Over half of Interfraternity Council fraternities participated in recruitment, which ended Sunday, Jan. 17, IFC president Sam Macomber ’16 said.
Macomber said that winter rush is generally smaller that fall rush, with fewer men and fewer houses participating in the process. He added that participation and the number of bids extended this winter has remained constant when compared to previous years.
“The vibe of winter recruitment is different, there’s a smaller number so it tends to be more of a low-key process,” Macomber said.
Macomber said he thought it was important to reach out to as many students as possible during the rush process, exposing interested students to a large number of houses. He also emphasized the importance of new member orientation following the actual rush process.
Macomber said that most people who go through winter rush have a better idea of which house they intend to go to since there are fewer houses available.
“The difference with winter rush is that new members tend to have more of a connection to the house that they’re joining because they’ve had more time to get to know them,” Macomber said.
Macomber said that recruitment this winter could have been slightly different since Kappa Kappa Kappa will have a “new and beautiful house” this spring, which may have attracted more members.
Tri-Kap extended five bids, which was slightly higher than the three extended last winter.
Keaton Renta ’16, president of Tri-Kap, said he thinks that one reason a number of people rush in the winter is because they were away in the fall. He added that he hopes the winter members have a similar reception from brothers as the fall members did.
“I think that all brothers, including members from the fall, need to be really exited and welcoming to the winter rush class because they are small so they might feel a little isolated but most importantly to be as welcoming to them as we were to the fall guys,” he said.
Tim Connor ’18 said he rushed in the winter because he was abroad during the fall term. He said that he went into rush with four fraternities in mind and visited all of those houses during rush. He ultimately committed to Tri-Kap.
He said that despite thinking that winter rush is more selective, he enjoyed the process.
“I thought it was mostly positive,” Connor said. “Rush is inherently stressful by nature, but to be honest, I actually think I really liked the sort of low-key aspects of winter rush.”
He said he thought that winter rush was more relaxed due to the lower volume of people compared to fall rush.
“There’s less houses full of 30 kids every night trying to meet all the brothers and go through all the social hoops of rushing,” Connor said.
Sigma Alpha Epsilon, which held winter rush in 2014, did not hold rush this year, president Adam Grounds ’16 said.
Last year, Alpha Chi Alpha and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternities extended two bids each, Chi Gamma Epsilon and Tri-Kap extended three and Zeta Psi extended seven.
This past fall, about 350 men joined 14 fraternities.
Representatives of Alpha Chi, Sig Ep, Chi Gam and Sigma Nu — fraternities that held winter rush last year — did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Connor is a former member of the Dartmouth staff.
Amanda Zhou is a junior at Dartmouth College originally from Brookline, Massachusetts. She’s previously been the associate managing editor, health and wellness beat writer at the Dartmouth and interned at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this Fall. She is pursuing a major in quantitative social science and a minor in public policy. At college, she edits the campus newspaper, serves on the campus EMS squad and lives in the sustainable living center. After graduation, she is interested in a career in journalism or data analysis. In her spare time, she can be found running, cooking or trying to rock climb.
