Hotty Toddy Gosh All Mighty

Introduction
Ole Miss is first and foremost a Greek school. Let there be no doubt about it that your first 2 years will absolutely suck if you are not greek. And your 2 first years will STILL suck if you are in a bad fraternity. I'm not joking it's just the way it is. More on that later... If you would like to be a pharmacy major or an Accounting major, or an english/journalism major i would suggest Ole Miss. If you would like to go into Business please don't come here. More on this later... If you are african american and don't mind being looked at differently and being socially ostracized in greek life and bar life, I would look elsewhere... If you are not able to conform to social norms and are what people like to call a "rebel" i would not suggest you attend Ole Miss.... If you care about a good education well, more on that later... All of this sounds negative and it is but it's not all negative i'm just one of those people that likes to get the bad news out of the way before the good news.

Campus Life and Social Life
All in all I will have to say that Ole Miss has probably the best social life in the country. If you look up Ole Miss on princeton review we're constantly in the top 3 party schools. While schools rise and fall out of the top 3 Ole Miss is the mainstay. There are no "clubs" per se at ole miss. If you want to dance you can go to the library when DJ mario is there and dance all you want to hip hop. He's a great DJ and it's always a fun time. Penny Pitchers at Billiards on monday is a place to dance as well. Other then that it's strictly a bar town. There are A LOT of bars. Make no mistake about that. BUT i would suggest you get a fake id. Because if you don't have one your options are limited. Here is a following list of bars sorted by 18 and up & 21 and up.
18 & up
Billiards
The Levee
Library
The Tiki on Jackson (I think)

21&up
Library Sports Bar
Pearl Street
208
Proud Larry's
Burgundy Room
City Grocery Bar
Downtown Grill Upstairs
Murphs
Parishes
Two-Stick
Rib Cage

There are a couple other bars at restaurants that really aren't mentioning. Keep in mind that Oxford is a small small town and this many bars is just out of control for a place like this. Once you turn 21 or have a fake you will go absolutly bananas in a place like this.

Sports
What can I say? We lose a lot of games but we've never lost a party. That saying is the absolute truth at Ole Miss. The grove is by far the best tailgating experience in the country. Everyone sets up tents at midnight before the game in this shaded "grove" of trees. It's like a little park in the middle of campus. On gameday the frat tents are rocking and the whole place has a buzz. The alumni tent's have chandeliers and televisions, and student tents have nice spreads of food and lots of booze. All the guys dress up in slacks and polos or shirts and ties. All the girls wear their best dresses. You'll have so much fun you'll probably just stay in the grove certain gamedays (i'm not joking). Football weekends are the best because it just means so much to everyone down here. Even though Ole Miss is bad it's always a big deal and there is always a glimmer of hope. Also the best frat parties happen on these weekends. Basketball season isn't worth mentioning unless a good team comes to town. Baseball is the spring sport du jour. People pack the outfield and socialize and generally booze it up (Starting to get the picture with all this booze talk?).

Greek
The Godfather of the Greek System is Ole Miss. No doubt about it if you are thinking greek in college you should look at Ole Miss. Be prepared though. You will have to get in the zone for this. Ole Miss' rush is formal. There are three rounds and you go to each house the first round. 2nd round you go back to the houses that like you. 3rd round consists of the bid round. If they ask you back you have a bid. If you make it in a bad frat you might as well kiss your first two years of socializing goodbye (not joking). Here are some tips.

-Go to the parties early. Make it known that you are interested in them and suck up. Don't suck up too much but suck up.
-Always look good, wear what everyone else is wearing and don't stand out. Don't worry they'll remember your face. If you wear something off putting your screwed.
-Lie about your GPA. When you rush you have to fill out this form that says your gpa and high school activites. LIE. Frats don't look that up to check if you're telling the truth or not. They just go by what you put down. And believe me they will cut your ass in heartbeat if you have bad grades and are on the borderline.
-DO NOT USE A CELL PHONE DURING FORMAL RUSH. CUT THAT THING OFF!
-DO NOT TALK ABOUT DRUGS!
-Be from Mississippi and have friends in the frats. If you are from out of state have friends in the frats and DO ALL THESE THINGS mentioned above. If you are out of state and don't know anyone, make sure you go to all the frats you like as much as you can for parties and make sure they know you! Do all the things above double time as well.

For the girls i would just like to say don't act like a slut, be mature and classy, and that's the only advice i have. Watch out for bad stories and incrimnating pictures because they will catch up to you! Sorry my advice is not better, sorority rush is a mystery to alot of guys here. Be sure to ask someone at a good greek school about it before you rush!

Greek System is important. Most people don't have fake ids so it's pretty much library and levee for them. Billiards is only good on mondays. So frat parties are it. It's where you'll meet all the sorority girls (and you'll want to meet them more on that later...) Greek Scene gets less important the older you get but no doubt about it your first two years will be dominated by the greek scene. I really don't know how GDI's (God Da*n Independents) socialize in their first two years. Even the non sorority girls hang out at the frat houses.

