The Rush Experience

Too Long; Don’t Read (TL; DR)

Believing that most of you all are first years, this first blogpost will deal with how I felt during my Fall Rush experience! As a disclaimer, I was under the impression Greek Life was something I did not want to incorporate into my college experience, but then Fall Rush and Sigma Nu changed my mind. I am grateful of the amazing experience that MIT fosters within its Greek Life community. 

To those of you that aren’t first years, then stay for the journey to get to know how the second week at MIT shaped my entire experience!

First Day of Fall Rush: Free food and Events

Orientation ended and there was nothing to do for 5 full days, prior to classes starting. I thought this was going to be the most boring period of my life, because I haven’t met a lot of people yet, however MIT has a great plan in place: “Let’s fill this limbo period with Fall Recruitment!” Both fraternity and sorority recruitment occur during this time. It seems to me that MIT really supports Greek life, since we don’t have to worry about classes at all and get to genuinely meet over 20 different communities.

As I said, I was not considering this, but eventually all first-years knew about Fall Rush and convinced each other to go. Some free food couldn’t hurt, I thought.

At 10 AM the day after orientation ends, first-years storm Kresge field in hopes of finding something to do. I too was one of these people; sweating in my dorm room was not an option. 

All seems weird, as the clock has not hit 10 AM yet. But the moment that happens, all of the frat bros go wild. 

All you could hear were questions like: Hey interested in a house tour or some laser tag tomorrow? Come check out our free events! Hey what’s your name? That’s so awesome we have a brother that is majoring in that! We have a party tomorrow night, would love to see you there! etc.

It’s a funny experience because all these people are trying to get your attention, through free events, steak and lobster/waffles, gaming tournaments, etc. After 30 minutes of socializing, the vans come out and the vibe has changed. Mansion tours with free food afterwards, was what brothers in these vans promised. 

After a van ride to Baystate Rd, I found myself hopping around fraternities and their events. I ended up showing up to Sigma Nu. I saw most of my friends from Sin LíMITe (admitted Latinx students fly-in program prior to CPW) alongside with others and my future brothers. I chilled with my friends and then I got to know some of the bros and got convinced to stick around for more of their events. Nonetheless, I did not get bored and left at 8 pm after really just enjoying my time there getting to know my future bros and engaging with the other first years. 

I reconsidered Greek Life and thought about maybe it was for me. I went to my first ever frat party at another fraternity and had a solid experience meeting other people and just being in Boston. 

Mid Rush Week:

The events kept going and I felt that I genuinely wanted to have the maximum amount of fun possible. I wanted to go to as many unique events. So that meant I had to diversify the fraternities I visited. Now I am a loyal person at heart, but trying to experience something new overtakes that loyalty. I heard legends of go karts and sky diving, but I chose safer events. I stuck to my steak and lobsters, mini golf, paint balling, and house tours. 

Sort of somewhere in the middle, I spent a lot of time at Sigma Nu and realized that this is where I would like to be if I could receive the fabled bid. Talks of how nice fraternity life is compared to on campus started arising and I got the feeling that perhaps Sigma Nu wanted me to join their community. This is an amazing feeling, as being accepted for who you are is a beautiful thing. Conversations became more serious regarding joining and the future process that I felt that I had it in the bag to receive a bid.

At this point I felt comfortable at Sigma Nu, but I wanted to maximize my fun. I still went on a good number of events with Sigma Nu but went to wilder events that other fraternities had. This is sort of a weird of phase of any relationship because others think you are committed to them but in reality, you have this secret lover from the past that you are committed to. Romantic comedies aside, that’s how I felt. I ultimately got to do more things and got myself involved a little too deeply with another fraternity to the point it got awkward when their events coincided with Sigma Nu’s at the same place.

End of Rush: Classes, Formal Events

Classes started as Rush starts to end. I had no evening classes or varsity sport commitments, so it was stress free to just look at homework stuff for an hour and then go hangout back at Sigma Nu with the boys. Since classes barely started, there was just syllabi reading and understanding MIT learning technologies to work on.

More formal invite only events started happening. I got to see all of Boston alongside with a nice dinner with my fellow first years and brothers at Sigma Nu. I really enjoyed that sort of stuff because 30 people all eating Italian food is quite a special thing.

Friday rolled around, the official day that bids are given out to people rushing fraternities. At the wee hours of the morning, I fortunately received one from Sigma Nu and gladly accepted it whenever the time came for that to be.