Do Fraternities affect Sorority Rush?
 

Do fraternity memebers on your campus have a huge influence on the sorority rushees during formal rush? We all hope that's not the case but I was wondering if any other schools had problems with this.

Rushees are forbidden from interacting with/socializing with fraternities from the time they register for rush until rush is over. You can be kicked out of rush (at least at my school) if you violate this rule.

Yes, technically fraternities are not to be used either positively or negatively in conjunction with rush. HOWEVER (and this does not mean that i condone it) there are 2 ways I have seen around this....1-the summer before new girls meet fraternity guys and ask there impressions of the sororities--this is all personal experience say XYZ member really likes tha AAA, while his brother doesn't, and a third brother doesn't know any...all three are going to different impressions.
2--It is used by the girls as in, 'and last year for homeocming we were with XYZ (everyone smiles, snaps, or claps..etc.) and show pictures of all these hot guys..those are 2 of the ways I have seen fraternities impact rush.

We actually use the sororities for our benefit. We usually have rush right after the gals. We hang out with a great variety of sororities and invite them to our rush events. They bring with them their favorite gals from their rush (little sis's and such). It ends up making us look good to the guys in rush and also helps get everyone excited about the upcoming events throughout the semester. We actually have several girls that do a lot of our rushing for us, and we are very thankful.

At my school, girls going through sorority rush are not allowed to go over to any of the fraternity houses during rush week. The week after girls rush is guys rush. That week the sorority girls are allowed to attend all of the guys rush functions and parties. The girls always help out the guys during their rush week at my school.

We have deferred Rush, so many first-year females get their impressions on sororities throughout first semester from fraternity men. I think the men at my school have a stronger influence on whether or not a girl rushes than which sorority to join. Sad, but true. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif

Sadly, the fraternities at my school are known for dragging couches onto their front lawn and holding up #'s as the rushees go by like--

Hey you in the pink -- rushee looks over-- fraternity guys hold up a card with the #6 on it.

Very degrading and humiliating to women who are already nervous. For sophomore rushees tho-who already know the guys doing this, it can be mood lightening since they'll call you out of the crowd and wish you luck and all that, too.

This is one instance where I'm in favor of 1st semester/pre-semester rush. (probably the only one) If it's deferred, you hear the guys' opinions, see which sorority hangs with which fraternity, etc. For me it was the other way around. I didn't like the fraternity my sorority was associated with (my ex's best friend was one & was a JERK) but after I got to know them I thought they were awesome! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

At my school, the guys hold their recruitment about a week before our I think. We do a Greek Forum together however; where fraternities/sororities set up tables in a tent and all the PNMs can walk around and look. Even though the PNMs aren't really supposed to have contact with the fraternities/fraternities aren't supposed to have events until after recruitment, they still do and you'd be suprised at how many girls are influenced by the stereotypes they hear.

There are a few ways in which we effect each others rush at my school. We don't get involved at all during formal rush, except if some non-affiliated (new PC word for GDI) girls are hanging out at the house, and we are talking up one sorority or something and they overhear. During informal in the spring, we allow the sororities to hang thier rush posters in our house, and have little info sheets available in our bathrooms. Kinda just getting the word out about sororities to the GDIs. During our one rush event, we are told to bring a date, which is usually a sorority girl, because a lot of my brothers date Greek girls, so when our rushes see these beautiful women, they end up telling their female friends about a cool ZTA or a really nice AGD they met at rush. Kinda just gets the word around.

Along with AlphaChiGirl, we have deferred rush too, and fraternities can be brutal when they describe sororities. But those are the breaks, I guess. I think most girls in our system have their ideas already in place about where they want to go before they even go to one party. The best thing to curb this is to get to women in classes and such early in the Fall with freshman move in and with dormstorms and all that jazz. It's worked wonders for us.

At my school we can go to fraternity houses the week of rush and so can PNMs, but if we go over there and we see a PNM (they have to wear little buttons all week) we have to leave. If we go to a restaurant and see PNMs we can stay but we can only say hello, nothing more. When I went through rush I had a hell of a horrible time at a certain sorority house. I left ready to cry. I went to the Sig Ep house cause I knew their entire chapter and talked to one of their brothers. He told me that he hated that sorority (even though his girlfriend was in it) and that his favorite was AGD. He also told me that an AGD I had talked to at rush had called him and asked about me. He told me a few other things and when I left i realized that if a sorority was going to call some of the people they KNEW were my friends to find some things out they must really like me. Did it influence me? Maybe a little, but more than anything it made me not care what that other house said about me!

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"...and love her for her womanhood."

Well, at Morehead during rush anyone who is in a sorority is not allowed to hang out with any fraternity, like go to parties or anything like that. The only thing that is allowed is if a girl is lavaliered she can wear the letters during rush, but that's it. A way that we kind of get around all that stuff though is that we often have block parties and things like that. That gives us the opportunity to introduce potential rushees to hot guys and let them know that we do socialize with fraternities. The guys however, use sorority girls for their benefit. They invite us to rush functions they have and that sort of thing, so they can attract more rushees. Their moto is the more women the more guys we will get!!! LOL And sadly enough, it is true!!!

