Fraternity Rush
 

I've noticed that nearly all of this thread consists of sorority rush. Are there any guys that care to share their rush experiences? I know that for us it isnt nearly as structured or cut-throat, but just wondering what other guys/girls have to say about it.

um...okay...
I rushed twice and didn't get a bid, then my friend from last year-only really met him a couple of times-who tried to get me to come to pledge mettings for his pledge class and I talked and I was offered and accepted a snap bid, the same day I found out I didn't get a bid, so there. That is what happened. Also, me and one guy were going to start a a do rag fraternity called rho zeta alapha.

Fraternity rush is much more combative than sorority rush. We used to go head to head with you Lambda Chis and Theta Chis (above). Everybody did real well in rush, but it was a fight. One Lambda Chi brother transferred in and no one on campus knew him, so the Lambda Chis sent him through rush as a "rushee". He pretended to be a freshman and reported back on how all the rest of us were doing and what the rushees were thinking about which fraternities. Smart trick. We found a girlfriend for the Lambda Chi rush chairman one year right before rush started. Her job was to distract him as much as possible and keep him from concentrating on rush. They ended up getting married later so it worked out well for them even if rush didn't go so well for Lambda Chi that fall. The Theta Chis were notorious for sending select Little Sisters around to other fraternities' rush parties to seek out guys T-Chi was rushing and keep an eye on them, even try to steer them back to the Theta Chi party. The Sigma Chis actually issued a challenge to us one year before rush started, claiming that they would beat us. We parked our fire truck in a vacant lot across from their house and set up a kind of satellite rush operation, snagging rushees and transporting them back to our house on the truck. Everyone always got good classes: 40-50 pledges. The idea of winning or losing was very energizing; men respond to competition.

Whoa! That is pretty cut-throat! What school do you go to?

Thats hard core!!

Florida State University

I hope you get a lot of responses to this thread. Hopefully my son will go through recruitment and I have no idea what he and his friends will need to have a successful "rush"

Last year one of the larger fraternities cut all but one (in house legacy) of our area boys. Another (this is sketchy info) accepted a bid but then decided to join another. How could that be possible? Is fraternity rush less restrictive than that for sororities?

It sounds like the competition is more between the fraternities than the PNMs.
Anyway, here's hoping for a lot of posts!

Last year, one of the fraternities on my campus bought these teeny-tiny babydoll shirts and gave them to the sorority girls that could actually fit in them...they said "If you want me, Rush XYZ." I don't know how well they did in recruitment, but the girls sure got a lot of attention.

JAM,

PNMs going through fraternity rush can receive one bid or multiple bids, they then make the decision which house to pledge (they are not bid matched). Though rush can be competitive for fraternities, it is different from sorority formal rush... I would compare it to sorority informal rush (except all the houses participate and alcohol is not completely off limits). Formal is a bit more structured, but on some campuses (after open house day) you do not have to go back to every house that invites you.

Good luck with to your son! If he is anything like your daughter, he will be fine! He can not go wrong with a supportive mom!

-A&A

A&A you got it pretty much right on the head, only there are some other rules that probably do vary by institution.

Most larger universities (at least in the midwest - I don't want to say anything about SEC rush b/c it always seems to be different than what I went through), informal summer rush is held. I know that rules differ as to how early a house can talk to a rushee.

Here at Nebraska, you can have open houses during the school year, but you can't "rush" the member (actively trying to get him to accept a bid card, although its a fine line), it's more just showing what your house is like and a chance to have the rushee meet a couple of the guys. I know that at K-state, the houses are allowed a certain number of rush functions with the intent of actually signing people. I had two friends at KSU that signed on the day after they graduated which is the earliest day possible.

Through the first part of the summer, from the end of college classes to the second week of June, the rush chairmen are supposed to do the majority of the rush process by going to rushees houses throughout the state. If the house has a large presence from a particular area out of state (in my houses case, Sioux Falls SD) then the rush chairman may go there as well.

Being from out of state, and not a well represented area, I didn't get taken out to dinner, while all my friends goign to schools in Kansas, were getting taken out at least once a week. During the rest of the summer the travel of the rush chairmen cuts down and rushees are encouraged more to come to the house on their own. Each house will also have parties throughout the state, at lakes with boating activities, food, and sun. It's at these functions where there are many brothers where it is easy to see how you'll fit in at a house. (My personal experience here was with ATO, where I really liked the Rush chairs--until they forgot my name--but when I and all the other rushees were ignored by the brothers, I knew it wasn't the place for me).

At any point during the rush process, if a rushee want's a bid card, he can tell the rush chairman that he'd like to sign, or if the rush chairmen are sufficiently impressed and all agree they want him (or desperate for numbers), then they may offer him a bid card at any time as well. It's not uncommon to hear that weaker houses on campus will extend a card within the first meeting of a rushee, sometimes upon them entering the door for the first time. So it is possible to end up with more than one bids. In a sense it makes rush more competive b/c a top rushee can get several bid cards, but at the same time more relaxed b/c each side can wait and have some more time to feel each other out before deciding.

At all the campuses I know of that do summer rush, alcohol is a HUGE rush infraction. On campuses where they do sort of a formal rush (although still less formal than sorority) alcohol actually seems to be accepted more readily. Seems like a lot of risk to me but campus culture is different everywhere.

