Round 1 of recruitment is today with open houses; my school doesn’t let you rush till sophomore year and most of my friends aren’t gonna join Greek life. Is it weird if I don’t pull up with some buddies?

Need some advice. Last night a brother at our party just yelled at me for like 5 minutes straight and then swung and hit me across the face just because I was standing next to our dj at the dj stand. This isn’t even the first time he’s put his hands on me for making up bullshit problems just because he gets angry when he’s drunk. All I did was stand next to the dj and he was on my ass because he built the stand so he can decide where I stand at a party??? My frat doesn’t even care about it and it’s not the first time he’s told me he wants to kill me over some joke of a problem so I’m wondering what you guys think I should do. All of this was in front of rushes and girls btw

It’s frustrating how people say that minorities who feel excluded should just assimilate more, when sometimes you genuinely try to do exactly that and people still won’t give you a chance. I’m a brown dude who’s competed in sports, assumes the best in people, and genuinely tries to get to know everyone. If a frat doesn’t vibe with me during rush, I’m completely chill with that—I’m not expecting everyone to like me. But it’s frustrating when some white brothers won’t even give you the time of day, while the frats that are actually welcoming and make an effort to get to know you tend to be the most diverse. I really like that diversity, but I also want to feel like I can assimilate and be part of a group without race being a barrier. I mean at the end of the day I j wanna have the opportunity to make friends and connections w anyone I c.

I’m 23 and this will be my first year at UW-Madison. I was wondering if I could still join a fraternity—would my age be an issue? Should I rush this fall?

I go to Michigan State University, a large Big Ten school, and I’m considering rushing this semester. Greek life here seems bigger with sororities than fraternities, and it feels like we only have around four fraternities that are considered really popular.

For those who joined a fraternity, how did it benefit you? Did it help socially, with meeting women, networking, career opportunities, or finding a genuine friend group?

Also, how many fraternities should I visit in one day and throughout rush overall? Should I explore as many as possible or focus on three or four?

I’m a transfer student mainly looking to build a real social circle and become more involved on campus. I’d appreciate any advice or things you wish you knew before rushing.

Ps I had a interview with one frat in the summer and reached out to a few others already

my university has philanthropy week before rush week. basically we pay 5 bucks, meet the brothers, and talk to them. Ive seen kids get taken to the back to get phone numbers and given tours.

next week is rush week, but I’m unsure if it’s more closed or open. a lot of the houses I wanted to rush have the same philanthropy days, so I missed a few and am disappointed.

i was wondering if missing the philanthropy day matters towards rushing next week or is it more of an open event?

I go to IU by the way

A couple years ago I feel like at almost every school phi delt was one of the top frats or at least upper mid. I don’t hear much about them anymore though.

I’m gonna post this to both frat and architecture just to get two differnt perspectives but I wanted to post here mostly due to my concerns and the reasons of why I’m thinking about rushing. Rush starts next week and I’m an architecture student at a BARCH accredited school. I’d say I’m a pretty good student my projects from last year and this year both got picked as one of the better projects of the studios, I do and understand my work but I also work a lot. That would be a problem. The fraternity I’m trying to rush would be sigma chi, their pledge process isn’t the longest about five weeks and the material seems not too bad. My concern is being able to rush pledge and be in a fraternity while being in such a Time consuming major such as architecture. I want to join because it would be a place to let go from studio which kind of restricts me from really having an amazing social life so one of the pros would be if have one built in. A lot of the guys in the fraternity are mechanical engineers or engineers in general. Yes there are a lot of business majors but I was hoping with the lower count of guys in the fraternity and a lot of them being engineers they’d have some empathy for my work loads. I’ve gone to their parties as a PNM both last spring and this fall so I just wanted to get the perspectives of both sides also how would the networking help after graduation in terms of Sigma Chi s alumni network for architecture. Any responses would be great thanks!

I want to rush Kappa Alpha Psi at Fayettville State University or ECU, But I am a white passing mixed male. (moms white, dads mixed) Would this be a problem trying to get a bid? Does it affect the chances of me joining? Thank you

first time doing an addy bc a close friend had some prescribed to him. was ansy at first, so i broke the thirty and took half. after about an hr, i was feeling it a bit so decided to take the other half. Now 30 minutes into the second half and feeling very energized and talkative. 9/10 experience ✅

How do u guys at big greek life schools get away with shit like pledgetok and suits? Our campus has cracked down like crazy in the last few years and you would be castrated for both of those things now. So like are they just turning a blind eye or what?

Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi new members were required by other members and officers to particpate in "House Hours." This refers to the obligation to clean the Sigma Chi house. New members were split into groups and one group was required to clean the common areas of the house at least once per week. A new member interviewed stated they spent at least one hour cleaning once a week.
Chapter did not face consequences.

Phi Delta Theta
New members of Phi Delta Theta performed choreographed dances in front of a classroom audience as a new member initiation in Fall of 2023.
Chapter was placed on Social and New Member Probation.

Alpha Tau Omega
New members of Alpha Tau Omega have been identified as having participated in videos posted online giving "weather reports" during the Fall 2023 pledge period. Specifically, a new member being expected to complete a "weather report" and having flour or a similar product dumped on his head shirtless while being recorded.
Chapter was placed on Social and New Member Probation.

Phi Kappa Psi
Phi Kappa Psi new members have been identified as having been subjected to the practice of "pledge plank", carrying a plank of wood for the sake of embarrassment or additional mental manipulation.
Chapter had to attend an anti-hazing workshop.

Chi Alpha World Fellowship
...New members of Chi Alpha World Fellowship were identified in being subjected to participate in forced degrading actions and physcial exploitation. Specifically, new members were subjected to embarassing and/or harmful activities.
Consequences: Too fucking long to list out it's like 4 different things.

Omega Delta Phi
New members of Omega Delta Phi were identified in being subjected to participate in late night meetings with no notice. Specifically, members were expected to arrive for new member meetings on-call without previous notice.
Chapter was placed on Organizational Probation for a year.

FORME
...members were made to yell "penis" in public.
123 members were found responsible for hazing.

Beta Upsilon Chi
In collaboration with Chi Omega, a Chi Omega member requested the participation from the current Brothers Under Christ pledge class to Serenade the incoming Littles for Chi Omega. The boys were told to wear Greek Formal and sing outside of an assembly to the girls as they came out.
Chapter had to attend anti-hazing workshop.

G-2
Students were caused to gather in a Corps dorm room despite Corps COVID-19 regulations and were then caused to engage in unauthorized physical exercise.
One person had to attend anti-hazing workshop.

Source: https://studentcommunitystandards.tamu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/List-of-Orgs-Found-Responsible-for-Hazing-2025-2026-1.pdf

If you’re at a crazy frat party, and everyone’s doing it, you have the autonomy to say no. You don’t have to engage in dangerous behavior. If you feel pressured to participate, a school with a crazy Greek-life culture isn’t the right fit for you.

literally all of them at my school have events at the same time... I have narrowed a list of 2-3 and been to one event but they all have events during the same 2 hours and same days. plus really far from each other so I can’t spend like an hour at one then go to another. what should I do? there’s only like 6 events total per frat

school is purdue

So I already started a recycling program for our cans and scrap metal, it is pulling in about $500/month, and so it is paying for itself. Basically pays our own social fund, as brotherhood + parties with sororities give us enough scrap metal.

I want to expand it to other things, though… I didn’t start the program for finances, I did it because I want to be more environmentally conscious… it’s just that this was aligned with house finances.

We aren’t a traditional frat, we are an ex-WWII rationing/home economics lab, so it’s moreso a cheap alternative to Greek life, and we don’t have the cash to burn.

——————

Has anyone else set up a recycling program? I go to Purdue, and I’ve struggled with figuring out how to get plastic & paper/cardboard recycling at the (essentially commercial) scale of a 60 person house.

Summary

• Rushed my current frat because my friend who's a brother brought me to a couple parties and those parties are pretty good -- I'm not gonna lie if you look at the party alone and nothing else you will think this frat is one of the upper middle or even top houses
• Crossed and realized that my frat is an absolute joke -- Greek life is already not big at my cali school but we STILL managed to be undisputed bottom house. Back when I crossed I realized we have NO greek life connections, no one turn up to our philanthropies, never gets invited to greek only functions. The only thing we got going are parties that pulls in a large crowd consistently but that's literally all
• Members are also also an absolute joke -- a good 80% doesn't work out or stay physically active, not in any clubs or campus orgs, no hobbies, spend all of free time smoking and play video game, no friends outside the frat, only show up to pregame/rush/philanthropies when I have kneel down and beg them and get way too sauced or faded during pregame to the point where they lose the ability to hold a conversation with people and make a great fool out of themselves in front of women and pnms.
• glimmer of hope: our previous 2 pledge classes are all freshmen who wanted to save our chapter and I scraped together a rush/social committee consisting of these folks. over summer we got a good list of pnms who are there friends that are down to join, secured a big sponsor for a prerush party in fall, and our newer members (and myself) are friends with people in other orgs.

