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In a broad sense, it is going to be difficult and you need to go into the process with the understanding many chapters will likely not consider you due to your age alone. This is not personal- but just practical. The more sought-after chapters are going to have more suitable freshman candidates than they can possibly pledge. For you to take one of those spots, they would have to essentially decide to not bid someone who could pay dues for 4 years and possibly live in the house for a while.
There is also the matter of age. By second semester of junior year, it has been my experience that most fraternity members are slowing up on their daily involvement in a chapter. My senior year I lived in the house, and while I would go downstairs to check things out for a little while- I only really lived it up at maybe 20% of the parties. This was the norm. Guys in the chapter- especially the older ones- are going to wonder if you are really going to have the interest level in pledgeship and active involvement if you start at a point when many guys are looking to life beyond college.
There are other more subjective factors as well, such as people wondering why you waited so long, transferred etc.- but those vary by chapter and individual, so deal with those as they come and just keep in mind that your primary hurdles are what I mention above.
That said, juniors and even seniors do pledge every year at Georgia and Texas- the schools with which I have had direct personal experience as an active and advisor. It is rarer, and it tends to happen in smaller chapters, but it is a regular occurrence.
It all comes down to what you want. If you are open to a variety of options and would be happy joining a smaller group without the massive social schedule- but where you still have a good brotherhood- then go for it and your age alone should not close every door.
But if you are looking to join a very large and competitive chapter and have the "big experience", I have to be honest and say that is going to be extremely difficult unless you have some good friends in chapters like that who will go to bat for you when the bidding decisions are made. These chapters are going to need to see compelling evidence for why you should get a bid at this point in your college career.
One good step right now would be to contact the FSU Greek Life office and ask how many fraternities took spring pledge classes last year. Not sure if you can get more specifics, but if you can- ask the average spring class size versus fall and maybe even chapter names if you can. (As an advisor I see all this stuff for my school every semester, but have no idea how publicly available it is.) That will at least give you a statistical picture of what is theoretically possible.
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The GC Master Beta
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