Rushing as a Junior at UCF
 

Hi everyone! I'm very new to these forums, but I have so many questions, that it seemed like a great way to talk to people who really know their stuff! :)

Well, to preface this as to why I'm going into this so late into my college career, it's been a confusing subject for me. I am hispanic, but was raised by European parents, so I always wanted to be a part of a sorority, or at least try to find my place, but was led to believe that because I was not 5'10 with blonde hair and lots of money, that I wouldn't make any cuts. I'm so sorry for my ignorance if that offended anyone, but I come from a family where nobody really cared for greek life, or were even supportive of it. The only information I got really was from what I saw, and what people would tell me. And I just didn't feel like I was "white" enough, to be completely honest with you. I looked into the DGC sororities, and many of those girls are wonderful, but it just didn't feel right for me.

Now I look back I realize that this is completely false, and that i should have gone for it and rushed if I wanted to, but I didn't know anybody else who wanted to or was interested, and to just go and do it by myself was terrifying! I got a new roommate this year, and she is AMAZING. Her boyfriend is in a fraternity, so she is very familiar with Rush, Bidding, COB, spring recruitment, etc. She and I have had a lot of long talks about it, and she's actually the one who made me realize that I was completely wrong before with the information I had. Since meeting her, I've met a lot of girls in various sororities, and they've been wonderful. Kind, smart, supportive, and just overall wonderful people. I'm very excited to even have this desire and knowledge to go forward, but now my concern is simply that I'm just too old.

This year, this spring to be exact is actually my fourth year, but I'm considered a "junior" student I believe? I graduate in Spring 2010, so I still have a "senior year" left, but I believe after last fall, I might have enough credits to drop me technically into the "senior" status. I don't know. One girl I talked to from Sorority A said that they don't take Seniors, and only take one or two juniors. My other friend from sorority B said that they take "awesome girls regardless of year" but I'm not going to be naive and pretend as though it doesn't matter at all.

Can somebody please give me any information or insight into this? Does anybody know which sororities are doing Spring Recruitment 09? I think I'd really like to check things out then, and see how it goes. Can any UCF ladies inform me about the whole age or class status thing? Thank you so much!

UCF Rush isn't that competitive. You're not going to get cut by everyone just because you're a junior. And there are a lot of Hispanic girls in their NPC chapters.

Just go through with it. I'm assuming the chapters doing Spring rush are the ones likelier to bid a junior.

lol, yea, now I realize there are a lot of hispanic girls in NPC chapters! I definitely am going to go through it. I am surprised by the "not that competitive" comment though! I could have sworn it was pretty intense!

Funny how UCF sorority alums (as in women who have actually participated in UCF Rush as a rushee and a rusher) have said that rush there is quite competitive.

To the OP, please take what the guy said with a grain of salt. There a lot of UCF alums here who can provide accurate information.

For a lesson on what NOT to do during rush, read liltrixx's UCF rush story in the Recruitment Stories forum.

Check out these threads as well:
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=98039
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=80162

I never said it wasn't competitive. I said it's not that competitive; not like places such as UF or the other huge Greek schools.

Yes! I've been perusing this website for a few hours now :) Thanks for the links! Funnily enough, I'd just read one of them!

Get recs. Competitive or not, it's always good to have recommendations.

It's been a few years since I was a student there but rush was competitive then and I can imagine it's more competitive now. With that said, it's certainly not like rush at Bama or Ole Miss. Juniors can still get bids at UCF but it's not easy...especially at the more selective chapters. I know that they all had "limits" of sorts on the amount of upperclassmen (non-freshman) they could take. My advice is to keep an open mind during rush.

Hey there! I rushed as a junior at UCF. Even though I thought I had great qualities that would make me a "desired" PNM, and I had lots of friends in every chapter, I got cut from four chapters right off the bat. The other two I would have expected to be cut from as well, I had recs for, but then got cut the next day. I've seen very few juniors go through recruitment "successfully" and by that I mean, getting cut from very few chapters and always getting their top picks. There is a very high chance you will get dropped from houses just because you were a junior; I had this experience and I've spoken with many others that had the same.

When I hear about other juniors going through recruitment, my main thought is... you're NOT like the rest of the PNMs but you have to ACT like them. I don't mean to change your personality or anything about yourself. What I mean is, you have to decide what you are looking for out of a Greek experience. At UCF there is a LOT of "tent talk" before and during recruitment, and you'll hear other PNMs openly discussing why they loved or hated a certain chapter. Sometimes you'll come out of a chapter less than impressed, but after hearing some girls gush about it you start wondering if maybe you just talked to the wrong girls or if you missed something. It's very easy to be confused!

You already seem pretty acquainted with UCF greek life and probably know a lot about the different chapters, but I implore you to keep an open mind during recruitment. I also had friends in chapters and on pref night had a very difficult decision of putting down Chapter ABC where I had a few really good friends and also met other nice girls or Chapter XYZ where I didn't know as many people but had a good feeling about the chapter and where my place would be there. I had a hard time separating whether I wanted ABC because I had friends there or because that was actually the place for me. Avoid my situation by keeping an open mind and knowing what you are looking for.

Recs at UCF are definitely helpful because not many PNMs do get them, so it makes you stand out. If you can get them by all means do it. If nothing else if will give you another day at some chapters to "impress" them enough to keep you around. But, in my opinion, you shouldn't have to impress anyone, being yourself should be enough! Keep an open mind and good luck!!

You're right! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me Faith! :) It gives me a bit of hope, haha.