El McCabe

Senior Writer

Everyone knows that the University’s culture places a high value on Greek life and rush at the beginning of sophomore year. First-years are aware of the importance of sororities and fraternities very early in their college careers and are rapidly exposed to the pros and cons of Greek life essentially every weekend.

Even though this exposure happens so quickly, there is still a lot that first-years do not know about the rush process and what it’s truly like to “go Greek.” Mandatory information sessions, appropriately dubbed Sorority 101 and Fraternity 101, seek to fill in these gaps for first-years and attempt to provide a holistic view of Greek culture before first-years decide to rush.

On paper, these information sessions certainly sound beneficial and necessary. Yet, after attending the first Sorority 101 session, I found myself as indecisive as ever. All the sororities were given approximately five minutes to speak and tell us their key values and initiatives of their respective chapters, and they all quickly began to blend together. All of the girls speaking clearly loved their sororities and philanthropies, but this universal excitement made it difficult for any one in particular to stand out against the rest. This inability to discern between the Greek organizations and their personalities appears to be a much larger source of stress for women as opposed to men, and I sincerely hope the coming information sessions will help first-year women choose the right sorority for them. After asking multiple upperclassmen who have been through rush, the universal answer is that “the system works itself out.” After going through an intense and thorough week of rush, everyone supposedly winds up where they would be happiest, even if they are initially disappointed with their bids.

My best advice for those who will be attending the upcoming information sessions and participating in rush week in the fall is to keep an open mind and not to stress out too much about the future. The decision about whether or not to rush is a big decision and cannot be made overnight. I firmly believe that it can’t hurt to go to a few information sessions regardless of how helpful or unhelpful they are in discerning the sororities and fraternities. Remember, it is perfectly okay not to rush or to end up somewhere you were not initially hoping for. After all, a lot can happen in the four months from now until fall rush, and your opinions on it will likely swing back and forth. Hopefully future Sorority 101 and Fraternity 101 sessions will help clear up the uncertainty of this process.