rush

You're coming at rush completely the wrong way. You've narrowed it down to three before you even get to school? My advice is to take your time and talk to as many fraternities to you can when you get to school/at the IFC meeting. Then narrow it down to 5 or so, go to their open houses and cut it down to 3 where you'll visit their second round of open houses. You'd be surprised at how little what you've heard about each house truely reflects your own interaction with the members. All that being said, to answer your question you should definitely rush in the fall, its a more laid out process and its easier to meet people with other new freshman. As far as how competitive each house is, phi psi is probably the most competitive, Pike and Fiji follow, and then sig ep. But rush has pulled huge numbers all around lately, so even sig ep could have 200+ rushees come through easily. Just keep an open mind and make sure to check out other places

Also if you try to impress anyone you'll look bad and won't end up with guys you have stuff in common with. Be yourself