tomjennings

It's almost 2 am on a Saturday morning, I have to be up at 5 am for work, and I just realized that I am wasting my college experience. Last year as a freshman, I did nothing but read and walked around, I made zero friends, and I was not involved on campus at all. I got a 3.99 gpa, but I rarely studied. It is a little better this year socially, since I joined the debate team, am involved with a religious organization, and am a member of Phi Eta Sigma (That is really only an honors fraternity - no fun, just 45 minute meetings every four weeks.)

Now, I don't really want to read. I still don't feel the need to study hard. And I am filling my time doing what I'm doing what now. I don't make friends easily, and I made the worst decision regarding where I live this year (in a run-down single apartment two miles away from campus, forcing me to rely on a 30 minute bus ride, and where only graduate and international students live).

I haven't had a lot of fun in college yet, and the opportunity window is starting to close before I start to have real problems and real responsibilities. So I want to join a fraternity to live for just a little while in college. I just found out that the rushes and recruiting for fraternities is already over for this year. That means I would have to wait until next year to even try to join one.

But this just sounds lame: an introverted, friendless upperclassmen rushing for fraternities alongside freshmen. What would be even more lame is if I did not get into any.

Should I try to rush next year as a junior, or is this thought just pathetic and unrealistic? And how could a junior get into a fraternity without any social connections?

soccergurl7988

It honestly depends on the school you attend. At some schools, rushing as an upperclassman isn't particularly uncommon (these tend to be schools with less competitive and smaller Greek systems). However, at a lot of schools, rushing as an upperclassman isn't common, and really does require connections.

If you say that you are an introvert, then joining a fraternity might not be the best thing for you to do. Yes, it will help you make friends by introducing a built-in social system, but you need to be personable and able to easily talk to people you don't know throughout the rush process. You also will have it harder because you need to convince the brothers to take you (who will only be paying dues for 2 years) over someone who is a freshman (and will be paying dues for 4 years).

SingDanceRunLife

If you think that it would be good for you and that you would enjoy it, go for it! I'm a junior and I'm trying to join a sorority this year.

Greek life at my school is very small and non-competitive though.

SpeakMemory

Worst case scenario? Free food, drink and introductions during the 'rush' process. Sure, maybe you won't make it. **** happens. You have to start somewhere.

tomjennings

There actually is a very small greek presence at my school with only one out of every ten students being in a fraternity or sorority, even though I do attend a very large public school that is one of the highest ranked party schools in the nation. Do you take this as being a sign that they are very exclusive and hard to get into, or that students at my school just aren't really into greek life and greek life is not very strong here?

tomjennings

I did some more digging and I found out that some fraternities have year-round informal recruitment. So, I thought I should see if I could try to join one right now. I sent some emails to the recruiter of a few fraternities that I thought sounded nice. Does anybody know more about this year-round recruitment? Could it actually make me more likely to be offered a pledge to a fraternity?

soccergurl7988

1. You're not offered a pledge, you're offered a bid.

2. They're not recruiters, you're not joining the military. They're rush chairs.

3. I would be hesitant to believe that chapters are recruiting year-round. Without knowing the school, I can't flat out say that that's not the case, but it seems pretty fishy. I don't know any school that does year-round fraternity rush, and I'm pretty familiar with national Greek life. What conference is your school in?