Informal vs Formal Recruitment for New Student

[newtransfer]

Hi ladies! I'm transferring to a new school as a sophomore in september, and I'm a little apprehensive about starting over. My question is this: my new school has informal recruitment in the fall, and formal recruitment in the spring... would it be bad for me to check out informal recruitment before I go through the formal process? I guess to clarify, if I participated in informal recruitment with a few sororities and didn't get a bid/chose not to join, would that hurt me later if I went through formal rush in the spring? (Assuming I don't do anything stupid or make a fool of myself.) Basically I just want to get a feel for some of the houses and start meeting people right away, but would it be better to wait. Any thoughts? Thank you!