Hey guys I am an incoming freshman. Class of 2019.
I am thinking about joining a sorority. How cool are sororities and what they do? Is it hard to get in one of them? What do they look at when they recruit new members? One of my friends said that sororities are mostly about parties and boys. Will the pretty face, nice body and fashion styles make an impact? What do they REALLY look at?
Rush is second semester of freshman year. Most women get a bid, but not always from their top choice (although many do).
The sororities have different personalities. Some are more party focused, some are more sisterhood focused. There are a lot of activities beyond frat parties. Contrary to what some people think, many of the top students at Penn are in sororities, it is not just partiers.
"Will the pretty face, nice body and fashion styles make an impact? "
All are a plus, but they have to like you. If they think you are a bit**, those things will not save you. If you rush, you will see that you will fit in better at some houses than others. Grades matter a little bit too, because they publish the average gpa for each house, so they will not want to take too many pledges with 2.5 gpa’s. It does not need to be incredible, but it is helpful if it is close to in line with the sorority avg.
In the end it is primarily about as simple as the sisters asking themselves whether this is someone they want to become good friends with.
It is worth investigating, but not something that you absolutely have to do.