Well to give you help from a freshmen who has already signed to his frat, I can tell you somethings that helped me make my decision.
Obviously I'm coming from a different angle having open rush, and I had some weird things happen at parties, but here is the way that I went about narrowing down my top choices (probably the most important thing).
1)Look at objectional data--things like house GPA, number of philanthropys, social calender, as well as things like alcohol policies (I found that even though houses on my campus are supposed to be dry, it's amazing to see what the various definitions of dry came out to be), Intramurals, and anything that is important to you. Obviously you may not care that much for sports so a house that is really heavy on intramurals may not be for you. I used the info that I found to find houses that seemed to value things that were important to me. I then knew that the members would have similar ideals as me, and respect my goals, b/c they would also be the goals of the members themselves.
2)After that, go on with the houses you feel most comfortable in. For me Farmhouse fit pretty well as far as academics and philanthropys, but I didn't want to be in the house with a bunch of ag majors or have to live on the other campus. Plus Farmhouse is one frat still dedicated to christian ideals, and that came in direct conflict with my own beliefs, so obviously that was not going to work, and I didn't even bother visiting their house.
3)Finally when preffing, you'll know which one you liked best. You probably had the most fun there, even though you did the exact same thing at all the other houses. You'll feel like you belong, and that you can develop friendships with these people. Now for me, the houses made my decision for me by the way they acted. at several parties I couldn't ge any of the brothers to actually to talk to me, but at Beta Theta Pi I talked to every single brother present at each party, without straining or feeling pressured. I left a weekend of parties knowing the names of probably 15 betas, and not a single brother from another house. I don't know that there will be that big of discrepency but you'll notice any small one.
So dont' worry, and good luck.
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Geoff Mickells
Beta Theta Pi
Alpha Tau chapter
University of Nebraska
[This message has been edited by Betarulz! (edited August 17, 2001).]
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