We got nada.... every man for himself. We barely have 30% guys at our school so rush is non-existent as well since we have deferred recruitment for freshmen till the spring.

Also just to clear it up sororities have Pi Chi's guys have Rho Chis, at least that's how it use to be at my school before IFC threw out formal rush.

They are called different things everywhere, fraternities and sororities. Rho Chi, Rho Gamma, Pi Chi, Gamma Chi, and many many more.

ETA: "and like many many more", sounded like a junior high bitch term.

So for the guys who go to schools with "Formal Rush" for IFC, what is that like?

Are you forced to visit EVERY house and talk to all the guys?

My campus has IFC Rush Week 3 times a year (Spring, Summer B, and Fall obviously) but our only "Formal" Rush is during Fall, but even then there isn't a difference between the three... You just have events every night for a week and the PNMs get to choose which they go to.

That is similar to Kentucky. Fall formal just means that each chapter is having parties during the designated rush week and must follow the IFC guidelines. (i.e. no alcohol, over by 11 p.m. etc.) As such, the rusher may attend as many parties as he wants. However, bids may not be extended nor accepted until Thursday of rush week. [see correction below] Some of the chapters may have invitational only parties staring on Thursday. Regardless, since there are summer rush events (but no official bidding), a good portion of the pledge classes have already been lined up. And there is a Spring formal rush as well (held in January). But fewer men rush in the spring.

Correction: According to the UK IFC website, bids may be extended at 9 a.m. on the Thursday of rush week and may be accepted on Friday.

Ah I see. Yeah, that's pretty similar. We have to follow the IFC guidelines (no alcohol, no more than 17 women at 2 rush events) from Monday-Thursday, which is official Rush Week, and Friday is usually the day when each chapter has a party. Chapters can bid whenever they want, but we usually don't bid guys until Wednesday (except for the guys we've had lined up since before).

But these rules apply to all of our Rush Weeks, which is why I mentioned that there is no fundamental difference between the three.

I want to add that the concept behind formal rush at UK is simply that all the IFC chapters are rushing together at the same time. The parties are all registered with IFC, they have a similar start time and end time. (i.e. 7 to 11 p.m.)

And while they are not required to, nor is there a fee to do so, rushees may register for rush if they like. Doing so simply gets your name and information out to every chapter.

Also, chapters may continue to extended bids after the Thursday of formal rush week. That is just the first date when a chapter may extend a bid.

Formal rush at my school is very ...tedious. It occurs during the middle of summer after the freshmen go through something called "summer welcome", they get housed in an all guy's dorm and the whole process is dry, the only time anyone ever used alcohol that i know of, they got caught and the rushees and the fraternity both were thrown out of formal rush...

Day 1: A large expo-type of fair with all 28 fraternities around in a large circle with science-fair type presentations to display the fraternity and the job of the rushee is to semi-interview each and every one of them in about 3 hours time... Its like running a marathon and its the most tiring day of the whole process. That night the students enter the top 15 of their choices into a computer and the fraternities extend invites to those they deem acceptable... then the student has to pick his top 8 invites and that's where he goes the next day...

Day 2: The student wakes up and goes to each of his top 8's houses in 45 minute intervals going from house to house with one lunch break in between the 3rd and 4th house... once again, very tiring. From that you are supposed to get a good impression of the house and the guys and that night the students choose thier top 5 and the fraternities once again extend invites and the student chooses their top 3 for the next day [assuming they get 3 back]

Day 3: The student goes to each of his top 3 houses for hour and a half this is where you really get to talk with the guys and finish the house tours etc etc... at the end of the house tours, the fraternities can offer a bid on the spot for the students... the students don't have to accept it they can wait and accept it during informal rush...

Very stressful and very fast you basically have to make a judgment call on 28 fraternities in 3 day... The sororities [of which there are like 12 or 14 ballpark] get a whole week at least so it all seems very 'rushed';)

Yep. Every house.

