To Rush Or Not To Rush: A Crash Course From A Brother Who Likes It
By Abe Gutierrez
Although you probably got invitations to some of their Welcome Week parties under one of their pseudonyms, chances are you probably have never been to a frat party at NYU. Furthermore, there is a solid chance that you might not know a single person in a fraternity or sorority; multiple people have told me I’m the only person they have ever met in greek life at NYU.
We all know that if you elect to be in greek life here, you are essentially putting a scarlet letter of sorts on your chest. You will be faced with some scrutiny from the rest of the school, not with bad intentions, but from the rampant preconceived notions about what it is actually like. Rush is next week, and for those of you who are contemplating it, you’d better get the down and dirty from people directly involved (like me!) and make a judgment call for yourself.
First and foremost, greek life here comes in all shapes, sizes, and purposes. There are your social fraternities and sororities, but there are also business fraternities, engineering fraternities, pre-med fraternities, gay, Jewish, and cultural. Some of the bigger organizations have between 80 and 100 active members, while others have less than ten. Since I’m involved in social fraternities, I will mostly comment on those.
A good place to start off is probably figuring out how one goes about actually joining one of the organizations. Essentially, every fraternity, no matter what category they fall into, goes through rush.
“Rush is a time for you to meet the brothers, but also a time for the brothers to meet you,” said Gianangelo Graci, a senior in pre-med and brother of Zeta Psi (Zete). “We don’t look for any one thing, we really just want to see if there is a good fit between the rush and the brotherhood. We’ll hopefully be spending a lot of time together, so it is imperative that we fit really well with one another.”
The logistics behind the actual rush process are quite different between fraternities and sororities: fraternities generally host an event every night of rush week, all with free food. Those who are interested in rushing come out to as many or as few events as they wish. “Each event they come to is an opportunity to meet the brothers. Plus, having rush be a week long gives the rushes an opportunity to check out a variety of houses and get a feel as to where they could see themselves being,” said James Baglanis, a senior in Stern studying finance.
Each event is non-binding, so the fraternities really try to make a conscious effort so that anyone even remotely interested in joining greek life can rush without any reservations. At the end of rush, the fraternities vote on who they want to extend invitations to join (called “bids”), and the rushes can then make their selection from the bids they get. Some rushes get bids from multiple fraternities, while others do not get bids from any.
Sorority recruitment is substantially more formal than those of fraternities. “Formal recruitment is a mutual-selection process so your organization sort of chooses you as you choose it,” said Madison Back, a junior studying Journalism, and president of Alpha Phi Zeta (APhiZ).
When a girl decides to go through rush, she checks out the houses she is interested in and ranks them in the order that she prefers. The sororities then agree between themselves, and match up the girls so that they only get offers to join one sorority (as opposed to the fraternities, where they can get multiple bids).
After joining the organization, your level of involvement is really up to you.“You can come to as many mixers, alumni mingles, or blood drives you want. I have a pretty hectic schedule with classes, interning, and working at the same time, so I can’t make every single event, but I really try and make it a point to contribute meaningfully to any event I am at,” said Adam Weist, member of Pi Kappa Alpha (or as you all know it, Pike).
“One of my favorite events is the annual Christmas Party for New York City orphans we do with Zeta Psi,” said Julianne Guito, a junior in the Silver School of Social Work, and member of Alpha Sigma Tau (AST). “ Two years ago the party was held on the 10th floor of Kimmel, and the first snow of the winter started coming down right as the party was ending. It was a magical way to end an incredible day,” said Guito.
Greek Life at NYU is a lot more involved than it is at other schools. It is no secret that it is an excellent social outlet, as you literally meet hundreds and hundreds of people directly as a result. But we are more than that — we strive to make sure that every member of greek life really develops as a person through their time at NYU.
“Whenever anyone from any fraternity gets a job through a direct contact from a brother or sister, it is a win for all of NYU Greeks. I got my internship at a law firm through one of my brothers, and I hope to be able to pass it on to another brother once the time comes,” Weist said.
At the end of the day, the choice to rush is yours. Rush is next week, and although some of your classmates might look at you a little funny for deciding to go to rush instead of going art gallery hopping in Bushwick, chances are they just have no first-hand experience with it.
Madison Back sums it up best: “The best advice I can give to girls coming out to recruitment this week is to have fun. It can be overwhelming and tiring but its such a fun experience that you’ll look back on so fondly. I’m still friends with girls that I met during recruitment that either didn’t join aphiz or didn’t join greek life at all.”
