So, I just joined these forums recently, and have been lurking around for a while. I read the stickies and feel somewhat familiar with greek life now... I wish I had discovered this website over the summer, before fall recruitment!
I did indeed Rush this fall (if anybody is really curious, my rush journal* starts here. (Click 'next entry' near the top to read the story if you actually feel like it
)). I figure at this point posting my store here in the story forum would be redundant.
For those of you who don't feel like reading it (and I don't blame you!), here's a summary of my situation.
Short Version
As a sophomore at University of Arizona, who rushed in the fall and ended up getting no callbacks on pref night, do you think it would be better to Rush in the spring, or wait until Junior year? I have a few houses I love and would be devastated if they didn't do Spring Rush (which they may not, depending on pledge class size unfortunately, but their numbers haven't been posted yet). But I know that when Juniors rush, it can be as bad as pulling teeth, at a school as competitive as this (11 sororities at about 75 for a quota, and a rush class of 1100 or 1200 girls). Even if I will be here for 5+ years thanks to my recent change of major, I think it can look bad.
I know that nobody can answer the question for me, but I am hoping for some good advice.
Long Version
I'm a sophomore, at University of Arizona. When I came here as a Freshman in fall 08, I decided to stay in-state because I had a good scholarship, and because I didn't want to go out-of-state if I couldn't go to my top choice school (which had rejected me). Incoming, I had zero desire to Rush. Admittedly now, all I knew of Greek life was the stereotypes, and because of that, I had no desire to participate. ("I'm an honors student. I don't have time to be sloppy and slutty.") (Yeah, I was kind of conceited as a freshman.)
But during my freshman year, I met some sorority members in some of my classes, and I changed a lot. There were actually some nice girls, and smart girls. But I was still pretty much convinced that they were all party hardies, and it wasn't my scene.
Over the summer, my sister asked me, "Are you going to Rush?" She is entering her senior year at the U, and never rushed. (Nobody in my family has ever been in greek life, minus my dad, who pledged his frat for a whole 3 days.) She hadn't Rushed because she hadn't known about it and it is one of her greatest regrets. So I finally decided, hey, Rushing doesn't mean I have to join! I can meet new people and if I don't like anybody, then I don' have to pledge anywhere.
So I registered for Rush and started keeping my Rush journal. I started with the mindset that "Okay, so they do philanthropies, but they're still
sororities..."
I don't know when my mind has ever been more changed in my whole life. I had an opportunity to see Greek Life as it really is. It's true that UA is a big party school, but I learned that there's so much more to a sorority than the rumors and stereotypes. My experience was fun, and most importantly, I learned that Greek Life is something I want now, and have no reservations about.
From 11 during Set 1, I went to 4 during Set 2, and 2 during Set 3, and none during Preference. I have 1 sorority that is pretty much my favorite, but over the past few weeks, I have been considering it a bit more and I liked a lot more than just that one. I want the chance to Rush again.
I think the reason I was dropped was because of my grades. I started off my freshman year coming off of a strong HS gpa, and then in my second semester, I was really sick, so I missed a lot of class-- which lowered my GPA unfortunately. Even with an understanding of my circumstances, I am sure that sororities saw my gpa as a good reason to cut, when they had percentages to fill. I don't have any hard feelings about it. I know that nobody can tell me exactly why I was cut, but I strongly feel that if I had rushed Freshman year, nobody would have thought twice about my GPA. (It was way better.)
(If you did decide to read my rush journal, you'll see an anonymous person commented and referred me to these forums. Yeah, if I had come here BEFORE rush, things might have been much different...)
So here's my question (Sorry that it took so long to get to, lol). I really want the chance to Rush again, but at a big school like this, Spring Rush is in general not huge as far as sororities who attend. I think it is like... 4 sororities, tops, who participate. I'm not gonna lie, I will try to go into it with an open mind again, but I won't be able to entirely drop the opinions I have already formed about houses, when I rushed once.
If my top choice isn't doing spring rush, I am not sure that I should even want to do spring rush. Plus, if I wait for Fall Rush again, then at least I know I will have a (mostly) fair chance at all the sororities. The only problem is, I will be a junior, and I know that is a HUGE deal for many sororities.
But I will be here for 5 years, not 4, because I just changed my major. But I don't think that that would lessen the stigma entirely.
So I was wondering what advice anybody could offer me...
I know it is ultimately up to me, but I still want more input.
Another thing, is that I didn't have ANY recs going through in the fall. I am the first in my family to go Greek, right, so where can I get letters from? IF I do Spring Rush, is it worth it to get recs? (I know there's alumnae associations and such, but I figure if I do need recs I will figure out that problem when I get to it.)
And if the anonymous from my journal finds me here, thanks for all your advice!
*I removed the link
~~OK, thanks for reading this all!
Have a nice weekend, everybody!
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