How Rush Works

Rush schedule

  • Saturday, August 31st @ 2:00 PM: Formal Recruitment Begins at Kresge Kickoff

  • Friday, September 6th @ 8:00 AM: Bids for Joining Can be Offered

  • Saturday, September 7th @ 8:00 AM: Bids for Joining can be Accepted

  • Wednesday, September 11th @ 5:00 PM: Earliest Time that Bids can Close

What actually happens?

Throughout your time at MIT up until now, you may have met some of the fraternity members on campus through Campus Preview Weekend (CPW), recruiting trips for athletics, or during the weeks leading up to the school year. What makes Rush different than any of these times is that the community is opening its doors and looking to find new members to join our fraternities!

Formal Recruitment will open at 12:00 PM on the Saturday before Labor Day with our annual Kresge Kickoff. At this event, we invite all first-years and upperclassmen that are interested in joining a fraternity to come out to Kresge Oval and to meet members of our 26 organizations on campus under the big tent. It is a great opportunity to hear about as many of our members as you can, so stay a while, grab some recruitment schedules, and start thinking about what groups might be for you.

Starting at 1:00 PM, chapters are allowed to begin inviting potential new members to their houses. Each chapter will have an open house throughout most of the day so you can explore Back Bay, Kenmore, Cambridge, and Brookline and see as many of our houses as possible and meet the brothers.

What about the rest of the week?

Moving forward, chapters will be holding events both in their houses and on excursions out of the city to places like Cape Cod beach or Six Flags. Some events later in the week will also be run on an invite-only basis, where that individual chapter really sees potential in you and wants to get to know you more personally. Finally, you do not have to worry about missing classes, there are no recruitment events scheduled during class hours when the semester begins, so you will be able to attend events and school with no issues.

And how does rush end?

Starting on Friday of Rush week, fraternities may begin to offer bids for joining their organizations. You are allowed to respond to those bids starting on the next morning. In the process of recruitment, you may receive a bid, some may even receive two, but there is a day in between extension and acceptance of bids so that you have sufficient time to develop your thoughts before making a commitment. The deadline to respond to a bid is the Wednesday after at 5:00 PM.