nursing school and pledging

[meyun06]

Hey everyboby,

I attend a community college now, but I plan on going to a university for nursing school. I want to pledge when I go to nursiing school. I think it is going to be very hard to do because both require alot of work and dedication. I just wanted to know if any of you pledged while in nursing school. If so, was it hard? How did you handle it? Thanks for any information.:)

[MikeyJ, RN]

I am sure it is do-able -- I never was involved with a fraternity, but I did work 40 hours a week and was involved with Student Nurses Association while in nursing school and I managed to do well.

[Bean79]

Well I never did nursing when I was in school, but several of my sorority sisters were in nursing. I would say that for the pledges who were pursuing nursing, it was very challenging and they had to be very creative when it came to time-management. But as the previous poster said, it was do-able. At the time I was a double major Psychology and Pre-med, so my course load was very intense. I was also involved in other organizations, and still made all my time obligations for my sorority.

Just realize that being involved in a Greek organization is VERY time consuming, although rewarding. I think what really helped was that scholastic achievement was very important and we were required to keep our grades up. We even were required to do study hours at the library. I believe this is standard for all Frats and sororities. The bottom line is, they all know that academics must come first. Good Luck!

[PiPhi2004]

Yes, I pledged during my sophomore year, my first year in the nursing program. I had some of the best times, but it was extremely hard!!! There are good parts too.

Pros to pledging: Someone in your sorority will most likely be in the program you are in. I got free books, lab coats, etc from a senior active member who finished nursing school when I started. Cha ching! Plus she gave me tons of advice and still does as she is pursuing an advance practice degree now.

You will meet tons of new people and have somewhere to get away from all the nursing talk!

You will meet some of your best friends ever, they will be with you through good times and bad and they will be there for life, I still talk to many of my alum sisters.

Cons to pledging:

You wont have the FULL active experience, know this now. No one will understand why you cant go out mon-thurs, and why clinicals start at 6am, you will be jealous of your friends who have class at 2pm at the earliest!

Pledging is tough, nursing is tough. Your fellow sisters will expect you to be at all events, no matter what. Your instructors will expect you to devote 100% of your time to your program. You have to pick and choose the areas you want to devote your time to. Your program should be first and foremost. For example, I could never have enough time to take an office, so I became the historian, it was easy, I took pictures, and I was only swamped with work twice during the year (when the history was due each semester). You will not get to attend all the fun parties and you will be stessed while others seem to be having the time of their lives.

I think it is for those who can work hard and play harder. If you can't resist temptation, then you should just avoid pledging. I know many people who wanted to be RNs in my pledge class that changed their minds. I graduated with honors while participating fully in my sorority, so it CAN be done. Just know whats important and go for it, it was the best 4 years of my life!!

[TXstudentRN]

As the poster above did a great job explaining, there are pros and cons. It's really hard to judge though, because Greek life is very different at different campuses - some are focused on philanthropy, others on friendship, while unfortunately many have a strong association with drinking... binge drinking.

I rushed as a freshman and joined a sorority, but had to drop out within 2 weeks - I quickly realized I was in over my head. I definitely feel I made the right decision -the girls in my class that are in sororities are always so stressed because both nursing and the chapter want 100% of you, and there are consequences for missing things of both... obviously more for nursing. People in other majors just don't understand the pure amount of studying nursing requires... drinking on Thursday nights and partying all weekend don't fly.

Definitely look into it, but be careful - in my opinion nursing school is stressful enough! Instead I'm more active in other things that don't require that hardcore participation where you're penalized if you miss things.

Good luck!