University of Texas rush
 

Hey girls! I just went through recruitment at Texas last fall and would love to help. Let me know if you have any questions or anything about going through rush at Texas or being in a sorority here, and I can definitely do my best to help you all and fill you in with my experience with recruitment and with greek life! Recruitment at Texas is huge & overwhelming, and I know I would have loved for someone to go to to answer all my concerns, so I would love to give advice!

Where did you get a bid at?

You need to familiarize yourself with the silence and contact rules. And your experience most certainly would not be representative of those you would be giving advice to. Everyone's recruitment experience is different.

I thought of the silence and contact rule thing immediately too.

Thanks LadyLonghorn! My sorority's recruitment team has gone over the silence & contact rules thoroughly, and I believe that I am allowed to give advice to others through Greek Chat since I do not personally know them, their name, where their from, any personal information whatsoever to the point where I could be biased during recruitment. Also, of course, I would not be giving out my name, sorority, high school, or affiliations at all. I am only here to give advice on my experience, and I hope that with my experience, I can help PNM's with what I know about the recruitment process at Texas and the experiences of my friends so that they can get a better idea when they go through rush! :) Also, I was looking through all the rules just to double check after I read your post, and it states that silence begins August 11. Rules: Silence begins at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 11, 2010. Potential new members may not attend fraternity parties. Potential new members may not receive anything from any representative of a sorority until they have accepted their bids. Sorority representatives may not issue oral invitations to parties or to pledge.

PNM's, please feel free to private message me if you don't want to be exposed!

Hello, dirty rushing.

At very least the potential for dirty rushing.

Not providing your affiliation also gives you plenty of room to be less than honest about who you are and your actual attendance at the school.

Does "silence" really only start in August at Texas? That seems so late! I was pretty sure that ours started the spring before recruitment.

QFP.

*frown*

I would be very careful, CAAtexas. Every National President of every NPC sorority at UT has signed a mutual agreement that there will be NO summer rushing this year at UT. I am not privy to wording of that agreement but I do know that the sororities are prepared to turn each other in and from what I understand they mean business. You would not want to be the cause of your chapter getting into trouble because of what you consider an innocent pm to someone in a chat room.

Thank you for your concern! I am being very careful, trust me. My sorority and UT Panhellenic has gone over the rules over and over again this past semester. I talked to my chapter president and she said it was fine as long as I am not biased, do not name specific sorority names, etc. and that I just give flat-out advice.

On the other hand, for those that are curious, UT is very well known for dirty rushing. It has already started- it actually began at some sororities as early as February. UT is cracking down on summer rush this year- however, as you would probably guess, a lot of sororities at UT are not really taking it that seriously since it is such a custom and usual thing to do here at UT. It has been said that sorority's will be fined if they are caught inviting out PNM's or specifically reaching out to certain girls they know from high school, camp, etc.

So... You're telling me it is continuing to go on and some chapters are not taking it seriously. and...you've also been told it is just a fine? I am not for sure the punishment but my two cents, if it's just a fine, you are right, nobody will care and it will be business as usual.

Callie, this is not a smart idea. Trust me.

I said it before and I'll say it again.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

California Sophomore transfer:
 

Hi, I'm Natalie. I'm transferring to UT in the fall. I'm already working on my letters of recommendations, my sister and grandma already wrote their's and I have a bunch of other cousins, aunts, friends that are writing letters too. Will it hurt me that I'm from out of state? My sister was a Kappa and my grandma was Theta, so was my Aunt and 2 cousins. My other cousin was Pi Phi and my other Aunt was a delta gamma. I'm a cute, friendly girl, but I know it's harder to rush as a sophomore! ekk lol anyways if you have any pointers for rush I would be really thankful! :)

get recs. to ALL the chapters at texas and send them in asap.

Good News. I believe UT is having an upper class quota this year similar to Alabama. A great year to go through rush at UT as a sophomore.

Old news. Please please please don't blow sunshine up people's bottoms with this. Chapters do not have to use it. It may make the odds at some chapters slightly better for non-freshmen, but they should not depend on it to get a bid. Rush will still be VERY VERY VERY competitive, particularly for non-freshmen. Be prepared. Make no assumptions.

All chapters don't use it at Alabama either but is available. Sorry if I misled anyone.

Can someone tell me what the penalties might be for a PNM who accepts invitations from a member of a UT sorority to attend parties, dinner, etc.? My daughter is attending orientation at UT this week, and she and many, many other PNMs have been contacted by girls in some of the sororities and have been invited to parties, events, etc. I don't think any of the parties are actually sponsored by sororities. I think most of them are sponsored by fraternities. However, I think the PNMs feel as though they must attend these events because girls in sororities have suggested that they do so, and the PNMs, of course, want to make a good impression. Once there, the PNMs are introduced to other girls in the various invitor's sororities. There is nothing really overt about this conduct and nothing that seems like dirty rushing to me, but I am wondering whether this sort of activity is okay under the new rules? If not, are there any possible penalties for PNMs who do attend such events?

