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I think that there's an angle to the smaller schools that sometimes people forget. And that's the fact that by the time you get to rush - often in the spring of freshman year, or fall of sophomore year - a lot of relationships are already established. You have been in class with greek women, traveled together on sports team, worked together in clubs or on student government, etc. So it becomes a different type of competitiveness. One house may be the "athlete" house, but with only 30 spots, they aren't taking all of the freshman athletes.
For example: If you are a freshman on the girls swim team and you simply love the gamma phis on your team (for example) because you've practiced 4 days a week with them, you've traveled with them, gone through team bonding with them, etc. So you get to rush, you go through rush with your other swim team freshman friends, and you feel great about gamma phi, everybody is excited that it's the house they want, you love the sisters you know and then bam. Gamma phi isn't going to take the entire girls freshman swim team, and you and 2 others get cut and suddenly you are devasted, feel betrayed, don't understand why the others got in and you didn't, ewonder if your friends like you as much as you thought, feel left out, etc.
Yes, of course as adults, we would argue that you should never think anything is a guarantee, keep an open mind, give every house a chance, and don't put all of your eggs in one basket. But when you are a freshman going through it and all you hear about is how these relationships matter, the competition gets pretty intense, even if you aren't aware of it at the time.
Would I compare it to an Ole Miss or Bama rush? No. But there's a different type of intensity there and one shouldn't underestimate it.
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