[33girl]

With these women who get to school with their semester of credits under their belt...do they typically do fine? Or do they get to "real college" and their grades go in the toilet?

Part of the point of deferring rush is to make sure that freshmen can thrive in a college environment gradewise. However, the other parts are so that they can see the sororities "warts and all" and to see if they can thrive in all the other parts of college....living away from home, etc.

From the way you describe things you have a more cosmopolitan student body than most and I don't think the latter part of the above sentence is a problem. However, if it IS an issue that women get to campus and don't want to look at all the sororities - only have their minds set on one, usually the biggest most popular - then I think you should defer things for everyone until sophomore fall.

There have been precedents on campuses regarding ISP overuse, what is usually done is that the woman is not permitted to pledge the sorority she ISPed for a year. (i.e. you can't ISP and then join when they're trying to get up to quota, total, or formal rush).

Are all the chapters at or near total?