Does being a sophomore or above matter when looking to join a fraternity?

[Elephant Walk]

Originally Posted by Robh88

I go to LSU and being a sophmore is not a huge deal when you are going through rush. Just be sure to have some kind of reason like your parents wouldn't let you due to grades or you transfered. While it is more traditional to rush as a freshmen, you should already know some people since you are a sophmore, so that might actually help your chances. Will you be rushing next fall or this spring. Waiting until junior year is pretty rare and unless you are good friends with some people, it would be pretty tough to get into a top house, but some of the smaller fraternities would still be interested. Send me a message if you have any other questions.

Let me guess, 3rd tier bottom feeder.
Yes it absolutely does matter. If you know we hate the spring's because they rushed in the spring instead of the 1st semester, what do you think we think about sophomores rushing in the fall?

[James]

I didn't realize some chapters took what year you were so seriously.

Do you guys subscribe to some wierd formal rush rule that limits the amount of people you can take?

So if you have some real athletic guy with a cool personality and acceptable grades you will disqualify him based on his year even if you have space in the chapter?

Why?

[shinerbock]

Being a sophomore is not a deal breaker at AU or UGA, but it does raise eyebrows. Some top tier places may not give you a chance because of it. If you're a junior, its unlikely you'll get in a decent place.

Edit: the best shot for a sophomore is to have a valid reason for not pledging their first reason and be well connected to the previous pledge class. The only non-freshmen we took were a couple of people who had a lot of friends in the pledge class before them, but for some reason couldn't rush their first year. Usually those guys would come to parties and what not, so most of the brothers were already friends with them. Thats the only time you really saw non freshmen come through.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Wow, I am surprised to hear so many negatives. At Illinois, there were a fair number of guys who transferred in from community college and pledged as juniors. I understand some of the concerns brought up by BigRed, but as a general rule, wouldn't you rather have a decent guy than an empty space?

[MaryAmanda]

My boyfriend pledged and was initiated in his 5th year here at Tech. His fraternity has taken in several 4th and 5th years (5+ years is perhaps more common than here than 4...lots of engineers and co-ops and such)...as long as they truly want to make the committment now, that's what matters.

Also, as a 4th year now myself, I'm a new member of the local sorority on campus, but that's a whole different ball game. I think of it this way: I needed the first few years to grow as an individual, to kind of find out who I am and want to be. Then I realized that this sorority fit into that vision.

[shinerbock]

We don't really have empty spaces. We take who we want. We're not trying to fill any void.

[macallan25]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Wow, I am surprised to hear so many negatives. At Illinois, there were a fair number of guys who transferred in from community college and pledged as juniors. I understand some of the concerns brought up by BigRed, but as a general rule, wouldn't you rather have a decent guy than an empty space?

Just because we pass on an older guy doesn't mean we have an empty space.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

Wouldn't you rather have a decent guy than an empty space?

Regardless of his class rank, if a man is worthy of a bid he will most likely receive a bid. And part of worthy may include having a valid (good) reason as to why he didn't rush (join) as a freshman.

And as others have said, there isn't an empty space to fill. IFC/NIC fraternities do not have quota or total. Frankly, if a chapter *needs* to fill an empty space, it most likely has bigger issues than a man's class status to deal with. Most likely financial issues.

[Tom Earp]

It would be sad to think that an outstanding person because of year of class could not be accepted for that reason only is silly.

It can be the same for an A I (Alum Associate) who later becomes not only a strong member, but very important one for their Organization.

It is ideal to have a new young member that can be trained and spend his time and knowledge over a period of time, but there is always one who can be a spark plug who can help hold a chapter together in times of strife as we all go through.

[Robh88]

Elephant, you were a bit off in your guess about me. I'm not going to embarrass my chapter and say what fraternity I am in because I would normally never post on a message board like this but I happened to see a post about a guy at lsu and wanted to help out. If anyone in my chapter knew I looked at this garbage I would never hear the end of it. I know you kappa sigs love talking about how you are the best fraternity here, and even though you all have gotten better in the past few years I can assure you, we get much more respect.
Back to the topic, goldtiger, there are a lot of fraternities at lsu, you may not end up in a top tier especially as a junior, but that is why they have about 20 different houses here, something for everyone.

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by Tom Earp

It would be sad to think that an outstanding person because of year of class could not be accepted for that reason only is silly.

It can be the same for an A I (Alum Associate) who later becomes not only a strong member, but very important one for their Organization.

It is ideal to have a new young member that can be trained and spend his time and knowledge over a period of time, but there is always one who can be a spark plug who can help hold a chapter together in times of strife as we all go through.

That may be true, but the fact is, it does matter some places. There are some groups at some schools that won't take anyone over a sophomore. Fair or not, it's a fact that juniors have to be prepared for if they're thinking of rushing.