Congrats!! The happiness and fun begins now and she can put the week behind her.

Got a Zeta Tau Alpha and a Delta Zeta! I think that's it from this neck of the woods.

Congratulations to her, and you can now breathe a sigh of relief!

So happy for everyone!

congrats

71 beautiful new Gamma Phis!

Looks like my rec girl was dropped before pref . . . :(

Congrats to all the new members!!! My rec girl went Tri Delta :)

So thrilled for your daughter! Things have a way of working out :)

Ditto!

https://www.facebook.com/greekrowphoto

pics

Two of my four rec girls went Alpha Chi Omega and one went Kappa Delta. The other was released. :( I was just sick about it.

Hi ladies - I specifically joined GC just so I could post a reply!

I'm so impressed with the support you all give each other and how much you all agree what a great experience being part of a sisterhood is/was!

I'm an alumna of a local sorority at UGA - and we're always looking for wonderful additions to our sisterhood. Recruitment for us is a few weeks into the school year - and I'd like to extend an invite to them, through you all. Pls message me directly if you're interested or think it could be a good fit!

PS. I hope I haven't broken any rules about posting this, if so - apologies in advance.

Welcome, XDEmerald! You definitely didn't break any rules. I hope that your group has a successful recruitment.

Does anyone know the numbers yet? How many bids were given? How many were released/dropped out? Just from my daughter's experience, she feels (and let me just emphasize feels) as if it were one out of every four girls who either dropped out or were released, but that's just from her circle of friends, gamma chi group, dorm, etc.. That seems really high to me.

I have heard/read that 20% of the girls who began recruitment didn't pledge.

Well, I guess her feeling was pretty close to correct, if it was actually 1 out of 5.

And how many of those dropped because they didn't like their options? It's interesting to see the numbers on releases and withdrawns.

That's exactly what I was thinking. I don't cry over women who didn't see the process through to the end.

That I do not know yet.

My rec girl went Theta. I am so happy for her. She transferred from a highly competitive Texas school where her mother's chapter dropped her. Theta got a good one.

.

Thanks AOII Angel! :)

Invite offer still stands for everyone else as well - I would love to help all the recs to find a way to have a great experience w. sisterhood at UGA.

WooHoo!

Looks like neither of my two rec girls pledged. I know one SIP'ed and it didn't work out. Not too sure what happened with the other, but we are guessing something similar to the other PNM.

I'm not trying to be judgmental because I had serious concerns last year that Debbie might SIP but I wonder..... do girls SIP because they feel that it's better to be in THE ONE or none at all? It almost has a cut off your nose to spite your face moment of panic, over-reaction, drama, hurt feelings, anger, etc. I wonder if girls who've SIP'd can think back on it and agree that it was the best decision or if they regret it almost immediately. Just thinking out loud.

Side note: I told my husband last year that SIP was an option for my daughter and he looked at me like I was crazy. His words "I know it's been a lot of drama for you and her and I'm butting out but I hope you didn't encourage her to SIP. That makes no sense to me." I told him he was a boy and that girls think differently. He said "I don't get it. Go through a week of hell (his words) and then walk away at the end? Women."

I think most girls SIP because they went into recruitment with either a favorite or a handful of favorites, or they succumb to tent talk. So if they are left with their favorite and one "not so much" or they have an overall "desirable by reputation" house, and one "not so desirable by reputation" house, they feel they will be in the house of "misfits" because that is how they have sold it to themselves. Most seasoned women agree that houses have base line commonalities. Sisterhood, tradition, support system, etc. But for some girls who build their lives around labels, from their jeans to the their handbags, to the shampoo they use, not having a "label" house is too much to bear.

I think that there are some girls who do regret it when they do not get the chapter that they SIPed. Other girls understand and accept the risk, and are happy whether it works out or not.

I like your husband.

I agree with Pineapple. The reason varies from woman to woman, though we do live in a world of brands. Some women probably do regret it, but recruitment often involves a lot of emotions and not a lot of time to deal with hurt.

FWIW, I SIPed in my first recruitment. Looking back now, I wouldn't regret it. I had felt incredibly uncomfortable in the chapter all week. The women constantly told me stories of situations that I would not have felt comfortable being around. They also constantly talked down about other chapters. The vibe they gave off during recruitment was about the opposite of what I wanted. I still don't think I would have done well there. Granted, recruitment didn't work out for me, but I didn't fit well with the campus which is why I transferred.

