Hey Gina!
We do have formal rush at my school and let me tell you those computers are there to drive us all insane!
In all seriousness the computers are intended to make everything fair. This is how it works at my school.
Night 1- Rushees visit all eight houses for a half hour each. At the end the rushees rank the houses in order of preference. The sororities do the same with the girls.
All lists get handed over to Panhellenic and it's all inputed into the computer. The computer then matches up houses and rushees that mutually liked each other. A party list is then generated for night two based on these mutual selections.
However sororities are limited to how many girls that they can invite back, so you could end up getting cut from a house that you like eventhough they liked you. Like say they can invite 200 girls, if your 201 on the list of mutual selection then you're cut.
Night 2- Girls visit 6 houses for 45 mins each. Unfortunately, not all girls will get 6 parties. At times girls managed to be cut from all of them. After the parties the rushees and sororities once again rank their preferences. The magical computer then spits out more party lists.
Night 3- Rushees visit up to 4 houses for 50 mins. At the end of this night the ranking is the most important. This is because night four is pref. Panhellenic rules state that if you invite a girl to pref you should be willing to give a girl a bid. But unfortunately it's still not a guarantee.
Night 4- Up to 2 Pref parties that last an hour. Afterwards rushees rank #1 and #2 and sign a bid card. The signed bid card means that she'll accept a bid from either chapter. Sororities turn in their final Bid Lists. The computer will match up choices and generate the bid lists.
Unfortunately computers have bugs and that's where the nightmare lays. Girls end up with out bids and are devasted. What pisses me off is girls who sign the card and then depledge because they got their #2. If you know that you're not going to stick around you should just suicide.
Other girls get screwed by people who do this.