Hello, I’m a perspective student for UW Seattle campus and I’m thinking about rushing a sorority once I get there. Can somebody tell me about the sororities at UW? Are there ones that are more diverse? LGBTQIA+ friendly (I’m queer so this one matters a lot!)? Any Jewish sororities? Academic and community service oriented sororities? I want to have fun, so parties are fine, but I really want to do well for myself, the school, and the community, and I also want to be surrounded by intelligent, open-minded, hard working women. Thanks to anyone who can give me some answers!
There are 19 sororities on UW campus. Take a look at them once you are admitted. They have a Greek Preview event in the spring - kind of a mini version of rush. You get to visit about 6-8 houses which is like the first round of forma fall recruitment. It is usually in April as I recall - you do have to register for it but it is a great opportunity to see if you like it. If you decide you don’t like the format of formal rush but still want to go Greek, you could see which houses still have openings once fall rush concludes (COB - continuous open bidding). Currently, there are maybe 6 -8 houses that have room for additional members for one reason or another.
There is some variety among the chapters at UW, there are several that are not diverse, but most of them have a good mix that seems to represent the make up of the student body at UW. There is a focus on academics and all do community service of some kind. On the UW web site, click on students, then on groups, then scroll down to Go Greek - that links you to the page that has all the chapters listed - you can look at their pages, FB, twitter, etc. It has information about recruitment. But if you find the Greek system is not for you, UW has a large number of other groups and communities that might appeal to you.