CTRL+Culture: Rushtok Breakdown From a Retired Sorority Star
Goat's Social Strategist, Piet Dayney, gives us the tea on this TikTok phenomenon
The internet’s favorite limited-time programming is back: #rushtok season is officially upon us. As a retired sorority girl turned social media marketer, this niche really hits me right in the chest.
So what is rushtok? Well, after all I wasssss Social Chair for Chi Omega - shameless self plug & Chi O till I die-o!!!!
I can confirm: rush is basically our Met Gala. The outfits? Meticulously planned. The networking? Ruthless, but with monogrammed stationery. The stakes? You’re one lukewarm water bottle away from being “dropped”.
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For the uninitiated, recruitment is the process where hopefuls vie for bids to join a Greek organization. For those of us who have lived it, it’s a hyper-choreographed dance of small talk, group chants, and pretending you’ve never heard of vodka. On TikTok, it becomes an addictive spectacle… a bite-sized reality show where everyone’s rooting for their favorite stranger to “run home.”
“Rush is basically our Met Gala”
When sorority rush at Alabama first exploded on TikTok in 2021, the hashtag #bamarush set the stage for an entire genre of online content. Fast-forward four years, and we now have a full-blown, annual, micro-season of internet reality television…. and yes, the numbers are even more dramatic than my contour in 2016.
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The #rushtok hashtag now boasts over 67 million posts, with spinoffs sprouting on campuses nationwide. From USC to Ole Miss, the formula is the same: high-stakes sisterhood, perfectly curled hair, and at least one pair of golden goose sneakers.
And this year, it’s not just PNMs, moms with ring lights, and random middle-aged men pretending they “accidentally stumbled on the algorithm” who are watching. Kim Kardashian herself has entered the chat.
SKIMS launched a campus collection this month featuring actual sorority girls, some of them bona fide rushtok veterans. Yes, Kim K looked at our sacred recruitment rituals and said, “That’s my market now.” Somewhere, a marketing intern is getting promoted for suggesting “biker shorts as philanthropy round wear.”
Unique to 2025, we see the overarching “nostalgia core” social theme woven throughout #rushtok, with the 2016 TikTok filter hitting over 200 million posts this weekend. It’s even a growing trend for us retired sorority stars to post your throwback pics and tag your former sisters.
“Unique to 2025, we see the overarching “nostalgia core” social theme woven throughout #rushtok”
So why is Gen Z obsessed with millennial core? Social media increasingly feels like a draining, addictive performance, and engaging online often becomes less about enjoyment and more about putting on a show and maintaining appearances. A bit of a 180 from the birth of #rushtok right? I’ll be curious to see how this nostalgic theme continues in 2026 and beyond.
So grab your romper, charge your phone, and prepare to lose several hours of your life to this year’s #rushtok rabbit hole. Whether you’re here for the earnest “day three philanthropy round!” updates, the unhinged parody videos, or just to see which sorority lands the next SKIMS deal, one thing is certain: Rush season is the most American thing on the internet, and this retired sorority girl will be watching every second.
Pics from my hey day of sorority life 2013-2017
Author: Piet Dayney, Social Content Strategist, The Goat Agency
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