Time conflict; a problem?
 

I'll be concise:

- I want to rush this winter at UCSB.
- However, I have class on monday night, which is when each rushing fraternity talks about itself.
- I wanted to use their speeches to narrow down my options, but now I won't be able to attend the speeches.
- However, I already have my options narrowed down to 6.
- So, my plan now would be to rush all 6 over 3 hours on tuesday. Then, I would pick my 2 favorite fraternities and rush those on wednsday and thursday.

Does this sound like a good plan? How much time does one generally need to dedicate to a single fraternity in order to get a bid? (i realize the latter question may be difficult to answer - no worries if so).

Thanks!

This is me personally, but I've never liked when organizations get up and give a speech, because a good orator can make even the worse fraternity sound amazing. When you say this Winter, I assume you're talking about next fall?

But, I do want to state that my information is coming from a southern school, IFC perspective and might not be applicable to what you're looking at.

If you are missing Monday night, I would advise then you spend time learning about what the fraternity actually does and what the guys are like it it. Here's the link to your Greek Life Fraternity's page: http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/osl/GreekLife/Chapters/Fraternities.aspx and some chapters have their own websites listed on it. This way you're not missing out on any information, because you'll already know everything they're probably going to say.

Now then, as to how much time it takes to get a bid... honestly, that is several factors: what Greek Life is like at your campus, your personality, the fraternity's style, etc. If you happen to know any guys in a fraternity that you're interested in, you should hit them up over the break/semester and hang out with them and say that you're interested in possibly rushing next semester. Or, if you don't, you could contact their recruitment chair (or if they have a sign up form) and they'll usually meet up with you and want to get to know you better.

For me personally, I could've gone with any of 5 fraternities just because I emailed the recruitment chairs and they invited me over to the house and we hung out and I got to know the guys and we all just clicked. But, that was with me spending most every night when I wasn't studying I went over to the house and chilled with them. The good thing is that regardless of where you go, I'm still friends with a bunch of guys from different chapters and that'll help out later on when I run for IFC and all that.

Chapters can and will lie or stretch the truth in speeches. I, personally, would not narrow my choices down based on a speech. You need to meet the guys in the chapters to see if you fit. Fit in a group overrides anything you can research about their national organization.