ffr for upperclassmen

I rushed as a junior in 2018, and would say that while it didn’t totally squash my rush experience it definitely affected my ability to get into certain houses. Be prepared to constantly answer the question as to why you waited to rush—whether you’re transferring or you are already a UW student that waited. I wouldn’t expect to get into the very “top” houses just because they are so competitive and recruitment (for my house at least) is based off of a ranking system. Being older than a sophomore is seen as a negative thing because most houses want you to live-in for 3 years—some houses even have a strict requirement that you do, so you will automatically be dropped from those. I would just make sure you’re on top of your game with conversations and outfits to try to mitigate your age as much as you can. I still ended up in a good house that I love but I know that if I rushed as a freshman/sophomore I probably would’ve been in a different one. What is great about UW though is that if you finish the recruitment process you will end up with a bid from a house no matter what, so don’t be too worried! Keep in mind though that people will try to play it off like it won’t affect your experience but it will—not to the point of not getting into any houses that you like but it will make you a less desirable pnm.

Everyone that does ffr is required to live-in the first year, so don’t expect to be able to live anywhere else. It is really fun to live-in, but keep in mind that you’ll be living with your MC—girls that are two years younger than you and fresh out of high school. I wasn’t expecting that to be an issue for me, but to an extent it kind of was--especially during fall quarter. Going to college for the first time is a huge life change and experience and the freshman are going through it for the very first time. I sometimes felt embarrassed of how they acted at parties or felt like there was so much petty drama or felt like they all were so terrible at cleaning up after themselves—but I just made it a point to remind myself that I was hanging out with 17-18 year olds that are going to college for the first time and have never lived somewhere away from home and tried not to compare them to my 20-21 year old friends that are at a totally different point in life. I always found myself wanting to hangout with the older members, but in my house (and most others) the MCs can get pretty divided based on where you live. I ended up making my best friends in the MC the year above mine (so they were sophomores when I was a junior) and I absolute love them and felt like we had more in common. I still have freshman friends from my MC that I adore as well, but sometimes I do feel disconnected from my MC as a whole—probably due to me not going out as much or taking any of the same classes and also just the feeling of the age gap.

Overall, I say go for it—I don’t regret it at all. Just don’t expect to have the same experience as a freshman or sophomore.