North by Northwestern

“There once was an era when pledges took their time deciding where to drop their bids,” wrote Emily Chow in NBN last year.

This year’s fraternity rush showed that that era is definitively over.

According to preliminary data released Monday night by Northwestern’s Interfraternity Council (IFC), this year’s IFC rush boasted:

• the highest number of Northwestern students dropping bids since 1996*;
• the highest number of Northwestern students dropping bids on the first day of rush since 1996*; and, crucially,
• the highest percentage of bids dropped on the first day as compared to all bids dropped during rush week since 1996*.

Almost sixty percent of all Northwestern students who dropped bids dropped them on Wednesday, Jan. 4, the first day of rush.

369 Northwestern students dropped bids by the end of rush week, and more are expected to drop bids in the next few weeks. Delta Tau Delta, re-entering campus this year, could start recruiting freshman Monday, Jan. 9.

“We anticipate breaking the 400 dropped bids mark before all is said and one,” IFC Public Relations Director and Medill junior Bradley Stewart said in an email.

Not all fraternities participate in IFC rush. In male fraternities at Northwestern, “dropping a bid” means accepting an offer to join a fraternity.