Shadokat - My experience has been that rushees (men and women) desire to join "the best group they can find where they feel they have the most friends". That phrase has two emphasis: first, they want the best group they can get into. Second, they want to feel comfortable. Since rush is geared toward making every rushee feel comfortable and befriended, the decision factor is: how good is your sorority? Fifty years ago, maybe that measure, to women, was who had girls on the Homeocming Court, who had the most Little Sisters from the best fraternities, who was the sweetheart of this & that. Today, the standard may be whose alumnae serve as Mayor, who's in law School, who's the President of the Student Body (?). HOWEVER, it is always a mistake to forget that these are 18-19-year-old kids, and they are very interested in each other. Whether it should be or not, fraternities that are successful in giving the impression that they are a conduit to good looking girls will be successful in rush. Sororities have the same dynamic vis-a-vis boys. My experience has been that many, many 18-19-year-olds pledge for the wrong reasons, but once inside they become attuned to the real values of our organizations, and they end up embracing the right virtues. My experience is that the self-confidence of the individual members is the largest determining factor in being able to recruit who the organmization wants, and in sufficient numbers. Fraternities and sororities that find a way to pack their undergrads with confidence and pride in their organizations will be successful, I believe.
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