It's that time of year again -- only this year it's a term earlier than usual. The Panhellenic Council's sorority rush begins tonight and will continue for the next week and a half.
This marks the first year since 2000 that rush has been held during Fall term. And with so many sophomores on campus in the fall, Panhell is expecting a larger-than-usual crop of rushees. Approximately 290 women will visit the six sorority houses involved in rush over the next nine days.
As usual, the sorority rush process will run much longer than the fraternity equivalent. Rushees visit all six houses during Round One, four houses or fewer during Round Two and two houses on Preference Night. The process ends Oct. 17, when women accept their Bid Night invitations to a particular house and become new members of the organization.
Throughout the process sisters deliberate on the rushees and decide if they want to invite them back to their house for another round. The large numbers of women rushing this fall means that the deliberation process will be a lengthy one for current sorority members.
"I'm concerned that I won't be able to get to know enough girls," said Alex Stein '06. "There's just too many to do that under the current rush process."
Although there will be a higher concentration of rushees this fall, the actual rush period is shorter than in years past because of conflicts with midterm exams, said Panhellenic Council president Krista Sande-Kerback '05.
Unlike past years, there were few events to acquaint sophomore women with the sorority houses before rush begins.
"We really didn't have time to do a lot of pre-recruitment events," said Sande-Kerback. "In a way that's a good thing because the '07's won't have preconceived notions about the houses and will keep an open mind as they go through the rush process."
More women rushing means that the pledge classes this fall will be larger than they have been for either winter or spring rush. The number of women in a pledge class is determined by dividing the number of women who end up going through recruitment evenly among the six houses, said Sande-Kerback. This fall, she expects pledge classes to number between 50 and 60.
Sande-Kerback called the sororities at Dartmouth "one of the most inclusive Greek systems in the country," as typically everyone who rushes receives a bid. The few women who do not are usually those who drop out of the recruitment process early, she said.
Sande-Kerback advised sophomores rushing to enjoy the experience.
"I remember being nervous," she said, "But be excited about it. The parties are fun, and it's a great way to meet people. And the juniors and seniors are really excited to have new members in the house."
Epsilon Kappa Theta president Beth Chambers '05 echoed this sentiment.
"We're really excited to have the sophomores in the house an extra term," she said. "The more time they can spend in the house the better."