not rushing

65% of the school isn't Greek. You can have a perfectly normal college experience. Especially as a girl.

you can still go to all the fraternity parties such as band parties. however speaking as a formerly sorority member, now GDI — expect to feel left out. it doesn’t matter that it’s only 35% greek or whatever it feels like 98% greek even if you only have like 2 greek friends. my roommate is actually transferring because she hates how much greek life controls UA

I have non Greek friends and they love it. It gets better after freshman year. People don't really care about your affiliation junior/senior year.

I was not in a sorority freshman year but I’m in one now as a sophomore and I love being greek, if you’re fine with seeing everyone going to swaps and date parties and wearing gameday shirts and going to Greek only events that you can’t go to and you’re fine with being left out, then it’s totally fine to not rush. But if you feel like you’re going to see everyone going to things that you can’t go to and you get upset (which is what happened to me freshman year) I would say definitely rush.

As a GDI, you can definitely have a good time at mama. You can still get into all the fraternity parties and tailgates. HOWEVER, it is definitely harder to make friends when you aren't involved in greek life and it's easy to feel left out. You won't be involved in things like swaps, greek week, homecoming week, etc. I would recommend to anyone coming here to at least give greek life a try! I've seen plenty of people do just fine without it but I've also seen plenty of people hate it

If you don’t go Greek and you’re out of state you’ll start to ask yourself why you came here and that leads to a lot of people transferring

If you do end up coming here and not rushing live in a traditional style dorm that’s not Tut so you’ll have more opportunities to make friends with the people on your floor

You can still have fun if you're not greek, but it's easy to feel left out and it's harder to make friends for some people. It seems like everyone you meet will ask you what your name is, where you're from, and what sorority you're in. If you respond with "oh, I'm not in a sorority" they always respond with "aw, that's okay, you can still make friends" or at least that's what happened my freshman year. It seems kinda dumb but being greek is really important here. It's honestly worth it to rush and if you end up hating it, you can always drop.

Its just easier to have a good time as a Greek. Each house has committees that plan lots of social events like swaps, date parties, sisterhood events, games, etc almost every week or so. This is a big advantage as a freshman, where you jump right into these events. After the first year, you pretty much know how to have a good time, but even then, as a Greek, lots of your friends are in the same house and you go to events together.

Honestly if you can rush freshman year (and it's doable for you financially) I would recommend doing it. I rushed as a sophomore this year (after feeling left out freshman year) and really wish I would have done it my first year here. Although there are other ways to meet people, going greek is a super easy way to make friends with girls, meet guys, socialize. If it's really not for you no one will kill you if drop second semester or your sophomore year. These are just my thoughts. Although only 35% of the entire UA student body is greek it feels wayyyyy more like 80% of freshman girls are. Nonetheless, if you're super outgoing/already know people here/find it easy to make friends it might not be necessary. This is just coming from someone who regrets not doing it in the first place. :)