Joining a sorority at UT Knoxville for fall '11

[livinonlove]

I was looking for UTK specific threads, but couldn't find any recent ones so hopefully someone can answer the few questions I have.

I'm an out of state senior in high school, I've been thinking about joining a sorority for about a year and started doing my research a few months ago. Coming from two non-american cultures, i've never known much about greek life or what to expect. It's completely different than I thought, and in a really good way.

But anyway, my semester GPAs have gone up drastically since sophomore year. Because of my mediocre sophomore year, my overall GPA has been dragged down despite how well i've done the past two years. I don't know if the stats matter but (Sophomore year I had a 2.3/2.4, Junior year a 2.6/3.1, and this year a 3.4 and second semester grades still aren't finished yet, but should be even higher)

my over all GPA right now is at a 3.0 exactly. Since i'm not so familiar with the greek scene, and my GPA isn't horrible, but not outstanding either, should I just go ahead and try to rush freshman year? Or should I become more familiar with the greek scene at UTK freshman year, and have bangin' grades then rush my sophomore year?