<p>After going through rush and seeing some very bad posts about rush week on this board, I’ve decided to give some more data about rush week, fraternities, and the selection processes that were previously not to be found here. Currently, I’m a first year student who pretty much went to the wrong fraternities and got snubbed from almost all of them. And as of this point, I’m not going to be in any house next year. As much as the whole process has been a stress and nuisance to me, I’m not here to attack the value of fraternities. In fact, I encourage all students to rush. The experience can be very enlightening and useful even for the folks that don’t receive a contact and/or bid from any fraternity. The purpose of this is really to illuminate some possible pitfalls that can catch students.</p>
<p>For those that don’t already know (apparently a fair number of folks), rush is the process of fraternity and sorority recruitment. For each type of organization, the process is different. Typically, sorority rush is much more structured and rigid (only 11 sororities). However, in my opinion, the sorority rush is probably fairer than its counterpart as a result.</p>
<p>Simply put, fraternity rush is one of the most exclusive and sickening processes in existence (at least at Cornell). On the outside, it seems rather simple: you visit fraternity social events, meet brothers, and hopefully get contacts. But on the inside, it’s much more complicated. Firstly, there are approximately 40 fraternities and only four days of events called “smokers”. “Smokers” are periods during each rush day in which fraternities open their houses to potential recruits. They offer quite a bit of food and activities; and depending on the fraternity, these events will be of a higher quality. West Campus and North Campus fraternities split each smoker period during the rush days.</p>
<p>The fundamental problem with fraternity rush is that there are too many organizations and not enough time. Thus, if one selects the wrong set of fraternities to rush, one may not be receiving a bid or even a “contact”. Since I’ve mentioned contacts quite a few, I’ll define the term. A contact is a two hour period in the evening at which representatives from a fraternity you visited may or may not contact you. Some reps will invite you to an event and say that they like you, other may say that you may not “fit” into their fraternity. I’ll get into the whole “fit” business in a bit. </p>
<p>Smokers, although generous, are truly an nuisance. One basically goes into a fraternity and attempts to interact with the brothers. Generally, folks will be going through the same, dull conversations (major, hometown, etc.). Moreover, some fraternities will receive so much traffic that it would be almost impossible to interact with all brothers. In some houses, one must interact with all brothers to even get a positive contact or bid. This could waste valuable time that could be spent on a more suitable fraternity. Fraternity rush, with all the movement and almost meaningless interaction is certainly not as fun as folks (probably in Greek Life) say it is.</p>
<p>As you may guess, the selection process of some fraternities can be very flawed. The system as it is now can be very biased toward certain people even before rush. Those people who are not able to go to many parties, or do not necessarily know brothers before even entering Cornell, could be at a major disadvantage. The more high-end, selective, and exclusive fraternities tend to be the worst with this. I’m not naming any, although folks probably have an idea of those places.</p>
<p>Additionally, fraternities seem to be in their own niches. One may be dominated by lacrosse players, while another could be heavily devoted to university activity. All fraternities are different and looking for a specific type of person. If you don’t fit with a fraternity, a brother may personally escort you to some secluded area and tell you that you wouldn’t fit there either because of failure of consensus or another undisclosed reason. The unfortunate thing is, there may be more than one instance of this. For some folks, it can be quite upsetting. Avoiding this situation is not easy, as there is little to no official information about the real differences between fraternities.</p>
<p>Once one factors in the possible hazing, “tests”, and other factors, rush could actually be a very grueling process. And although only 30% of the undergraduate student body (I believe) is in fraternities and sororities, there is no harm in not entering Greek Life. As it is, the whole system is grossly overrated, but this certainly shouldn’t stop anyone from pursuing an organization.</p>