winter semester

Yes, it's more competitive because we don't give out as many bids. I think AEPi is the only decent frat that doesn't give out any winter bids (because they let so many geeds in during the fall). As far as connections, I can only speak about my house. We knew who roughly half of our winter PC was going to be before rush, but there were some chill guys who also got bids that rushed us without having friends already in the house.

Also, our pledge process is a little different because there's a lot of work that goes into asking a pregame partner. That's a very minimal difference, and the rest is pretty much the same. Until winter rush, hit the bars, and go to house (and apartment) parties. Some lower and mid-tier houses (Chi Psi, Delta Chi, Shady, and some others I'm not familiar with) continue to throw open parties occasionally.

I rushed winter my freshman year. I knew a handful of houses but ended up going to a rush event for a fraternity I knew nothing about and got a bid there and liked it a lot. I knew nobody there. I'd highly recommend trying to make some friends in the fraternity throughout the semester, that might give you an edge. It wasn't what helped me, but it can't hurt. If not, it is worth emailing their president. I did that and ended up invited to 2 mixers with kappa and phi on back to back nights at the fraternity because I told them I was rushing in the winter. It was a really great deal and I'd recommend it.

Also, the guy above me, our winter rush is different as well. I'd acutally say fall classes get a lot more work. We take about 25-30 kids fall, only 10-15 winter so our pledge classes often get overlooked as being 'not as important' just because of the lack of guys.

Just becuase there are fewer bids given out winter doesn't mean they are more competitive. We give bids to guys who earn them and it seems that winter rush less kids come around, so that counts for the lower numbers.