I will report whatever I found out. Dunno if I will be on campus next weekend. Since I have 2 appointments at the U of Iowa Hospital, I might stop by the APhi house

Yeah, it was definitely an odd setup. It's been turned into an assault care center/safe house.

I think deferred recruitment at Iowa has helped retention some. It's hard to say if the women who drop out after the first round do so because of the scheduling or because they were released from the houses they had their heart set on.

You're right. For some reason I thought rounds started this weekend and bid day was next Sunday. Bummer. I wonder if they'll work around the football game so students could still go? It might actually help, though, if they can't. It wouldn't be quite so crowded trying to get all the PNMs around to the houses. :p

I was looking at the (nicely updated) Iowa FSL website. For this year's recruitment schedule, it shows 16 sororities for first round, 10 invites back for second round, 6 invites back for third round, and two pref parties.

Is that different from last year? I remember my daughter having 16-11-7-3. Maybe I'm getting too old to remember correctly.

It's ALWAYS been 3. That is very weird. In the dark ages (for me) it was 15, 11, 9, 5, 3. Yes, that's a full extra day of rush. We had Welcome (2 days), Welcome Back, Panorama, RSVP and Preference. I wonder what the thinking is, except maybe to keep girls from getting their 3rd choice. 1 of 2 maybe isn't as bad as getting 3rd of 3. I think they are on a continued struggle to get more girls to accept their bids. Over the last 10 or 15 years or so I've seen them try lots of different things to help the process. NOT having round 1 in the chapter houses was probably the biggest fail. When you have those beautiful houses, why would you not use them?

The football game will wreak havoc with so many girls schedules! Just think how many Pom, cheer and other groups that perform at the games! And, of those groups how many girls are a part of the Greek system! Oh and heaven forbid this heat wave continues! I know my daughter will be missing a large chunk of rush.

Update on numbers

877 registered PNM's! (60 more than when I emailed you last week)! Registration closes tonight so there might be more

So they beat last year's numbers! We need a bunch of old broads standing on every street corner saying DON'T DROP OUT!!!! DON'T DROP OUT!!! Kind of like the bible beaters on the Pentacrest. HA! The picture I have in my head is positively hysterical.

Jill, can you confirm the 2 preference parties thing? And do you know the reasoning behind that?

Wow! Go hawks! It would be awesome if they have a high retention rate! Lets hope the little groups make a great push and have a successful rush! (And hope a lot of girls are open minded!

[QUOTE=DubaiSis;2236146]So they beat last year's numbers! We need a bunch of old broads standing on every street corner saying DON'T DROP OUT!!!! DON'T DROP OUT!!! Kind of like the bible beaters on the Pentacrest. HA! The picture I have in my head is positively hysterical.

OMG, I would totally join a group of old broads chanting "DON"T DROP OUT! Hysterically laughing at the pic I have in my mind too!:D

Yay!! It looks like they will have warm and dry weather for the first weekend of recruitment.

Just found out my friends daughter is signed up! She literally decided on the last day of registration and went for it! I'll try to find out as much as I can about her story! She does have a Kappa aunt, a sis who was an AXiD so she has some greek backgroud, but registering late I'm not sure if she got rec letters in on time!

The PNMs can only go to a maximum of two preference parties. I wish they were doing three. When I went through, I was 'dead-set' on my favorite but I liked the other two I went to on preference equally. Their pref parties made the distinction clear to me though. I just feel with so few days, having another party allows women to make a better choice on a huge decision. Plus, going from 7 to 2 seems like a large drop but maybe that's just my opinion.

My sister is recruiting for the first time, she is already hoping to meet her future little!

It all starts today! The girls meet their groups! Good luck everyone!

Good luck one and all!