Why You Shouldn’t Wait Until Spring To Pledge A Fraternity

You Need To Pledge This Fall

Are you thinking about waiting until spring to pledge a fraternity? Think it’s a good idea to get a better feel for college life before you commit to that life? Well, if you are, you’re dead fucking wrong. Choosing to be a spring pledge is not a good idea.

If you go to a school where bids have already been extended, I hope you’ve taken one, and you’re already deep in the depths of the hell known as pledgeship. If not, well, you fucked up. If you go to a school where rush is still ongoing, read this closely.

I’ll say it again: do not wait until spring to pledge.

There are a plethora of reasons why you should pledge in the fall, and the biggest one is “time.” Time is limited. You’ve only got so much time in college before you have to leave for the real world. Do you really want to squander an entire semester of that precious time by going to sketchy apartment parties and trying to sneak your way into bars? Fuck no. You want to get into the awesomeness of fraternity life as soon as you can.

Time is not the only reason you don’t want to wait, though. Think about your friends from high school and dudes in the dorm who will take bids this fall. If you wait until spring to pledge, they’ll already be initiated. Your best friend from back home? You’ll now be a pledge under his tyrannical rule. Your friends in the dorm? You’ll essentially be their live-in servant for a semester as you do their laundry, clean their rooms, and deliver them food. These are guys who are your age. They’ll be senior to you simply because you waited like a dumbass. Hell hath no fury like a recently initiated freshman. Count on it.

Not convinced by all that? There’s more. Believe it or not, the weather plays a role here. You have to do a lot of outdoor tasks to do as a pledge. You are likely to find yourself walking pretty much everywhere you go. If you pledge in the fall, you have the last few days of summer, cool fall weather, and then a few cold days at the end. If you pledge in the spring, you’ll be trekking across town in snowstorms, walking to buy cigs for an active in freezing rain, and doing a scavenger hunt in the midst of a torrential downpour. All that depends on where you live, obviously, but for the most part, the weather is far better for pledging in the fall than it is in the spring.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, is the stigma that comes with being a spring pledge. You’ll be a spring pledge for the rest of your life. You’ll carry that title with you everywhere you go. Any time you speak up in chapter people will think, “What the fuck is this spring pledge motherfucker talking about?”

Trust me, guys. Listen to my advice. Take the plunge and just get it over with. Pledge this fall. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

  1. TappaKeggaPi

    Although I agree with this acticle, some schools still do not let you pledge until the spring.

    9 years ago at 8:09 am
    1. ZeteNJ

      That was my case. My school only allowed sophomore hold outs to pledge in the Fall. After 2 chapters had been recently shut down for under grounding Freshmen, the rest of Greek life followed the rules. So I went first week of Feb to second week of April, got in with about 3 weeks of school left.

      9 years ago at 10:12 am
  2. Gun_Slinger

    Spring pledges are always weird. And they black out too much as if they are trying to “catch up”

    9 years ago at 8:28 am
  3. Hairy Truman

    Seriously, waiting until the spring to pledge was the worst decision of my life.

    9 years ago at 8:42 am
  4. Gamefrock69

    If you pledge spring you most likely didn’t get a bid in the fall and you most likely suck at least a little bit

    9 years ago at 8:45 am
  5. ThinkThereforeFRAT

    I’m getting shark advertisements. It’s like my browser knows…

    9 years ago at 8:47 am
  6. Fratolina

    I don’t know about that… Waiting that semester helped me learn about the fraternities and helped me find the right one based on who I met first semester. I probably wouldn’t have even known about the one I pledged if I rushed fall

    9 years ago at 8:48 am
    1. ScoochMcGooch

      Not disagreeing with, and I actually think that’s a solid point, but it also sounds like your IFC hosted a pathetic rush week. Their primary goal (officially) is to inform as many students possible of each organization.

      9 years ago at 11:32 am
    2. Jordan Ross Belfort

      As a spring pledge, I usually find that the class is smaller, but it’s a more tight knit group. I think I get calls on the daily from my pledge brothers to hang out, grab drinks, come barbecue, or go to a local show. It’s not all bad.

      9 years ago at 6:29 pm
  7. FuckinGretzky

    Pledging spring allowed me to get my grades together and figure out the best house that fit for me, if I went fall I know for sure I would have gone into something I regretted.

    9 years ago at 9:26 am