<p>Does anyone know the process for fall/informal rush for sororities? Any comments about specific sororities? (pos & neg)</p>
<p>Fall rush is laid back...not as structured. You visit chapters and attend events.</p>
<p>Only sororities under campus total participate in fall rush. It's usually AOII and AXiD...however I think AXiD is nearing campus total....so who knows if they'll be in fall rush this year.</p>
<p>most houses don't do fall rush. the only ones that do are those that did not meet quota. AXiD actually did pretty well this year, in terms of pledge class size, so it might just be AOPi doing fall rush, since they got like 4 new members. if you want to have more options (and rush better houses), you should just wait until the spring. being a sophomore might work to your disadvantage at a few houses, but many houses don't really care. pledging in the spring is also better than in the fall, since there are more mixers in the spring, and more activities directed at the new pledges.</p>
<p>Hey--cool, thanks. My sister's school has fall rush and it works a little differently, so I wasn't sure about here. Hmm...that also gives me a little more time to think it through.</p>
<p>thanks for the all the info on it!</p>
<p>Yeah...think about it some more. I personally don't feel greek life is all it's cracked up to be, but if you really want to rush....wait until spring recruitment. All the chapters participate and only a few really care if you're not a freshmen. </p>
<p>Girls who go through both fall and spring rush said spring rush is much more fun and even if they don't go all the way through...a decent number say rush alone was a fun experience.</p>
<p>rush alone was the polar opposite of a fun experience.</p>
<p>^^haha....I guess everyone has a different experience :-)</p>
<p>i agree with spanks, rush is definitely not fun</p>
<p>The number of students I knew by junior and senior year who were embarrassed to say they were in a fraternity/sorority was pretty high.</p>
<p>For some males, I can see the attraction to Greek life. But for females, where most girls don't even get to live in the house, and you have to subject yourself to the horrors of rush, I don't see the point. Maybe it gives you access to more mixers, or whatever, but it's not like a guy isn't going to be interested in you because you aren't in a sorority. In fact, he would probably have more respect for you.</p>
<p>My personal preference is that upperclassmen should develop a close knit group of friends and choose to either rent an off-campus apartment or block together in a suite on West Campus. But that's my two cents, and everybody's social scene is different.</p>
<p>^That's how I felt. I went through 1 day of rush...it was ok...but I dropped out because I could see straight through the girls and it just felt so shallow. For someone not in the greek system I know more about recruitment selection factors than I should and I just don't see how you can pick friends/sisters like that.</p>
<p>However...that's just my opinion. You'll find people who absolutely love greek life and those who don't like it at all.</p>
<p>i think i realized how awful/ridiculous the system is the morning before the last round of rush....when they schedule your rho chi meeting for extra time so girls have time to cry and be crushed. and then girls do actually cry and act like their life is over. it was an eye-opener for sure. </p>
<p>but...for girls who want the greek system, rush is the only way</p>
<p>Parents point of view:</p>
<p>From what I gathered from my daughter, the rush was horrible. I got a detailed description of it everyday for 6-7 days. After it was over, and all of her best friends ended up at the same sorority, it has been a great fun this Spring. I could see it's not for everyone. But it's also not as ridiculous as some people make it out to be. I think it teaches you a lot of social skills (even gracefully saying no to opposite sex takes a bit of skill, which you would encounter in real life), ability to organize events (project management), ability to juggle multiple obligations.</p>
<p>How you are judged by the Greek system is shallow, but that's also the case in many things in life. If people think the way to get your first job is purely by ability, it's not the whole truth. Getting a job has more to do with connection, your looks, school your went to, and whether the interviewer liked you as a person, especially if you want to go into iBanking.</p>
<p>I knew how much time Greek life was going to take of my daughter's life, and how much drinking would be involved (a good way to learn to exercise control). I encouraged her to do it because of interaction she would have to have with people. She would have to pursuade "sisters" to help out with events, negotiate with the administration, prioritize and be very efficient with her schedule. As a new member, she was responsible for quite a few events at her house this spring. She also was able to keep up her grades, as a matter of fact, her GPA is better this spring than last fall.</p>
<p>There are good an bad of Greek life. On the face of it, it may appear that most people are shallow, but I think it's a blanket statement. It would be similar for someone to say people that do not go out on weekends and stay behind to bake and watch tv with friends are all nerds and uninteresting.</p>
<p>Sorry to butt into this discussion, but I wanted to provide another prospective. I see Greek life as a very temptation driven environment, it takes a lot of self control not to get lost in it. If I see a job applicant with a tough major, good GPA, and belongs to Greek life, I see that applicant as someone that could perform under pressure. Of course, there are other ways to demonstrate that also.</p>
<p>While the sorority rush process may have some positive aspects, mentioned by oldfort, I think, on a whole, it's extremely degrading on both ends. </p>
<p>Cayugared, most girls do live in the house sophomore year; most houses have mandatory living policies. After that, it is uncommon. </p>
<p>Oldfort, I don't think Greek life has much to do with GPA, unless you have no self control. I've had straight As the entire time. </p>
<p>I'm going to be a senior and I tried to deactivate 2nd semester this year, but the house I am still in tried to charge me ~300 dollars in rush fines, so I just stayed, on principle. My friend and I who were both trying to deactivate felt we were pressured into staying. I am deactivating when I get back in the fall, however. I think sororities are fun for freshmen who like to go to mixers, but, other than that, it's not really for me. The whole forced friendship thing just makes me uncomfortable. The way in which being in a sorority changes certain people is also really bizarre. People I knew freshman year are completely different now. I feel like by sophomore year, there are a significant amount of girls who realized they could have done without the whole sorority thing. There are also lots of girls who are really into it through senior year, and even after they graduate. I guess it depends on the person, really.</p>
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Cayugared, most girls do live in the house sophomore year; most houses have mandatory living policies. After that, it is uncommon.
