I apologize if a question like this has been asked before - I tried to search and couldn't find anything.
For a long time I really wasn't sure I wanted to join a sorority. I didn't rush at all freshman year. Sophomore year, I had been toying with the idea but wasn't really sure. That fall, my roommate was rushing Phi Mu and I decided to go to one of their recruitment parties with her. I had a good time and liked the girls a lot, but I realized that as much as I liked it, I had no idea how I felt about any of the other sororities. At that point, it was too late to rush any of the other sororities, so I decided to put it off until the spring. However, that spring, I had a lot of personal issues going on, and too be honest, spring rush seemed really stressful and kind of scary, so decided to put off recruitment until the fall of my junior year - which I now realize was a big mistake. Anyway, after spring rush had ended, I ran into an acquaintance who happened to be in Phi Mu, and told her I was probably going to rush in the fall. She told me few if any of the sororities were going to be doing fall rush, since most of them had met total during the spring. However, at the time, Phi Mu was doing some kind of informal open recruitment, I'm not really sure what to call it, but basically they were just gathering a bunch of interested girls and having casual get-togethers, and then giving out bids. She told me they had one event left and invited me. Thinking I didn't really want to wait until spring of my junior year to rush, I went, hung out with the sisters, and again had a great time. My friend told me they were thinking about holding a few more events, and said she would contact me, but I never heard from her. I decided to contact her and asked if they had any more events planned. She said they had finished giving out bids for the semester, and that her sisters liked me but there was "a problem with my recruitment history." Since we weren't terribly close, I kind of felt uncomfortable pressing her for more information, and decided I would just rush sometime junior year, whether fall or spring.
Now, I'm going to be a junior in the fall. My understanding is that as long as I don't go through to pref, I will be able to rush two semesters in a row - i.e., I could theoretically rush in the fall and then rush again in the spring. But I'm really uncertain, because I never went to pref the first time around, and I still had problems - I don't know if there was some other reason, if I was perhaps supposed to notify them that I was dropping out of recruitment that fall or something. I doubt that that was the problem - Greek life is not very intense at my school, and for fall recruitment I'm not even sure you have to go to all the parties for that particular sorority in order to get invited to pref; I figured that since I didn't go to their second party, they just thought I wasn't interested and just didn't invite me back. I'm wondering if perhaps they just thought I was being wishy-washy (which was kind of true at the time) and didn't give me a bid because of that, but I'm wondering if this is something I should check out with the Greek Life office on campus?
In any case, now I am absolutely certain that I want to rush. Naturally, I'd like to do it as soon as possible, but from what I've heard, only one or two of my school's seven sororities are going to have fall recruitment. Now, if I was absolutely certain that I wanted to join one of those two, I would go for it, but I really don't know. I have friends in pretty much all the sororities on campus and I feel like I could find my place in any one of them - but definitely some more than others. I feel like I really have to go through recruitment with all of the sororities in order to see which is the best fit, but on the other hand, spring of my junior year feels kind of late, and I know that freshmen are heavily preferred during spring rush.
So essentially, here are the questions I'm asking:
1. Since I don't have much time left, I really need to do things right this time - what could have possibly been wrong with my recruitment history, and is this something I should discuss with the Greek Life office?
2. Would it be considered acceptable or even prudent if I were to rush the two sororities that are holding fall recruitment, see if I like them, and if not, drop out of recruitment before pref and rush again in the spring? I'm concerned that if I do this, I might like one of the sororities but again feel like I need to see all of them, and considering my history I might already come across as a little indecisive...but on the other hand, spring rush is so far away, and then I would only be in whichever sorority I choose for a year and a half.
Hope this makes sense - sorry it's so long! Any advice is greatly appreciated
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