rushing?

It depends what houses you rush. If you rush a house like Sig Ep that doesnt have pledgeship then you grades wont be affected. If you're really trying to get into Kelly Id wait till either spring or set up a really easy first semester schedule. Classes like K201 are brutal while pledging. Its harder to get a bid in the fall. Honestly fall kids are first round picks and spring kids are second round pics, but also a lot of houses have smaller spring classes than fall classes.

Rush in the spring (and also spring pledgeship) is much easier than in the fall. The fall is the prime time for new pledges so the focus is there. In my opinion, I would take all your hard classes in the fall and nail, then in the spring rush and work your ass of still.

I'm waiting until fall of sophomore year to join a frat. My GPA sucks though - around 2.3. Will that be a problem for me getting a bid?

Dear Soph: A couple of things. 1) You should really consider focusing more time on school if you have a 2.3 GPA. Rushing a fraternity won't help. 2) Every fraternity has a minimum 2.5 GPA requirement so they won't take you even if you're the top frat star in the world.

Future Kelley kid: Rush Spring of freshman year or Fall of your sophomore year. In all honesty, you can probably get into a better house in the Spring if you have great grades from the fall. Pledging in the Spring is shorter, easier, and there are less people so higher tiered fraternities are more inclined to pick up people they otherwise wouldn't have in the Fall.