Frats and Sororities 101

Sunday 23rd September 2012 - 9.25pm

So this last week was Rush Week at BG. Unless you were calamitous enough to endure Sorority Life on E4 about a year back (thank you Hannah, I hate you) then this indefinitely means little to you. The week is orientated around sororities and fraternaties which are exclusive groups of individuals who can live in separate accommodation, expediently a colossal house on campus, where they may hold events but usually just socialise with their 'fellow sisters'. These groups are sometimes refered to as Pan-Hellenic groups as they take their names from Ancient Greek e.g. Kappa Kappa Gamma or Alpha Fi. I'm lead to believe some names are unique to universities but some 'brands' of sorority/frat are nationwide and therefore more renounced. The individuals are hand-picked candidates who 'rush' during Rush Week. This is the week where any potential sojourner seeking acceptance into a sorority or a fraternity dedicate every waking second of their lives to becoming one of them. Girls are required to be pulchritudinous in every respect whilst boys are expected to suit up and impress.

From what I can make out there are two genres of sorority: a social one and a charitable one. Charitable sororities tend to approve most/all applicants in order to encourage as many girls as possible to be caring and considerate and help out in the society whereas the concept of event planning and consorting are pivotal to social sororities. Both require a payment for joining of around $400 which covers admissions costs and perhaps a t-shirt, I'm not sure.

I've heard several tales of partakers who have died during Rush Week as the leaders of these prestigious groups may request them to carry out dangerous activities - so much so the government have intervened and legislation has been passed to prevent re-occurrence. A contemporary requirement of Rush Week I have been informed make consist of voluntary work at Cedar Point, (Alton Towers equivalent).

There are rounds involved in rushing. I gathered that round one requires the applicant to select 10 different sororities and apply similarly to a UCAS form for university, this is called a pledge. They then spend time with the girls/boys who run and maintain the Pan-Hellenic groups and after some time to consider the leaders return the 'bids' and the applicant will have a number out of 10 indicating how successful they were and which sororities/frats would like them to return for round 2. Round 2 requires the applicant to pledge to up to 3 sororities of their choice, however if they are very dedicated to one option they can 'suicide' rush which means they are giving them all or nothing. They then finally return the bids for the last time and viola, you have yourself a sorority member. Or not....