Students spring into ‘rush’

The excitement was palpable at Old Union last Monday, as students gathered for Bid Day. The event, which marked the fourth and final chapter of sorority rush, was organized by the Inter-Sorority Council (ISC). Students who participated eagerly crowded around a table to receive envelopes with bids in them — as they opened the envelopes, they discovered which sorority — if any — they will step into this spring.

The courtyard rang with loud cheers from new Kappa Kappa Gamma members who celebrated each time a student opened an envelope and received a Kappa bid. Mia Shay ’27 and Ella Hollsinger ’27 said that they were excited about the Kappa sisterhood. “The girls are just so real and authentic,” Shay said.

London San Luis ’27 echoed her fellow rush. She hoped to find a sense of sisterhood and she was inspired by “meeting a lot of wonderful, great women” during rush.

“Based on the conversations during rush, people in the organization that I joined consistently talked about uplifting each other through hard times and celebrating the good ones,” San Luis said.

While it was marked by four packed days in spring, the rush process started last quarter when prospective members filled out an interest form and went through a virtual orientation and training videos before spring. It was on Friday, April 5 that rush started in earnest, however, when prospective members visited the six sororities governed by ISC. 

On Saturday, students who rushed met with smaller groups based on a match process run by ISC and rush leadership. Prospective members choose four top sororities, but it is unclear how new members are selected or matched, according to Eyrin Kim ’27, a student who participated in rush.

According to Anamika Chinnakonda ’27, on Sunday, also known as Preference Day, each prospective member narrowed down choices by attending events at one or two different sororities, depending on a second match process on Saturday.

“My favorite was the last day, Preference Day, because you got to meet with people you’ve already met with before so the conversations were deeper,” Chinnakonda said.

Students described varying sorority rush experiences. Some prospective members told The Daily they did not complete the entire process: Katie Cheng ’27 dropped before Bid Day when she realized she did not truly want to participate.

“I didn’t care about Greek life going into it, but the validation from them calling you back was making me buy more into it,” Cheng said.

Abby Lee ’27 attended Bid Day to support her roommate and other friends participating in rush, although she chose not to participate. As an outside observer, Lee described rush as a “stressful but very enjoyable” experience for her friends who chose to participate. 

“I feel like a lot of people’s social batteries kind of get drained, but for some reason they still find the motivation to still come the next day,” Lee said. 

Other students found the experience unexpectedly energizing. “Everyone was telling me that rush was going to be so hard,” Sawyer Lai ’27 said. “But I just had so much fun talking to people.”

According to San Luis ’27, some students start to participate in sorority events that night. She described mixed feelings, with excitement and nerves as she stepped into a new chapter: “I’m feeling mostly excited, the beginning of a new chapter, although a little anxious since a lot of my close friends chose different sororities so we’re experiencing this independently,” San Luis said.

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