Like Angels and Arrows said though, with such a supportive family and one sister in the greek system already, your son should do fine. My advice would be:

• Get his rush application in as early as possible
• Try to meet with as many houses as possible, and if going to the same school as your daughter, then ask her for her reccomendations of WHERE HE WOULD FIT IN BEST, not what house is the best
• Try to get know the brothers of the house, not to be solely impressed by the house, the number of girls at the rush party, t-shirts like the ones mentioned before, or by what athlete is in the house
• He should look at the objectional data to determine what houses have priorities closest to his own. I think it's necessary to have some idea of what houses are your top choices when starting.
• Finally, just enjoy the rush process, enjoy getting to know other freshmen (all the guys that I know in other houses, for the most part, I met first at various rush parties during the summer), the free meals, and the parties for what they are worth.

If you have any more questions of me, JAM, either PM me or post them here.


Geoff

To: Angels & Arrows
 

We could give you better advice if we knew to what sort of school your son was headed. Sorority rush is pretty much the same everywhere, but fraternity rush varies widely. Is he headed to a big state school in the mid-west (Missouri, Nebraska), a communter school (Memphis, Houston, UCF), a big southern campus (Georgia, FSU, Florida), or a northern school (MIT, Penn State, someplace in New England). Is it a small, private school? All this does make a difference.
The gentleman from Nebraska (Beta Theta Pi) told you about summer rush. Summer rush is big in a corridor from Arkansas west to Arizona, and north of that to Canada. Many if not most rushees actually pledge in the summer and move directly into the houses. In the rest of the country, summer can be a time to meet the rushees but there aren't many places where they actually take a pledge class in the summer prior to fall. Formal rush for men exists (Arkansas, Mississippi) but it is relatively rare.
The gentleman from Nebraska mentioned making a 'rush application', and he referred to 'bid cards'. Most public schools outside the midwest don't use such things and wouldn't know what they were if you asked about them. Rushees simply go meet the fraternities during rush, accept a bid and then go through a pledging ceremony at the end of rush.
One thing to keep in mind: there are some schools - Auburn and Alabama come to mind - where some fraternities restrict themselves rather severely to certain specific towns and even certain high schools. Don't be offended by that practice; it's just something they do.
Finally, with respect to the gentleman from Nebraska, I'd recommend that you steer your son toward the fraternities that are the traditional leaders (instead of, as he suggested, the place where he find the 'best fit'). In a given fraternity system there are groups that are strong and remain strong, and groups that wre weak and remain weak. A young man will not grow and prosper in a weak fraternity. In a strong chapter he will tend to rise to that standard, and be better for it. The fraternities that produce the powerful and influential leaders of tomorrow are not the weak ones.
Best of luck to your son.

Boilbaker, Thank you.

However, I was responding to JAM, with my limited knowledge as a sorority member and fraternity little sister on fraternity rush. I have a little Pi Phi legacy that is at the wonderful age of four.

I do have a funny fraternity rush story from your school!!! I do not have the time to type it now, but will later this evening!

Again thank you for your response, I am sure that JAM, other parents and PNMs appreciate your knowledge and advice!

In the Greek Bond,
A&A

Boy, oh boy, oh boy!!! my son-as many know, will be headed to LSU. He is a legacy, but he certainly has a mind of his own. We-Dad and I- want to see him participate in Greek life, and we have a YEAR to work on him. (It really takes a long time to exert parental influence on the little bugger) As one might expect, he is influenced by his friends...if they say "rush is dumb", it could prove a tad difficult to get him to participate. I just give him snippets from GC from time to time, most recetly being the "Give a Greek A Hug" article written as my son has "High Expectations".
James gave me some advice a while back. Hubby had friends that went to LSU and some of this sounds familiar. He heard about one fraternity and thought it sounded like something he would be interested in. This was the one that cut all the guys from our town. The fraternities my daughter likes would most likely not interest him at this point in his life. Angels and Arrows What a kind thing to say BUT---They are pretty much opposites-she likes the real down to earth, honest and sincere qualities of DG-he's more of a high intensity, dare I say materialistic -goal oriented individual. God love 'em both!
Soooo, I really appreciate what you all have taken the time to write. I HOPE YOU AND OTHERS WRITE MORE!
Betarulz! andbolingbaker thank you-anything else you can shed light on is greatly appreciated. My current question is- Does LSU need recs for the fraternities? I've had some offers out of the blue and am unsure how to respond. Then, there are those who I'd have to seek out if it is necessary. If it isn't the norm, I don't want to have him appear "odd"!

If needs a rec for Theta Chi he has one :)

If not, my advise would be real to yourself, and not get caught up in the hype of any one fraternity. But I am still an optimist, so I"m sure he'll do fine. Fraterites need some goal orineted people.

UF Fraternity Rush seems to be as competitive as the house wants it to be. Each house has it's "Typical" group that it attracts and the houses that attract each type of person compete with each other for members but there is also competition between the houses that always compete with each other over other things. For the most part though rush is very informal here. Usually half the people come out for free food and end up joining somewhere. Also in the South Legacies tend to be a big deal because many UF grads send their kids to UF and expect them to go to the same GLO. All in all I'd say our rush is much less stressful than the Sorority rush but it also seems to be more fun...
Oh and in regards to what house to chose...I'd say pick the one where you feel most comfortable.