I'm 26. Am I too old to rush at LSU?
 

I'm going in as a freshman in August, and I'm wondering if me being 26 is too old to pledge for a fraternity. After high school, I decided that i wanted to travel and work for a few years, which is why I'm just now starting.

Likely.

LSU is a very competitive recruitment and your options will be limited by your age. However, consider what you want out of a sorority. I joined as a 20 year-old junior and sometimes felt like I didn't have much in common with my pledge class. After 8 years of traveling and working, are you going to want to hang out with 50 18 year-olds and talk about teenage drama? I say try recruitment but be open that it may not be the social outlet you're looking for.

He's a guy looking to join a fraternity, but other than that I think your advice will resonate with him

Thanks. I've given it a lot of thought, especially about being around 18 and 19 year olds, and it doesn't bother me as much as when I first thought about it. I've got a friend that rushed at UT when he was 25 because he had just gotten out of the military, and he swears it was the best thing he's ever done. He's really trying to talk me into it, and even though he had a good experience at UT, I'm just not sure how it would be at LSU. I dont want to end up looking like douchebag, but I don't want to be the only one in my family that never rushed

I don't know how it is at LSU, but at my alma mater we would see this as a unique opportunity. The guy is 26, so he is most likely past his wild and crazy days so the chances are that his scholastics would be very good. This would give his organization the benefits of his maturity but he would also be there for all four years. A few institutions were I am only recruit sophomores for this very reason but this guy would appear to quite possibly give the benefits of both sides.

I know you're trying to be helpful, but this is probably one of those cases where those of us who don't have experience with the specific school he's asking about and therefore can't give useful and accurate advice should leave it to others to answer. How it is at other schools or how we think it should be doesn't give the OP a realistic picture of how it actually is at LSU.

I'm sorry. I realize thing differ from campus to campus but the common goal of all of our organizations should be the same. Being in a fraternity is a life changing thing that many people wish to partake in. His age should not be a discriminating factor just because "that is how it is at LSU." If we were this discriminatory on these kinds of things there is no telling how many good new member prospects would be passed over simply because of shortsightedness.

It shouldn't, but that doesn't mean it won't, ESPECIALLY at a competitive school like LSU.

This is one of those instances where you should defer to someone more familiar with the campus.

But he didn't ask whether it should be a discriminating factor or not. He asked whether it will be.

I'm all aboard the "you'll never know unless you give it a try" train. But a person should get on that train with realistic expectations and take it from there. What matters is how active fraternity members at LSU will view his age. What happens elsewhere, or what should happen, is irrelevant to what he wants and needs to know. At worst, examples from elsewhere of it being no problem at all could generate false hopes.

Encourage someone to try? Sure! Encourage false hopes? No.

Honestly, as someone who is moderately familiar with the LSU system (I didn't personally go there, but I have a number of friends who did and I spent several weekends a year there) I would say that your chances are limited drastically by being 26. If you are a cool enough guy that they can relate to and want to hang out with, you should be fine, but I don't know that a fraternity is what I would want at age 26. I had a guy in my pledge class who was 21 and we thought that was kind of old.

I would advise you to try it out, meet some guys this summer and see what they think.

P.S. everyone in your pledge class will love having a pledge brother who is that old- that is if you are cool with going to the liquor store everyday.

At some schools, there are fraternities that seem to be composed of older guys. But I think you almost need to know who they are and how they function as opposed to going through rush.

Not always true. My chapter had an older member (former military) who rushed us and is far from a scholar. Got swept up in the partying that most freshmen do. Most of the time his pledge class (and the actives) forgot how old he was.

We had a big ROTC on our campus and I was friends with a few "older" fraternity members - one of them had been enlisted in the military before going to college.

I don't think he was 26, but definitely over 21.

It depends on the individual charters on if they have an age limit or types of membershp they offer. In my NPC that person would probably be offered to join as an alum initiate. They wouldn't participate in the day to day of the collegiate chapter, but they still were a member as an alumna and could participate with alumnae their own age in the alumnae chapter.

Uh oh.