Sophomore Informal vs. Junior Formal Rush

[PromDoe]

To start this off... hi everyone, I've been lurking this site for awhile now trying to find answers to all my questions thread by thread. A lot of them have been answered and I also have a better (if not a really good) understanding of how competitive rush is at my school. Basically, I've tried not to make this another redundant "how do I get through rush as a sophomore/junior with a mediocre GPA at a competitive SEC school?" post. However, I guess I could use some specific input on which route to take here.

A little bit of a back story: I went through formal rush as a freshman (last year) and I basically did it all wrong. I missed orientation because of the hassle of moving in and because I thought it was the next night... so I didn't dress properly, had no idea what I was walking into the next morning, etc. Obviously I'm not one of those girls that was completely set on Greek life before starting college. Anyway, while I had fantastic conversations with most of the girls and actually really enjoyed the rush experience, I was released from rush after the 2nd round (and at that time the feeling was mutual, I was too overwhelmed and was beginning to be convinced that Greek life wasn't for me).

However, here I am regretting the fact that I didn't do it right the first time and I've been longing for Greek life since the end of my Freshman year. I would have rushed this past year, as a sophomore, in a heart beat... except for the fact that I struggled with grades a lot during Freshman year and my GPA was and is well below the point that any sorority would tolerate. I tried to bring it up over summer semester by overloading on work (bad, bad idea) and I ended up only bringing it up a little bit... and making it increasingly difficult to raise it significantly in one semester by adding more completed course hours into the equation.

This year I am a lot more focused in school (and I switched majors at the end of last year) so I'm looking at really good grades (hopefully straight A's) for the first time in my college career. However, at the end of this fall semester, the best I would have is a 2.7. I'm struggling between the options of going through spring recruitment with this GPA or waiting for fall recruitment in my junior year where I could have a 3.2 or so. (While this grade predicting thing sounds naive, based on credit hours and grades received this is where I could get myself in that amount of time if I do everything right.) I know my chances are really, really bad in both cases... I'm just wondering if I have a slightly higher chance in one situation than in another? I figure that if I call my Greek Office and they tell me there's no junior quota in place for next year, then my only chance would be informal rush next spring. I will most likely be an undergraduate student for 5 years instead of 4, though I read in another thread that mentioning that as a junior rushee doesn't matter.

And just for the sake of saying it before someone else does: grades are obviously extremely important to me and I am trying my hardest to set my priorities straight. I feel like being a sorority would help this. Most of the girls do great in school and have really high GPA's... and I feel like they motivate each other to do well. Unfortunately, (well, probably fortunately for the sake of the sorority) one has to do well in the first place to even be considered.

Thank you in advance for any input!