Paging LadyLonghorn!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Not laughing at you mom, just at the people who thought they could do the equivalent of stopping the sun from coming up in the morning.

mom, it is dirty rushing, and texas panhellenic is trying to stop it(as it is a long standing tradition) but traditions die hard. i don't know what to tell you about your daughter and her friends-they are between a rock and a hard place. i would imagine that the penalities would fall on the sorority, but I Do Not Know that and i don't know how you could find out if any penalities would befall the pnms, without getting someone in trouble.

if you know sorority alumnae from texas who are advisors to their chapters, you might ask them, or you might make a phone call to the greek life office, not naming any names.

Thanks for the responses. I, too, knew it would be impossible to stop such longstanding traditions. But it is true that these PNMs are in a difficult situation, and I don't want my daughter to be penalized! I don't even think she is aware of the new rules, though, so it would not seem fair to me for the Panhellenic to penalize the PNMs. Thanks again for your responses!

Dumb question. (All GLO names are used for example purposes only.)

Say Katie Kappa invites Rhonda Rushee to a party at the Sigma Nu house. Rhonda does get to meet several of the Kappas, but halfway through the party she's in line for the bathroom and runs into Zoe Zeta. They get to talking and by the end of the party Rhonda's met just as many Zetas as Kappas. Does that happen? Or if a sorority member invites a rushee, do they basically stick to them like glue all night? I guess I can't see where it's truly "dirty rushing" if there are members or multiple sororities at an event. That was honestly one of our rush strategies - meeting girls at fraternity parties. (Deferred rush, though.)

Hi, I am a PNM from out of state but who is very, very interested in rushing at Texas. I am a legacy at Kappa and while I know that helps, I know it also does not guarantee anything. I keep hearing how crazy competitive rush can be at Texas and I do not know what to do. I have spent time down there and have met many lovey girls from various sororities so I want to go in it with an open mind but I don't know how to aptly prepare. I know it is a long way off but I am freaking out and would love some guidance. I am currently a senior at a private school not in the state of Texas, I have a high GPA and am the head of several different extracurricular organizations and have received several honors from my school. Am I a good candidate for a sorority?
Also, I know a need recommendations for the various sororities but who should I get them from?
Please help!
Thank you very much to all.
- PNM

Yes, you absolutely need at least 2 recommendations for each chapter at Texas. You need to start now asking teachers, friends and co-workers of your parents, parents of your friends, ladies at your place of worship. Start with your Kappa legacy connection and see if she has friends who are members of other NPC chapters at Texas.

There are several threads about recruitment at Texas, which give lots of good advice.

Good luck!!

I am so sorry, of course all sororities have different criteria for their members, I did not mean to cross a line.
Thank you for your advice, I guess that was my other question - does it matter who it is writing my letters? For instance, is it more impressive for a person of a certain status to write a letter over another? My history teacher and academic adviser is from xyz sorority from UMD, would she be a good person to ask? or no, because she is not from Texas? Also, my sister is a Kappa, is she allowed to write my letter? And do I collect the letters and then send them to the Greek Life office all together in the spring? I am so lost. I am sorry about all of the questions!

it is always nice (if you are able) to provide a stamped, addressed envelope with your resume for your recommendation writer to use.

LOL, I like how the website doesn't list an address for SDT. Oy.

To the OP, if you search here, there are many threads about how to obtain recs. If you are absolutely totally stumped on a chapter or two, you can ask individual GCers to help, but only if you have already done your own homework first.

SDT does not have a house. SDT does not participate in formal recruitment so their rec situation is very different.

No. Just no.

You need to make sure you are in touch with your local alumnae panhellenic organization. They help PNMs with this process, too. If you are in a state that borders Texas, then those women will likely be knowledgeable about Texas rush and that can be a plus.

Plus, read as much as you can on this site. Do some searching and I think you will be pleased with what you find. Pay attention to any threads that deal with Texas but also note anything that deals with the SEC. These are also competitive GReek systems and the info regarding them can be of help to you as well.

Also, just a tip: Be ready in early spring to have your stuff ready to go - pictures, etc. Texas likes recs in asap - like by the first week of June.

Your Kappa sister can write your rec - so can any of her Kappa friends. If your sister needed recs for her school, then I would start with the women who wrote them for her (all groups). Is she at a competitive Greek school? If so, she can be of real help.

The significance of the rec writer is not all that important. Now, if a national officer of a group wrote your rec, sure that would be great. But it is not something to fret over.

I know they don't have a house. It's just weird that it says "mail recs here" and then for SDT, it's like "Just kidding". I didn't realize they don't participate in FR, though...my mom was asked to write a UT rec a few years ago; I wonder where she sent it.

Let me clarify: I did NOT mean that GCers would write recs. I meant that, if the OP is in an area that has neither an Alumnae Panhellenic nor an Alumnae chapter of XYZ, and has truly exhausted all resources to find XYZ alumna, there are GCers in the stickied rec thread who may be able to help put her in touch with XYZ alumnae in her area.