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I went through formal rush as a sophomore. We do formal rush here second semester. The spring before, in my freshman year, I went through the COB process(it was an interview and a party) w/ DG w/ my roommate and got a bid but decided not to take it because I decided that I would rather check out more than one sorority. Vanderbilt is a huge Greek school, with 50% of women in sororities. I really did want to be in a sorority as a freshman, but I didn't know anything about rush(I prolly would have at least registered for it if I did). Also, my friends were negative about it. I figured if my friends weren't doing it, we could all not do it together. However, two of them ended up taking snap bids/COb bids, and I was SO jealous. Anyways, formal rush as a sophomore was HARD. My friends told me I would automatically be cut from certain houses, but I have been Dean's List every semester, and I'm a cute enough girl, so I arbitrarily figured this would help. Anyways, let's just say I didn't have a full schedule for each round. I actually heard that the houses that took sophomores had pretty much picked out their sophomores already. One house that I knew a bunch of girls in automatically cuts sophomores(they have a rep for very viciously rejecting any sophomores). One girl I knew from a class who was a transfer actually got invited back to enough houses at least first round that she had to cut one, and another ended up falling through or dropping out. There were only two Rho Chi groups of sophomores, and I know most of us fell through or either dropped out. We had a sophomore bonus, which I didn't know about at the time. We won't have that next spring, cause basically the bigger houses benefitted and ended up over quota. The friends that I had that were Greek were in primarily two houses, and I had hallmates from freshman year in one house that I LOVED and then got cut from, I think in part because these two hallmates and I didn't know each other well, and they didn't get along with my friends on the hall. Since I didn't know girls in many other houses, I had only my stereotypes to rely on. I ended up loving some of the houses my friends had told me were snotty, bitchy, or even racist, but unfortunately I didn't have anyone in the house to vouch for me. For example, let's say one house is very exclusive. I had heard they were shallow and such. However, one of my sweetest hallmates, who moved to our hall that semester right around rush, was in this sorority. Also, my Rho Chi, who I thought was awesome and very similar to me, was in that house. The only girls I had known of in that house before DID fit the stereotype. I would advise anyone rushing as a sophomore to go to all the events they can before rush and meet at least one girl in each house. I'm in a house now with a lot of friends from freshman year, but some of my favorite girls are friends that I didn't have before rushing. It was one of my favorite houses going in, but I still wonder maybe what house I would have ended up in if I had rushed as a freshman. A friend who COB'd said that even though she loves her house, she knows she wouldn't have been there if she had formal rushed. Also, if I were rushing again, I would have gone out of my way at the houses I liked to emphasize that I really wanted to be there. I would have tried to explain why I really, really wanted to be in a sorority finally instead of going along with regular rush conversation. So that's my experience and advice...
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