[WCUgirl]

Originally posted by ohdollface
Year, race and the size of the school.

Year.
I am a freshman and can't wait to rush 2nd semester. I've been doing research lately... I even went to the bookstore and the guy who was helping me was wearing his letters! So of course I was talking to him about greek life and he told me that I have a 99% chance because I am a freshman. He said that sororities and fraternities like to recruit freshmen because by their 3rd and 4th year they will have the ability and knowledge to take over when upperclassmen graduate. Is this true? Do I really have a good chance because I am a freshman?

It depends on the campus culture. At a large state school, I would say yes, year would matter. But, since you stated you attend a small private school, there's a greater chance that it won't. But, I don't know what the campus culture is like, so I can't answer for certain.

Originally posted by ohdollface
Race.
I am an african-american and I have my eye on a few sororites that are not african-american. I was wondering about the difference it could make. Of course I will still look at the african-american sororities, i have just talked to the ladies and didn't like the vibe they gave me. And I also wonder why I don't see many african-americans or just diversity in the greek life. Or are they just never found during recruitment week?

It shouldn't.

There have been multiple threads addressing this exact issue, most of which are closed b/c they got too heated. Again, I think the amount of diversity you see (or don't see) depends on the campus culture. As jubilance pointed out, the NPHC sororities don't recruit the way NPC sororities do, so their presence won't be as prevalent during recruitment week, unless they have something else going on such as a program or event or something.

Originally posted by ohdollface
School Size.
I attend a private, liberal arts college in Virginia. There are only 1,500 undergraduates and I was wondering if this would make a huge different in rushing. To those who attend a small college like mine: Is rushing less competitive? Is there a smaller number of rushees given bids?

Thanks for taking the time to read and answer this.

I think this will be the biggest determining factor. On smaller campuses, recruitment tends to be less competitive, but it is still competitive in a different sense of the word. At a large university, you've got probably 800 girls competing for 75 spots/sorority. At a small campus like yours, you've probably got 50 girls competing for 4-5 spots/sorority (of course, this would depend on whether the chapter was at total, which is a whole 'nother can of worms). However, on a small campus such as yours, everybody knows everybody, and you've had a whole semester to decide which sorority you want or don't want. That's very similar to how it is on the large campuses where the first-semester freshmen come in knowing they want XYZ b/c their mom, grandmother and sister were XYZs.

Good luck with recruitment and please keep us updated!