Is rushing necessary to earn a bid?
 

I recently determined that I want to try to join a fraternity. Unfortunately, I determined this after rush week and formal recruitment. At my school, greek life is pretty small, the fraternities are pretty small, and only 10% of students actually belong to a fraternity or sorority, even though my school is a very large public one that is ranked as one of the biggest party schools in the nation. I did some digging, and I found out that there are some fraternities that claim to have informal, constant recruiting; some don't even put an emphasis on rushing. I just sent emails to the recruiters of a few fraternities informing them of my interest. I am currently a sophomore, and I haven't made many social connections yet in college, but I do have a 3.99 gpa and am willing to spend time getting to know the brothers and learn about their fraternities. Is it likely that I could receive a bid from this "constant" recruiting soon and pledge this semester even without participating in rush activities? Could the greeks' small presence at my school work to my benefit in informal recruiting?

A lot of your question is school specific, so I would recommend directing your questions to the Greek Life Office. For example, some Interfraternity Councils/universities allow chapters to give out bids throughout out the year, while some only allow bids to be given out during a set period of time.

In the mean time keep your grades up and try to meet men in some of the fraternities you're interested in. Email, in my experience, is hit or miss. Smart chapters will set up a one on one meeting, or invite you to an event. Others will direct you to spring recruitment, or ignore you. Keep meeting men, they'll let you know when recruitment is a possibility again.

First of all, I would refer to the gentlemen you are talking about as "rush chairs" instead of "recruiters." Recruiters are for the military and cults.

Did you read this on their chapter website, or their national website? (Or on that which I so despise, a site masquerading as a chapter website with nothing but national templates on it) This may be something the national org wants groups to do, but for reasons of manpower or campus culture, may not be something a local chapter can/will participate in.

If this is scuttlebutt you've heard around campus but not actually seen occur, it's the same deal.

Your best bet is to get to know men in the fraternities personally, as Gusteau said, rather than just sending a flurry of emails. If they are open to new pledges at this time, they will let you know. Good luck!

It was specific chapters' websites where I read that they are constantly recruiting new members. Also, I never said I am just going to send brothers emails and hope they like the way I write emails enough to offer me a bid. I just told them that I am interested in learning about their fraternities and want to get to know them and hopefully join them.

Back to my question about the small greek presence at my school: Would the fact that the number of members they have is small and that there are only 15 fraternities at my campus mean that they would be more willing to pledge a guy outside of formal recruitment, or just the opposite?

Not necessarily. It could be a number of factors

-the school could just be not very interested in Greek life (but since you have 15 fraternity chapters, that means there is a pretty decent amount of interest)
-the chapters could be limited for some physical reason (meeting room size, chapter house size, etc.)

Do you know the difference between types of fraternities? These could be professional or non-NIC fraternities, and that could explain their year-round recruitment. It just smells fishy to me if a school has a formal pledging process in the fall and spring but also recruits year-round

Keep in mind that recruiting is different than giving out bids. The best recruiting chapters are making an effort all year long to meet new people and to get to know them well enough so that they can make a determination as to who would be a good fit for the chapter.

That doesn't mean they're handing out bids every week. They might wait until the next formal recruitment period to do so.

That's why it's important to get out there and meet at as many fraternity members as possible. Join clubs and organizations in which fraternity members participate. Try to make connections, even if it's something as simple as asking to borrow a pencil in class. It could always lead to a longer conversation.

Just worry about making a good impression on them.. All year long. Because that's when they're recruiting. The bid will come later.

I found this information online that might answer my question:

"The NIC recommends, and all NIC member fraternities support open recruitment. This is a process through which admitted students of an undergraduate institution may join an organization when there is mutual agreement that the time is right. This is also known as values-based recruitment as men make decisions about their membership based on the level of congruence with their own personal values and the values of their fraternity. In these cases there is little need of a "bid", rather a mutual decision is reached between the man and the organization that he would like to join the fraternity and the new member education period begins. The NIC supports this method in all cases . . . the NIC supports the right of chapters to extend invitations to membership AT ANY TIME [emphasis not added]."

(http://www.fraternityinfo.com/faqs/#faq653)


So there are 15 IFC chapters at my school. Greek life is kind of going through a rough patch right now with the administration seemingly trying to stifle greek life because it does not like our party school image. Surely at least one of these would like me enough or have enough space to at least consider my interest in joining this semester, right? And formal recruitment ended only two weeks ago, so it's not like I would miss out on pledging that much.

Also, can the school set limits to when and how recruiting, bidding, and pledging occurs. Greek life is kind of going through a rough patch right now with the administration seemingly trying to stifle greek life because it does not like our party school image. Can they say, "This is how you must offer memberships and here is the only time when you can do it."

Co-sign.

What you quoted above says the NIC "recommends" this and "supports" that. Nowhere does it say anything about REQUIRING chapters to extend bids all year long. As to whether any chapters would find you to be a valuable member, we can't say. And nothing that the NIC says will determine that either. Just meet fraternity members!

The school cannot require Greek organizations to give bids to anyone, and they can not force them to distribute them at a certain time. The campus IFC determines when formal recruitment will be held, and each chapter determines when/if they will give out additional bids.

As others have said, your best bet for getting reliable answers to your questions is your school's Greek Life Office.

FYI, he's got 2 threads going on CC. Not much activity because, well, it's CC, but he was asking whether he should go to dinner tonight at AEPi



Side note: since when did college kids stop making their own choices?

^^ When helicopter parents started making all of their kids decisions.