What type of recruitment would you have preferred?
 

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The kind of recruitment I went through - structured informal - was perfect for me as a 1st semester sophomore. I didn't have to go back to the chapter that made me downright uncomfortable (between the hazing rumors and their not being nice at all during meet the Greeks), but I did get to check out all the other groups just to make sure that what I'd been thinking before rush began was really what was right for me. This went a long way towards my never really thinking "things would have been better if I'd joined XYZ."

If I would have had to go straight from HS to rush, I probably would never have made it into a sorority. I just didn't have the self confidence at the time.

Fully structured fall recruitment worked really well for me. I went through as a first semester freshman so I hadn't formed any opinions about the chapters. Informal rush wouldn't have been good for me. I was far too shy to just show up at a sorority without having to be required to be there.

I liked going through a structured, formal recruitment. The only thing I would have changed would be the timing; it's put at the end of September/beginning of October (which makes sense, because with campus total being 30, and each chapter at 10-12 going into recruitment, we need all the time we can get for PR). As a pnm, I would have loved if it was earlier, especially because I was already into 4th year honours seminars and by a month in, they're pretty heavy. However, from this side, the extra time is fantastic for those who are planning/preparing.

i experienced fully structured, total frills recruitment and i loved it.

Just curious, what constitutes total frills? Our entire recruitment (minus pref) is limited to $200 for 3 nights of 3 parties, so I'm always interested to hear what frills actually entails! *Jealousy*

My campus uses minimally structured recruitment. I think I would have preferred a more fully structured recruitment.

I liked the fully structured rush the week before school started, but I understand the slight delay some schools are using now. I still think STARTING it before school starts, if you have more than 8 or 10 chapters, is a good idea. It just seems so unnecessarily stressful otherwise. Once you get down to 5 parties or so, I think that's easier to squeeze into an evening or a weekend. I can imagine what MS must be like when you've got classes the next day.

But would I have been happy with an informal or COB rush environment? No. I would have felt forever like things could have been different. As it is, I wonder how things would have turned out differently if I'd have done this or that little thing differently. If I'd had 14 other sororities to think about "what if" my head would have exploded.

the chapters sang songs and performed what we called "yard dances" as they streamed out of their houses. our yard dances involved criss-crossing across the yard to your particular spot and then coordinated hand movements and/or foot movements, singing all the while. each party round you sang a different song and performed a different dance. we had double front doors, plus double french doors at the living room and the housemother's apartment, so girls streamed out of all the doorways(think of those old fashioned busby berkley musicals).

at the end of the party, you escorted your guest out. we had a fairly long winding sidewalk that led to a series of steps which led down to the street sidewalk, and you escorted your guest to the top of the steps, said good-bye and wished them well and then took your place on either side of our sidewalk and started singing the exit song, except on pref. party day.

during prefs., which were held at night, we lined up on the stairs in our foyer, sang a beautiful song very softly and individually descended the stairs when our guests name was called. at the conclusion of the pref. party, we walked our guest down our sidewalk, where lumenarias(sp?)had been carefully spaced to line our sidewalk, to the top of the steps, gave her a hug and took our place and sang a dreamy song until the last guest had descended to street level. we wore floor length black formals for this party.

a couple of days had skits-yes, more than one skit day. one skit was longer, with more elaborate costumes, props and decorations and was the official skit day. the other day where we performed a shorter skit, was also house tours.i believe that we served some sort of food and drink at all the rounds,except for ice water rounds, where we, of course, served only ice water(but in real glasses), but can't remember for sure.

we reported back to school 2 weeks before classes began. the first week was our work week, were we practiced our songs, dances, skits, made name tags, decorations, props, etc. and caught up on what had been going on in each other's lives over the summer. the 2nd week was rush, and then school started.

As a freshman, I would have preferred to have had formal recruitment beginning before classes.
I think that way you would hear less rumors & still meet wonderful women who are also going through recruitment. Especially since I feel like you make a large part of your friends in the first times on campus as a freshman.
I would have been much more inclined to go through that kind of formal recruitment as a freshman. That, and I would have actually been ABLE to, since I would have been able to get off work during the time before the fall semester actually begins.

