Sophomore Rushing
 

Hello! Ummm where to start, I am currently a freshman at Purdue and did rush this fall...however on the third day of rush I got an extremely nasty case of food poisoning and couldn't finish recruitment...This however did not impede my getting a bid from a house! I did not take the bid because a) it was not my fav house and 2) I felt like I should go through recruitment to really find my place...Well as fall continues I feel extremely sad that I don't have a house and want to be a sister so bad! I would love to pledge!
BUT my question is, is it wise to rush as a sophomore? I mean will this hurt me entirely and not get me into any of the houses I actually would like? Do I, as a sophomore, have no chance?
If I do have a chance, another question would be should I get recs this time around? (I didn't last time) And if I fall in love with a house during the year, should I attempt to find a sponsor?
I need advice! and help!

I am almost 95% sure I wanna rush next fall...because I feel like I would totally miss out on great opportunities if I wasn't greek! (I'm the only the girl in my fam and want sisters!)
Do you know if it would mean that since I'm a sophomore like say half the houses won't even attempt to keep me?
A friend said I should find someone to sponsor me, but I don't even understand what it really means!
I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find recs, at least I'll do my best. (I don't really know any greeks, so I'll have to check around)

And thank you for the other thread!

There is no sponsorship; you get recs. Since I don't know where you are from, see if there is a local Panhellenic association from your home town. Or, as we tell everyone, ask your teachers from High School, women from church, parents of your friends, etc. If you find one woman who was Greek, chances are they know other Greeks, who you may know too.

Where I grew up, being a Greek was no big deal so it was hard to tell if others were Greek. Plus, this was the 70s when Greeks had fallen out of vogue. When I was in High School, I didn't think I knew any Greeks. Once I finished college, I found out that so many parents of friends were Greek.

it sounds like you really want to join a sorority. many girls have a successful recruitment as sophomores(i am speaking generally, not about purdue specifically). some get their #1 choice, others have to be a bit more flexible and fall in love later with the house that offers them a bid.

i would suggest that you keep an open mind and accept all invitations to parties that you are offered. in the mean time, if you have not already done so, get involved in a club or activity on campus. you will not be able to stand on your h.s. accomplishments and activities, you should broaden your horizons when you are in college, and you might meet some sorority members in the orgs. that you join-if they know you and like you it might aid you in formal recruitment next fall.

also, you might contact the greek life office and see if there is going to be a spring recruitment. some of the sororities might have a few spots opening up after december graduation, and you wouldn't have to wait until fall. if after attending some spring rush parties you think that you should wait until fall to join, that is okay. you do not have to accept a bid from the sororities rushing in the spring.

I went through recruitment at Purdue as a junior during the mid-90s, and the majority of sophomores who went through formal received bids. Sophomores generally do very well at formal recruitment if they keep an open mind and maximize their options. To my knowledge, this is still the case at Purdue.

Definitely get to know as many Greek women as possible, keep your grades high and get involved on campus. Even though you will not be the only sophomore going through recruitment next year, it never hurts to have those things on your recruitment application to help you stand out.

Best of luck to you, and Boiler Up!

Thank you for the all the great advice! I was however wondering how it would be better to get to know other greeks...do I want to party with them? Or do I want to actually be more of a formal situation when I meet them? I am involved with three clubs and a large school association...I am at college with scholarships that I have won...I am doing my best to keep my grades up...but do you guys suggest any other activities? or anything in specific? I don't think any of the houses I am really interested in do have any spring recruitment...so I probably won't be doing spring...any other advice??

This is your problem. You're focusing on certain chapters and dismissing others (ie. ones that may be doing spring). How long have you interacted with members of these chapters? How many women have you met? How do you know these chapters are not for you?

My advice is to attend the parties of any and all chapters participating in spring recruitment. You have nothing to lose opening your mind and getting to know women from participating chapters.

Think about your favorite chapters. Ask yourself if you would still want to be Greek if you couldn't be in your current favorites.

The best way to meet any new friends is in class and through other activities or through mutual friends. If you see them at a party that you HAPPEN to be at, you can chat. But do not, do not, DO NOT make a habit of partying at the (random example) Beta house if you know that a lot of Pi Phis hang out there and you want to be a Pi Phi, if you don't give a crap about or outright dislike the Betas. This is among the surest ways to NOT get a bid. Unless you are truly close with many of the brothers or seriously dating one of them, I would recommend against hanging out exclusively at one fraternity house in general. You can get a "groupie" reputation.

And yeah, open your mind and go through spring recruitment.

So today I looked at the possibility of spring recruitment and there is a clause here at Purdue that if you go through fall, obtain a bid and do not go through with the bid then you are not allowed to participate in the spring recruitment...anyway, my way of mostly making greek friends is to usually study with them and such so with them I have no partying rep...is that good? Or should I at least get around to some of the parties where my friends are at?

This is an NPC policy - not just a Purdue policy. There is a possibility you may be able to go through informal recruitment in the spring; it's hard to discern what your situation is through your posts. Did you drop out of recruitment completely? Was the bid you were offered an informal or snap bid or did you attend any preference night events/sign a pref card? Did you sign anything regarding the bid? Those facts will determine whether or not you can participate in spring informal recruitment.

It's up to you if you want to socialize/go to parties with your friends that are currently Greek. If you do, realize that anything you do can affect your chances of receiving a bid later on - good or bad.

