Fraternity Rush - Texas school style

[LaneSig]

http://greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=88087

Here is a link to a thread discussing summer rush for fraternities. Some chapters (like mine) did a very low-key, laid back summer rush. Some chapters (check out the info for the FIJI chapter summer rush) go all out.

[Srmom1]

I can’t really name all of the fraternities that are at the school because he hasn’t rushed them all. But, I will assign names as his story progresses. I’m going to use characters from Animal House (one of my favorite movies and in keeping with the theme).

My son and his friends drove up to college town and went straight to the Hoover house, where the formal was going to be held. The party didn’t really get started until late (I think around 11 or so) when the actives and their dates started arriving. The party was full, not only with Hoovers and their dates, but also with high school seniors, both guys and girls (an especially large group of girls from his high school). He said the party was fun but kind of disappointing, due to the fact that, because so many of his friends were there, he was hanging with the same people that he hangs out with at home. He wanted to be doing something different!

At some point in the night, he decided to call one of his friends at Boon, the other fraternity. The guy told him to come to their party, and offered to pick him up at the Hoover house. When my son walked in to the Boon formal, he said that people looked at him like he was an alien (remember - this formal was black tie!), and it was obvious that they didn’t have a bunch of high school seniors in attendance. But, he was in good hands with the guys he knew, they introduced him to many of the actives as they showed him around the house (which was neat, because each of the rooms was decorated in a different theme). The only hitch in the evening was when he was confronted by a few Boons who were wondering who the guy in the coat and tie was! When they found out that he was a senior (aka rushee), it was all good. He ended up having a great time at the Boon formal and stayed until the wee hours, eventually sleeping on a couch at his friend’s apartment.

This was his first real exposure to the social aspects of fraternity life and it confirmed his wish to pledge in the fall.

[LOVEinZTA]

Oh please, PLEASE tell me there's going to be a Bluto.

[sigtau305]

this should be good.

[Srmom1]

Now it is spring semester of my son’s senior year. He has been accepted to the U and is 100% planning on going there.

He periodically gets calls from the rush captain of Hoover inviting him to events that they are having, but due to playing a spring sport, he can’t attend. He started getting emails from a member of Pinto asking him to come to stuff. He had no idea how Pinto got his name, he didn’t know the guy, or anyone else in Pinto, but he said he would try to make an event when he could get to college town. He also ran into the friend he stayed with from Boon and was told that he had a spot on the couch anytime he wanted to come back. So, my son started looking on the calendar for free weekends that he could go visit.

Hoover was planning a big party, an event that they hold annually, and is a big rush event for them, and luckily, my son had no games that weekend, so could attend. Once again, he and a bunch of his friends headed to college town. They were all sleeping on the floor (or a couch if they were lucky) in the rush captain’s place. The party was huge! Tons of people go to this, including kids from other colleges, so my son was able to visit with people who had graduated and gone off to other schools. Unfortunately, because the party was so huge, he really didn’t talk to too many members of Hoover, he was still hanging out with people from home. But, he said that the party was awesome and he had a blast!

A few weekends later, the big, fraternity wide rush weekend was to be held. This is an event that has been going on since before I was in high school (in the dark ages), and I remember going to college town for it. I think it was probably crazier back in the old days, the college has tried to clamp down a bit on the wildness, but all of the fraternities still hold parties – some are open to everyone, some need an invite or your name on the rush list. My son planned to go come heck or high water!

[srmom]

Maybe I'm getting too detaily - I'll speed it up.

The rush weekend was a lot of fun. He went to a number of parties, some he really liked, others – not so much. Although he knew many people at Hoover, he didn’t like the atmosphere at their parties, too crowded, hot and highschooly. And, he had a run in with a drunk active that kind of soured him on them. He much preferred the guys at Boon, and he really liked their parties better. They were by invitation, so the guys were either Boons or rushees, and there were lots of pretty girls in attendance. Also, the Boons really made a point of introducing him around and making him feel welcome.

I don’t really need to go into the other parties he went to because at this point, even though I told him that he needed to keep his options open, he was pretty set on Boon. Yikes!

From a mom’s perspective, this is really scary because as we all know, just because you want them doesn’t mean they want you!

Summer Rush was around the corner and we didn’t know what to expect. It turned out to be pretty awesome!

[srmom]

OK, so I've gotten some pm's about this so somebody is reading..

I guess with the excitement of sorority rush at the SEC schools, this is kind of back burner.

Anyway, summer rushing begins.

The first thing he got invited to was an Astros Game with 2 other rushees and the rush captains for Boon. The seats were in the Diamond Section, which for those who don't know, is swanky. This was very impressive to my son who is a huge Astros fan. He had a great time and really got to know the guys. They must have liked him because the invited him to stay with them for orientation, which is a week long.

When he went up for orientation, the Boons that he was staying with encouraged him to go to other fraternity events so that he could tell what he wanted to do. I'm sure they knew that he was pretty set on going Boon, so they weren't taking much of a chance.

He was wined and dined by a number of other fraternities and went to many "late nights" (each fraternity has parties during all of the orientations, this way they can meet the guys as they come to college town, and because many kids have to go to summer school, there is something going on all the time) He also played a round of golf with one group that he ended up really liking, I'll call them Flounder. He thought that if things didn't work out with Boon, he might go Flounder.

Back home, he started getting calls to come to events back in college town, like foam parties and bar tabs, so when he could, he would drive back. I got a little sick of all the trips back and forth, but you do what you've got to do, I guess

There were also events that were planned away from college town, like ranch parties and what I guess you'd call ball game weekends. These are weekend long events, the ranch parties are self explanatory, the ball game things were that a fraternity rented hotel rooms and had tickets for all the rushees and it was a weekend long party. These were held by other fraternities, Flounder, Chip, and Bluto (sorry had to get that in there, but it in no way reflects on the fraternity)

These were all fun, but what my son looked forward to the most was the Boon New Orleans trip. More on that later.

[Jill1228]

Congrats to your son and KAPPA ALPHA ORDER!!!!!! heading to update the board now