Search "bama rush" on TikTok and this is what you get. Photo: TikTok
Depending on the corners of TikTok you might inhabit, the curious American cultural phenomena of rush week might be filling your feed.
(Not on TikTok? Proceed anyway. This is interesting.)
Rush week, and specifically rush week at the University of Alabama, is the pinnacle of over-the-top university life in the US that will leave many a New Zealander scratching their head. It's a massive drama that now plays out on social media where girls new to university vie for coveted invitations to a sorority, a house and organisation of female students that often provides a leg up in college social life and the career to follow.
"The craziness is quite intense. You can feel down about yourself during rush week and rush week can spike some insecurities," Hannah Minor, 32, a Kiwi-American who went to the University of Hartford in Connecticut, said.
But in the end, "you do find your home with girls who are like minded," she said, of when she "rushed" in 2012 and joined the sorority Delta Zeta.
Hannah Minor's Delta Zeta celebrated a ten year reunion by singing a sorority song. Photo:
Backup. What are sororities?
Sororities, and their male-counterparts fraternities, are part of the Greek system, a bunch of national oganisations that have chapters in many US universities and take their name from Greek letters .
Often these chapters include huge mansions where members board together for their college years. Houses also band together for philanthropic work. Friendships and networks can be lifelong.
When I studied at the University of Washington in Seattle, I stayed two nights at a sorority with a friend who was a member. They slept in rooms with dozens of bunk beds, ate together in a shared dining room and seemed to enjoy each other's company and support.
The "frat parties" at the fraternity houses, in my experience, reflected movies such as Road Trip. Jello shots were aplenty, beer pong was played and the floors were sticky from years of spilled liquor.
The Greek system is full of cultish initiation ceremonies -think altars, swords, Greek gods. Hazing of new members at some fraternities have ended in death or serious injury. Some are pushing for the Greek system to be abolished.
"My sorority was really keen that we would never be hazed and we weren't," Minor said.
A TikTok from a sorority at the University of Alabmam. Photo: TikTok
What is this rush week you speak of?
Rush week is like "speed dating where you talk to the sorority members and they talk to you," Catherine Tait, 40, an American who lives in Auckland, said. She joined Chi Omega chapter at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
It often occurs during the first week of college, or in the case of the University of Alabama a week before. Sororities and fraternities hold house tours with 15 min or so meetings with each applicant.
Each day, applicants and sororities rank each other, shortening each list of potential members and sororities. "On the final day, [the sororities] give bids out to their potential members," Tait said.
She now has a daughter and would encourage her to join a sorority if she went to college in the US.
"The positives far out way those stressors. The friendship you make - you have 100 plus sisters who really do feel like family," Tait said.
So, it's a popularity contest?
Yes, but probably more no. How you look has something to do with, but sororities take into account personality, interests and your grades, said Tait. There are Jewish sororities as well as black sororities too.
"If you are the daughter or granddaughter of a member then you are legacy and you get an automatic invitation," Tait said.
Catherine Tait (center) with some of her sorority sisters. Photo: supplied
After Minor joined her sorority, she was on the other side of rush week, selling her sorority to potential members and talking through daily activities and philanthropy. Her chapter of Delta Zeta focused on serving the deaf community.
It was really about "just seeing who we vibed with to recruit them," she said.
Why is rush week so crazy at the University of Alabama?
OOTD or Outfit of the Day is a common bama rush TikTok. Photo:
Tait called rush week at the University of Alabama a "different beast all together" and "a money pit."
Search "bama rush" on TikTok and it will spit back videos of mostly white girls with very blond hair talking you through their OOTD to impress sororities. There are lots of teeny, tiny mini pastel skirts this year and "David Yurman, David Yurman and David Yurman," say the girls as they point to numerous pieces from the not-cheap jewellery brand. Some even hire "rush consultants" to prepare for the week.
The Alabama sororities have stepped it up too on TikToks with elaborate dances and cheers.
"It is kinda a guilty addiction. I do follow it every year," Tait said of bama rush. "It is outrageous."
She described it as a reality TV show that plays out on TikTok with daily OOTDs from those rushing with a climax at the end of the week on who is picked. The whole deal was explored in the 2023 documentary Bama Rush, which is on Neon.
This year, newcomer Bre Morris has proved popular, said Tait, as is underdog Bama Morgan, who was dropped last year meaning she didn't receive a sorority bid. [Spoiler alert: it seems she has missed out again this year]
Bama Morgan is attempting to get a bid from a sorority. Photo: TikTok
The size of the University of Alabama with its 32,000 students piles on the craziness. Now, rush week is nine days long so sororities can get through all the applicants, according to a former sorority president who is still active in the organisation (she asked to be anonymous because she was not speaking for her sorority).
"I also think it is important to note that TikTok doesn't even accurately portray the full picture of Alabama Rush," she wrote in an email to RNZ.
"Many houses have rules against social media or members being influencers."
For better or worse, other universities are starting to take on elements of bama rush, said Minor, and it "is wildly different to what rush was 10, 12 years ago."
