Young women hoping to join a sorority this semester may have to rush to meet the early registration deadline this Friday.

Panhellenic recruitment, which typically begins Thursday during the third week of school, will begin next week on Thursday, Sept. 9, making the registration deadline for potential new members a week early. The new deadline applies only to the general sororities and does not include general fraternity recruitment, which will be held Sept. 14 through Sept. 18. The culturally-based fraternities and sororities begin their recruitment Sept. 19 through Sept. 26.

“Sorority recruitment is time-consuming, so the change was made to minimize its academic impact,” Doug Case, the coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life, said.

The recruitment process often involves presentations, interviews, house tours, singing and ceremonies that are presented to potential new members by active members of the sorority, Case said.

Journalism senior Kira Gilmore said her sorority, Alpha Phi, practices for “rush” for about five hours a day at least three weeks prior to the beginning of recruitment.

Gilmore said that the time before the start of recruitment includes much practice, but is also filled with fun activities for the sorority that promote bonding among the members.

“We went to the beach one day last week during rush practice, so it wasn’t exactly singing and dancing all day long,” Gilmore said.

Case said that the number of young women registering for recruitment has consistently increased every year, but that with fewer freshmen admitted this year, there may be fewer women who sign up. The numbers may also be effected by the deadline for registration being only four days after school starts, he said.

“I don’t want women to miss out on the opportunity because they missed the deadline,” Case said.

Gilmore said the new timing for sorority recruitment will improve the start of the semester in a few ways.

“Typically rush would begin right when the professors were starting to give their first tests of the semester,” Gilmore said. “Getting it done early will definitely help the academic process.”

Gilmore said students who cannot decide if they want to join a sorority should consider the size of San Diego State.

“What I always try to tell girls who are on the fence about whether or not to rush is that in high school you knew everyone at your school, but with 40,000 students here at SDSU it’s impossible to know all the students,” Gilmore said. “If you’re part of the Greek community, then you’re able to walk onto campus and immediately see people you know – it’s a really good support system.”

The fall recruitment process for sororities is more structured than the process for the fraternities. A $35 registration fee is required, which increased to $45 yesterday, whereas fraternities do not require registration. Also, participants in sorority recruitment are required to attend all events at participating chapters for the first two days, whereas their male counterparts can pick and choose which events they want to attend.

Information about the recruitment process for all fraternities and sororities and registration for Panhellenic Sorority Recruitment is available online at www.greeklife.sdsu.edu.