Very good answer Mom. If I understand you correctly, your thoughts about rush are similar to mine.

Of course others can give you their POV's and opinions. But the OP's, and any rushee, are the one that truly matter.
For they are the one's who will be:
Living with others.
Calling and seeing them as friends and Brothers.
And learning and living a philosophy of an even larger group.

Rushee should go into rush with their mind, eyes and ears open.
For the bottom line is they are looking for chapter and GLO that fits them, not others.

Come to Roundup
Come to Island
Wait and let the fraternities get a hold of you. They will. Trust me. Nobody is going to "clear the database" and lose your information.

Whatever you do... don't base anything off websites.

My schedule is clear for roundup, so I'm almost certainly going. Is it just sort of walk up and introduce yourself at each house, or do you have to be on an invite list of some sort?

Most of the guys I actually know fairly well are all in the same fraternity, but I don't want to restrict myself to just one house.

Will not really knowing anyone in most fraternities hurt you?

Jon- not to pile on, but formal rush at UT does not exist and contacting chapters through their websites- the few that work- is not effective. I am only pointing this out because it is a somewhat unusual situation and so it is natural that you had the reaction you did since a lot of people don't do their homework before coming here- but the fact is that the UT website and the IFC website make for some good background info but that is about it.

Anyhow- nothing personal. It really is that different here and there is a long story behind it going back to the days when UT had absolutely nothing to do with the Greek system here.

UTLonghorn2012- it is important to have invitations to Roundup, obtained via the kinds of people I suggested in an earlier thread.

As an advisor I do not get into recruitment since that is 100% in the care and judgement of the actives, but PM me if you would like me to get you in touch with our Rush Chairman and he will contact you with more info about our events.

EE-BO;
The ONLY web site that I pointed out was for the SCHOOL. OP seemed to have SCHOOL related questions.
And of course, once he spoke with the school, I have a belief that they would given him direct, up to date information.

Any other belief seems to have a root cause from one other post.

No harm, no foul.

To UTLonghorn2012-Every situation is different at just about every campus and Greek system. And I know that the rush I went thought was different that anyone else even then thus I can not directly answers your rush questions. I will tell you that I am still in touch with several people that I met the very first day of rush.
One of them ended up being my Big Sister and to this day she is my best friend as are our families.

I believe what I posted before maybe the only common item: Keep your eyes, ears and mind open. Do not put on airs; be yourself. Ask questions but at the same time listen as you let others do the talking. Observe. Be comfortable. Think and do not let yourself get over whelmed.

Best of luck and let us know how things go.

Hey, I run our website and it is pretty badass. Joining a fraternity is a huge thing in your college career, but it can end up being so much more if you are active in the entire Greek community. I have friends in almost every fraternity. Your character is what will make you succeed in the Texas Greek system.

For roundup, you need to visit the campus here in the near future and get a writst band, they won't ask you for your student ID, just walk up to the table set up on west mall, usually in front of the Union, and get a wristband, then you'll be safe for any roundup weekend events.

Not knowing anyone in a fraternity will not hurt you in anyway, it gives you chance to get to know the members of the fraternity without having any bias for or against the chapter.

I was under the impression that you needed to be invited to a party at roundup. Will simply walking in and introducing myself as a PNM be considered a bad thing or does that usually work?

No you need to do that. Roundup is a really big rush event. You'll get taken care of. You have to get wristbands though, for sure.

I still have a question for you:
Have you spoken to anyone about this besides this board?
To be direct: Have you taken any time or made any effort to talk directly to IFC or Student Affairs Office at school?

Yes. IFC said that it is entirely up to the individual fraternities who they admit to their parties and that the rush website would be up later in the year. Rush does not officially start until late August, according to IFC, but "officially" was pronounced as though it were italicized.

As a general rule, most places that have a website tend to put all the information they want you to have on the internet. IFC has official policies and then from what I've seen the fraternities have different rules of their own. Rush "officially" starts in late August, and theoretically you should be able to walk up to a house and meet the guys and get a bid. But from what everyone except IFC is telling me, that is not the case.

Which is why I came to this site, because I was hoping to get responses from people who are a little closer to the way the process actually happens.

IFC is us. They know exactly what the deal is but will tell you what the University has mandated they tell you. Call/email your friends from high school, they'll set you up. There's nothing more on here that will help you.

Dude, I gotta tell you.......let the websites go. Second, we are IFC, the fraternities. Members from our houses make up IFC.......so you shouldn't be getting one thing from someone like me and another from IFC.

I've told you everything you should know. Yes, technically formal rush is in August. However, most houses are going to start way before that, especially during the Summer. That's why it is important to go to rush events and be around during April, May, June, and July.

As far as getting a bid, that is incorrect. You shouldn't expect to walk up to a house, meet people, and get a bid. It takes a little more effort than that. We don't just hand them out to everyone that walks through the door.

Do you have any friends in houses here? Do you have any friends that know people in houses here? That will help you tremendously.

Yes I know. I was just pointing out to jon that Greek Life is basically saying everything on their website that they are going to tell.

And I know the "walk up and get a bid" thing doesn't work. However, that's a traditional image of rush (at least that's what I though of rush before I started reading on Greek Chat), and that's theoretically how rush at UT works.

I've been talking to my friends and I'm more likely than not going to round-up, I just didn't want to limit myself to looking at those 2-3 houses when there are so many at UT to choose from.