But as an upperclassmen, very informal was the way to go the way my life worked out.

When I was at Arkansas, they had an awful rush--you had to be a sophomore plus it was a bed rush. According to several yearbooks, more than half the PNMs didn't get bids. I would've preferred a freshman rush because during freshman year, there was so much dirty rushing; it really got ugly.

If I had gone through earlier, I would have preferred the fully structured fall recruitment schedule, especially as a freshman because I knew nothing about Greek life then. When I was a sophomore, informal recruitment suited me better, because I had more of an idea where I belonged. By first semester junior year, I only really wanted Sigma. By that time I kind of knew where I was meant to be, and I just hoped that they would feel the same way. I really liked that during COB parties I could just be myself with Sigma, which is something that I think you can't get as much during formal because there are so many rules and regulations.

I had a frilly (though not quite as frilly as FSUZeta), prior to school, fully structured recruitment. It started 2 weeks before school, then you had a welcome week, then school started. It was great because it allowed you to be focused on just recruitment and not have to worry about school at the same time (I would NOT have been a very good student that week), plus have some time to get familiar with both the sorority and the campus before classes began.

Now to compare a bit to FSUZeta’s experience (because it’s fun to journey down memory lane a bit), we had door chants/songs all of the rounds except preference, where we piled in the doorway and screamed catchy tunes at the top of our lungs while either squatting or standing on a chair (depending on where you were placed in the door). We wore matching outfits, which were determined by the party chairs and bought prior to recruitment (the near-by GAP and J Crew loved us) – this included shoes.

The first round there was a mini skit type thing, where a small group of chapter members performed a song and coordinated dance, but changed the words to be about the sorority (songs varied each year, going from ABBA’s Take A Chance on Me to Nsync’s Bye Bye Bye). The second round was where you toured the house, and the third round was the full skit round, complete with decorations and props.

At each round we could serve a refreshment, usually water and one other thing. Sometimes it would be a pink lemonade, or iced tea, or sometimes it would be Coke – the ones in the little coke bottles to go with our 50s-themed skit that year, of course – it just depended on the round.

Preference was done pretty similarly to how the chapters at my alma mater do it now (and to how FSUZeta described it). People were called in by name individually, then we would have the party (where people would be served cute appetizers and drinks). At the end, we would walk them down the steps of our home, hug them at the sidewalk, then gracefully walk back to form a formation on the lawn while softly singing a song. Once the last girl left, we would sing one round, then walk back into the house in pairs, and close the door.

It was such a long week (well, two weeks if you count work week), but man I loved it. It’s funny to me though that about 8-10 years before I joined, it was even frillier. The skits used to have some intense decorations – including decor on the lawn and completely covering the room our skit was in with paper and balloons and flowers – even the ceiling was covered! And everyone wore these types of dresses for pref, in magenta and royal blue and a jade green. I wish I could have seen it then.

Sorry for the slight derailment there - I get so excited when recruitment season comes around each year.

I had fully structured, formal rush the week before school. I loved it because I came in knowing no reputations and made the decision on my own. It was pretty terrifying knowing only 2 girls in chapters though.

This year we'll have rush for 6 days before school, have a week of class, and then pref night the following Saturday. I hope it works out, but I'm a little bit scared to have the week break.

I've stated on the forums before why I despise formal structured "recruitment", so I won't go in to that now.

I would ask, though, about those women who have no experience with a Greek system. How on earth would one get them to register or come to school early for something they know nothing about? Is it ever an issue? I would imagine it is not at the competitive SEC schools, but others?????

in my day(waaaaay before the internet) panhellenic mailed a rush information booklet out at the beginning of the summer. there was also a panhellenic presentation at orientation.
if you were staying on campus, you(or your parents) paid a little extra and you moved into your dorm room a day or two before rush started, and that process was all explained in the booklet.

FSUZeta - was that enough to interest them? I don't think it would have been for me, but I'm only one data point.

i guess enough girls knew about sororities and wanted to join one from their own knowledge, coupled with the rush info. booklet and the information at the orientations. fsu has held rush prior to the commencement of classes for decades and hasn't had to cancel yet.

