My school's recruitment spanned two weeks as well, so it seems normal to me. :) She's been pretty chill about it -- seems recruitment isn't that competitive at OU and she hasn't been cut by anybody yet, so we'll see if her stress levels go up any later on, haha.

She said the number of PNMs has gone up drastically from previous years, but I don't know if that's really true or if it's the gossiping of 18-year-olds.

It's about the same level of competitiveness as OSU. Typically, the big cuts first round at both schools are for grades and, in some houses, Juniors and Seniors. And, honestly, at both schools, very few PNMs have recs.

Yup- recruitment cuts usually don't really happen until 2nd parties- and then lots of cuts right before pref.

I do hope you are right about pnms numbers being up- pledge classes used to be 40-50 and now are more in the 25ish range.

And I know that all but one house regularly took juniors during rush even during the more competitive years...

As for recs- I think we recieved about 5 a year in the early/mid 1990s (with about 500 girls rushing)

She said a lot of girls in her Rho Gamma group didn't get to go back to 7 parties this round -- lots of girls had 5-3 groups left. She said that about 400 PNMs registered this year.

She's right - 400 PNMs registered (though lots withdraw before Welcome Day, mostly because recruitment itself is a big time commitment) and numbers are up from last year. From fall 2004 through 2007, registrations dropped each year, but 2008 was an increase from 07, and this year is another increase. Hopefully that continues.

Quotas since 2004:
2004: 32
2005: 28
2006: 22
2007: 21
2008: 23

My sister just texted me with her invites for tonight -- she wasn't released by any of the groups, so she will be returning to Blue, White, Black, Yellow and Green this evening.

That's awesome! Thanks for the update!

Just got the update from today's parties:

Blue -- She still loves this one. She was paired with a sister who she'd spoken with last round and loved, and several of the recruiter's friends dropped by to say how glad they were to finally meet her.

Black -- This was her second favorite tonight. She said that this is sort of known as the "Barbie" chapter, and while she had great conversations here, they were more on the superficial side.

White -- She's liked this one all along but said they didn't stand out to her as much this evening.

Yellow -- She liked their skit, but she was paired with a rusher who shared a sob story that freaked her out a little bit.

Green -- She said their skit was the best, but she wasn't sure how well she would fit in.

She ended up ranking them:

1. Blue
1. Black
1. White
2. Yellow
3. Green

She said White, Yellow and Green were pretty interchangeable, but she had liked White more in previous rounds, so she put them higher. She absolutely wants to be a Blue, but she said that if they cut her she'll dust herself off and keep moving since she at least LIKES all of her options. Pref is tomorrow!

Sounds like things are going very well for her -- keep us posted!

I think its pouring in Athens right now. When does she get her Pref invites?

Yeah, they have a flash flood warning I think. Awesome weather to be tromping around from house to house.

I'm not 100% sure when they get their invites. It seems that most of the time they've gotten their invites right before the round starts, because she hasn't been able to tell me where she got asked back until she got home from the parties. But yesterday she found out a little earlier and was able to text me before heading to events. I want to say pref starts at 3pm?

Good luck to her!

She just texted me to let me know that she wasn't released by any groups, so she'll be attending pref at Blue, Black and White in a torrential downpour.

Here's hoping that her hair won't friz, her makeup doesn't run, and that she keeps her great attitude throughout the deluge!

agreed!