Union College-Schenectady Top Questions

Mostly centered around greek life. A "minerva" sub-culture is growing though.

The most popular groups on campus would be the frats and sororities, football, hockey, lacrosse, and other student groups. I am on the softball team and I was in a sorority until I could no longer afford it. The sorority I was in was Tri Delta and it was great. The girls are amazing, they contribute to the St. Judes Children Hospital on many occasions and are involved in the Kenney Center which is the children center for Schenectady youth. Doors are always open in the dorms, unless it is finals time of course. Events at Union are huge! They are widely publicized and attract much of the student body. I met my closest friends through my softball team and through my neighbors freshmen year. Partying at Union is always fun, the frats are a blast and everyone is always very nice! There are many events on campus that do not involve drinking - movies, comedians, magicians, speakers, etc. Off campus there are a lot of nice restaurants, a movie theatre, a mall closeby, Proctor's Theater.

Drinking, drug (ab)use, sex, alcohol, Minervas SUCK, Greek Life=Good (but the school is suppressing it majorly)

Fraternities and sororities dominate social life. A significant portion of the student body is Greek. Multicultural groups struggle with membership. Men's hockey games are the most popular, and big name guest speakers such as Maya Angelou and Mike Huckabee were enormously popular. The dating scene is limited; students hook up with one another on weekends (anything from making out to casual sex). Many people in relationships are those students with significant others from high school. Actual dates are rare; hooking up is the norm. Drinking is a significant part of the social scene, at frat parties and pregaming with friends. The biggest drinking nights are Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.

really only the football and hockey games are good to go to. Hockey is division 1 and the only D1 sport on campus, so they are very popular. Frats and sororities are very big and people party quite ofter: wednesday, thursday, friday and saturday night.

greek life is definetly present

There's a pretty big greek life on campus. Frats are open on fridays and saturdays, and the parties are usually a lot of fun. People party on wednesday, fridays, and saturdays. The reason they party on wednesday is because most people don't have class until either 11 or 2, and some don't have it at all. Lots of rooms have open doors, and most people don't care if you just walk in. There are seven traditions at union: Smoking in the gardens, naked Nott run, sex on the U (which is having sex on the 50-yeard line), walking through the tunnel, peeing on the pyramid, painting the Idol, and drinking a beer at every fraternity. From what I hear, spring term, though it runs late, is the best time of the year. The weather is beautiful, there are so many parties, there's springfest, party in the gardens, the lobster picnic (which is when everyone on campus gets a lobster, and there's a big bbq). I'll put it this way- I haven't heard anyone complain about this term.

The social life here is that of a major University packed into a student body of 2,500. Most students go out Wednesday night to a bar (Gepetto's and Rupsis are the most common hang outs for Union kids). On Fridays and Saturdays there are mostly off campus house parties or major frat parties. There is definitely something going on every night. Students in the dorms here often leave their doors open and unlocked. The campus community itself is pretty trustworthy. Just the other day I left my iPod in the gym on a machine and it was still there when I came back hours later. There are seven major traditions at Union, and once you are a student here you can learn more about them. Let's just hope that you don't mind getting naked, or breaking some rules.

There are a lot of events on campus at Union (speakers, comedians, cultural events, clubs etc.), so you will never be out of things to do, however the amount of students that actually attend the events is somewhat pathetic; Union could definitely use an increased level of student participation in their planned events. This year we had Maya Angelou and Huckabee as speakers, and Gym Class Heroes and Eve 6 as performers. Frat parties are usually fun, but they get boring after a while, as they are all usually the same. I find that parties at off campus sport houses are usually fun. Fraternities and Sororities are pretty prevalent; most people go to frat parties on weekends, there is not really that much else to do at night. The minerva houses put on a lot of events, but sadly, they are poorly attended. They are fun to go to sometimes though, and the minerva houses are sometimes just fun to hang out in.

Greek life is a huge deal on campus. In addition, there is a new Minerva system to counter the popularity of the Greek system. Both have their benefits. Union has a host of traditions; there are 3 big ones that come to mind most often when Union students are asked: (1) Naked Nott Run (2) painting the Idol (3) sex on the U. A lot of partying does go on around campus - study hard, party hard applies to Union. However, students typically favor one or the other on a typical basis. Among the great things that come with spring term, are Springfest and Party in the Gardens which are great events to attend. In addition, Union has a lot of sports, intramurals, clubs, etc etc etc.