Should I Rush A Fraternity?

This is one of my first posts here, and I am very confused on this decision. I just finished my freshman year, I did 2 internships. 1 in the fall and 1 in the spring. My spring internship was at a boutique investment bank (I was an investment banking spring analyst). All of my college experience so far has just been me grinding to be in a good spot for sophomore year recruiting for my junior year summer internship. Really did not do much freshman year besides work and school. I really want to rush in the fall at the beginning of my sophomore year, but I am worried that pledgeship will take away a lot of time that I should be dedicating to grinding my technical's and networking and ultimately lead to me not getting an offer.  I also go to a non target school but we do have decent alumni at almost every upper middle market firm. Thoughts? Any advice would be appreciated.

25 Comments
 

Agreed. The benefit to joining a frat largely depends upon which frat, and whether its alumni members are in critical places, to where they are able/willing to help. Also, check to see if the frats at your school have chapters at target schools -- that will increase the likelihood that members of that specific frat are in banking, to potentially help.

Especially nowadays, most frats are not incredibly helpful, regardless of what many would like to claim.

Investor (30+ years); IB/RE/PE/Corp (MD level); currently, head of boutique private equity firm; principal of family office.
 

Rushed and didn’t have a problem and never felt it interfered with what was important. Imo enjoy your college experience - not at the detriment of opportunities so make sacrifices where necessary, but you only get these years once.

 

I went to work on MWF, and lined up all of my classes on TTR. Just reached out to all the boutique shops in my city and had 3 interviews for the firm I ended up at. 

 

if you think youd like greek life or you've met some brothers and you like them, rush, go for it, go for it, ik lots of frat guys who do both. This is case by case tho, different schools and different frats pledge process will be different. Otherwise, if you're just looking for a better college experience, you don't need to be in a frat to have a good time. 

 

I know a few of the brothers, but also am just looking for a good college experience. The school I go to has decent greek life and I think I would enjoy it. Thanks for the advice! 

 

A couple of points:

• Frats will usually expect/require a lot of time, and participation at their events, to the point that it might interfere with academics or the banking process.

It is quite possible that your GPA might suffer from expectations of partying, events, activities scheduled with the sister Sorority, or other stuff, many tend to prove distracting to academics, so just be aware going in, and not let yourself slip into that scenario of impacting the bigger picture (GPA, banking process, etc).

• Have you considered Freemasonry? It's the original fraternity, and most college frats were started by Masons as a way to prepare their sons to join a lodge later on.

While it's not as popular among young people nowadays, and while not a wild frat party environment (unless you get into the Shriners, in some cases), and while not really talked about as much nowadays; you'll find a surprising number in senior/leadership roles within banking. It's not widely talked about, however.

After joining, I would bet that if you visit a local lodge near some of the big banks, you might be surprised at the members, and how easy is it to network and make the connection that way -- don't join just for the connection, but my point is that it would be helpful, if available to you.

Investor (30+ years); IB/RE/PE/Corp (MD level); currently, head of boutique private equity firm; principal of family office.
 

Just a follow-up, as I didn't want to seem dismissive:

If you have interest, let's chat, and perhaps it can be arranged.

Investor (30+ years); IB/RE/PE/Corp (MD level); currently, head of boutique private equity firm; principal of family office.
 

Yes. My number 1 observation in interviews is if you’re a hardo incel or not. The amount of kids that got offers over others just cause they had confidence and some charisma and good interests on resumes instead of good technicals is absurd, top BB.

 

You sound like a total nerd, at my top WHYP fraternity we only took 6'2+ attractive athletic trust fund kids who were clearly going to succeed in finance/politics/tech/law/startups (3.85+ cGPA, multiple top tier clubs (think GPS/WITG/WUFC), high school/freshman year internships, etc).

 

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