Margo Gray

Thankfully for Brooke, conversation has always been a strong suit, so this part didn't take nearly as much work.

By the time her recruitment started in August of 2025, she was ready.

Her resume and recommendation letters were in, her Instagram was polished, her outfits carefully planned.

It was finally time for what all of this had been building toward, rush week.

Rush week at the University of Alabama takes place in August, about a week before the fall semester begins.

During that time, campus feels like it's all about rush.

Sure, there are other people around, athletes, band members, international students moving in early, but the overwhelming majority are there for recruitment.

Lori says the spectacle can be overwhelming, especially for clients who aren't from the South.

Even though Brooke was an outsider, she says she still felt pretty confident.

But even with all the preparation, the week is intense and the days start early.

Nearly 2,000 girls go through Rush at the University of Alabama each year.

Every morning, shuttle buses move them from dorms across campus to the basketball stadium, where the day begins.

From the basketball arena, the girls split into groups and start going from sorority house to sorority house.

I know the first day is mostly just small talk, but what do you remember from your first day at the sorority house you eventually joined?

Just because someone likes a house doesn't mean they'll get invited back.

At the end of the day, the freshman girls rank their favorite houses and the sororities rank the girls.

Then it all goes into an algorithm.

Each sorority has a slightly different algorithm, which no one fully understands and sororities don't love to explain.

The next morning, freshman girls get a list of the sorority houses they've been invited back to.

That kind of panic is common during rush week.