What happened was I went through the second day of recruitment entirely and when it was time for the third day I got food poisoning. I told my Gamma Chi what happened, as soon as I stopped puking for a minute. She told me that it was ok and that she would continue to move my houses. On pref day I was still unable to attend and asked my Gamma Chi for advice. I never officially dropped recruitment...because my Gamma Chi told me that it would be ok to continue. On bid night I was working on a project and totally forgot about recruitment because I thought since I didn't finish there would be no chance for me to get a house and therefore I just thought that I would do it my sophomore year. At around 7 my Gamma Chi calls and tells me I have a bid, but I felt really unsure because I hadn't attended the rest of recruitment and didn't really feel like I knew what the house would be like. I never signed any bid night card or anything. Instead I told her I was completely unsure and asked for her advice. She told me to go to bid night and try it out. I didn't do what she said and instead just decided that it wouldn't be fair for me to go to a house that I had no idea of and neither did they know much about me...(I didn't even see skit day) so I just hope for the best next year

Something is really screwy here. If you never signed a bid card, your Gamma Chi should not have called and told you that you had a bid. Your not showing up or signing in effect means that you DID drop out of rush.

I would tell them they need to produce a bid card with your signature on it - it almost sounds like they forged a card or something.

luvedward, you are only bound for a year if you sign an MRABA (membership recruitment acceptance binding agreement) or "pref card" and are matched to a chapter you listed on it. Being bound for a year to a chapter you list on your MRABA is to ensure that PNMs think long and hard about what they put on that card. Many schools have a guaranteed match policy, that if you rank all of your preference round chapters, you'll get a bid somewhere. Being bound is a check to that policy so PNMs only put down chapters they would accept a bid from. Otherwise, some chapters might match quota and have lots of no-shows on bid day.

It sounds like the chapter who offered you a bid did not make quota and they offered you a snap bid to try to make quota. You are not bound by a chapter offering you a snap bid.

Pref card, bid card - same thing. It's all technically an MRABA. Obviously there are women recruited through completely open rush or just plain word of mouth/friends in the sorority who never sign a "pref card" as they never attend any sort of pref party.

OMG Thank you all sooo much! So I will again look into the houses doing spring recruitment and let you all know what happens! Thank you so much once more! All the advice is amazing!
Also...I was wondering how do I go about getting recs? I mean I know like one graduate greek....but I contacted some of the national houses and they said they don't give out any information...So what happens from here? Any more advice?
Again Thank you so much!

luvedward-I would definately go to your greek life office and ask to see this "bid card", because if you didn't even attend pref night, you therefore can't "sign" anything, so I may be stupid, but how can they "hold" you as ineligible when you technically didn't sign anything.

Contact the alumnae Panhellenic in your area.

http://www.npcwomen.org/alumnae-panh...directory.aspx

I'll contact the npc tomorrow and I'll go ahead and ask to see my bid card asap...what does a bid card look like by the way? I mean I never saw anything with my name so I'm just wondering

AGAIN Thank you all for your advice!

Did you contact the Greek Life office (not NPC)? Are they even saying you signed a bid card or did you just hear through the grapevine that "if you get a bid in the fall you have to wait a year"? Sounds like the latter, a misunderstanding of the policy.

Just to make sure we're clear:
You're going to contact your school's Greek Life office to insure you did not sign a MRABA/one was not signed "for you" thus potentially allowing you the opportunity to go through spring informal recruitment.

You're going to contact the local NPC alumnae group (assuming there is one) to potentially secure recs for either spring informal or recruitment for next year.

Correct?

Your local Alumnae Panhellenic should not be the first place you look for recs. Ideally, you want recs from alumnae who actually know you. Ask everyone you know, such as:

HS teachers/staff/coaches/activity sponsors
your parents' friends
your friends' parents
your siblings' friends
your friends' siblings
coworkers
aunts/cousins
women from your place of worship, if applicable

Keep in mind that if you find one Greek woman, she may know of others, so keep this in mind if you find an alum of a sorority that does not have a chapter at Purdue. Fraternity alumni may know of sorority alumnae, so ask men too! For many NPCs, collegiates may write recs, so if you have friends who joined at other schools (can't be at Purdue), they may be able to write you a rec as well.

I say it over and over, but I live in a town of 6,000 people not in the South and I could hook up a PNM with alumnae from 20 of the 26 NPCs from the area (not including Greeks I know from UMD). You are bound to discover some Greeks you know personally.

Alumnae Panhellenic is where you "fill in the holes" for recs for NPCs for which you can not find an alumna through your own network.

Yes, that's what I'm doing...the state wide NPC hasn't answered me yet...and my Greek Life office I haven't been able to go by yet! (It's exams here! so I'm super busy)

Well I'm back for help with everything once more! I attempted to contact the Greek Office and they didn't say anything to me (about the fall rush)...I emailed them and no one emailed me back :( Also The state wide NPC hasn't contacted me for over a week! I don't know what to do about recs...I know I'm doing this early on, but its because I want the individuals who might write recs for me to get to know me and talk to me before writing a rec you know? Well thats the update on my situation!
Any advice???

Try calling or stopping by the office. You could also try the Panhellenic VP of Recruitment.
One more time. Your local alumnae Panhellenic should NOT be the first place you look for recs. Really ask around and try to find Greeks among people you already know. Look at my list above and write down who you know in those categories and then ask them if they are Greek or know of any Greeks.

Ok, so I did contact my greek office and they still can't say much about spring recruitment...they actually said it will be posted on the website so I have to wait :|

And I've started to contact the people that I know and am asking them if they no anyone who is greek....I'll let you know what turns up!

Thank you so much for all the advice :)

Turns out the bid I was given by the sorority does count here....therefore i would have to do something about asking them if they could remove the bid but i cannot do spring recruitment :(

I will have to wait until the fall :(

Something doesn't feel quite right with this if what you told us earlier is true:
The parts I bolded are the most suspect. It sounds as if your Gamma Chi made the decisions for you without your input (possibly even submitting a preference card in your name?), and I don't think that's right or fair. You might be SOL for this semester and have to go through in the fall anyway, but that should be brought to the attention of Greek Life.