Rush in the Northeast

[aephi alum]

A few people have asked me about rush in the Northeast and how it differs from rush in other parts of the country.

I've only seen firsthand how rush works at my school but I'm amazed every time I read about rush at southern schools, where there are 15 or more sororities, you need a rec to each of them to rush at all, and they cut you right away based on a 20 minute conversation!

I want to reassure anyone planning to attend school and rush in the Northeast, that it just isn't that cut-throat up here.

In 2-1/2 years as an active sister, I never saw a legacy come through rush, and my chapter probably wouldn't know what to do with a rec if they saw one.

PMN's tend to spend more time with each sorority in the initial rounds, and though the sororities do cut hard, at my school about 90% of PNMs ended up with at least 1 invite to pref... most of them matched, and most of the rest were picked up via snap bids or COBs.

That's not to say you shouldn't look nice, dress well, and be polite during parties... but at the same time, you won't be cut for having a broken fingernail or asking to use the bathroom.

The only real similarity I see between my school's rush and rush in the south, is that you're extremely unlikely to get a bid if you rush beyond your freshman year, unless you're a sophomore who transferred from a school without a greek system.

I hope this reassures those of you who plan to rush at non-southern schools, who have been scared off by those "southern rush is so cut-throat" threads

[Angels&Arrows]

I have greek friends from Penn State and Bucknell. My understanding that though rush differs from the south (i.e. they knew of recs, but did not use them), rush is very competitive at their schools and legacies did come through often. While rush at schools such as MIT, Harvard, BU, NYU, UMaine, UNH might not be as competitive as some in the south. At other schools in the Northeast it is. Maybe, greeks from additional schools in the Northeast could speak out about their school.

[ZTAngel]

I never realized that my school was actually cutthroat until I read aephi alum's post. Florida, althought it is the south, isn't considered a "dixie" state so I never compared it to schools such as LSU, Ole Miss, or Auburn. But, I never knew that at Northern schools, it could possibly be rare to see a leg come through and that recs are not used. I have many friends at schools such as UF, UCF, and other sororities at UCF. We have about 20+ legacies come through each recruitment and every girl must have a rec! I don't think the fraternities are big on recs but I know that there are tons of legacies that come through.
So, I called a friend of mine who goes to school at the University of Pennsylvania and asked him about legacies. He's an SAE there and you'd think that since SAE is one of the biggest organizations you'd have many legacies. Nope. He told me that he's only seen a couple since he pledged there two years ago.
So, to any of the girls (or guys) who will be rushing in the Northeast, don't worry! It is not nearly as competitive as it is in the South.

[shadokat]

Rush is definitely not as cut throat at Bucknell or Penn State as it is down south, trust me. These schools have enough organizations and ceilings set at proper limits to ensure that women don't go bidless for that reason alone.

At my school, about an hour from PSU, cut throat is the exact opposite of our rush. The only women who don't get a bid are those who suicide and don't get their first choice. Almost all of the women find a group in which they fit in and like who feels the same in return. No recs, no pictures...just meeting the sisters, doing philanthropy rush, having great pref nights, and then bid days. The format is the same...just MUCH more scaled down.

[33girl]

Originally posted by aephi alum
The only real similarity I see between my school's rush and rush in the south, is that you're extremely unlikely to get a bid if you rush beyond your freshman year, unless you're a sophomore who transferred from a school without a Greek system.

At my school (I'm assuming shadokat's is like this too) it's not uncommon at all to see juniors pledge, and a senior once in a while. I would say it's 40% freshmen, 40% sophomores, 15% juniors and 5% seniors. Mainly cause getting your classes can be an exercise in irritation and senior definitely doesn't always mean "done at the end of the year. "

[maggieaxid]

I just think its more popular to go greek in the south then it is in the north and more emphasis is put on it. I don't know why exactly, but it seems that people who grow up in the south realize/see how "important" it is to be greek and are familiar with the greek system more throughout their lives then people in the north. Going from PA to NC I had no idea about panhellenic, "going greek", or the difference between a local and a national were. I ended up having to do research into who in my family was greek and i was surprised to find that there were family members that were, but who never talked about it.

[lyrelyre]

I think it has a lot to do with activeness of alumnae and with the emphasis placed on tradition. When I left for school the most exciting thing on my mind was RUSH. I grew up in the South/Midwest. My mom was like "why do you want to join a sorority?" She is from up North (New Jersey) and didn't move south until she married my dad.

[AlphaChiGirl]

I'm from Florida (NORTH Florida, which is just as much the south as New Orleans or Mobile--it's NOTHING like Orlando and Miami), and Rush was a HUGE deal...all the interested girls meet during Senior year and get the recommendations together. When I came to Brown, my rec was one of the first ones they saw...ever. Most people had not even heard of them. The Greek system here's pretty small, and people are critical, so the Rush is pretty laid back...it's like "come if you want, unless you're a total slut, klepto, or cheat, you'll be offered a bid". We offer bids to freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and the occasional senior. We have winter rush, and COB throughout the year for upperclassmen.

The character of Rush often changes from state to private schools. Knowing people at URI, UMASS, and UNH, their rushes sound much like the state schools down South, in format and they cut much more often.

