As a sophomore, Dani Monroig would wake up to emails sent at 2 a.m. telling her she’d advanced to the next round of sorority recruitment.
“It seemed so intense that people were staying up that late to talk about all of us,” she said.
Now Monroig is on the other side of the inbox. As a member application process chair at Thalia, Monroig said she and the rest of the recruitment team had “been staying up until 2 a.m. for the past two nights, just debating.”
Such is life during sorority recruitment; an intensive process that drew interest from more than 300 potential new members this year.
For those unfamiliar with Greek life at Tufts, the sorority process is broken down into two “paths” for PNMs: national and local. Choosing national means rushing Tufts’ nationally-affiliated sororities, Chi Omega and Kappa Alpha Theta, which have to adhere to a stricter set of principles and traditions that all chapters nationwide must follow. On the other hand, the local sororities, Thalia and The Ivy, are only found at Tufts and are disaffiliated from any national organization, therefore allowing for more relaxed guidelines.
“We had 200 girls that went local, so we have to narrow it down,” Monroig said. “Each of the two local [sororities] take[s] around 50 to 60 girls.”
Sofia Shah, another MAP chair at Thalia, rushed last fall and said that, in retrospect, the process seemed more significant back then than it seems now.
“Being in Greek life doesn’t really make or break your Tufts experience,” Shah said. “Everyone’s involved in a lot of different things at Tufts.”
Interest in rushing has exploded in recent years, and Shah suggests that social media has had an impact on its growing popularity.
“We’ve all seen the rush TikToks that come across our For You Page every August,” Shah said. “Social media portrays it in a certain way, and [in] some ways it’s positive, and [in] some ways it’s very negative, so that just adds to people wanting to see what it’s all about.”
Monroig offered a different perspective. The Ivy and Thalia, the two local sororities, were established in 2020 and have recently grown to include a large portion of each class.
“The more people found out about it, the more they wanted to join,” she said.
Before choosing to follow the local or national member application process, students have to determine if being in any sorority would be a good fit.
Monroig admitted that she was conflicted about going through recruitment.
“I didn’t think I wanted to rush … I found out about the concept of local sororities and local rush, and it seemed to me a much more palatable rush process … [and] also a more palatable sorority experience as a whole,” Monroig said. “Much more low maintenance, low time commitment, while still having that community.”
The minimum commitment, Monroig explained, is a chapter meeting every other week. “It is what you make of it,” she added.
Shah selected a local sorority for a different reason. “I come from a multicultural background so I felt a little bit more represented in the local sororities,” she said.
Charlotte Benedict, a junior in Chi Omega, wasn’t sure what she wanted to do at first, but soon the perks of a national sorority won her over.
“I heard that the national [sororities] can be a bit more time consuming,” Benedict explained. “[But] hearing about people’s experiences in a national sorority — the alumni network, how involved everyone is with our philanthropy and getting access to a house where everyone can come and hang out and spend time together … solidified things for me.”
Benedict also observed that local sororities felt “a little bit more exclusive,” and “a little bit less attainable.”
Another draw of the Panhellenic sororities like Chi Omega and Kappa Alpha Theta is their extensive alumni network that sorority sisters have for life. “Once I graduate, I’m still technically a Chi Omega,” Benedict said.
Local rush runs for about two weeks and has three rounds. In Thalia, those rounds are values night, speed dating and interviews. “By no means is that enough [time to get to know everyone]. We do the best with the time we have,” Monroig acknowledged.
The name itself is apt. “I think the rush process itself … is really rushed,” Monroig said.
Shah’s experience of being a prospective new member reflects this rush frenzy.
“I thought that doing the local sorority recruitment would be less stressful, but it was actually very stressful,” she said. “Also, at that time, [I was] living in a suite with nine other girls, and all of us were doing local sorority rush, so that kind of added a layer [of stress] because everyone was doing it.”
To raise the anxiety, in the local rush process, prospective new members are not guaranteed a bid, unlike with the national sororities.
Benedict also felt the pressure. “It felt very intense at the time,” she said. “It felt, not competitive, but … anxiety-inducing.”
Many think that recruitment events are just surface level. “I would say a big misconception is that [rush is] fake,” Monroig said. “People that come out having deeper conversations are the ones that tend to do better in our feedback forms and all of that, so I think these conversations that may seem insignificant or just surface level actually are much deeper than that.”
Some students have advocated for allowing first-year students to rush. All three interviewees were opposed to rush being open to younger students.
For a first-year student still acclimating to college life, rush can be an added stressor, Benedict explained.
“There’s so much going on [in your first year]. You’re taking college classes for the first time. You’re trying to join clubs, get involved, meet people. … Throwing in the whole rushing recruitment process on top of that, I think, would have just become too overwhelming and almost could have been more isolating,” Benedict said.
Shah expressed social concerns about first-year rushing. “If you do rush [first-year] fall, it really tunnels people into like certain groups of people and doesn’t really give them a chance to become friends with people outside of those organizations,” Shah added.
But why do people even want to rush to begin with?
“There’s definitely a misconception about the fact that people just join [to get] access to parties. There’s so much more to it, and I think … the philanthropy aspect and the sisterhood aspect has meant so much more to me,” Benedict said.
For Shah, the value of joining a sorority was the opportunity to meet new people. “I didn’t really know anyone who was in an older grade, so that’s definitely been very helpful to know older girls and have mentors in that sense,” she said.
Another reason Shah sought out sorority recruitment was her desire to be involved in service.
“I hadn’t really found a way to get involved in [service] in college yet,” she said. “[Thalia has] partnered with a lot of different organizations that I’m very passionate about [such as] Planned Parenthood and the Massachusetts Immigrant [and Refugee] Advocacy Coalition.”
For Monroig, the community she found through Greek life was the most fulfilling aspect.
“I really didn’t care what sorority I got. I was just happy to be in some sort of community, and since then, it’s delivered [on] all its promises,” Monroig said.
