Ohioan rushing a Southern Fraternity

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by PGroove11

I wasn't necessarily limiting myself to only the certain chapters I had previously stated in my original post. I had only brought those certain fraternities into discussion due to meeting actives of those fraternities before (not necessarily from where I'm planning on attending) and thinking that I'd be a good fit (assuming the fraternities are similar to where I visited). Sorry about the confusion.
Also, I understand that assuming anything is probably not necessarily the best idea possible, but I do believe it's better to have some type of direction rather than going into rush with no idea. As I said though, I'm not just limiting myself to the select few I had brought up.

Also I think the only school two schools that have any significant differences compared to the rest would be Kentucky and Vanderbilt.
Kentucky is simply due to the fact that of it's location. Vanderbilt is more diverse due to it's academics and it's elite selectivity in it's admissions process.

I'm sorry if it seems like I was judging you harshly or something. I actually agree with your basic take. If you want to pledge at a traditional, strong southern fraternity chapter, it's going to help you to know people in advance.

I'm not saying no one gets a bid who doesn't already have connections, but if a pledge class for a chapter primarily comes from summer rush and you don't even know about, it makes it hard. As long as you can conduct your research and make your connections without seeming desperate (and I do think that's possible) it's hard to see how it could hurt to do stuff in preparation for rush.

But there are good chapters who provide a worthwhile experience at SEC campuses who do actually pledge guys they meet in formal, so it's not like all is lost if you don't get in to the most exclusive chapter.

Guys are fortunate that you can receive multiple bids and decide and you can get bids even before formal is over. I'm not sure that keeping an open mind about the whole process is quiet as important.