[DukeBlue]

I go to a school in the South (uh, Duke, as if that wasn't obvious :-P ), but even though I haven't actually gone through rush here yet, I know enough people in sororities here and who have rushed to know that it thankfully isn't as cutthroat as most other Southern schools seem to be. Much of that is probably due to the fact that Duke draws its students from all over the country, world really, and while it's located in the South, it's not really a SOUTHERN school.. if that makes any sense. I mean, really, SO many of Duke's students are from the North - I'm from Ohio - since it's sort of a pseudo-Ivy. "The Harvard of the South", "the Stanford of the East", whatever you want to call it. :-) Most people rush as freshmen, but sophomore rushees aren't rare at all, and my first year here EVERYONE who rushed received a bid, and I think last year all but 7 did, and all but one or two of those 7 dropped out of their own accord, not because they were dropped. Reading how crazy rush is at other schools in the South makes me glad Duke isn't really like that. It's not as laid-back as some true Northern schools might be, but it's not "Southern rush", either. Most people don't have recs, and even if they do, most sororities don't really use them.

[Angels&Arrows]

I did a little comparison between a few chapters, the statistics are an average of 1996-1999 recruitment:


Ole Miss / Bucknell / Penn State
Participated 632 / 312 / 645
Percentage Pledged 82% / 79% / 70%
% Receiving No Bid/Invitation 8% / 2% / 3%
Withdrew From Recruitment 13% / 22% / 27%
Quota 55 / 36 / 23
# of Chapters 9 / 8 / 21

Interestingly at Bucknell, the precentage of PNMs going through recruitment versus the class size is in the 70s.

[ErikaXO]

Yes, at Kent I would say the real competition was between the sororities. The top 3 were not willing to lower their membership standards, but getting a pledge class full of top-quality girls could be difficult depending on rush numbers. The rushees who knew they weren't top-drawer material really were the ones who had it made, because they pretty much had their pick from the other 3 chapters. Thus, it was a very intense pressure experience for us and the other two top chapters. Say there are roughly 200 girls rushing, quota is initally set at about 25....but of those 200 girls not all of them will stick with it once they get cut from their top choice house.....of the remainder, only about 45-50 are truly A-1 caliber....so you have three houses fighting hard to get a full pledge class out of that group. By the same token, that small group of top girls also had the toughest time, because they usually had a "first choice" in mind by 2nd or 3rd party....they had to be very careful when they narrowed from 3 to 2 for preference because they never really knew where they were going to end up. Plus, on the heavier years when there were lots of girls going through, since there were only 3 top-level chapters sometimes there were more top-level rushees than the quota for the Big 3 would accomodate. Someone would end up getting left out, which was great for the other chapters if she didn't get mad and drop out altogether.

[shadokat]

33, you're right. We have similar rushes. Although when I went through, you had to be a first semester sophomore to rush. Now, it's second semester freshman. But it is not unheard of for second semester sophs or juniors to go through. And nearly everyone gets a bid somewhere...even the craziest girl ends up fitting in.

[kristiAZD]

I think this is so interesting. I will admit that I had heard stuff about how serious rush was in the south, but I thought this was an outdated sterotype. To find out that this stuff is true was really amazing to me. First of all, what is a rec or a leg? I seriously have never heard of this. My chapter has several legacies that come through, but that is usually only because thier sister or mom went to our school. Our school is considerably rooted in family tradition. The majority of legacies have a sister, mom, or grandmother that went to our school. We have 4 legacies in our chapter right now. Our rush is somewhat laid back. We don't have houses here since I go to school in PA, so sororities get rooms up campus to hold their parties. My sorority personally DOES NOT use looks as a major factor in whether we want them or not. We are the biggest and most repected sorority on campus, and we pride ourselves in not giving in to stereotypes. We have all different types of girls, and that's part of what makes us so popular here. On our campus you can find an AZD in pretty much every organization. If we think a girl is "cute" it is because of her great personality, not her appearence. I know that at our school pretty much every girl gets a bid somewhere because we have 4 sororities that are diverse. Each girl will usually find a group where she feels comfortable. I'm not dissing the way rush is run at southern universites, just saying that I find the differences very interesting. I'd love to visit some southern chapters someday!

[dzsaigirl]

AlphaChi, I am moving to Rhode Island in 6 months and I am looking to help out with one of the DZ chapters there possibly, depending on how much time I have since I will actually have a career then (wow...scary!). Anyway, I know that there is one at URI and one at Bryant (is that right...never heard of it until I looked for DZ chapters!). Anyway, do you know anything about the greeks at those schools, what their rush is like, how accepting the campus is to greeks? Just wondering.

I don't know if I told you this before, but my fiance is a graduate student at Brown and I helped him move up to Providence. People dress so differently there...it was weird. I am addicted to that East Side Pockets place. I think we went 3 times while I was there!

[AlphaChiGirl]

Welcome to Rhode Island! I don't know how Greek Life is at Bryant...I assumed it originally to be a commuter campus, but I've heard nothing but good things about the school as a whole. URI's Greek Life is much more like the Southern Greek system than anything I've seen up here! Beautiful homes, cutthroat rushes, etc. But of course, this is all hearsay. I know there's also a DZ chapter at UMass-Amherst.

No, you didn't tell me he was a grad student here! I have so many friends who are in grad school...with my work, a lot of my supervisors are grad students. Are you moving to Providence, or another town within this itty-bitty state? I LOVE East Side pockets...there's actually one on the URI campus, too...I haven't been there, but I don't know what I'm going to do in Rome without my East Side Pockets!