At MIT Rush usually begins after orientation has ended and before classes have begun and lasts approximately one week. This allows male freshmen interested in joining a fraternity plenty of time to explore the fraternity system and to get to know individual houses very well so that they can make an educated decision about which houses they would feel comfortable joining.
Even freshmen that are not sure they want to join a fraternity are encouraged to participate in Rush; many times actually visiting a few houses can dispell the negative stereotypes associated with fraternities. Remember: we all go to MIT too -- we all want a balanced experience and are all concerned with academics.
We are very proud that we have no particular "stereotype" -- it's almost a guarantee that brothers in the house share your interests. We have our Linux expert, varsity sportsmen, band, weightlifters, math nerds, and members of the Formula SAE team. There are brothers from as far away Ramallah and as close as the Boston suburbs.