And they have one entire semester to listen to all kinds of rumors, tier systems and other gossip and crap. Does anybody really understand the time and financial commitments until they experience it themselves?

It's my experience (to my surprise) that the heat, humidity and frequent afternoon showers are more of a leveler. Everybody's hot, sticky and sweaty - even the members in houses because with that many bodies, the A/C has a hard time. Those expectations are lowered by necessity!

True, but usually only a tiny percentage transfer.
When I was a regional officer, I had chapters that were deferred and chapters that recruited in the fall. The advantages and disadvantages balance out. Mostly it's people who are used to one way telling the other side they're wrong and vice-versa. There's no one right way to do it.

CSULB just decided to change to a deferred recruitment. It was not voted upon by the sororities, the University made the decision unilaterally.

I saw where students at USC were trying to sue the school to move recruitment back to the fall. (Saying it violated a person's right to free association.)

The greek chapters at CSULB sent out a petition to override this decision. I received it from our chapter at CSULB.

Good for them.

Tons of schools in the north take this approach and I do understand where they're coming from with it. It lets a freshman adjust to college and get a feel for the different sororities on their campus before rush. I just wish they didn't host it during a full week of school, which can get busy! If they did rush the week before school came into session after Christmas break I'd be all for it.

My school rushed in the spring. Then rush moved to fall of sophomore year. Northeast liberal arts college with a surprisingly strong and intense greek system.

I always viewed deferred recruitment as a positive. For one, life at the start of your freshman year hardly resembles life at the end of that first year. And I knew plenty of people freshman year who, even with deferred recruitment, made poor decisions rushing as a freshman and would have done it differently. It is very easy as a freshman to get caught up in what you think you are supposed to do and like, versus having the confidence and better understanding of your decisions. And I would argue that when rush moved to sophomore year, it made that specific system even stronger. And it has grown. One chapter sadly closed due to low numbers and 2 new ones came on and everybody is reaching quota.

But that worked at my school. That doesn't mean it would work at all schools.

This is what Washington and Lee switched to my daughter's senior year (2016), and they've stuck with it. Previously, they had recruitment the first week of class in January, and with 75% of the student body involved in Greek life, it was a bad way to start the semester at a highly academic school. They also went from 4 rounds to 3 at the same time...I think both changes have been an improvement. There was no need for 4 rounds with only 6 chapters at a small school where everyone had gotten to know people first semester. So now everyone comes back a little early for fewer rounds, and they're done by the day before classes start.

Also, this for fraternities and sororities - the fraternities have a semi-structured recruitment with invitations at the same time.

Most of my daughter’s friends that have deferred recruitment are bummed about it. They feel they have to really carefully mind their p’s and q’s all the time. At smu the girls have rush dates all semester. Also, most are finding it difficult to find “their people”. They like their roommates and have met a few people in clubs and dorms but it is not the same feeling that you belong to an organization with a new pledge class of potential Friends almost immediately.

^^^ I just noticed in another thread that your daughter joined Pi Beta Phi -- my daughter is also a Pi Phi. :)

I can see where those who have to wait for deferred recruitment would have some "missing out" feelings when they talk with friends at other schools who have happily joined and are sharing stories about their experiences. The main advantage I saw with deferred is that my daughter absolutely landed where she was meant to be, with no second thoughts ever, and that seemed to be typical. I think your daughter's friends should view rush dates as a way to meet people and subtly check out where they see connections. My daughter went on a lot of rush dates, too, but W and L has forgone those now, in favor of open house activities at each chapter once each during the fall.

I went through a deferred rush back in the dark ages. One of the positives is you have a true college GPA to work with. I was in a strong recruiting chapter with the highest GPA. So when we pledged girls, they almost always made their grades and were initiated the following semester. We had very few people not/initiate or de-pledge. Frankly, I can't think of anyone from my pledge class that did not become an active. But that meant we pledged in January and were not initiated until late September. So almost two full semesters of being a pledge.

Merely located in the South. I like that. I went to Miami in the 1980s, and we didn't have deferred recruitment in the sense of making freshmen wait until spring. However, we did have formal rush in both fall and spring. Fall was bigger, but spring wasn't nothing. Do any schools do that anymore?

I have to say, as someone who did wait until spring (voluntarily), I kind of like the idea of deferred recruitment because it allows students to get a feel for the school and whether they wish to join. I would never have thought I'd wanted to join a sorority, but after a semester there, I knew I did. However, Miami was not then and is not now the type of school where you have to join a sorority to fit in and meet people. It was simply one of two possible paths. My daughter attends a large, state school, and it seems much more difficult to meet people casually.

QFP

Actually, my old uni did formal in both the fall and spring, but fall was for upperclassmen only.