The internet will tell you recruitment is a freshman thing. The internet is wrong, and here's the real picture.
Can you rush after freshman year? Almost everywhere, yes. Panhellenic recruitment is open to any enrolled woman meeting the GPA requirement. Sophomores go through every year at every school, juniors less commonly but it happens, and transfers are their own normal category.
What's actually different. The honest part: at some competitive recruitment schools, chapters take fewer upperclassmen because new member classes skew freshman and some chapters weigh "years she'll be active." At plenty of other schools it makes no meaningful difference at all. Ask your rho gamma or Panhellenic directly how upperclassmen tend to fare at your campus, they'll tell you the truth.
Your advantages, because you have real ones. You know the school, so your conversations are instantly more specific ("I'm in the nursing program, I know your chapter has a ton of nursing majors"). You know yourself better than any 18-year-old in that room. And your reason for rushing now ("I spent freshman year focused on adjusting, now I want my people") is a genuinely good answer to the question you'll get most.
The question you WILL get: "why now?" Have your one honest sentence ready and deliver it without apologizing. Wanting it now is a complete reason.
Transfers: you count as a new member like anyone else, and if you were initiated into an NPC sorority at your old school, that's different, you remain a member of that organization and can't rush again, contact your org about affiliating with the new campus chapter instead.
COB matters double for you. Chapters filling spots through continuous open bidding are often more flexible on class year. If formal week doesn't break your way, informal season frequently does.