Rush Figures Set New Record

Two hundred and sixty eight women rushed Harvard’s three sororities this year, representing the largest rush class in the University’s history, according to sorority leaders.

In past years, rush classes have averaged 150.

Members of each sorority confirmed that in response to the increased number of applicants, this year each sorority extended bids to more women.

“The whole point of taking so many is getting as many girls involved in Greek life as possible,” said Kappa Kappa Gamma president Anna S. He ’12.

Most of the women who rushed were freshmen, although a significant number of sophomores and a small number of juniors also participated in rush, He said.

Kappa extended bids to 57 women, according to He. Theta offered spots to 55 women, according to Kappa Alpha Theta President Ellis A. Bowen ’12.

Delta Gamma president Caroline T. Quazzo ’12 said that the sorority did not have final numbers on the number of new members, but several women who accepted bids from DG said that the sorority offered spots to approximately 60 women.

Partially in response to the large number of applicants, Harvard’s Panhellenic organization is entertaining the possibility of establishing a fourth sorority on campus as soon as next year, according to He.

“The record number of girls demonstrates that there’s definitely a demand for sorority life on campus,” He said.

Bowen and Quazzo both confirmed that the possibility of creating a fourth sorority was on the table.

Women who rushed this past week said that they were excited by the large number of women in their rush class.

“I definitely think that having so many people interested made me more interested,” said Elizabeth A. Holden ’14,a new Kappa.

Caroline F. Davis ’14, also a new Kappa, said that the sorority sisters she spoke to said that because so many people signed up to rush this year, the rush organizers were motivated to put in extra work to make sure the process ran smoothly.

“Girls that were already in sororities were staying up until four or five in the morning because they just had to go through so many girls,” said new Kappa Chloe G. Veron ’14, in reference to the evaluation process that the sisters had to go through after each round of rushing.

During the rush process, which lasts less than a week, potential members attended a series of four rounds at local restaurants and final clubs for meet-and-greets with current sisters. Women were separated into groups and rotated through each night’s events.

After the second, third, and final rounds, women were asked to rank their choices and sororities ranked prospective members. Based on those numbers, smaller and smaller groups of women returned to sororities after each round.

At the end of the final round, sororities extended bids to those women that had completed the rush process.

As so many women decided to rush this year, the sororities had to separate women into more than the normal number of groups during the rush process, according to Quazzo.

For example, on the first night women were separated into five groups. As there are only three sororities, some women had to wait in the Garage and in Adams.

—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.