National fraternity chapters have proven that they are a very strong group, since they've been around for a few hundred years. What is most impressive about the chapters lasting that long with as many members that they have had is that it was started by students and is run by students. This tells something about the men that are members of the fraternity.
Students starting college may have the stereotype of a fraternity already in their mind, so they will choose to stay away from that. Others that are open minded and would like to see what fraternities are all about choose to look into it. Every college has a rush week where students can visit the fraternities and sororities. This is where one can tour a house and hang out with the members to see which one would fit them the best. At the end of the rush week, fraternities and sororities send out bids to the students who they would like to have become a member of the house. If the student gets a bid and wants to go to that chapter, they become a pledge, which is basically a person who is not officially in the chapter yet.
To an incoming freshman, tapping into the fraternity life will make their college experience a lot more entertaining. There are a lot of freshman who will not know anybody because they are new and just end up sitting in their dorm room doing nothing. Going into pledge ship with a fraternity helps open the door to many possibilities. Right away, the pledges will meet and become friends with most of their pledge brothers. Also, there are the active members that they will get to know as well. Most people are not able to meet a great amount of persons without being involved in things, and this is the best way to get to know others in a short period of time. Along with pledge ship, there will be social events where they can meet other people in the student body as well.
A fraternity provides striking opportunities for self-development.