The start of a new school year is always an exciting time: new classes, reuniting with friends, and, if you’re a freshman, adjusting to living on your own for the first time in your life. At many colleges across the country, a new school year also means a new rush season. Rush, otherwise known as the sorority recruitment process, can be long and stressful as you try to find the house that is the best fit for you. But some some schools’ rush process is really taxing. Schools like the University of Alabama are very well known for having competitive recruitment seasons, but this year, one school whose rush season has been unexpectedly intense was the one at San Diego State University.
In late August and early September 2024, TikTok was flooded with videos of SDSU students who were dropped from houses, or chose to drop their remaining houses, during sorority rush. For example, TikTok user @lilyslittlelife444 posted a video of herself walking with the caption, “not a survivor of sdsu rush.” Another user, @gabsgroovytime, posted a video looking at what would have been her Pref Night outfit with the caption, “You would’ve been perfect babe.” The comments on both of these videos, and many others that were similar, were overwhelmingly supportive, with some users commenting their own stories of getting dropped from recruitment. But even more prevalent were the comments from so many people noting just how intense SDSU rush seemed to be this year. The top comment on the @gabsgroovytime video, with over three thousand likes, read, “I’ve been hearing AWFUL things about sdsu rush.”
In response to the discourse, TikTok user Samantha Fiutak posted a video with her own insight to SDSU rush 2024, after experiencing it herself and not getting into a sorority. She explained to viewers that rushing at SDSU is getting extremely competitive because the school is growing (with over 37,000 students), but there are only nine sororities, compared to schools like Alabama that have over 20.Â
Furthermore, according to Fiutak, access to SDSU’s social scene seems pretty dependent on what sorority you’re in, which makes rush all the more competitive. “The way people go out and have a nightlife at San Diego State is through the frat parties,” Fiutak shared in her TikTok. “There’s just too many girls, the fraternities can’t let every single girl into the fraternity. So you have to be in certain sororities to go to certain fraternities.”Â
For many hopeful PNMs, there seemed to be a lot at stake during the rush process. Having not only a community of sisters, but also a thriving social life, is important to many college students, making getting dropped sting all the more. Getting dropped from a sorority never feels good, and this year seemed especially intense at schools like SDSU. But it’s important to remember that your college experience won’t be defined by this, and that you can still have a wonderful academic and social life even if you aren’t involved in Greek life.