You'll have to pardon me, but I had to giggle at the topic of this thread.

Time to get my mind out of the gutter and back up to sea-level.

We only have formal recruitment at my school, so we usually wait a year to get our littles. Everyone who joined the year before typically gets one, as well as some of the older members due to increasing class sizes.

We also have a program like KD Buckeye was describing. Each new member has a carnation sister during bid week, then an Alpha, Chi, and Omega sister as well as a junior or senior who acts as her mystagogue. After Omega week, big/little selection is held, and the littles find out who their big is a week later.

ETA: I got one of my littles when I was a junior and one when I was a senior. While my second little and I only had one semester together, we made the most of it and still IM and see each other whenever possible.

since we were a colony, we paired up and became twins

now each twin set will have a little (of course we have to wait and see our numbers by then)

Thats what we do.

We also do the temp. big sis thing--we're called Rosebuddies. :D

As far as taking on a lil sis, I tend to think that it's more of an issue of how comfortable you are with it. A friend of mine in another sorority took on a lil the semester after she pledged, and it worked out great. The girls we took on in COB that year (fall '02) were matched with older sisters. Dunno why, but whatever. I think exec didn't want people to get confused about how your "little" could be in your pledge class too.

I got my first little sister second semester of junior year and my second little my first semester of senior year. I had to wait a little longer than most because I kept getting screwed my first year.

I'd say with our chapter, a year after initiation is usually the average, maybe a year and a half. Total is 40, and we've gone anywhere from 28 to 46 members. The rule used to be that each girl was only allowed 2 littles, but a few people started breaking that rule, but I think we're going back to it.

In my APO chapter, new brothers generally are not given littles during their first semester as a member. We have lines every semester, so the wait is never all that long unless there is a high demand and small pledge class.

ETA: I think the BEST time to take a little is during your Junior year if the little is a freshman or sophomore....I think at least a year of undergraduate bonding can be beneficial to both Big and Little. My big was a second semester senior, but she lived in DC, near the school, for two more years afterward.

We KDs must think alike! Those sisters who want to be bigs sign up to be Pearl, Emerald and Diamond Bigs of the Week. Each week at the beginning of the pledge period, a new member gets matched up with a Big of the Week. They spend time together, like maybe going out to dinner or a movie. 4 weeks later, sisters rank their top 5 choices for who they would take as a little. The new members rank their top 5 choices for a big. The VP New Member Ed. does the matching. Then we have clue week and revealing.

Any sister can sign up to be a Big of the Week. Usually it is the last pledge class that takes the most littles. PC 2003 will take most of the PC 2004 as littles because the other pledge classes either have littles, or they have graduated. Everyone is allowed to sign up to take a little, but it's a mutual selection process. Seniority doesn't really play a factor because we usually have so many new members we need a large majority of the chapter to take them as littles, so everyone who wants a little will get one.

Most girls in my chapter take a little the semester after they are initiated. The semester I came through almost everyone HAD to take a little because I had such a large pledge class we doubled the chapter! I never took a little the 2 years I was there because I felt I had to really know the girl to take her as my little. The whole idea was important to me. I found out that my big sister "claimed" me to the other sisters saying that she would have me as her little, and then when she got me she basically ignored me for some unknown reason. I didn't want to do that to another girls. If I had been active more than 2 years I think I would have found someone I connected with.

I got my little Kami the semester after I was initiated and was sooo excited! I knew how much I loved my big Katie and hoped it was the same with my lil!

Me too! To contribute, though, I took my first little the summer after my spring initiation. We were just starting out so it was a necessary thing!

All of the women in my "family" waited a year to get Lil's and I think it worked out rather well. I was initiated in the fall and then fall of the next year I got a Lil Sister. I was definitely more prepared and had all summer to get/make all the gifts I would need.

Maybe we do things a little differently, but we let the littles choose the big sister, so it doen't matter when you were initiated. Some sisters end up with a lot of littles ( I had 3) and others don't get any. We want the NM's to be comfortable with their big sister.