How competitive is sorority rush??

most of the top tier sororities already have their pledge class chosen. it really is the middle and lower tiers that are paying attention to people they don't know

Yes, formal rush in person does matter. If you are invited back, the sorority is still interested. The first round rankings and cuts are decided by every sorority before the actives meet the pnm's based on grades, resume, connections, and social media. After that it is up to how you present yourself in person and your conversations for the sororities to see if you are a fit with them. Most pnm's get a bid, the ones who don't almost always have dropped out of rush. If you are invited to pref then you are on that sorority's bid list somewhere. Rank both your houses and you are guaranteed a bid, or if you only have one pref house then you are getting that bid for sure. If you have two pref houses and only rank one of them you run the risk of not getting a bid at all.

Every house wants local girls from popular HS. Then, city and regional HS that they know. You don’t have to know someone in the house, but it helps because it’s exciting for the active to recruit from their high school. Even if you don’t know them well, it’s fun for them if they knew of you in a positive way. But…it’s not a deterrent if you don’t know anyone. I remember so many girls I met who I was desperate to get even though they weren’t the big names from the well known high schools.

Not competitive if you want to be a KD or ADPi. KD has the chubby senior that basically has a temu version OF posting her boobs constantly. And ADPi is just happy anyone joins after a bid.