It's changed so many times that most people think Penn State was in the original Big 10.

Whenever I forget, I go to my friend, Wikipedia for the current scorecard. I love how they refer to Johns Hopkins as a future "affiliate".

Interested to hear how it's going. I know a lot of girls starting at Illinois this year, and I'm sure most are going through recruitment, but I agree with whoever said that, although Greek Life is popular and somewhat competitive, recs are not necessarily a must.

Separately, University of Wisconsin (Madison) recruitment begins today. I was told (unofficially) that around 900 girls are going through.

No kidding...don't get me started on the Big 10 - 11 - 12 -14, whatever we are now. Ugh, this conference jockeying drives me nuts!:p

My D completed the round of 13 yesterday. She got 11 of the 13 she preferenced, and then two from her bottom 5. Said that her schedule had her criss-crossing the campus between Urbana and Champaign all day. She then preferenced her top 7 for next Saturday. Sounded like a fun and very long day.

One small surprise is that one of the two she preferenced for the round of 13, but didn't get, was a house she had a recommendation for.

^^I wish something could be done about the crisscrossing all over Champaign-Urbana when it's back and forth throughout the day. I still remember hearing from sisters about their treks during all the rounds, but pref was the worst! Woe to the women who have the furthest house in Urbana, then the furthest house in Champaign as back-to-back houses during pref. Of course they are opposite corners as well, just to make it extra fun! If you get one of the mid campus/quad houses as your middle party, then it's not too bad, but it doesn't always work out that way. Good luck to your daughter!

Good luck to your daughter! Make sure she has band-aids in her bag for the side effects of those long treks! That is a pain - for pref round I had one of the Lincoln Ave Urbana houses, one in Urbana at the Quad, and one in Champaign. It was a lot to manage, especially under stress! :)

This is not an insurmountable problem. (is that a double negative?). The computer should be able to add a function that blocks certain chapters with others. It might not match right for every girl, but there shouldn't be a problem for a girl to have Urbana chapters in the morning and Champaign chapters in the afternoon. Especially with more girls not having full schedules, blocking them in 2 and 3 chapters together at a time shouldn't be a huge problem. This isn't the old days with a bunch of old ladies trying to figure this stuff out in 10 minutes before invitations go out. And as I recall, U of I has its share of computer geeks, no?

7 houses
 

When do the girls find out what 7 houses they visit next Sat and does the order they visit houses mean anything?

My friends daughter is going through recruitment too! Good luck!

They will find out their schedule immediately before the parties start. And the order doesn't mean ANYTHING so don't let her apply meaning to something that isn't there.

The one thing party order can do is if it's the first party she can be extra nervous and not be her best self and at the end of the day she can be tired and not her best self. The sorority members have the same problem but it's not them getting voted in or not. Remind her to keep her energy up all the way to the end. And if she has gaps in her schedule, use them to her benefit to rest, get some water, get off her feet, think about something positive, etc.

Thank you DubaiSis. She had 12 visits yesterday when she said most of the girls she knew only had 6 - 8. I told her it was because she is so awesome! When the PNM puts the houses down are they in order? Can you tell I'm not getting much info from our daughter LOL

Yeah, it's slightly more complicated, because it's not like all Champaign houses are together and all Urbana houses are together, though. I mean, you could go from Alpha Phi (Champaign) to Delta Gamma (Urbana) in a few blocks, but Sigma Kappa (Champaign) to Delta Zeta (Urbana) is a probably close to a mile.

Yes, they rank the chapters they have each day.

I was just thinking the same thing. Clemson doesn't have houses but Skit and Pref rounds were held in three different buildings on campus, so they provided buses for girls who needed to get from one location to another very quickly. Made it a lot easier than tottering in four-inch wedges up and down the hills on campus.