Fraternities definitely influence sorority rush. We had deferred rush my freshman year, and even though I didn't rush till my sophomore year, from talking to the guys I was friends with I already knew the reputations of the chapters on my campus. Now our rush is a week after school starts, but fraternity rush starts before ours. We meet a lot of girls at the various fraternity events, which is good, but we can't drink in front of potential rushees (which is any freshman girl since we don't know who's rushing and who isn't until it starts).

I think fraternity rush events are a good way to see what a girl's like outside of formal rush. There was this one girl who seemed really nice and classy during rush, then we saw her at a party...we didn't know she was there until her head popped up out of some guy's lap in a car. Other girls seemed shy during rush but really opened up at some of these functions.

Amy - that's so sad!!! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/frown.gif Especially when the rushees are already so nervous!

Amy do you attend UNC- Colorado? BEcause the guys here also sit in their lawn on couches and check out the rushees. Why is it that guys always want the freshman?

Nope. I'm an alum from USC. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/smile.gif

I find that the chapters that have to use the opposite gender to bolster and promote their membership have the weakest sister/brotherhoods. How shameful and completely against your organizations ideals and values!! If you cannot gain members on your chapter's merits alone, you are out of touch of what it means to be a true Sister or Brother of your organization. Think about that the next time you tell a PNM about the HOT guys she'll meet or all the honeys that come to your house...Get a life!

That happens here at LSU as well. One house actually had a sound system with Marvyn Gaye's "Let's Get It On" blaring in the background as they watched us walk down the row http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/rolleyes.gif

My university has deferred rush as well. I like the idea of it because that way new freshmen can become adjusted to college life, but it hurts the greek system. Rumors are always flying around on campus. I know before I went into formal rush I had the wrong impression about almost all of the sororities! I know that some of the fraternity guys can have some influence on this, but it's probably not the only part of the problem. I'll even give an example. Every year we have a thing called Freshmen Skits. This is where all of the new pledge classes go up in front of the actives of the campus and put on a skit. Well a certain fraternity openly bashed a sorority (and yes, right in front of them!) They dressed up in their letters and mocked them. What kind of example is this? I know girls overhear brothers talking back and forth, either in class or in parties. I mean, I was the same way! Sigh...it's horrible. I just hope that girls who go through rush remember to keep an open mind about it.

hey at penn state sorority rush is definitely influenced a lot by the fraternities. sorority rush is formal, fraternity rush is informal and they both take place during the same time. well, since the sorority rushees can't talk to the girls at parties outside of rush a lot of the times the rushees will ask a fraternity guy what their perspective is on certain sorority reputations. Most of the time a fraternity guy's perspective favors the more well known sororities on campus. i admit i tell girls where i think they belong and fit in with and usually they end up in that sorority.

This reply is from my own experiences, that are still ongoing ones. I have hung out and partied with various fraternity men for the past couple months and I still am as of this moment. When I have one-on-one talks with these guys, they ask me if I'm going to rush next semester, and if so, is there any sororities I had in mind. I always say I'm not sure though, either staying independant or which sorority. Each guy has had their own opinion on this subject. Some guys URGE me to stay independent, for their own reasons of course. Then there are the guys who tell me that ABC sorority is the coolest because they like to party, or XYZ because their the sweetest. They also say things like don't join ______, because their snobby and such...and if you do I won't talk to you anymore. I feel somewhat pressured at this point, also by some sorority girls, on what I should do. http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/confused.gif
http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/biggrin.gif Yet there are some guys telling me to go for the one I feel most comfortable with and of course I agree. Greek men do make some influence on sorority rush depeneding on what they say that came from their OWN experiences with these sorority girls.

*FYI* I'm still unsure what I will do yet, since rush is still awhile away....

Well I went through formal recruiment 3 years ago and the Fraternity men were of course all on their lawns, rating us, catcalling and all that.. but to tell you the truth it doesn't hurt our recruitment, it just gives the rushees something to talk about with the rushers and it also is an introduction to the Fraternity scene.. most girls stick around.. if they don't it is because of costs or time restraints.

i think it depends. I know they fraternities have influence on the girls that hang out at the house. It's great for my sorority because we are soo small, but we have a fraternity helping us recruit girls. I hang out with ABD fraternity and they have a bunch of GDI that hang out with them that want to go greek but unsure of which sorority cause they dont' like a lot of the sorority girls that come by the house. soo the guys bring up my sorority and say how great we are and then introduce the girls to me if we have to met yet. we have 7 girls interested in rushing us. My sorority is very small and we need all the help we can get! the guys are our best recruiters!!

That's awful! When I'm rushing I know that I'll already be worried about the sorority girls critiquing me, who wants to have to worry about the guys on top of that???

Fraternities don't affect Freshman that go through Formal rush Fall quarter, but when we had deferred rush last year, ther fraternities did affect some of the houses. I remembered when I went through rush as Sophomore, I was hearing things about all the houses, and even about the house I was eventually to join. I went with my heart and chose what was best for me, but if I had listed, I woul have ended up in the brainless, stuck up beautiful sorority, because I physically fit their type...I went against that, and chose to join a tur sisterhood. Unfortunately, Freshman don't often times have that ability to block out Fraternity boys who like to lead them astray. Even my own boyfriend at the time, a Lambda Chi was shocked I chose the house I did, because Theta is a great house, but now 'kickass' like AChiO or Gamma Phi...Fraternities can hurt, and they can help, just depends on the house. We do the same to them, when guys ask us of our opinions of different houses, but we are also very visable at their rushes, so I think it all evens out.