[violetpretty]

My school does a deferred formal recruitment that starts the weekend after spring classes start. It's not too hard to juggle the work, because classes just started, so you're not too bogged down. Every chapter does informal recruitment in the fall. The only way a freshman can join in the fall is if she has 12 credits (usually AP credits). I guess the reasoning is that a freshman who has earned AP credits is more likely to not fail out of school than a random freshman who wants to pledge. I can't say that there's too much dirty rushing, at least not with the chapters that we "compete" with. Deferred recruitment is not without its downsides, but I think the pros outweigh the cons.