About a month ago I finished pledging Phi Psi Alpha, a professional textile fraternity at PhilaU. It was a really fun experience, but one that is probably different from your normal social sorority or fraternity pledge process. While it may not be the same for every professional frat, here’s some things you should know about when pledging:
1: Get ready for networking.
Because it is professional, a goal of the association will be to teach you networking skills and having you start to network with people in the school community, even as a freshman pledge. They will urge you to introduce yourself to not only all of the brothers before you are inducted, but also to a handful of faculty members.
2: The process might be different than expected.
Your process as a pledge can be completely different from a social Greek organization. With Phi Psi there is not bid night, you just commit to being a pledge immediately. Also, the process did not take too long, at least not this year. While some pledge processes may run the whole semester, we were done in less than two months.
3: You will have to commit.
This type of pledging still means a big time commitment. We had to go to pledge meetings every week, dressing professionally for meeting days. Our pledge pins had to be on us at all times, as did the box of candy we had to sell throughout the process. The process also included special binders that had to be brought to several faculty members and all of the brothers to help complete the process. This may have been the hardest part as it was difficult to find everyone you needed to meet.
4: You heard it right, you are brothers.
Even though Phi Psi is made up of mostly women, we are considered a fraternity and therefore brothers. You might get some weird looks at first when you tell people you’re part of a fraternity, but keep in mind that all of the professional Greek organizations at PhilaU are that way.
5: You’ll get to know everyone during the process.
Due both to the fact that PhilaU is a small university and that Phi Psi is for textile related majors, which there are not a lot of, you will be able to meet everyone before the end of your pledge process. You will have to spend a lot of your time with your fellow pledges, so chances are you’ll know each other well by the time you are officially brothers. You may also get to know members of the fraternity, which especially held true with us in relation to the Pledge Wardens: they had to be with us through the entire pledge process and helped us out along the way.
Pledging a professional fraternity can be a fun and rewarding experience. You’ll be able to be part of a group of people who care about your education while also learning what your future career field will be like. If you ever decide to pledge one of the several professional fraternities on the PhilaU campus, good luck and have fun!