<p>I've heard ppl talking about "rush week" and all that, but i have no idea what it means. Can someone elaborate?</p>
<p>And... what year do you have to be to join the Greek life?</p>
<p>could you quit your sorority/fraternity if you didn't like it?</p>
<p>and... do you have to be with your sorority/fraternity all the time? thanx!</p>
<p>Rush is when college students, usually freshmen/women, visit fraternities and sororities to see if they have an interest in joining. The fraternities and sororities, at the same time, are seeing if they have an interest in having you join. Basically, it's a get to know you kind of thing in which the Greeks may or may not extend an offer to join the club.</p>
<p>Can you quit a Greek organization? Well, most of them will have you killed if you try that (j/k). Of course you can quit.</p>
<p>You generally do not have to be with your Greek organization all the time, but how much time is expected of you varies greatly from one house to another. Spend too little time with your brothers or sisters, and you may find that they fail to act in particularly brotherly or sisterly manners towards you.</p>
<p>During the rush (recruitment) process, people pleding the greek system (frat/ sorority) visit perspective houses. How this is done varies from campus to campus. On some campuses during rush you must visit every frat/ sorority, at others you only rush the ones you are interested in.</p>
<p>When to joing greek life also depends on the school. At some schools you can go through the rush process as early as freshman year. At other schools, rushing is not allowed until sophomore year.</p>
<p>I do think that rushing freshman year puts those that do not have siblings or friends who are already in the frat at a disadvantatge. In addition, I don't think that it does give potential pledges enough time to really get to know something about the frat/ sorority because they are spending time just really getting adjusted to college life. </p>
<p>At my D's school, their rush process is 2 rounds of visits, pref night and bid night. the grils are broken down into groups and are assigned a Rho Chi, who is their Rush counselor and go to person for any questions or concerns that they have. This person does not take part in any of the deliberations, or events from her house (as a matter of fact, she is supposed to be neutral and cannot even tell the rushees which house she belongs to).</p>
<p>Round 1
Each young lady is required to attend the parties with their Rho Chi at all six sororities, regardless of her own personal leanings or athletic affiliations. The parties are about 45 minutes where they make rounds in the house and try to connect with as many of the sisters as possible.</p>
<p>At the end of the evening the sisters vote on who to invite back everty thing is computerized so the next day they see their Rho Chi and find out where they have been invited back. It can get sketchy as some young women were only invited back to 1 or 2 houses. Some committed "suicide" by focusing all of their efforts into 1/2 houses and when those did not come through, the ended up not getting called back to anything. </p>
<p>Round 2
The girls go to all of the houses which they have been invited back to (up to 4) selected to and the process starts all over again. End of round 2 , the rushees, select their 4 preferences of houses , the sisters vote, everything goes in to a computer and the results come out. </p>
<p>Pref night
Rushees visit the houses that they have been invited back to and they spend an hour at each house. At the end of the second day they list their top preferences. The sisters vote, everything is computerized and the next day they found out which house extended them a bid.</p>
<p>The frat process at her school is a bit different because their winter "rush" took place in one evening where Rushees will indicate their preference for a house, or "shakeout," at the end of the hour, and bids will be delivered that night. </p>
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do you have to be with your sorority/fraternity all the time?
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<p>The advice I gave my D was that it is important to live a balanced life and it was my hope that when she decided to go into the greek system, that it would not be at the expense of her non-greek friends.
She has done a good job of maintaining her greek and non greek friendships including friendships with friends who pledged different sororities. There are mandatory meetings that your house will hold and you will have to attend those. In addition there will be fundraisers, formals and things while no one is forcing you to attend, you end up going because it is an opportunity to bond with your brothers/sisters.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that the process is different from campus to campus so if you are considering going greek see how things are on your campus.</p>
<p>If you rush, do you 'have' to join a sorority/frat? Or can you just decide you're not ready and pledge some other time?</p>
<p>I would suggest that if you are not ready then you should not go through the rush process. Remember the whole concept of rush is you getting to know prospective greeks and they getting to know you. It is one thing to go through the process and not get a bid then go through it again (some have done it and ended up in their first choice houses) but it is another thing to go through the process, get a bid and turn it down (without extenuating circumstances) could burn you the next time.</p>
<p>Greek life varies quite a bit from campus to campus. What I experienced at my small LAC with no houses is very different from what another experienced in the same sorority at a large state U in a house. Rush in the south is very different from rush in the northeast. To learn more, check your college's website for greek life. There are also message boards for those involved in fraternities/sororities (greekchat.com is probably the best) where you can get additional information.</p>
<p>You are definitely not required to join if you go through rush, but heed sybbie's advice above.</p>
<p>you could quit but then you can't join another one. I think sybbie's advice is good, and I'd second the advice about not rushing frosh year even if your school allows it. Get used to college, get to know people in the various houses, etc. and you'll be able to make a better decision and have an improved chance of getting into your choice.</p>
<p>With NPC sororities, you are allowed to join another sorority after one year if you have not been initiated. However, it is rare that a sorority will pledge someone who has depledged another sorority.</p>
<p>fireflyscout: What if you just realize that another sorority is good for you?</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice sybbie =). So how are you supposed to gain an in depth understanding of each sorority if you don't rush? As freshmen, wouldn't the closest contact you come to each sorority be at their parties? Where everyone's getting drunk and so on..</p>
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What if you just realize that another sorority is good for you?
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<p>If you feel that the house you have pledged is not right for you, you can certainly depledge, but your being picked up by another house is highly unlikely. This may be the main reason why you should not rush freshman year. You really should take your time to know what you are getting into. </p>
<p>It is not manadatory that you rush freshman year. At my daughter's school no one is allowed to rush and frat or sorority as a freshman. While there are many greeks that drink and you will find drunk at parties, there are also many greeks who are not drinkers and still find there niche in their respective houses. My daughter is not much of a drinker and has a bunch of non-drinking friends. You will also find that for some students, the drinking can get really old really fast.
Although there is a heavily greek presence, most events are open to the campus at large. I think by waiting the year, she did end up having friends who were upperclassmen in addition to opportunity to meeting upper classmen who were members of various houses. She also attended tings given by the different houses through out the year to get a feel for them. </p>
<p>In May all of the sorority had ice cream socials at their houses for freshmen and others interested rushing in the fall in order to gather information about the sorority.</p>
<p>If your college has a school newspaper, do a search for the organizations that you are interested in . Most school newpapers will write about the good, the bad and the ugly or every greek house on campus. Your school newspaper will have articles about scandals, suspensions and all other things associated with greek houses on your campus. In addition many local chapters also maintain websites with in your school's website.</p>
<p>If the organization that you are interested in pledging is a national organization, you can look up thier website. For example: there are some national sororities that do not allow functions with alcohol in their greek owned housing where violation could have the chapter suspended.</p>