Dorm vs Frat

Gail, Son's school's housing is one of the best things about the school (and there are many positives!). They have a complex with ten homes and each home houses four players. An assistant coach lives in one of the homes. Having the players all living together brings bonds and relationships that would not be there otherwise. They have to learn tolerance for one another as well as an appreciation for who each is as a person outside of baseball. Having a coach there also ensures a certain amount of structure and behavior that might not occur otherwise. After his experience, I'm a huge fan of the guys living in the same area!

While the thought of having an assistant coach living in the same house as my son sounds great, it doesn't work that way where he is. There are no 'official' baseball houses, but practically speaking, almost all the team lives together in various permutations. From what I can gather, there are 3 - 4 places where between 4 and 6 members of the team live. The rest live in smaller situations, almost all with another baseball player. Son is with 5 other guys (and one dog); 4 of which are still currently on the team. Despite much trepidation by the parents having a house full of sophomores who had, for the most part, never been on their own, it seems to be working out pretty well , particularly if we give the guys ample warning before we show up...

"Seems to me a frat house might be an ongoing party place"



Sorry to intrude ladies, but the topic title caught my eye. I think you nailed it on the head.

My son just informed me that he was pledging one of 2 frats on campus that cater to Baseball players & football Players.

The advice he was given by one of the players trying to get him to pledge was, "It doesn't matter which (basbeall) Frat you join, DO NOT LIVE IN THE FRAT HOUSE! YOU WON"T GET ANY WORK DONE."

He was told that if he wanted to join a frat, that was great but live in a dorm or apartment away from the Frat House.

My soph son lives in the dorm and shares a room with a non-baseball player. There is no official baseball house or frat (D3), but a group of baseball upperclassmen rent a house together near campus. I'm sure it would be fun for my son to live in a baseball house since he gets along great with his teammates, but this arrangement provides a nice balance.

Although his roommate is a good student, they don't do their major studying in the room, because of friends dropping by all the time. They go to the library if they have a lot of studying to do.

Can see pros and cons to both situations.....you have all given us more to think about.....but right now.....leaning toward the dorm.....he is a student first.....and the frat house, minus an assistant coach in residence, sounds like party central.....maybe a couple of years down the college road....but next year, sophomore year....he will have a tough course load again.....thanks for the replys.....

If you ladies don't mind the interruption, I'll add my $.02.

Having been in a fraternity and fraternity housing, there's a distinct difference between a "frat house" and a "jock house". The D1 school I attended had both. The purpose of a fraternity is to provide several functions, one of which is a social aspect (ok...that's the PRIMARY purpose). Our fraternity had a main "frat house" as well as smaller "annex" homes where several brothers lived. All of them by nature are very "social" but the annexes were significantly less social simply because there were only a handful of brothers living there. When I lived in one of the annexes, we had our meals and socialized at the main house.

A "jock house" as you described, will typically be even less "social" than a fraternity annex. The reason they are living together is because they share the bond of athletics versus the social charter of a fraternity.

Having said that, will the jocks have parties? You betcha! I went to many affairs at jock houses till wee hours in the morning.


BUT, I think if you put a handfull of guys from ANY background together in off campus housing, they will find a way to have fun.

Carry on ladies.

Beezer....thank you for the comments.....much appreciated....I liked all you said about jock versus frat house.....until we got to the party part.....I'm sure my son would want no part of that......

LadyNMom ...

I am sure you are right on the money when you say that your son would not take part in anything like that. I am sure NONE of our boys would ... right?

Yeah, right !!!

I do believe FrankF's son is an RA for his team's baseball frat house. You might want to ask him.
I recently found out that baseball "frat/jock" houses are becoming common on the college campus. Since many are discouraged to join fraternities, this way they can have the best of both worlds.
My son lived with 4 last year, this year 3, next year back to 4, all pitchers. In my opinion 4 is more than enough under one roof!

Sorry to interrupt again.....but to get back to LadyNMom's question......

One key advantage (IMO) in living with other athletes is that you would share similar interests, possibly similar workout schedules, push each other to work harder, keep each other "in line".

We're not sure where my daughter will be going yet but there's a very high liklihood that she'll be rooming with another athlete, most likely a golfer. It's encouraged by the coaches for freshman and I wouldn't be surprised if that continued when (if) she moves to off campus housing in a couple years.

Ladies:

I will tell you this for sure: No matter what you might hear, absolutely no good can come from living in a fraternity house. You can survive -- many have -- but it will never be good. Take that for what it is worth and believe nothing you hear to the contrary. What goes on is far, far worse than you can possibly imagine in just about every way.

Tell your new college kids not to call them frats or frat houses. That was one of the very few taboos our fraternity had...long ago.

Isn't that still the rule? Frat was the term HS kids used to sound cool.

quote:

Originally posted by micdsguy:
Isn't that still the rule? Frat was the term HS kids used to sound cool.

I didn't want to split hairs but...yeah.

It may be because my son attends an all male school..but they call them fraternity houses....

.....thanks Jemaz....you do make it sound bad though....

quote:

Originally posted by micdsguy:
Tell your new college kids not to call them frats or frat houses. That was one of the very few taboos our fraternity had...long ago.

Isn't that still the rule? Frat was the term HS kids used to sound cool.

sorry to interrupt ladies but this is very very good advice. As someone in a fraternity now, I have seen some of my brothers get very very (excuse my language) pissed off when we are reffered to as a "frat". Maybe it is just our fraternity (because other chapters I have visited are like this too) but a "frat" is viewed as being like what is in Animal House and most fraternities that I know of are trying to move away from that image.

to the first poster, I have been in several dorms that are worse than any "frat house" I have been to. The likelyhood is if the guys are partiers, then they are going to party no matter who they are living with, if they arent then they wont.

again sorry for intruding