*Editor’s note: Some of the names in the following story have been changed to protect their identity.

If you offered people the chance to be a fly on the wall in one spot on the San Diego State campus, a sorority house would be a popular choice.

The women that move around in their brightly colored shirts are a group shrouded in mystery, one that inspires fantasies in men and envy in women.

But the next best thing to getting inside the house is finding out from people who’ve spent years in it exactly what happens inside it.

The first thing that everyone made sure to point out is that the Hollywood depiction of a house with lingerie-clad pillow fights and nightly dramatic outbursts is completely untrue.

“I can honestly say (a pillow-fight) never happened,” said Alberta Coleman*, a member of Kappa Delta. “It’s just people living in a regular house with a really high estrogen level.”

Added Alexandra Seibert, a member of Gamma Phi Beta: “To be honest, there was more drama living in the dorms. In the house, I had more of an incentive to find a common ground with someone I’m going to be dealing with for a couple of years.”

However, Coleman did say that placing such a high concentration of college-aged women in one house did often cause issues.

“People’s stuff gets stolen, including boyfriends,” Coleman said. “There was an incident one year where one girl slept with another girl’s boyfriend, and the girl went around the house writing so-and-so’s a whore, so-and-so’s a slut.”

Seibert however, felt that anything that might have happened between sorority sisters was just as likely to happen in any other social situation.

“Ninety percent of what happens could happen in any group of friends,” Seibert said. “Of course it’s going to happen, but not only in a sorority.”

One of the main aspects that both girls were quick to point out is the less glamorous side of sorority life. While most people automatically associate sororities with formals, parties and fraternity exchanges, they ignore the bake sales, clothing drives and charity auctions.

“Last year (Gamma Phi Beta) raised $3,000 for charity,” Seibert said. “The stereotype of sororities takes away from everything good we do, and what you really get out of the experience. Every internship I’ve ever had at (SDSU) was through my sorority.”

Coleman also pointed out that the friends she made through Greek Life are some of her closest friends to this day.

“There’s a lot of real sisterhood, bonding, helping people through things like their boyfriend being stolen,” Coleman jokes. “But seriously, people help each other, take care of each other. It really is a great experience.”

Does that mean she’d let her daughter join a sorority?

“Uh … maybe the Christian sorority,” Coleman said. “Probably not at SDSU.”