USC sororities rush in the spring. The fraternities rush in the fall. Sophomore girls can do COB (continuous open bidding) in the fall for houses that have room for more members (so probably not the “top” houses).
COB isn’t like it was years ago. They can fill spaces left by those who have left school, transferred, gotten married. Often the top houses do have spots available for COB and aren’t limited by the quota number from rush.
For the ‘big rush’, be it fall or spring, the houses will get a quota and they can take that many. Except they can also take more through a process called quota+, where the houses can take more than quota if there are PNMs who accepted the maximum number of parties and still didn’t get a match at preference. It doesn’t sound like a lot but at some schools quota will be 125 and the house will get to take 150.
Some schools also allow the houses to backfill spots open because some students are on study abroad or gone temporarily for another reason.
Lots of movement of numbers.
UPenn has spring rush…. But “dirty rushing” starts in the fall.
My son dirty rushed at Rutgers fall of freshman year, he ended up dropping out of college in October and rushing was a part of his downfall (lots of hazing, drinking, pot, lack of sleep).
Sorry to hear. Hope he’s on a path to a better life. I’m learning a lot - did not know about dirty rush. A new term I just learned from opening this yesterday.
It is considered dirty rush when they have a pledge class during a semester where there isn’t formal rush/pledging, at least at my kids’ schools.
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So he was aligned with a fraternity already? From yesterday’s discussion, I thought it was more like scouting.
My premise - to find schools where kids get a semester to acclimate - I guess in reality or at some schools really isn’t a thing.
That’s a shame. These kid’s lives have to change on a dime.
I was so focused on covering the Friday night high school football games for the campus radio station - this never came up for me.
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The fraternity president was a close friend of my daughter, so I believe that’s how he got chosen. Unfortunately he was either overwhelmed with pledging, or sitting alone in his room playing Xbox. I think pledging just made his mental health worsen much quicker.
For schools that only allow rushing for students with sophomore (or above) standing, does that mean years on campus or can someone with 30 AP credits but a fall freshman participate? At the schools with sophomore+ rush, is their dirty rushing in freshman year? And by dirty rush, I’m talking about pledge-like activities.
Trinity University does a spread out rush throughout the fall semester with bids in the spring semester.
At Vanderbilt there are fraternity rush events in the fall (but not right away), but the pledge period starts in January. The sororities do rush in January and then start their pledge periods.
Miami University, Oxford Ohio has Spring Rush
I was wondering the same thing about AP credits, specifically at Bucknell. I found their pdf chart for AP credit. It appears that many AP courses can be used only for elective credit, so it might be difficult to get to sophomore status based solely on AP credit.
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Vanderbilt, Wake and Hopkins. Many of the private schools put rush off until second semester.
Back in the stone age, I was a rush director for my sorority which had a spring rush. I’m sure there are extreme example of “dirty rushing,” but what is more common is for girls to have legitimate friendships/ acquaintances with upperclassman that developed in the fall semester through classes, clubs, or school social events. Sororities are social clubs, it should be expected that there might be a preference for girls who have a pre-existing relationship with sisters. In my mind, this is far better than the matching that goes on with first semester rush that is much more likely to be based on more superficial factors.
Also, at many of the Spring rush schools, sorority members are encouraged to go on “rush dates” in the Fall with Freshmen to get to know them prior to formal recruitment. This is not considered dirty rush.
I hated second semester rush at Vanderbilt back in the 80’s - it seemed like the entire first semester was filled with “pre-rush” events. Coffees, dinners, parties…endless. And it was a lot of stress (not to mention expense for paying for dinners at nice restaurants). The super popular girls were booked 2x a day for events, and the actives were not allowed to tell what sorority they were in, but of course, people figured it out. At least with fall rush you knock it out in a max of 9 or 10 days. Having it all first semester was endless.
Formal Membership Recruitment is the main process by which Panhellenic chapters take in new members. At Columbia, the process takes place over 5 days in late January. There are four main events: Philanthropy Round, Development Round, Preference Night and Bid Day. The Columbia Panhellenic Council holds Formal Membership Recruitment in the spring semester each year.
A woman is eligible to participate in Formal Recruitment and join a sorority if she is enrolled at Columbia University as a full-time student and has completed one full academic semester of coursework. First-semester first-year students are ineligible.
Although, it might still be more “manageable” if first-year students have the fall to somewhat ease into it for Spring initiation, rather than the rush-anxiety competing with them beginning to learn how to “do college”.
At one of my daughter’s schools freshmen rush is the week before classes start, it settles down after bid day with classes starting.
i have been really surprised at how “dirty” fraternity rush is at my kid’s school. Not sorority - but apparently if you aren’t on the list for parties first semester as a male you have no shot. I have been told it’s pretty much decided by the time real rush starts.
Virginia Tech rushes in the Spring. Honestly, I love a Spring rush. I think it’s so hard to have to be new at college, being away from home, meeting new people, living in a dorm with strangers and then add the stress of going through rush. My older daughter did a fall rush her freshman year and was also sick with mono and it was very stressful.
With my younger daughter at VT, other than having the first round be virtual, the January rush was a lot less stressful. She had already gotten used to being at college, managing classwork, etc.
It also gives them time to really consider if Greek life is for them, rather than be under pressure to decide and register almost before their high school graduation.
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