Whatup kiddlers. Welcome to Part 6 of our series on How To Have A Killer College Social Life. If you want to have the best time possible in college, you have to rush a frat. It’s really a night and day difference on what your college experience will be like. I’ve rushed a few times but never ended up committing and I feel like I missed out on a big opportunity. Most people who don’t feel the same way as me.
PS: If you want to become the best possible version of yourself to get into the top tier frats, check out my review of Christian McQueen’s, A Man In Demand Academy.
Step 1: Go to Greek Night
I’ve complied 7 key steps to successfully rushing a frat, and the first one starts with going to Greek Night.
This event is usually held in the Student Union and there will be a bunch of booths with all the different frats and sororities waiting for you to come by.
What you do here is just walk around to all the fraternity tables and briefly meet them. Make sure you introduce yourself and remember the names of everyone you talk to. Do basic small talk for 2 minutes and go to the next booth. This event isn’t where you really get to know them, it’s just serves as a short introduction.
Pro tip: Bring a friend with you here and throughout the whole rush week. Have a plan of joining the same frat together. You will have a much better chance of getting accepted if the frats see you as already having friends. It will also help out during long waiting periods which I’ll talk about in Step 3.
Step 2: Sign up with the IFC
This step is easy, all you have to do is go to your schools IFC website and officially register to participate in Rush Week. You just fill out your basic info and that you will give you eligibility to proceed with Rush.
However, you need to have a GPA of 2.7+ to rush. If you’re an incoming freshman this is nothing you need to worry about because you don’t have a GPA.
Step 3: Participate in Rush Day
This step is the worst because it is a long and tedious process.
What happens is that usually early on a Sunday morning, you have to go to the Student Union and officially meet all the frats.
They will have a list of all the names that registered online, and you have to sign in and stay the whole day to sign out in order to get credit. If you don’t go to this event or stay the whole day, you won’t be able to continue rushing.
After you wait for about 30 minutes, the IFC will split everyone up into groups of 10 and you will have a schedule to follow to visit each different frat.
There will be a certain time and room number that your group goes to each frat. Your group will spend 10 minutes with each frat, and then go to the next one on the list.
There’s going to be two kinds of frat rooms you walk into: one’s that take it super seriously and give a speech, and ones that don’t really give a fuck and are just bullshitting around.
Usually, the frats that don’t give a fuck are the ones you want to join, but there are still some good ones that take it seriously. The best way to tell if it’s a good frat is by how they look. Do they look cool, are they big, etc.
Anyway, what you do when you enter the room is pick one frat guy and just go talk to him.
There are three things you want to do:
- Tell him about yourself
- Ask him about himself
- Ask him about the frat
Talk for as long as you can and then say, “Hey man it was nice meeting you, I’m gonna go meet the other brothers.”
Then just repeat the same process with another guy/group of guys. The more people you can make a good impression on, the better. Also – try to remember their names.
What I did was just make a little note in my phone with each frat and who I spoke to that was cool.
On the other hand, there will be some frats that are just complete losers. You won’t even want to talk to them because they’re so awkward. This is where your friend who is rushing with you comes in handy.
Just chill with him until the 10 minutes passes and then you can move to the next room.
This is also a good opportunity to go to the bathroom and burn some Kratom to keep your energy and social ability at peak levels. That’s what I did at least!
And if you go to a big university, there will be a lot of frats, hence a lot of rooms to go visit. This process will take all day and will tire you the fuck out.
Lastly, all the frats are going to be handing out their own specific rush week schedule of events. Make sure you keep these flyers as you will need them to create your own calendar.
Step 4: Plan out and go to Events
After you’ve made it through that grueling day, go home and put all the flyers out on your bed. Separate the flyers into 2 piles, one pile for the frats you’re interested in, and the other pile to go in the trash.
You should aim to narrow your list down to three or four different frats you would like to join.
After you’ve done that, take a out a blank piece of paper and write down the three different rush days and their time slots.
Then look at your flyers and fill in the events on your paper to make a little calendar. In terms of the actual events, they’re most likely going to be something like a BBQ, a poker game, etc.
It should like something like this:
| Time/Day | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6:00PM | Frat #1 | Empty | Frat #2 |
| 8:00PM | Empty | Frat #2 | Frat #3 |
| 10:00PM | Frat #3 | Frat #1 | Empty |
Get your friend that’s rushing with you to make the same calendar as you. Like I said before, you will look 100x better if you show up to the event with a friend. This isn’t necessary, but it will improve your chances of getting a bid if the frat sees that you already have some sort of social life.
Now when you actually go to the events, make sure you find everyone you talked to during rush day and say what’s up and re-introduce yourself. The more repeated exposure you have, the better.
It’s also important to really lock down some convos with the guys you like the best. Try to know a few of the brothers really well instead of knowing all of the brothers only a little bit.
These are the brothers that will vouch for you when it comes time for the selection process. If you want an even better chance, develop a good relationship with the VP of recruitment.
