As you may know, Greek life is a big part of the college experience for many college students. It’s an opportunity to build lasting connections, gain leadership qualities and participate in acts of social service. It is also a great help to incoming freshmen who want to find paths to take during their college career.
During the recruitment process of Greek Life, there are two main times a year when a student can rush, fall rush and spring rush. Both of these times for rush are very similar, including events for rushees to attend and ceremonies although the fall rush ceremony is a lot more extravagant than the spring one. The main difference between the fall and spring rush is the size of the class rush.
“[A] key difference in spring rush compared to fall rush is the number of people that are rushing.” stated Sawyer Moore, Sigma Chi Rush Chairman, “Your number of people that are going to rush [is] going to be a lot lower.”
With the smaller class sizes of the spring rush, there is also a small chance that the spring rush gets canceled due to there not being enough rushees.
“A lot of chapters don’t have spring rush,” stated Beckham Faulkner, Pike Recruitment, “Or if you do not have a lot of people it gets canceled.”
But there are some benefits to having a bigger class to rush in during the fall.
“Most of the fraternities have about five to ten rushees in the spring and in the fall it can go from 15 to 20,” stated Hlomla Hlanangana, Sigma Chi Rush Chairman for last fall. “So you get to build more connections with a bigger bunch of people. There are more fun and bigger events that you get to expect in the fall.”
There are also benefits to joining a frat your first semester of college such as a support system to help a rushee through the stress of freshman year.
“Through fall rush, many rushees have a support system.” stated Drew McDonald, ATO President. “Freshman year can be difficult to navigate, having a group or responsible brothers to help guide them through that journey can be extremely valuable.”
Waiting to rush in the spring can also give a rushee time to find out which fraternity they would like to join or help freshmen get used to college life first.
“I chose to rush in the spring because I didn’t want to rush into joining a frat my first semester at UNA.” stated Myles Nelson, Pike spring rushee, “I wanted to get used to college first.”
Many of the events expected for this spring rush are basketball, poker nights, bowling, golf and just hanging out with the brothers!
