Record Number of Women Rush Sororities

UPDATED: Feb. 13, 2014, at 2:28 a.m.

The number of women registered for this year’s sorority rush, which took place last week, increased to a record-breaking 272 women.

After hitting a peak of 268 women in 2011, rush numbers took a slight dip during the last two years, remaining constant at 250 women.

This year marks the first in which the Harvard chapter of Alpha Phi participated in the rush process, joining the other established sororities Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Kappa Kappa Gamma. Alpha Phi’s Harvard chapter was founded last year, but did not participate in formal recruitment along with the other sororities, as it did not have existing members at the time of rush last year.

According to Harvard Panhellenic Council President Jeanie Nguyen ’14, the number of women offered a sorority bid on Saturday remained steady at about 150, meaning that a little more than half of the women who rushed ultimately were accepted into one of the four sororities.

Nguyen, who is also a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, said she was expecting more of an increase in women rushing this year due to the addition Alpha Phi.

Total membership remained constant for each of the existing sororities at about 150 total members for Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Kappa Kappa Gamma. According to Nguyen, that number will decrease slightly in the spring when outgoing seniors graduate.

“I am really excited about the smaller member classes,” Nguyen said. “It will be much easier to get to know all of the new girls.”

In addition to a change in number of total sororities, the Panhellenic Council revamped the recruitment process this year by increasing the number of back-to-back events, according to Nguyen, who said she was “really happy with the way recruitment turned out.”

Sorority rush at Harvard has grown in size by 81 percent since 2008, when only 150 people took part in recruitment.

—Staff writer Harrison K. Wexner can be reached at hwexner@college.harvard.edu.