If you don't visit every house you supposedly get kicked out of rush. A few houses have guys walk out on them, which is pretty funny.

So if they walk, does that mean they are kicked out of formal rush? Or do they just need to show up for short time, maybe sign in or get their ticket validated (what ever they need to do to prove they attended), and then bail?

And do the chapters have a limit on the number of men they can invite back per round? Again, I have heard that on some campuses, a chapter can can invite as many as they want up to a point. Also, may a rushee receive more than one bid? Again, I've heard that after the *preference* round, each chapter may extend a bid. It is then up to the rushee to accept the one he wants. But in other cases, just making it to the *preference* round is considered receiving a bid. Again, the rushee accepts the one he wants from that group.

For what it is worth, there seems to be various forms of an IFC *structured* formal rush with more campuses moving toward one of those variations. Granted not a heck of a lot right not, but more campuses seem to be implementing some sort of structure that requires that the rushee must attend at least one open house at each chapter. I know that Ole Miss has one of the more formalized rush structures and it seems to work well for them.

Well, "walking out" is pretty rare and only happens to certain fraternities. Generally it carries little punishment because it doesn't happen too much. If a rushee simply doesn't want to talk to that fraternity, he usually sits in the middle of the room talking to other rushees who don't want to talk to the fraternity.

The chapters have no limit on how many they want to invite back....but it's a self-limiting things. Certain fraternities have what they dub the "Frozen Chosen"... that is a few of the fraternities only invite 150 men back on the second round....out of nearly 600, that's alot of cuts. It allows them to focus really hard on certain guys who are likely part of other top fraternities frozen chosen.

Bids are given out this way (I'll try to explain it best I can, it's kind of complicated). A fraternity is given a certain quota of people based on chapter size. For smaller fraternities, it's 50. After the last two nights many fraternities may have approximately 150 guys that they have to put on an "A" list and a "B" list and a "Cut list".

If the fraternity is allowed 50 total, then it may have 50 people on it's A list. If a man puts XYZ as 1st on his pref card and is likewise put on XYZ's "A" list, then they are automatically paired and he gets a bid the next day. If XYZ has someone on their "A" list, but that person is on the "A" list at ABC and he puts ABC 1st on the pref card, then the person goes to ABC and the 1st person at the top of XYZ's "B" list goes onto the "A" list for XYZ.

If the man puts XYZ first and ABC second, but XYZ cuts him, but ABC keeps him on their "A" list, he goes automatically ABC. The rushees do not know which lists they are on. It's all computer automated. The rushees stand around in the Union one-by-one filling out pref cards. The choices are then placed into the computer by someone whose working Rush. Fraternities find out whose coming their way usually around 1 o'clock that night. The rushees get a few calls but many find out on Judgement (err...Bid) Day.

Wow, you weren't kidding, that's pretty much sorority recruitment-level complicated. I only know of one other university that has a comparable rush for IFC fraternities, that being Depauw.

Do you know why y'all do things so formally? Is there some sort of story behind it, or is it just the way some administrator somewhere along the line decided?

I agree with your assessment and also want to know the answers to your questions. But mainly I want you to know that I think your signature is outrageous on a couple of different levels:

"UGA VI died as most Georgia fans will: pantsless, lacking a high school degree, and suffering from a heart attack."

(At least you made no reference to slobbering or being inbreed, and I have to confess, it made me laugh.)

For the longest time, I assumed this is how everyone did it. I'll talk to some of the people who run IFC and ask them what the story is. The only differentiation on it is I know that 5 years ago...they use to rush before school started and move into the house as freshman pledges (which would be absolute hell in my opinion).

Elephant Walk;
That is just how we did it! Rush was the week prior to/before Freshman Orientation. Seemed to be right and OK at that time. When I heard it was changed, I did not think to much of the change.
Different POV's and frame of reference I guess.
What was "hell" was getting back to the Chapter for rush clean up.