<p>I’m interested in rushing a sorority at Berkeley and I honestly don’t know that much about rushing/pledging/sororities/fraternities in general. </p>
<p>What I know is that the sorority rush is “You have to wake up early on a Saturday morning and go to every sorority on campus, meet girls from all of them. You then make a list of sororities you liked, they make a list of girls they liked… and it gets narrowed down etc.” (from the UC Berkeley Class of 2012 Facebook group)</p>
<p>So does this mean if you go through the entire rush process for sororities…you are guaranteed a bid in a sorority? Everyone who rushes is for sure going to be offered a bid? </p>
<p>I always thought you either get a bid from a sorority or don’t get anything (meaning you get rejected?). </p>
<p>Can anyone in a frat/sorority walk me through the whole rushing/pledging process? I really don’t know anything about it. </p>
<p>You will want to start with the calgreeks.com site. It has lots of information about the schedule, what to expect and how to prepare.
The fast answer to your question is that rush is a “mutual selection process”…which means that sororities extend invites to parties each day and rushees can accept invites to fewer parties each day of rush. At UCB, a rushee who has at least one invitation to a Preference Night party will be guaranteed a bid at the end of rush. You should know that every year there are a few rushees who find themselves without invites at some point during rush and there are some rushees who find themselves with invites to houses that they do not choose to join.
They best way to have a good rush (meaning lots of choices to find the house that’s right for you) is to be very prepared in advance.</p>
<p>i went to that site, but still have some questions about the bid part of rush.
if you get an invite from a sorority on preference night, are you guaranteed a bid form that sorority?? </p>
<p>if you get an invite to preference night from multiple sororities, are you gonna get a bid from all of them, or do you have to pick one preference night to go to, and youll get the bid from the one that you pick?</p>
<p>does an invite on preference night even guarantee a bid from that sorority? or is the sorority still narrowing girls down on preference night?</p>
<p>if you don’t go to an invite on preference night, will a sorority that meant to extend a bid decide not to do so anymore since you havent shown great interest in them? if the answer to this question is yes, i guess that means it’s impossible to get a bid from more than one sorority because you can only go to one event on preference night since all the events are on the same night?</p>
<p>A rushee can only get a bid from one sorority.
A rushee with multiple Preference Night invitations ranks those houses after she attended the Preference Night parties, with her first choice ranked number one. The lists from the rushees and houses are matched to maximize bids. The rushee will get a bid from one of her Pref Night houses, but not necessarily her first choice (depending on how she has been ranked by the sorority) and only if she has followed the rules. The rules require a rushee to attend the maximum number of parties available to her each day (All 12 houses the first day, up to 8 houses the second day, etc.)
A rushee with only one house remaining on Pref Night who ranks that house first (and has followed all of the rush rules about attendance) is guaranteed a bid.
The Preference Night events are all on the same night, but they are not all at the same time, just like the other days of rush.</p>
<p>wait, so there is actually a process after preference night where we write on a list what order we like the sororities, and this list is made available (and not confidential) to all the sororities on that list? is every single sorority preference night event a different day (so you could hypothetically go to every single one)?</p>
<p>and when do we submit this photo? is it to all the sororities we are interested in, and is it near the beginning of rush or towards the end?</p>
<p>just being honest, but isnt #2 (try to get rec letters from alums for each house) a bit extreme? i would think the only time submitting a letter is appropriate is if its from your mom who used to be in that sorority</p>
<p>The process is completely confidential. The sororities will never know how a rushee ranked them on Preference Night.
You should submit a rec letter with a photo to every house in advance of rush. It should arrive to the rush chair of the house at least a week before rush starts. Rec letters are sent by an alum directly to the house.
A rec letter will give a rushee the best chance to be considered and invited back for the next day. All things being equal, a rushee with a letter will be chosen over one without a letter. This matters most on the first day of rush, when the most popular houses have to cut half the girls.
Read Greekchat’s recruitment stories for the sad stories of rushees who did not realize how much this matters who get cut from all the houses they are interested in during the first two days of rush.</p>
<p>I forgot to answer one part of the question.
Here’s the schedule for Fall 2008:
Saturday, Sept 6: All rushees visit all 12 houses.
Sunday, Sept 7: Sororities extend invites, rushees choose up to 8 invites to accept.
Monday, Sept 8: break
Tuesday, Sept 9: Sororities extend invites, rushees choose up to 4 invites to accept.
Wednesday, Sept 10: Sororities extend invites, rushees choose from those which to attend (I can’t remember whether it’s up to 2 or 3).
Wednesday night, Sept 10: Rushees rank their list and submit.
Thursday, Sept 11: Bid Day…all rushees get envelopes with bids inside.</p>
<p>how do you find out if you have gotten invited back to a sorority for, say, the second day (by email, etc)?
and with so many people rushing, how does each sorority know who you even are (do you wear a nametag or some code or something)?</p>
<p>how are we supposed to get our hands on a rec letter? i know like two people who are in sororities but only one who has graduated. what do i do?</p>
<p>nychic90, each rushee is assigned to a rush group. The rushee is informed by her rush counselor of her invitations for the next round and she makes her selections from those invitations. Everyone wears nametags…the actives, the rushees, your rush counselor. Each house also has your official rush registration information and whatever you have sent them directly. You can imagine that the first day of rush is a blur for everyone involved, but if you have sent your information in advance, the house has time to review the information.
callla, start with your friend who is an alum. That is one letter you have done. I found the best source were my friend’s moms…start asking around. A fast way is to Google the panhellenic association for your hometown. In some areas, there are lunches or teas over the summer for this exact purpose, with alums from many different sororities gathered to give advice on rush and help get recs for houses where you might not have a personal connection.</p>
<p>I tried looking for a local panhellenic association in LA and this one came up: [Home</a> Page: Los Angeles Alumnae Panhellenic Association - LAAPA](<a href=“http://www.laapa.net%5DHome”>http://www.laapa.net) …is this the right one? Does this mean I could contact them asking if I could join some of their events?</p>
<p>so is it possible during the middle of rush week, to not get accepted into any of the sororities? also, if you’re there during Pref Night, it is most definitely sure that you’re getting a bid somewhere right?</p>
<p>Sorority recruitment is hilarious. Like a thousand girls walking around Southside Berkeley in a mob, including a lot of incredibly hot ones, and a few amusingly ugly ones.</p>
<p>Best advice I can give you is to look absolutely gorgeous (so make sure your hair, your nails, your makeup, your dress are impeccable.) I’ve talked to a lot of sorority girls about what they look for when judging rushees, and it was no surprise–they look for pretty girls.</p>
<p>If you get a preference night invite, you’ll get a bid. It might be from Alpha Phi, but meh.</p>