want to be in the most at the top. From there the rest relies on a lottery-based algorithm. Most girls get into the house that they want, and on top of that, they get to join the eating house with girls they like from their cluster! Even if you do not get into the house you want, it’s an easy switch to another eating house, or you can drop the program completely.
On the other hand, sororities can be based on first impressions and appearances. The rush period for most schools is so short that both joining members and NPC sororities have to rely solely on those snapshot moments.
A personal bias I have against sororities comes from my best friend in high school. We both left for our schools around the same time, but our first few weeks were VERY different from one another. While I was settling into my dorm and college classes, which is stressful enough, she was enduring long days of small talk with girls who would decide her social fate. She sent me dozens of pictures asking what outfits looked good for the various events, and she spent hours on the phone with me in tears about whether she said or dressed the right way.
Becoming a part of sisterhood should be the choice of the individual, not the choice of the organization. It is about being a part of a larger group and feeling included.
My aforementioned friend now loves the NPC sorority she is in and is having an amazing experience. But so am I. So why did she have to go through that time of hesitancy and nervousness to get to this happy result?
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