Alex Becker
Welcome to August. With freshmen move-in right around the corner, we have officially made it to rush season. Despite what the IFC will tell you, frat rush starts as soon as you step foot on campus. Dirty rush, if you will, tends to actually be quite more important than regular rush. You see, rushing before true rush begins gives you the opportunity to meet the brothers, make your name known, and hopefully secure an early bid. However, that’s truly easier said than done. Lucky for you incoming freshmen, I’m here to help you prepare. Rush conversations typically revolve around the same things, meaning I can basically feed you the exact questions brothers will ask you. Do yourself a favor and prepare cool answers to these questions. If you don’t, you’ll probably have a bunch of really boring talks with brothers and end up a geed. Don’t be a geed. Here are all the questions you will be asked during rush.
“What’s good?”
Ah, a classic. Here’s a hint though. No one actually cares how you are. Sorry, but this honestly just goes for life in general. When someone asks you “what’s up?” or “how are you?” They don’t actually want to know about the small details of your life. Looking at this question through a frat lens, it essentially should be restated as “college is sick isn’t it?” Literally brothers just want to know that you’re having fun. No one wants to bid a scared little weenie who misses his parents and golden retriever. What they do want to know is that you woke up hungover this morning with a random girl in your bed and that you intend on doing the same thing tonight. Act cool, pretend to be loving life (even if you aren’t), and always be optimistic. Frat dudes love optimism.
“Where are you from? No way, what part?”
99% of rush is trying to find mutual connections. It’s how we keep conversations going as well as try to learn as much about you whilst doing the least amount of work possible. Basically, we use mutuals to judge you. For example, if you tell me you live in Rye, New York, I am going to ask you if you know my “friend” Dom. The thing is, I secretly hate Dom. So, if you say “yeah, that dude is awesome,” I know now that you aren’t. My point here is two fold. First, know as many people from your hometown as possible. It makes conversation easier and less awkward. Second, if someone asks you for your thoughts on someone, don’t just say they’re cool. If they are cool, obviously say that, but if they’re whack just say you don’t know them well enough. This will keep you out of a good amount of trouble.
“What do you want to study?”
Come up with something interesting here. Don’t tell me you want to go into law because your parents are lawyers. If you are going to study econ, please have an exciting reason as to why. We know you just want to make money in the future, but that’s not interesting. The point of this question is to learn about your likes and dislikes. So, incorporate something of value into your answer. If you want to be an investment banker after graduation, lie and say you’re studying business to do something cool like sports betting or NFTs or fashion. Or, just lie entirely and say you want to study something sick like music or entertainment. People love talking about movies. Well, at least I do.
“Did you play any sports in high school?”
If your answer is no, sorry but you’ve just been cut. As someone who didn’t play sports in high school, take it from me and just lie. Even if you say you were on the bowling team or played badminton, that is still so much better than having not played anything at all. No one is fact checking, you just make it up.
“Where else are you rushing?”
Correct answer: “I’ve been to a few other houses (name top houses to seem cool) and they have sick parties, but honestly the guys here seem way chiller.” Yes, I am aware this doesn’t actually answer the question. Who cares? It’s what we want to hear. Call us chill. We are chill and like being told so.
“You mole?”
You do now.
“Have you met …?”
This question signals one of two things: either you’re killing it or you’ve already been cut. If you’re talking to a brother for a while and he brings over his boy to join the conversation (join as in the original person stays in the conversation), that means he likes you and wants someone else to meet you. However, if you are merely handed off to someone else, you suck and they just want to get rid of you. Sorry dude, time to try another house.
