Doors open to girls squealing, clapping and chanting in unison: “I wanna go adpi.

Boom! Boom!”

While watching recruitment sorority videos on YouTube to get more insight on Greek life, I’ve never been more terrified. It was as if the gates of hell were unleashed. Some of my other favorite videos featured lines like “you’ll go Zeta if you know what’s good for you” and “all we can say is… we’re hot.” DA HECK.

These are literal cults and not the “snowball” cult level. As students look forward to their college experience and the sense of freedom becomes apparent, there remains an institution that will ultimately imprison them: the Greek system. It would be simply ignorant to say that Greek Life has no problems. While Greek life has some positives to it, the bottom line is that you are joining a messed-up system.

Greek life has evolved from the historic secret societies that popped up in the 1800’s where the members pledged each other’s loyalty to death. Today, some of the traditions still held by fraternities and sororities are weirdly archaic. The secret handshakes and pledge ceremonies, as well as institutional and even blatant racism, seem to take us back 100 years. Look at the University of Alabama Chi Omega pledge posting “got no ni**as in Chi O!” on her snapchat story… I’m sure their philanthropy was great though!

The University of Princeton compiled the demographics in their sororities and fraternities. They found that within the students participating in the Greek system, 77 percent of them are white compared to the entire student body that is only 47 percent are white: the racism is obvious. The selection process is private, kept within the house as to how they choose; however, many former sorority members have come out exposing that they basically rank girls based on appearances, first impressions, social media followers and wealth. In a time where we fight for women’s equality it seems wrong to put other females down, and feels especially counterproductive.

For fraternities, it is less the rushing process but rather the bidding process that tends to be its demise. Horrible but “funny” depictions of hazing can be seen in movies like “Neighbors” but real life hazing stories are just appalling. They emphasize “no homo” while using some questionably homoerotic hazing strategies (like the elephant march portrayed in “Neighbors”) and it seems as if they’re playing into the homosexual behavior they are trying to avoid. Placing merit in drinking ability, it’s not a far stretch that there has been consistently one death in the U.S. every year since 1975 as a result of college fraternity hazing. No one should die over joining a glorified club.

These systems provide a social crutch during the tough transition to college, but as an adult it is important to learn to walk alone. You should be independent of a system guided by a calendar of events, where to be and how to dress. I understand that by not being in a fraternity or sorority some parties are shut off, but if you take a deeper look into the actual circumstances going on, you may be glad you were never invited.

Two different longitudinal studies have found that fraternity men are three times more likely to commit sexual assault than other college men. Not all boys in fraternities are rapist and many are of good morals and background, but it does not take away from statistics and hard facts. The “not all men” argument is not a defense to solving this serious problem embedded in a system that celebrates social status via “sexual conquests” and the objectification of their female counterparts. If you are walking into a frat house as a female, you are putting yourself in a potentially dangerous position.

Multiple studies confirm that women in sororities are 74 percent more likely to be raped than other college women. As a female, this seems like a death sentence. Sure the frocket T-shirts and “little” gift baskets are cute, but do I really want to pay for something that will make me a target for sexual assault? The connections could help you network, but so can a frisbee team and that’s free of insane fees. You can participate in philanthropic programs outside of Greek life. You will make friends regardless of whether you are in a house. But go ahead and put “ΑΔΠ” on your job application, only the two percent of America that was in Greek life will care. Not many people are going to ask you after you graduate college what sorority or fraternity you were in— there is a point where you have to ask yourself if it is worth it. There are some deep-rooted problems within Greek life. Death, hazing scandals, superficiality and eating disorder rates in sorority houses to name a few; yet, no one is trying to do anything about it. When will everyone uniformly agree that this system needs to be reformed? How many more deaths and rapes until this community dies?