Five grad frats you didn't know about

Penn undergraduates aren’t the only ones who have the chance to participate in Greek life on campus.

Graduate students have the option of five graduate fraternities across the Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine. However, the majority of Penn’s 12 graduate schools do not have specific fraternities.

While these graduate fraternities may be well known within each school, they have few connections to the undergraduate Greek community or the University’s general resources for graduate students.

According to Scott Reikofski, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, the individual schools, not OFSL, govern the graduate fraternities.

Anita Mastroieni, director of the Graduate Student Center, said the only graduate fraternity she was aware of was one within the Dental School.

“We’ve never been contacted by a fraternity to add them to the opportunities we tell graduate students about,” she said.

Each of the fraternities lauded the social and networking opportunities that their members receive, but each has its own individual character.

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Nu Sigma Nu, Penn’s only medical school fraternity, is capped at 10 members, although it used to have a larger presence in previous years, according to Ivor Asztalos, a third-year medical student and president of Nu Sigma Nu.

Each year, there are only as many spots in the fraternity available as there are open rooms in their house, located at 3904 Spruce St., he said.

“The main draw of the Nu is probably living with your peers and living with a large number of them,” Asztalos said. He also pointed out that since the fraternity owns their house, members end up paying only about half of what the Medical School suggests allocating for living arrangements.

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Psi Omega is the largest of the three fraternities within the Dental School, recruiting 52 out of the 120 first-year students this year, according to JB Peterman III, a third-year dental student and president of Psi Omega.

Psi Omega is very well represented at dental schools across the country, as well as among Penn’s faculty.

“We have the largest amount of alumni who currently teach at Penn Dental,” Peterman said.

They are also the only dental fraternity that has a residential house, which is located at 4035 Pine St.

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Alpha Omega, another fraternity within the Dental School, has a smaller chapter of about 55 members and has a more specific reputation.

“If you can imagine how niche it is, it’s a Jewish dental fraternity,” said Zach Korwin, a third-year dental student and president of Alpha Omega.

They have a communal basement apartment at 4040 Walnut St., but Korwin said they use the space for hosting dinners and events rather than as living space. The house is also kosher, since several members of the fraternity are Orthodox Jews and the house has been traditionally kosher for years.

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Delta Sigma Delta, the third fraternity within the Dental School, is also on the smaller side, with about 55 members in the whole chapter. Their smaller size tends to make their events more exclusive, said fourth-year dental student Keith Goldman, president of Delta Sigma Delta.

However, members’ level of involvement is very flexible and he describes it as “an accessory to your experience in dental school.”

Goldman wasn’t planning on joining a graduate fraternity after having been very involved with his fraternity, St. Anthony Hall, during his undergraduate years at Trinity College. However, Goldman, like many others, says he has benefitted from the many advantages of being a part of a graduate fraternity even though, as he put it, “We’re not in college anymore.”

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Right across the street at 4002 Pine St. is Alpha Psi, the fraternity for graduate students at the Vet School, but members did not respond to requests for interviews.

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