Fall informal rush at MIT

aephi alum · #1 10-05-2002, 05:10 PM

Since we don't seem to have a lot of rush threads going at the moment...

This year MIT is switching over to deferred recruitment for sororities (late Jan/early Feb - oh the suspense!). Once the class of 2002 graduated, most sororities were under total. In past years, formal rush would have put them back at or over total, but since formal rush is now deferred, these sororities held informal rush instead.

AEPhi got no new members as far as I know.

Alpha Phi was at total, by my count... in any case they don't appear to have done a COB rush.

AXO has 3 new members.

Theta has 1 (I'm not 100% sure about this, I got the info from their website).

I'm not sure how Sigma Kappa did.

Fraternity rush was at the same time, but I don't have any of those results.

Just thought I'd share the news

Aphigal · #2 10-05-2002, 05:58 PM

Thanks for the upate..I think A Phi id have a few spots but I am not 100% sure...

aephi alum · #3 10-07-2002, 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Aphigal
Thanks for the upate..I think A Phi id have a few spots but I am not 100% sure...

You could be right. APhi was either at total, or very close and possibly quietly COB'ing. The other sororities openly advertised their informal rush events.

GPhiBLtColonel · #4 10-07-2002, 11:42 PM

...why MIT switched to deferred rush? Wish there was a Gamma Phi chapter there -- I think MIT is such a great school!! My nephew just started at MIT this past Sept and I think he will try to join a frat -- poss same one as his dad (my brother-in-law)....

aephi alum · #5 10-08-2002, 09:10 AM

GPhiBLtColonel, good luck to your nephew. Which fraternity is he a legacy to?

MIT went to deferred rush because of an incident about 5 years ago where a fraternity pledge died as a result of alcohol poisoning during a pledge activity.

A textbook risk-management case.

As a result, the administration decided that all freshmen must live in the dorms starting this year, and recommended a deferred rush to IFC and Panhel so that freshmen could get settled in and check out their options a little before the start of rush. Previously, fraternity and sorority rush started the day after freshmen arrived on campus, and fraternity pledges were required to move into their houses as soon as they pledged. (The same isn't true of sororities - only some have houses, and they usually have so much demand from upperclasswomen that the freshmen couldn't live there if they wanted to.)

IFC deferred their rush to late September. Freshmen can pledge but must continue to live in the dorms.

Panhel deferred their rush to late Jan/early Feb - the weekend before spring semester starts and the weekend after the first week of spring semester.

I'll be watching formal rush very closely this year - I suspect it's going to kill numbers

lionlove · #6 10-08-2002, 10:54 AM

i remember the MIT pledge death cause I was in high school at the time and MIT was known at my high school to be "frat party school" (that's not to say that it is a big party school, that was just it's reputation at my high school).

Anyways, when I worked in Brookline this summer I drove past some of the MIT fraternity houses on my way to work. They look like really nice brownstone houses. I wish we had such nice houses at my school

Good luck to all the houses at MIT and I hope deferred rush doesn't kill you guys. MIT seems to be one of the few Boston schools with a strong greek presence and I would hate to see that lost.

GPhiBLtColonel · #7 10-09-2002, 01:12 PM

AEPhiAlum, my brother in law was in a local frat that is still at MIT -- can't recall the name though. My sister called before I logged onto GC otherwise I would have asked...she reported that her son -- my nephew -- just pledged Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity!

The sorority houses at MIT are neat and I pray that deferred rush is a success -- I saw the brochure that talked about each -- can't remember if it is an all-inclusive brochure or part of the basic new student one -- my nephew was showing me a lot of stuff so it has all melded together in my old feeble brain

But the presentation about each MIT sorority was very impressive -- so I am sure that will help!

Would love to know if any GCer's are at MIT now and contemplating sorority rush? May have to ask my nephew to talk to some girls he knows....

aephi alum · #8 10-09-2002, 01:42 PM

Congrats to your nephew! Phi Sig is a great fraternity.

The two locals at MIT are Nu Delta and Phi Beta Epsilon. I don't know much about Nu Delta, but PBE is an old, well-established fraternity that (at least when I was there) had some great guys. They also have one of the few houses located in Cambridge, which is great if you don't want to have to walk across the Mass Ave bridge in the dead of winter

aephi alum · #9 10-18-2002, 10:09 AM

As of last week, 263 fraternity and independent living group (ILG) bids had been accepted. This is quite a bit lower than the typical number of fraternity bids accepted when I was there, which was 350-400.

Several houses have zero new members, and some have just one or two.

The administration has predicted that some of the smaller fraternities may close due to low numbers under the new system. Sadly, I think they're right.

GPhiBLtColonel · #10 10-18-2002, 04:38 PM

....just talking about frats? What about the sororities?

Aphigal · #11 10-18-2002, 08:47 PM

Yes she is talking about the men's groups recruitment. NPC also must move to a deferred system but voted to wait till January instead of recruiting with the men. It make me extremely nervous that rush will be so late this year!

GPhiBLtColonel · #12 10-19-2002, 10:04 AM

...let's hope that Panhel at MIT does a good marketing job between now and January!! That should help! I know I was impressed with the brochure my nephew showed me about the Greek system at MIT -- he's a freshman there and just pledged Phi Sigma Kappa! Think positive!

aephi alum · #13 10-19-2002, 01:52 PM

Sorry if I was unclear...

My initial post was about sororities' fall recruitment, open only to sophomores and up. Formal rush was deferred from August to January.

My last post was about fraternity and independent living group rush, which was deferred from August to September and which is now over. Fraternity and ILG rush numbers took a beating.

theta sig agd · #14 10-27-2002, 12:43 AM

What groups are at MIT now?

Munchkin03 · #15 10-27-2002, 10:08 AM

I remember at a sorority event, a lot of the girls from the MIT chapter were really worried about how they were going to fare now that Deferred Recruitment was the norm after the Krueger lawsuit. I hope things turn out well for them.