Once again, sorority rush season is upon us! When fall rush rolls around, it feels like my entire social media feed fills up with work week videos, GRWMs, and, eventually, clips of PNMs revealing what sorority they get into on bid day. It’s all super fun and entertaining to watch, whether you’re going through rush right alongside them, or just enjoying learning about the process from afar.Â
But if you have ever looked into Greek life before, you might have already discovered that the rush process, from both ends (both active members and PNMs) can be filled with rules. I mean, even work week, seen on social media as fun dancing videos where all the active members dress up and goof around, is actually pretty strict; they spend their entire day at the chapter house preparing for recruitment and learning the right and wrong ways to recruit the right people for their group. The rules ramp up even more for rush week. At most schools, rush week is dry, there are specific guidelines when it comes to the dress code for each day, and topics of conversation are pretty regimented.Â
But one aspect of rush that’s less clear for many is social media — specifically, the question of who PNMs are allowed to follow before joining a sorority. There doesn’t seem to be a hard and fast rule about this across the board at all colleges and sororities, so let’s look into it further!Â
Can PNMs follow sorority chapters on social media during rush?
One expectation for PNMs that will likely be the same at every school is that if you are going to follow your school’s sorority chapters on Instagram and TikTok, you should follow all of the chapters at your school. It’s best to not pick and choose, because then if the houses look into your social media following (which not everyone does, but this is absolutely a possibility) and see you don’t follow them but you follow others, they might write you off as uninterested in them. Even if you follow their house but you don’t follow other houses at the school, that could signal to the sorority that you’re not very supportive of the school’s Panhellenic community. Plus, following all the houses — and the school’s Panhellenic account, if they have one — can be great resources for info during recruitment, so you might as well follow them all before rush even begins.
Can PNMs follow sorority members on social media during rush?
In terms of following individual active members within these sorority houses during rush, if your school has a rule against it, obviously don’t do it. If there aren’t any rules about it, though, use your best judgment. At some schools, it’s totally normal for PNMs to follow a bunch of sorority members (especially if they already have large followings), but at other schools, it might not be as common. Your safest bet is to ask around to see what others are doing and follow suit.
One thing you want to be mindful of during rush is dirty rushing, which is when sorority members engage in prohibited activities in order to persuade a PNM to join their house. This is super serious during rush, and both sorority members and PNMs can get in trouble for engaging in activities perceived as dirty rushing. So, while you might be allowed to follow a sorority member during rush, don’t expect them to follow you back. And if you really connected with someone during a rush event and want to reach out, it’s best to wait until rush is over to do so. (And who knows — they might end up as your sorority sister!)
I would also recommend double-checking your Panhellenic website before rush to see if your school has any specific rules or expectations when it comes to these things, as every school can be different. And always be sure to follow your gut; if you feel weird or uncomfortable about something, don’t do it. It’s more important for you to focus on enjoying rush and being in the moment — whatever happens on social media can wait til after bid day.