I don't know about the regret vs non-regret, but I do think this is where all the drama of a week in such an intense bubble really does bite these girls in the arse. They would almost assuredly be happy in any chapter, but it's sure hard to believe that in the middle of the hype.

IF UGA updates chapter total every year (as RFM wants them to), then there will be a few opportunities for COB in the next month or so once the number gets re-set. This isn't a method I would recommend, but they still could have an opportunity to pledge as a freshman.

I wonder about the effects of having less of a bubble. I agree that recruitment makes people nuts, but it also has its own momentum. Do we get more happy members across the board pushing 1000+ women though in less than a week or would we get even better results with a more laid back process? I'm not sure.

I'm kind of changing the subject here back to total: since most groups have shortened the new member period, wouldn't it make more sense to re-set total shortly after initiation (for most groups) rather than about halfway through the new member period?

Or is the new total supposed to happen right after bid day so that you can add new members to the new member class from formal?

I wonder what would be optimal in terms of picking up members from the pretty substantial number of girls who dropped out/SIP. It bums me out every year when I see how many girls who I wrote recs for don't pledge at all.

I have seen both and deferred recruitment and in the longer recruitment scenario there is even more tent talk and comparison among friends and IMO this leads to more women dropping out altogether.

Under the recommendations of RFM - the reset of total is supposed to happen right after recruitment so COB women could be added to the regular pledge class. This is to be done before big sisters are picked to work though.

The problem with this is that emotions are still raw right after prefs and so girls that SIP will likely not accept a COB. They do not always have as many choices to pick from either.

So, I spent way too much time today looking at the Bid Day pictures - thanks GAmomof2 for posting that link.

But here's my thought, and OK, as a UGA grad, I'm biased, but I looked at every house, and all I saw at every house were adorable, happy, sweet, friendly girls. You could have blacked out the letters and I honestly couldn't have told one house from another.

I can't think of a scenario where I would have suicided (because that's what we called it) a house. In fact, as much as I loved loved loved Sigma Kappa at prefs, I also loved loved loved Alpha Gamma Delta and would have been thrilled to be there, too.

I wonder what would happen if they had the sororities switch houses for round one without telling the women. And just before round two parties, they said, "Oh, by the way - you ranked Beta Beautiful #1 - well actually those were the sisters of Alpha Average, so that's where you'll be going for that party."

We've secretly switched this sorority with Folger's Crystals. Let's see if they notice!

I love the idea of it, of no names for round one. It would be interesting to see how many would remember which house was which from the HOURS of time they spent looking at websites and Facebook pages.

Regarding the bubble, after Illinois had good success having a delay between the first and second halves of formal rush, Iowa started doing it that way, and they've had great success with it too. To me it seems counter-intuitive, but I think it does give girls a chance to take a breath and remember what their actual goal of out rush was. And they have found that fewer girls drop out. Quotas have been edging up at Iowa for a couple years now, and my guess is this year there will be a jump because virtually every house is at parity with the others, size-wise anyway.

Twenty years ago Vanderbilt mixed up members of different houses for very early rounds. You might be bumped by women from different houses! My Sister went through there, don't know if its still that way.

Suiciding makes sense at schools with small chapters. Once you get over 100 sisters though, it's pretty ridiculous.

My daughter suicided and had almost immediate regret. Thankfully it worked out for her and she received a bid, but her disappointment about not getting asked back to prefs at her "favorite" knocked her for a loop and she made an impulsive decision.

The one thing that I said that convinced her to hang in there and not drop out altogether was when I asked her if she wanted a wedding or to be married? I think that some girls get wrapped up in getting a bid in the same way that they get wrapped up in getting engaged or being the bride. They don't step back and see the long-term relationships that they will have the opportunity to form through a sisterhood.

Excellent! I'll have to remember that! Thanks.

Oh, I love that!

Spot on, PearlGirl13!

This may be true, and since I haven't been through this type of recruitment, I don't know about "most".

I wonder, though.

Though there are (in many of these chapters) 150 or more women, the rushee doesn't see that. Just like she doesn't see that she is only a minuscule part of the "mutual" selection, she doesn't see anything but the women who rush her. She has no way of knowing what personalities comprise the chapter - what she sees is what the group - not knowing her - has allowed her to see.

It's so very easy to get a mistaken impression of something when you're only allowed to see a very small part of it. If she makes it through a couple of rounds without clicking with one of the rushers - or if she clicks in round 1 and then not again - can you blame her for thinking she might not fit?

Perception is reality.