When entering into any college or university, one question asked of students is how he or she is going to get involved. One of the most popular organizations attached to multiple colleges and universities is Greek life. Each fall, the week before school starts, the University of Alabama has a weeklong event of something called Rush. Rush is the process of how a girl enters into a sorority. There are a few main steps in order to survive rush and it begins the spring before your rush week.
In the spring semester each sorority hosts rush parties. These parties consist of day and night get-togethers that current sorority members hold for girls who will be rushing in the fall, also known as future pledges. During the day the girls attend cookouts and luncheons; while the night parties consist of guys and girls getting together to branch out and meet new people. Through these parties future pledges are able to meet girls also attending Alabama in the fall. They are also able to get to know the girls currently in the sorority. By getting to know the girls in the sorority, the future pledges are able to develop an idea of what the sorority life is like, and if they would be able to fit in with the girls.
After attending the rush parties in the spring, a girl is then able to have an idea of whether she really wants to rush or not. If the girl decides yes, then there are a few steps she must take in order to prepare herself for rush week. First, the girl must go to the Panhellenic website and sign up for recruitment. Panhellenic is the organization in charge of all of the sororities and fraternities. By signing up on this website, the girl is letting all of the sororities that she will be participating in the upcoming rush. Once she has signed up on this website she must create a resume for herself. The resume consists of everything she has completed in high school. This would be made up of extracurricular activities, awards, community service, jobs, internships, test scores, GPA, and a picture of herself. The importance of the resume is to give the sororities an opportunity to get to know her. The resume is also given to many women who are alumnus of sororities. With this resume, alumni write a letter or a recommendation to their sorority as to why that sorority should consider this girl. A letter is written to the sororities that the girl is mostly interested in by an alumna who will speak about the great qualities of the girl and why she would be an important asset to the pledge class. A recommendation is usually a sheet of paper that consists of the important basic information of the girl. It is important that a girl has both the recommendation and resume, because it shows the sorority that she is extremely interested in becoming a member. It also gives the sorority a good idea of how important she is to have in the sorority by the number of people who care for her to be added to the sorority. Once the alumni have written the letters of recommendations, they are then sent to each of the sororities the girl is interested in.
A week before school starts the girl moves to school to start rush that week. There are four chances of narrowing down sorority choices. First every girl is divided into groups alphabetically. Monday and Tuesday of this week are based on each girl going to every sorority house with her group where she will wear sundresses. At each of these houses the sorority opens with a door song. This is a song that promotes their sorority that girls sing at the door while all the pledges are lined up outside of the house. After the song is over each pledge enters into the room and is escorted by a center member to an area of the house where they create small talk. This is when it is good to think of conversation starters. Each girl is at each of the houses for fifteen minutes. Sometimes the girl is with the same member the whole time but usually more members come up to speak to her. On Wednesday morning the girl goes to the computer lab with her group. She logs onto the computer that will show her which sororities would like her to come back to the house and spend more time with her. The girl can choose up to twelve houses to return to on Wednesday and Thursday. If a girl is not asked back by any houses she will be notified and rush will be over for her. If a girl is nervous about a house dropping her it is important that an alumnae calls the house to speak about how important it is to have that girl in the pledge class. This way the girl will have a better chance of getting into that sorority. When the girl returns to those houses on Wednesday and Thursday she must wear a t-shirt, that is provided by Panhellenic, and shorts. This is because at the houses during these two days the girl will learn about each of the houses philanthropy through creating an arts-n-craft that has to due with their philanthropy. On Thursday, the girl returns to the computer lab where she will once again see who has invited her back and narrow her list down to at most seven. During this day the girl goes to the houses that she has left to watch a skit. Each house performs a skit so the girl can see what the girls personalities are like inside the house. This is one of the most important days for a girl to attend because it is suppose to help the girl see if she would be able to fit in the house. On Saturday, the student heads back to the computer lab where she will narrow her list down to three. Today is “Preference Day”. This means that the girl attends the houses that she likes the most. At each house someone goes and speaks to the girl one on one. Some houses like to speak about their experiences about being a member of a sorority while others like to just speak to the girls normally trying to allow them to feel comfortable with them. At the end of the day every girl lines up and returns to the computer lab where she will put her “Pref Day” houses in order of the one she wants to join first. Sometimes a girl knows what sorority she wants to be in but most times a girl must weigh out the pros and cons of sororities to help her choice her pref. After this point the girl is to return to the dorm where she will wait until Sunday afternoon to receive her bid.
On Sunday afternoon, every girl goes into the stadium and sits in their groups. The group leaders pass out an envelope to each girl that has their name on it. When a leader says go every girl in the stadium opens their letter that has a bid on it from a sorority. At Alabama eighty-nine percent of girls get their first choice of sorority, but if not a girl must still act excited because most time a girl ends up loving her sorority. After opening their letters, every girl then runs out of the stadium area where members of each sorority will be holding the sorority letters. Then the girls will sprint with each other to the house. At the house, jerseys with the sororities’ letters will be given out and pictures with the sorority will be taken. From this point, the girl meets new friends she will keep for the rest of her life.
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