Intramural Sports are big, there is a good outdoor life area. The rec center is kind of a joke, and there are a slew of clubs to join like any college. The campus is one of the most beautiful in the country, so if you like to look at pretty foliage, take a look here. Parking Situation sucks, but it sucks everywhere. Watch out for DUI's, they have a rebel ride now. Rebel Ride takes drunk people from the square to campus, so you don't have an excuse to get a DUI (Although it happens, alot) There's no crime in oxford! None! It's probably the safest place in the world. It's a place where you leave your windows and doors unlocked at night and don't worry a bit. Watch out for your car though. That being said the cops have nothing to do but arrest drunk college kids... Advertisement
Academics
How bout a spelling lesson. Ole miss is.... E-A-S-Y. Seriously you won't fail out unless you don't go to class and drink everyday (don't laugh cause you'll probably do both of these things when you get here. Some departments are good, Pharmacy, Accountancy, and Journalism to name the only ones. The Business department I can say from experience is a joke. You want to know how to study? Read the chapters, and study the definitions. There is no more intense studying to it then that. No learning the little nuances or hardcore knowledge of the material. Material is glazed over. I didn't go to my finance class for the last 2 months of it and still got a B (2 points from an A, yeah seriously). And i studied for all the tests the night before. No i'm not some whiz kid, i'm smart, but well, if you're going to college you're smart too! If the entrance requirements don't tell you what kind of academic excellence you will receive then maybe you need to ask Inspector Clousseau for a clue (16 ACT 2.5gpa, 18ACT 2.0gpa when i enrolled in 2004). For those majors I listed i'm sure you will get a solid education. For everything else well, i hope you know people, and plan on reading outside of class. Because after all, smart people read! If you do have any other major make sure to have a great GPA. That's your only salvation cause this school's reputation does not pull any weight.

As an afterword my favorite class here was Game Theory. If you are enrolling here keep that in mind when you are a senior business/economics major (you probably won't).

Student Body
I explained most of the party life in social life so I will move on to different subjects.

Girls
No exaggeration. The best! I am not joking, most every girl is drop dead gorgeous. Blonde, blue eyed, bangin girls left and right. Brown Hair, Black Hair, great bodies, great faces. I swear the hottness fairies come in the night to hot girls across the south and plant in their brains that they will come to ole miss. That being said... you need to get in a good fraternity to get with them. No doubt about it if you are a GDI good luck to you my friend! Even some of the non sorority girls are hot but they do not compare to the sorority girls in any way. So remember get in a good fraternity and you will get the girls, if not....well I hope you look like Brody Jenner and drive the baddest ass truck on the planet.

Dress Code
No question there is a dress code on campus. Polo's, short khaki shorts, frat/sorority tshirts, fishing/hunting tshirts, flip flops, jeans, hats. Nothing else. No cute funny tshirts, and no avant garde style. You prep it up or get the death stare. Girls wear mostly the same except tshirts, umbros, and flip flops.

Campus Racial Issues

This is not a joke, I do not mean to disparage Ole Miss in anyway but I am telling you there is a problem here. If you google image "grove" and you look at pictures of the grove you will notice one thing missing. Black People. This is the separation at Ole Miss. Black People hang out with Blacks, Whites with Whites. I believe there is one black person in a fraternity at Ole Miss. And that is an improvement. The fraternity system is strictly white only. No jews, no blacks, no asians. This is not a joke. There is are black fraternities but they are very small. You won't see many black people at the bars. Ole Miss is only 13% black and they are not seen much outside of campus. There is a lingering racism in the state of Mississippi and it funnels through to the school. Whether it be through attitude, social ostracizing or what have you, it is here. The school tried to make up for it recently by putting up a civil rights monument to James Meredith. James Merideth was the first black man to go to college in the south and it was at Ole Miss. But you can't change how people think by putting up a statue and you can't change social norms. I can't say being black is bad here. I'm sure you have fun but I find it hard to believe that they don't feel like complete and utter outsiders in this place. To sum this section up, our school fight song is Dixie. Up until a few years ago the confederate flag was THE staple of football games (tubberville the head coach at the time had it banned for recruiting purposes). Not only that but at the end of dixie, what do you hear from 10,000 screaming white college kids in shirts and ties and dresses? "THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!!!!!!" This is not a joke.

Out of State
Only 35% of students are from out of state. No bones about it it's a Mississippi school.

In Closing...
I think i explained everything. Great Party Scene, If you're in a good frat (notice the pattern?), great girls, crappy academics most of the time, and i explained about the racial issues. If you come here, have fun! But not too much fun because your butt will fail out and you'll only have an empty bottle of jack daniels to console you. Hopefully one of the many gorgeous sorority girls will be gone to fetch you a new bottle!