Is rushing necessary to earn a bid?

[tomjennings]

I recently determined that I want to try to join a fraternity. Unfortunately, I determined this after rush week and formal recruitment. At my school, greek life is pretty small, the fraternities are pretty small, and only 10% of students actually belong to a fraternity or sorority, even though my school is a very large public one that is ranked as one of the biggest party schools in the nation. I did some digging, and I found out that there are some fraternities that claim to have informal, constant recruiting; some don't even put an emphasis on rushing. I just sent emails to the recruiters of a few fraternities informing them of my interest. I am currently a sophomore, and I haven't made many social connections yet in college, but I do have a 3.99 gpa and am willing to spend time getting to know the brothers and learn about their fraternities. Is it likely that I could receive a bid from this "constant" recruiting soon and pledge this semester even without participating in rush activities? Could the greeks' small presence at my school work to my benefit in informal recruiting?