I loved the structure at GMI many years ago. During a three week period the three chapters had a party on a different prescheduled night each week (9 total parties). You were required to attend each group at least once. The parties were not typical formal rush parties. I can remember one party was a tie dye party.

The real fun was the rest of the three weeks. The chapters would have socials doing all kinds of things canoeing, luaus, drive-in movies to name a few. These events might overlap so you chose whatever you wanted to go to, or none at all. At the very end you were invited to a pref type party by 1,2, or all 3 of the chapters. In reality, by that time everyone pretty much knew who was going where because people tended to attend most of the socials at their favorite group the third week.

I loved this because you got to know people in a more natural environment like you would hang out with friends.

I'll tell you about my least favorite later on.

Cute.

So the girls who don'[t know about Greek Life and aren't swayed by the brochures are just riff-raff? Not in a derogative sense, but simply left out, because no one makes an effort to get them? I feel for them.

But I guess the other side of that argument is if they chose a school with intense Greek life and didn't investigate, that's their issue.

Wow. No, she never said that. She said that in spite of girls who are clueless about rush except for the info they get from the school, they do manage to get enough participants to carry it off.

And what do you mean - "get them"? Just because they changed the name to recruitment, doesn't mean it really is and sorority women are going to their houses knocking on their doors like the Army or Hare Krishnas. They get the information on Greek life - just like they get information on housing, athletics, and other facets of college - before they begin classes. If they get there and don't know how to drop/add classes, where the office is to buy tickets for football games, or how to participate in rush, and don't bother to investigate it or ask questions if this is something they have an interest in, that's really their own damn fault.

I find it amusing that someone who is such a proponent of personal responsibility thinks that young adult women need their hands held every step of the way as far as joining a sorority is concerned.

And here I was remaining away from ad hominem attacks; just asking questions. Oh, well, some things never change.

i never called anyone riff-raff. true, some girls may have had an edge because of familial ties to greek life, or neighbors or friends who had talked to them about greek life, but every girl who enrolled at fsu got the same information from greek life mailed to her home at the beginning of the summer and had the ability to educate herself on FSU greek life.

if i remember correctly, the booklet had greetings from the greek life coordinator, as well as the panhellenic president. there was the requisite information explaining what a sorority is, the advantages to joining a sorority, the process of formal recruitment, cob opportunities, an enrollment form and each sorority had a page that had a photo of their house, their standard information and i believe, their dues and other financial information.

so i feel, in essence, the greek life office at fsu made an effort to get every new girl at fsu to go thru recruitment, by mailing out a booklet to her.

Putting words in someone's mouth (especially someone who never says anything negative on here) just because she suppports something you loathe is just as bad. Oh well, some things never change.

You can't say in one post that it's ridiculous that young women have to be shepherded from rush party to rush party and not allowed to choose not to go to some, and in another post bemoan the fate of the poor lost lambs that can't get sufficient information (or find a name/number to get further info) from what are usually VERY detailed rush guides. If you're thinking of women who say "oh, well I would never belong in a sorority" and miss the boat - I know that if the school considers something important enough to send me a 30 page brochure on it, I'd be a little more inclined to check it out, even if I hadn't been prior to that.

I don't really dig first semester rush, either, but it's the member groups that keep that going - not national or local Panhel, and not the schools. Any national sorority could make a policy tomorrow that says women who do not have a college GPA cannot join.

I guess I will be the first to chime in on Spring recruitment :) We have formal structured recruitment the second week of spring classes. I really enjoyed going through recruitment in the spring. It gave me a chance to get to know the women who were rushing me outside of the confines of recruitment, and it let the women get to know me as well.

We weren't simply being judged on our ability to "interview" and our appearances-we were being looked at for how involved we are on campus, how we portray ourselves in our everyday life at Witt, and on our ability to survive our first semester of college. Similarly, we were able to see the sororities as more than just what the women rushing us portrayed themselves as. Even the chapter that seems the most superficial has women thriving in classes with me, and doing philanthropy, and being involved on campus. While we stereotypes more having gone through a semester, we can also see past them much easier.

As far as timing, I liked having recruitment during the second week of classes. It meant that we didn't need to move back in early (and sacrifice time off our 3 week break as PNMs) and that we kind of had a grip on our semester before we threw in hours of recruitment on top of our already busy schedules.

