[lionlove]

I went to Muhlenberg (very similar to Franklin and Marshall) with sophmore deferred rush and I can understand the arguments against deferred rush.

On the other hand, by the time girls go through rush as a sophmore, joining a sorority is something they have given alot of thought to and are very serious about. Virtually no one drops out once they've received a bid and retention rates after initiation are close to 100%. I suspect that if rush were held first semester freshman year at a school like F+M or Muhlenberg, many girls would go through rush without taking it seriously and look at joining a sorority as another club to join. I know this is not the case at other schools but I suspect this would be the case at private schools in PA.

If your school does move to sophmore deferment, you must be serious about "rushing" girls when they are freshmen. Not in an illegal way but rather doing what you can to promote your org around campus.

Whatever happens, good luck!

Edited to add: It sounds like second semester freshman year rush sounds like the best solution in this case but if it does move to first semester sophmore year, know that it may not be that bad.