Formal vs. Informal

Firehouse · #1 08-24-2006, 07:46 PM

I've never thought about it, but I suppose formal rush is best for the rushees because they see every house and every house sees them. Informal rush makes is more difficult to connect with a particular house, especially if you don't know anyone there.
As a rush chairman I prefer informal rush since that gives me and my chapter every advantage. For the top houses with the best reputations, I suppose the ideal combination would be intense summer rush with open pledging, followed by formal rush in the fall so I could have a shot at anyone I'd missed.

The University of Arkansas had that system; so did Missouri, Kansas and Kansas State. I don't know what they have today.

TSteven · #2 08-24-2006, 08:53 PM

Firehouse - excellent posts.

I would also add spring rush to the mix. Some guys may be under the chapter's radar until the middle of the fall semester. Or they might just want to wait until spring to rush. Fraternity rush should be 24 hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Firehouse · #3 08-24-2006, 10:17 PM

Yes. What TSteven said.

EE-BO · #4 08-24-2006, 11:43 PM

A good house gets most of its guys well before formal rush starts, but during formal rush you will find guys worth pledging who are not necessarily from schools or backgrounds where they know to start attending events during the summer.

Spring is important too. Again- lots of quality candidates who maybe wanted to wait a semester before pledging, or came to college not knowing much about the Greek system.

A fraternity is only as good as its last pledge class. Until you have your chapter's ideal number of pledges, and good ones, lined up- you better take advantage of every recruiting opportunity you have.

And ideally you will have a strong informal rush program as well as a plan to be aggressive during whatever formal rush plan your school enforces for fraternities.

Akkus · #5 08-25-2006, 01:47 AM

Then doesn't informal rush mean a big number of bidless rushees?

Firehouse · #6 08-25-2006, 09:08 AM

I'm not being flip, but I've never heard any guy say, "Gosh I really wanted to join a fraternity but no one would have me." Problems are created when a rushee decides that it's one house or nothing. There's always a fraternity who will take a man who wants in.
It's not at all like the sorority rush where there are a limited number of slots available. Men react very badly to anyone trying to limit their size or make them conform to sorority notions like "quota" or "limitation." Fraternities can take as many or as few as they like.

EE-BO · #7 08-25-2006, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Akkus

Then doesn't informal rush mean a big number of bidless rushees?

It varies by chapter, but for us informal rush was during the summer before freshman year and by invitation only. Since Texas is a state school, most of your potential pledges will come from Houston, Dallas, Austin or San Antonio- and typically there is a rush captain for each city who organizes events in that city and invites people recommended/recruited by brothers from that city.

But, at least for us, it was never a cattle call. Summer informal rush is when you lock in the guys who the chapter knows about and wants to bid. It is expensive and time-consuming since you are not just hosting stuff in the chapter house, so efforts are focused on top candidates who are often rushing other houses at the same time.

Again, you get some solid guys in formal rush- but the real competition for pledges is in the summer.

srmom · #8 08-25-2006, 03:17 PM

My son is a senior and will be going through rush next year. I honestly have no idea how fraternity rush works. I was in a sorority that had deferred rush, my husband was in a frat that had fall rush, but it was a long time ago, so we are clueless. My son knows some guys that are in fraternities at the school he will be attending and they all say he should join their frat. It sounds like it is mostly like EE BO is saying, and he will be invited to parties at those houses this spring and summer, but will he ever get a chance to see or be seen by other fraternities? My older son went to UF and is involved in a sport so chose not to do the frat thing, but the summer before, they sent questionaires for him to fill out (he didn't because he didn't want to rush), is this general practice? At my sr son's high school, it seems like all the guys tend to join certain fraternities at this college, so are these the only parties he will go to? I don't necessarily have a problem with this because the guys we know are great, but I would like him to have options. Any info would be appreciated.