While I feel like a fall formal recruitment is a great way to get to know women on campus, I feel like spring recruitment was perfect for me.

Recruitment week coincides with Orientation Week at my school. It's completely structured, formal & stereotypical-style recruitment. haha. AND I LOVED IT. We also do Winter Recruitment which is structured informal, I believe. And that's better for some people, so you kind of get to choose.

I loved jumping in before classes started as a freshman...first of all, all of the Greek students, theatre students (they do orientation skits, and help with orientation activities), peer mentors, and RAs (we call them CAs, though) are on campus--as well as all the incoming freshmen & transfer students, so you get to know so many people before school starts.

I also liked formal recruitment--the houses are completely UNRECOGNIZABLE. I remember moving into our house after Bid Day and being like..."THAT'S what the basement looks like!" I had completely forgotten from house tours--because it looked completely different every night. And SKIT night...it's intense. We had an entire dorm room as our set. lol

Ah. So you just didn't read "not in a derogatory sense" and instead read the term "riff-raff" as derogatory instead of as "all others".

Guess I should have selected a more neutral term. In looking it up, I find it has a negative connotation; in my experience, the term had always simply meant "everything else". I did acknowledge there is a derogatory meaning, but stated I didn't mean it that way.

So phrased differently, as long as there are enough "girls" to fill recruitment schedules, we're okay?

dgtess, i don't understand your hostility, nor do i understand your last question. in case i am understanding you correctly, i will quote myself:

"but every girl who enrolled at fsu got the same information from greek life mailed to her home at the beginning of the summer and had the ability to educate herself on FSU greek life.

so i feel, in essence, the greek life office at fsu made an effort to get every new girl at fsu to go thru recruitment, by mailing out a booklet to her."

I guess we're supposed to go door to door and ask every girl, "Are you sure you don't want to rush? You might regret not doing it. We don't want people thinking you're riff-raff or anything."

I've actually never heard the word "riff-raff" used in a non-deragatory way.

The way that Purdue used to do formal recruitment was cruel and unusual. We had two rounds during either October or November (I cannot remember which.) These were on different weekends. If I remember correctly, they were not consecutive weekends. We did not see our invites until right before the next round.

The worst part, however, was that rounds three and four were the week before second semester. You had to come back early from Christmas break. It was cold and snowy. It was possible to come all the way back for 1 or 2 invites for round 3 and be cut before prefs.

I did however love "frills". The skits were corny, but I never knew what I would see the next time I went to a house. They also helped me remember which house was which after a long weekend visiting many houses.

I guess we should have called them women instead of girls. The rack for you!

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/...e-devices8.jpg

I think this is just a case of someone who didn't go to a school with a gazillion young ladies going through rush not understanding that you really don't have to do much marketing at those schools. If a lovely 30 page brochure that gets mailed out to all incoming freshmen gets 1000+ girls to go through, do they really have to worry about the 1000 who roundfiled it? At a LOT of schools, just getting girls to go through at all is the hard part, but there are also a lot of schools who wish (secretly) that they could have the girls who are going to be cut for grades or lack of credentials (don't shoot me, I mean activities, involvement, leadership) after the first day, could be eliminated right away to make more time for the eligible ones.

But seriously, if a girl is going to Bama or Auburn (Florida, FSU, Georgia...) and doesn't know about recruitment prior to school starting, I'd be pretty concerned about her observational skills.

I really wish my undergrad used a fully structured recruitment before school started than a minimally/partially structured recruitment. Recruitment was 2 1/2 weeks long and during the week as well as the weekend during the semester. Spending 6 1/2 hours going to recruitment events before having to do homework was crazy, both as a PNM and an active sister (I can think of many times when voting wouldn't end until after 1am).
I also think several sororities struggled because PNMs weren't forced to actually have a look at them past the required 15 first round.
There is also a lot of mind games because PNMs can be invited to some closed events but not all so they couldn't tell if that group was really interested or not, so a lot of great girls fell through the cracks because they dropped out early on. Of course it would be hard trying to figure out who to invite back when 70-100+ girls showed-up to your open event and you only had 30 invites to hand out.