My experience was unusual in that I didn’t attend any actual “rush” events at the fraternity that I ended up joining. What happened was my dorm roommate received a ticket to one of their parties from a guy in his psychology class. My roommate was going home for the weekend, so he passed the ticket on to me. I figured I would at least stop by because I knew that a guy I played volleyball with in high school was in that house, so I could say hi to him. Well, he ended up not showing up at the party until much later, but in the course of waiting for him I got to meet quite a few of the guys, including the rush chairman.
They invited me back to the house for dinner the following Wednesday, and I had a feeling that they were going to give me a bid as well. I wasn’t sure if I was going to accept it though, because there were still a couple of other houses that I was hoping to hear from. But I went for dinner, and found that I got along really well with the guys.
After dinner I sat down in the living room with the rush chairman and several of the senior leaders of the house, and they explained to me their bid process, what they look for in a new member, etc. I was excited and anxious because I knew this was the point where they give me the bid. Sure enough, they gave it to me, and I accepted it right then and there. They announced it to the whole house, and everyone came to say congratulations.
Two interesting footnotes...the guy who originally gave my dorm roommate the ticket to the party ended up being my pledge dad, and I brought my roommate to some of our rush events the following semester, and he ended up joining as well. So each of us is responsible for the other one being in the house.
LXAAlum, I agree with you that getting a bid in the mail is really tacky. I’ve never heard of a house doing that. They probably mailed a bid to every single person who rushed their house...sounds like a desperate move to me.
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