I've actually never seen photos of recruitment inside a house before! At Clemson everyone stands with each other for the first three rounds, unless the group is showing a slideshow or skit in which case there's chairs for the PNMs set up already. Pref round there's round tables with chairs for both PNM and active to sit at.

Side question: where do the fraternity members sleep while the sororities use their houses for recruitment? Do they stay in the house?

True. But for a house fanatic like me, I'm just psyched to see the inside of the houses!

What's the deal with clasping the hands behind the back during the conversation? It seems very artificial, at least in the photos.

It's so nice they have those pads to kneel on though! We either a)sit with/next to the PNM if there is enough seating (usually there isn't and we're all standing, especially day 1), or b) some chapters "sorority squat" while the pnm is sitting, the others stand while the pnm is sitting or c) it's as clemsongirl detailed, if it's slideshow or skit, there are chairs set up for the pnms, and pref night, there's tables for the pnms and actives to sit at

It probably forces them into better posture. If they had their arms forward they would end up hovering into the girls.

eta/at Iowa, at least 100 years ago when I rushed, the houses and the icky seating arrangement was the same as at Arkansas. Just not THAT crowded. We had at max about 50 or 60 girls at a party. In my house's case we had 3 large rooms, so about 15-20 rushees per room, plus rushers.

Anyone have insight on why the change from 10-8-5-2 to 10-7-4-2? The 2014 "official rules" recruitment docs on the UArk Panhellenic page showed 10-8-5-2 for a very long time, yet they just recently posted a "Look Book" that now states 10-7-4-2. PNMs were told today that they will rank bottom 3 tomorrow, meanwhile this link still sits right on the main page. :(

And, any idea on why they are having PNMs go to 10 houses on one day of Open House, and then having a day off on the other? I'm not saying it's a bad idea... but it's a completely last-minute change. Are they likely to do the same with Rounds 2 & 3?

I understand how big and complicated a recruitment of 1400+ students must be. But it is indeed frustrating to have these things that kind of seem like fairly core procedure be either 1. so poorly communicated or 2. changed up last minute willy-nilly.

switching from 10-7 from 8 is probably to force larger cuts sooner among the largest chapters. Arkansas continues to have disparity between chapter sizes and this is probably an effort to balance the scales.

Saw on Instagram that Florida State University has 1,909 PNMs starting Recruitment tomorrow!!!

I have to say, Recruitment was my absolute least favorite part of being in a sorority, but looking at the pics of Spirit Week... I sort of miss it!

I think it's funny to see that each house has a different "style" - some have the whole chapter up on knees, some are on knees but sitting back, some are sitting with legs to the side... but it's all the same in each chapter!

my chapter did the "sit on the floor, legs to one side" and had to practice sitting and getting up in our skirts for recruitment!

Also, is the "ceiling full of balloons" a requirement?

Arkansas Changes-OT
 

Arkansas did make efforts last year as well. Certain chapters were given a lower quota of new members. There were two separate quotas.

The sorority adviser for Arkansas left and I don't know if the one running the show now is permanent or a fill in until they hire someone. That may be part of the reason...along with trying to get more parity in the groups.

Going 10 - 7 - 4 - 2 seems like it adapts more to NPC recommendations on how to graduate down between party rounds by having them reduced in more even increments.

In other news, 993 PNMs started recruitment at Texas Christian (TCU). It was a rainy day in Fort Worth but luckily the skies cleared right before round one. It wasn't quite soon enough that PNMs didn't have to walk to the BLUU and the back several blocks to Worth Hills in the drizzle before the parties though. I saw many with no umbrella just holding their ziplock bag over their heads as they walked!

OMG this^! Experiencing recruitment as an active was pretty much miserable and everyone ended up sick. YET...I kinda miss it too

According to the Nebraska Greek Affairs facebook page, 1100 women started Recruitment yesterday.

According to their t_witter 1200 registered at Texas Tech. My little sister is going through right now and said that there are a lot of girls with <4 parties for philanthropy day when the max is 8.

So what are the top 5 largest recruitments this year?
Alabama
Missouri
Florida State
????

Just spoke to my daughter who is in "polish week" at Colorado. They were told that the numbers of pnm's is way down this year. Last year there were about 1200 that went through recruitment with new member classes of 79+. So far there are only 450 girls signed up. Hoping more sign up soon.

Goodness, that is a huge drop. Do they have any idea why that might be? When does registration close?

1st: Totally read Polish Week like a Polish Hot Dog not like Nail Veneer.

2nd: Is the freshman class way smaller?

UF has 1657 this year. Last year 1397.

Julie Johnson, KΔ, who serves as chairman of the College Panhellenic Committee and on the NPC executive committee is in Fayetteville this week for recruitment. There are picture on the FB University of Arkansas Greek Life page showing her visiting chapters on round 2, day 1, philanthropy.

Me too, and I could not figure out what Poland had to do with anything!

University of Kansas
 

Has anyone heard what the numbers are at Kansas?

Over 1050 registered at Clemson-a small increase from the 1000 who registered last year.

Back in the early 1970s, the local photo company did photos during parties...I bought a few and still trot them out about this time of year.

My daughter told me it was something like 1038, which is almost 100 more than last year. Preference round is today. I think they're expecting pledge class numbers in the upper 60s.

I am very doubtful of those Colorado numbers.

I hope the numbers at Kansas keep going up. It seems like it has been stagnant for a long time - KU has a great greek community.

Anyone have any numbers for Univ. of Iowa?

It would be interesting for someone to start a Postrecruitment Numbers Fall 2014 Thread to give the largest chapters in the country and each school?

I was just looking through and WOW!! That sounds like, crazy. Anyone know if thats really the number? It seems too huge of a drop to be real.

Wisconsin
 

We're sitting at 650 at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). ETA: make that 696. Come on, Badgers!
We usually have about 800-850 (5-10% of which withdraw before/during first rounds), so this looks low to me. A lot of women register last-minute, but I don't think we're going to get another 200 registrations in 24 hours. Registration closes tomorrow at noon.

That does look low. Hmm...Remember everyone was moving in the last two days, so maybe now that they're settled in, they'll sign up. Let's hope so!

421 registered at Southern Miss, a slight increase over the 406 from last year. This includes primary and secondary numbers.

Recruitment starts Monday!

And we will be welcoming Alpha Chi Omega later this fall!

Any update on final numbers? It's pouring right now but hopefully it will lighten up for all the girls going through today. Good luck to all the pnms and the chapters!

Any updated numbers on Ole Miss recruitment?

And here we go at Wisco
Final number registered was 856, so about exactly last year's numbers. But Alpha Xi Delta is recolonizing, so I was hoping for a bit of a numbers boost. Still, not bad.
Good luck to all the PNMs, actives, alumnae, and parents!

Thanks for the update.
I know how much you love this time of year! :)

Illinois State University started recruitment on Thursday with 711 PNM's registered. Panhellenic actually added parties for the chapters for welcome rounds to keep the numbers manageable. We're almost to the end of Philanthropy rounds, and there's currently 623 active PNM's.

Ole Miss is around 1558 but a number of those did not show up to attend class and some that signed up will not start recruitment so the final number will likely be closer to 1500.

Recruitment begins today at Colorado. They now have just over 1000 girls going through. Bid day is on Wednesday.