Retro Fraternity Rush from the Midwest

[robrun]

I've been a lurker here for a long time at GC, so this is my first real posting.

My rush happened at a small school in the midwest that has a fairly large greek population for both guys and girls.

Before I came to college, joining a fraternity was the last thing on my mind. I was the first person from my high school to ever come to this school, so I knew nobody at campus. Campus itself was relatively strange and unfamiliar to me since I had only visited once before I decided to go to that school. Rush for both fraternities and sororities is deferred which mean that it happened at the beginning of spring semester at night, which meant that it was very cold outside between rounds. Although my older sister was in a local sorority at her school, I never really thought about joining a fraternity until the interest meeting for freshmen who were interested in going through rush happened and it seemed like it would be fun. Also, it was assumed that everyone would rush, even the people who would just become independents and not join a house. That, and the major factor was that it was not hard to figure out that if you wanted to have any kind of social life at all, you were going to go Greek. That's just the way it was. There was a stereotype of GDI's that never left their rooms and were socially awkward and never had any fun at all and were out of touch with the campus mainstream.

My parents were fine with my rushing, more than anything because I emphasized that I could go through rush all the way through the final round and not join a house if I decided it wasn't for me.

Being that rush happened at the beginning of fall semester, freshmen guys had the opportunity to visit houses on their own time during fall semester, most of the visiting happened during weekends at parties and stuff like that. Girls weren't allowed to go to sorority houses at all fall semester; they didn't even get house tours of any kind like the guys did during fall semester.

At my school there were 11 ifc fraternities. I follow major league baseball, so I'm going to use major league baseball teams as pseudonyms for the houses.

After listing the house is the general impression I had of the house going into rush.

Braves - I didn't know this house even existed until house tours fall semester, and they seemed like ok guys but I didn't really know any of them and none of my friends had really heard much about them either.

Astros - This was traditionally referred to as the soccer house, since most of the soccer team was in this house. Aside from that, I knew nothing about them, other than that the girls I knew never went there alone on purpose.

Phillies - This house liked to party alot, and they were pretty nice guys who had a relatively good house, but they were known as drinkers...and nothing else.

Yankees - This was the supposed football house, way out on the edge of campus...they threw some wild parties fall semester but didn't really appeal too much.

Indians - This was THE house. They had the most members, they had a nice house, threw cool parties, had the top fraternity gpa, and the rumor was that they could get any girls they wanted to attend their formals. This was the house that seemingly everybody wanted to be in, regardless of whether they liked to party. I knew a few of them.

Twins - The smallest house, I knew quite a few of brothers in this house. They had a less than favorable stereotype, but they still seemed like pretty cool people and I could tell during fall semester that they really wanted me in their house.

Giants - The stereotype of this house was that they were all the basketball and baseball players and that they were about the "frattiest" of any fraternity. I knew a few guys in this house.

Rockies - Aside from Indians, this was the largest fraternity. They were known for being really fratty and having parties almost every night of the week, but not really standing out from all the other houses which partied hard all the time. I knew a few of the guys in this house but didn't really like it too much.

Cardinals - I'd visited this house a few times late in fall semester, and they seemed like the house I would join if I had to pick one. Cardinals partied a little bit; not as much as the most "fratty" houses but moreso than other houses like Braves and Twins. the guys were pretty chill and I knew quite a few of them.

Red Sox - This was the country club house. They partied quite a bit and were known as the dressiest house, this is what I imagine most of the SEC fraternities to be like from reading GC. Their parties constantly had country club themes such as golf and they were somewhat uppity. They sorta seemed like wannabe southern gentlemen to me. I didn't really know anybody in this house.

Marlins - Although this wasn't the "frattiest" house, they were known for being the most wild and crazy. This was I think the only fraternity where you were allowed to smoke indoors and breaking stuff was encouraged; I'd visited here quite a bit during fall semester for no other reason than that they were really close to my dorm.

I made two really good friends during fall semester that played a part in my rush story. They will be referred to Mark, who I lived next door to me in my freshman dorm and Greg, who I met the first day at campus and I also had a class with.