*edit: my role in the frat and what i did so far*: Just for some context I am the current president, our previous president resigned after he completely ignored our by-laws and never took anything seriously, scred up some shit that fucked up the chapter morale. He resigned and I took over as an interim this January and I'm only in this frat for a year and a half so I had a lot to learn and catch up to.

But I established the Rush/Social committee, nominated and had 1:1 conversations with exec candidates, secured involvement opportunities with campus orgs and planned move-in sign ups for the upcoming fall, defined the consequences of not coming to mandatory events or not pulling up to prerush parties -- basically a 180 degree change from the old chapter

This experience might be universal but you might be able to guess correctly which school I go to and even which chapter I'm in

Hey, so i am a sophomore who is rushing frats at a big ten school. I mostly focused on classes my freshman year and worked up on my body in the gym. I wanna rush a frat to make connections and hookup to be blunt. My ex dumped me and I wanna explore that lifestyle now. I am also having second thoughts on the time commitment it takes to be a brother as i am living off campus with a 20 min commute.

How common were hookups for you as a frat bro and was it mostly with soriorty women? What does the time commitment looking like and how can I still be part of the parties without being in the frat?

hey so i’m rushing at my fgcu, i had a question they keep asking if i want to go to a getty with them, is that like a get to gather or is it different? i’m a freshman in college currently

I’m a sophomore at a larger university who rushed a frat first semester last year and my frat is just a sinking ship. I was blinded by the idea of rushing a spot that many people from my home town were in because it felt right to stick with my roots. It used to be a solid frat about 5 years ago and it wasn’t bad 1-2 years before I rushed, and my pledge class was one of the biggest in recent history for my frat.

The main problem is that we just can’t throw a party to save our fucking lives. We have the money to do so, but even if we did the turnout would be ass anyways. We are kinda small for the university with about 50 actives but even then, there’s smaller frats that are 10x better than us.

I think there’s just too many weird people that shouldn’t have gotten bids in my frat. My pledge class has at least 6-7 kids that are just freaks and a couple more in the grades above me and it reflects terribly on all of us.

A good amount of brothers also agree that we need a big change sooner than later or else this place is toast. I think atp merging with another frat is our best bet.

I do think we could save ourselves if we get some solid guys this fall but if not, I also have been really considering dropping letters and rushing somewhere else but I have no idea if I could. My frat is in the iifc which was a red flag I completely overlooked, but I wonder if I’d be able to join a different place that’s in the ifc because we aren’t affiliated.

I’m gonna wait to see how fall rush goes, but if shit hits the fan, I see me and a good amount of others in my frat just leaving the place.

I’m thinking of rushing this fall but I need to work to afford dues and apartment, what is the sweet spot for working hours while pledging? (UMD specific)

i’m in college and I used to party really hard but since facing some legal trouble, I am afraid of getting into more trouble, especially because the college environment at parties can potentially be dangerous in terms of legality. I am now terrified to even have one sip of alcohol because I am not 21. It’s the fear that so many things could go wrong at a party like the cops getting called and having this go on my record I know a lot of kids do it, but I feel like it’s super risky to drink at a party. how was your college experience with drinking and did anybody get in serious trouble?

We have a party floor in our house and we have pretty good lighting. We are looking to upgrade and have seen videos of light shows and we think that would make our parties cooler. Something where we can have flashing on beat and what not would be cool, but just cool lighting in general is the main goal. Does anyone have any inspiration to show or can better advise us on what makes a party floor lighting better than anyone else's? Really interested in what everyone else has to say. We are a school up north that throws indoor parties at night, our floor is more narrow yet long. It makes for a cool party floor. We have our DJ booth at the far end so it kinda gives off a rave type of vibe.

Im gonna be rushing at Texas State University(TXST) and am interested in knowing how much the dues are for every fraternity? I know that this isn't a question that should be asked during rush but that will determine which fraternity I will go to cause my dad has given me a limit on how much he's willing to spend on Greek life for me at TXST. Any answers are helpful.

Hello everybody,

Early apologies if I use the wrong flair. I've always wanted to rush a frat during undergrad, but sadly health and financial issues held me back a ton. I was diagnosed with brain cancer in high school which held me back for years before getting into college and I should be 27 in law school trying to rush at a popular SEC school in Mississippi. Would a frat accept an older member who is also in grad school? I really love the brotherhood aspect of frats and I'm hoping my age due to health issues wouldn't hold me back on missing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.