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<p>My bad. For some reason, then, most of the sorority girls I knew always complained about not being able to live in house. </p>
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The way in which being in a sorority changes certain people is also really bizarre. People I knew freshman year are completely different now
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<p>My biggest issue with the Greek system is the amount of tacit social coercion and peer pressure that exists from house to house. I realize that this is the major attraction of the Greek system (bonding and friendships naturally yield to implicit social coercion), but it often this manifests itself in unhealthy ways -- whether it be academically, socially, physically, or sexually.</p>
<p>There are much better institutions on campus that provide the same benefits -- club sports, service fraternities, co-ops to name just a few -- that don't come with as much downside risk.</p>
<p>For a lot of students, the type of hegemony I am referring to is not a problem, as they had the same environment in high school. But for others who may be a bit more wet behind the ears, I have often see studious, stimulating freshmen turn into social status seeking/partying/drug abusing individuals by the end of their sophomore year. </p>
<p>I'm not saying that all students in the Greek system are this way, nor that you will necessary become one of these individuals if you join the Greek system. The Greek system at Cornell, much like Cornell itself, is a very diverse and vast institution. But I certainly think there is a higher risk of these types of unproductive pursuits being encountered in the Greek system.</p>
<p>I don't want to sound prudish or lacking in fun, either. I certainly had a lot of fun at Cornell, and I drank and partied more than I probably should have my senior year. But there's a point where you see that the social scene begins to compromise your academic and personal growth. And there's also a point where the Greek system's "fun" starts to impart a negative externality on the rest of campus life. Not that this negative externality is large -- it's probably less of a problem at Cornell than it is at a school like Dartmouth -- but it's still a problem.</p>
<p>If I had to change one thing about Cornell, socially, it would be the residential experience of freshmen first year. I was part of the first class to entirely live on North, and I think it was a net benefit, as do I think the transition to the House System on West will be a net benefit in another five to ten years once things get running smoothly. But I would do two things:</p>
<p>1) Encourage more sophomores to live interspersed among North's freshmen, not as RAs, but as simple role models as students with more experience and direction.</p>
<p>2) Become a little bit less strict about alcohol use in the freshmen dorms. If Dartmouth, Yale, and Princeton can all turn a blind eye to what's a rather benign practice, so can Cornell. In doing so, the appeal of fraternity parties will diminish freshman year, and the Greek system at Cornell can flourish more as what it is intended to do, and not as a de facto host of freshmen parties.</p>
<p>I'll also add that I almost pledged a house my freshmen year. So it's not like I'm commenting completely from afar. But the house was just kicked off campus this year as a result of the hospitalization of two freshmen for alcohol poisoning, and in retrospect, I'm glad I didn't join the house. How would you like to be an alum of that house? Pretty damn outraged.</p>
<p>I haven't seen the academic impact, maybe because my house has a high average GPA, but the impact on "personal growth" is pervasive, and is one of my problems with the Greek system. It's hard participating in a sorority while trying to withstand the pressure to conform to the organization's ideals. It's like Human Resource Management on crack.</p>
<p>I agree with many points Cayuga has made about on how to make Cornell better, and not let Greek life dominate Cornell's social scene. My daughter did say that girls didn't join sororities didn't have as many options Spring semester. She is my oldest, so I don't know what it will bring for her next year - whether the scene would get old. The only thing I am certain is that she wouldn't let this experience to change who she is - a bit shallow :), but still with a lot of good qualities.</p>
<p>If I may assume so, your daughter sounds a bit like the students I'm not worried about --- those who were probably already exposed to a lot of the attitudes present in the Greek system during high school.</p>
<p>Any info on fall rush for guys?</p>
<p>same deal...most of the "better houses" don't do fall rush because they have enough members. also, the focus on new members and mixers that exists spring semester isn't really there in the fall.</p>
<p>oldfort, I feel like the lack of open parties second semester pressures a lot of people on the fence into joining houses.</p>