Reasons for Rerushing
 

What are considered 'valid', or more favorable, reasons for rerushing? Not necessarily just pertaining to my situation..I'm curious about what the more favorable reasons are in general, too.

I will be rushing as a junior at an SEC-like school (read: recs are absolutely necessary) and had rushed for the first time as a sophomore and depledged.

I have recs for every house this year (which I did not last year) and a new legacy that I did not have when I previously rushed (parent recently got married).

The only one I can really think of is grades - if your grades were too low to get a bid and you greatly improved them over the next year.

Pledging then dropping out probably isn't one of them, unless the chapter was closed or something like that.

Pledging and dropping = damaged goods. At a competitive school, particularly when you're rushing as a junior, that's not something that will be easily explained away. (And yes, the chapters will know about it.)

My sorority doesn't automatically consider steps to be legacies. Can't say what policies others have.

Hello! I've been through rush once at my school, but had to drop out the 2nd day or Philanthropy Day because the houses that invited me back were the most expensive houses and my family and I couldn't afford for me to be in them at that time.
I was pretty broken up about it because it was something I had really wanted to join. After, I made friends during my freshman year who were Greek and it helped me realize that I wanted to go through a second time. So, I took a job during my first year of school and have been working all during this summer to make Greek Life feasible for me this upcoming Fall.
I know that for some girls there is a certain stigma with dropping out of recruitment because you may be viewed as one of those girls that quote "didn't get the best house" or "didn't get your legacy house", so dropped instead of finishing the process. But, I do feel that my reason was a legit one that I couldn't control. But, after working hard to earn money to pay for Greek Life for myself and getting recs and signing up to re-rush I'm pretty excited about my chances! :) Hope this helps.

I would also say illness/family issues during recruitment are a valid reason. However, I don't really think your reasons for going through FR a second time are ever really addressed. I'm at a competitive SEC school as well, and I can't even fathom ever asking a PNM why she's rushing again. I would even find it kind of awkward if she brought it up.

As for the "damaged goods" thing... My first instinct is to absolutely agree, but from what I've seen in the past year (at least at my school), maybe not. A girl in my pledge class depledged, and is now in another chapter after going through recruitment again. There are like 2 or 3 women in my chapter as well who went through FR and didn't feel right with the house they ended up in, so they depledged. It's not totally unheard of, but going through recruitment after depledging another chapter will very likely make things tougher for you.

Family issues, or a class or housing snafu. As in, your apartment flooded and you lost tons of $$$, or you changed majors and had to add in 6 extra credits that semester or you'd be there an extra semester/year.

The only other thing I can think of is if there's a group on your campus that has a reputation for hardcore physical hazing, and even with that, there are people (especially if you didn't pledge as a freshman) that will say "silly girl knew what to expect when she signed up" and have no sympathy.

I will be rerushing because my father was diagnosed with cancer two months before rush. I went through, thinking I could handle it and...well, we all know how stressful rush week is.

^^^Barefootbeauty, so sorry about your father, and completely understand that the heightened emotions of recruitment week could be too much in addition to that burden. Best of luck to you and your father this year! Hope you have a great experience in recruitment.

Grades, finances, family issues, getting the flu... those are very legit reasons. Mocotro, without knowing your school and situation, no one can say whether depledging is a big issue. On my campus back in the day, it was a deal killer, but times have changed (a lot). All you can do is keep an open mind and go for it, knowing that as a jr. your choices may be severely limited.

Mocotro, I can't think of a better reason to drop out of rush, but I'm terribly sorry that what it was. I hope your dad's doing well, and that you have the best of luck during Recruitment!

I'm re-rushing as well in the fall(informal recruitment). My school doesn't need recs or anything, but the sisters can decided on who they want by grades and extracurriculars. With my grades and realizing that I wanted to work on those before going through, I have finally decided in going through again. I do agree with one of the posts before me, no sister is going to ask you why you're re-rushing.

It really depends on your school...the worst thing that could happen is you don't get in. If you don't do it again, you'll regret it.

Not following as to why you dropped out at preference. Your reasoning is quite vague. Call me crazy, but my impression is that you didn't like the houses you had left at pref so you dropped, and you can use these things as vague excuses.

Your HS GPA doesn't sound like it had anything to do with anything. You made it to pref, so obviously grades weren't an issue.

I actually loved one of the houses and am just praying I get asked back there this year. I dropped out before pref, but on the day of pref. I do know what houses I got for pref but I told my Rho Chi's I wanted to withdraw before they even gave me my schedule.