In terms of what to talk about, it’s going to be the same as before at rush day except amplified. Tell them some crazy stories you’ve had, find out about heir crazy stories, find out what the frat is about, ask what sororities they chill with, etc.
Keep in mind that it’s also key to be friendly with the other kids that are rushing. You will be seen as a cool social guy, and once again – give you a better shot at getting a bid.
Now if you go to one of your potential frats event on your calendar and you didn’t really like their vibe, don’t be afraid to just stop going to that frat. Just cancel all plans to go to their future events.
Instead, focus on picking your top two frats and go to all of their events. Make sure you sign your name at each event so the frat knows how many of their events you went to. Obviously the more you go to for each particular frat, the better.
Lastly during this rush week, you have to attend a greek info session. The info session is basically where the president of the IFC speaks about rules and safety and all that bullshit. It goes on for about an hour and you have to sign your name at the end to get credit. If you don’t attend this event, you won’t be eligible to get a bid.
Step 5: Go to the Invite-Only Events (If Applicable)
If one or more of the frats like you, they will text you and invite you to a private event. They only invite a select group of kids that they want to join, so sit back and relax as they will now be doing the selling.
They will also start making you aware of the dues you have to pay to join the frat. Just to let you guys know, the average dues range from $500-$1000 a semester.
Pro tip: The lower tier frats will start doing the selling from the moment they meet you. No-one wants to join their frat, so they put in a lot of effort to recruit you. It’s simple supply and demand.
Step 6: Accept the Bid of your Favorite Frat
After you attend one or more invite-only events, the frats will extend a bid to you.
You have only a few days to make a decision on which frat you want to join, at which point you have to fill out some paperwork and hand it in to the IFC. They’ll usually have some office in the student union.
The IFC will then make sure that you attended rush day, the info session, and you have above a 2.7 GPA to be eligible to join greek life.
After they vet you, you will be added to the manifest and will be invited to the bid rally. The bid rally is a big event held in an auditorium where all the fraternities go on stage and throw out a shirt with their greek letters to you.
At this point you will officially be a pledge and your frat career will start. After everyone has gotten their shirts, all the frats will usually go back home (separately), and party to celebrate their new class.
Final Thoughts
I did the rush process twice, once during my second semester of Freshman year, and once during my second semester of Junior year.
When I was a Freshman, I was too much of a weirdo with no social skills to get along with anyone so I stopped going after one event.
And then when I was a Junior, I was legitimately willing to join, but I only wanted to join my #1 choice – one of the top tier frats. I ended up not getting in mainly because I was a Junior and they were pretty full during second semester.
A few lower tiers wanted me to join but I couldn’t honestly join a frat that I didn’t like. I would’ve hated all the brothers and would’ve only done it for the girls.
If you didn’t already know, joining a fraternity gives you insane access to sorority girls. If you’re not in a frat, most sorority girls won’t even look at you. And if they do, it’s because you’re VERY attractive and cool.
The girls is a big enough reason alone to join a frat, but don’t forget the instant group of friends you will have. You will always have people to hang out with and party with, something that a lot of kids can’t say these days.
Then there’s going to be the haters that say, “Oh they just buy their friends.” Well maybe, but who cares? They have a lot more fucking fun that most people. I would make that trade all day.
Before I wrap things up, lets talk a little more about the different tiers. The tiers are pretty important when it terms to the quality of guys you’re going to brothers with, and the quality of girls you’re going to be banging.
Each school classifies a frat or sorority based on four different tiers: top, upper-mid, middle, and who the fuck cares.
Just by talking to people and observing random stuff around the school, you should quickly be able to figure out which frats are cool and which are not.
But if you can’t or just want to get a good idea before school starts, check out Greek Rank. Greek Rank is a site that has every school in the country with every frat and sorority rated accordingly.
Now, the actual ranks that the site has isn’t entirely accurate because super serious frat guys go on and self rank their fraternity. The better option is to search your school and then click on the discussion tab. Then go to the most recent discussion that has “rankings” in it’s title and click on it.
It will have a list that looks like this:
Click to zoom in.
These discussion rankings are much more accurate than the normal rankings so definitely trust these the highest.
And if you really want to get an idea of frat life, or just frat out extra hard while you’re already in the frat, check out Total Frat Move. It’s a pretty funny site that has frat articles and real life news stories. There’s also a bunch of hot Instagram chicks.
Alright guys that’s it for tonight.
It’s no question that joining a frat is the right thing to do. You will have a better social life, sex life, and an overall way better college experience if you’re greek.
Although I don’t live with regrets, I definitely wish I experienced the hidden side of college.
If you’re a freshman right now, don’t put it off. Rush first semester. Don’t say, “Oh I’m just going to get used to college first. I’ll rush in the Spring.”
If you don’t do it right away the likelihood of you ever doing it severely diminishes.
And if you’ve already been in college without joining a frat, you can still do it successfully provided you’re not a Senior. It just won’t be worth it at that point.
Let me know about your frat experiences, whether from the inside or the outside. I think it’s an interesting little world they have.
School starts soon, lets get it! – Brian