University of Texas Recruitment August 21-28, 2012
 

As the weather starts to warm up we all know that the threads about fall recruitment will start to spring eternal. I have read on these boards for a fairly long while and they can be mixed with helpful advise, pure stupidity and whole bunch of craziness but the majority of PNMs come here looking for basic information. Recruitment at the University of Texas seems to be an annual topic of conversation so I thought I would compile some this basic information regarding UT’s recruitment in hopes to lasso it all in one place. (longshot I know) So lets go for the basics:

Make sure you register for recruitment. Online recruitment registration begins Monday, May 21, 2012 and concludes at 5 p.m. on Monday, August 13, 2012. Paper applications will not be accepted. This is very generous window. Don’t come here on August 5 and ask about letters of recommendation, etc, because it will be too late. The time to do that is now.

Letters of Recommendation & Registration

YES you need them. So this does not turn into a three page post, if you don’t know a soul who was ever in a sorority (not likely, but there is always someone that comes here and claims that) register with your local panhellenic organization and they will help you get a letter for each house. Greek Chat is NOT the place to hunt and gather letters. In Texas, the UT Office of Greek Life lists these local organizations here…

http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/gli...pc_alumnae.php

(see how easy this is)

Now go register with them and again…THEY will help you. Please do not confuse registering with them and registering with UT as the same thing. They are different. You should register with your local alumnae first, UT second. Why? Because your LOR should be written before UT registration even opens.

Even more about LOR

Please make sure you take the resume you used to apply to UT and fancy it up and have it ready for your local panhellenic. You will need at least 14 copies of it. They are here to help you but they are not your administrative assistants. You need your transcript too. Grades matter and to UT sororities they matter even more. If your GPA is below 3.5, you will already be on the short list before recruitment even starts. You will also need two photos of yourself. A close up. A full body shot. If you are sending hard copies to someone who is writing your LOR, they will need your resume, transcript and both pictures. You will probably not get them back so do yourself a favor and upload good photos of yourself to Costco and have plenty on hand. (This should be less tan $20 and if that kills your budget, you may want to rethink sorority life) Put your name and contact information on the back of each and every one. (Note: some ladies will have you email your photos, transcript and resume. If you don’t know how to attach things to an email, you need to learn this skill A.S.A.P.)

One last note about LOR.

Please take the time to thank each and every lady that writes a letter for you. The letters take time and the good ones take research. Not thanking them is bad form. Also, make sure you drop a note after recruitment to the person who you now share a sisterhood with. She should find out from you. And if you really want to be like Emily Post, a quick email to every lady that wrote for you telling them where you pledge is always welcome.

The When and Where:

Formal recruitment always occurs the week before classes start in the fall semester. For 2012, recruitment will be held August 21-August 28, 2012 and the schedule will be as follows:

Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Opening Convocation @ Hogg Auditorium
8:00 PM-9:30 PM

(If you are living in SRD or Hardin, this will be your move in day also. Get to your dorm early..if they say move in starts at 9:00, get there at 8 or earlier, get your stuff done and find time to chill before convocation. Look nice, but you don’t have to get dressed up. Girls will be in everything from Nike shorts to sundresses but make sure your hair looks nice and you have make up on if you normally wear it.)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Open House Day 1
10:00 AM-7:00 PM

(For both Open House days, you will be given a T-shirt to pair up with khaki shorts. They recommend tennis shoes, but many, many girls will wear sperry’s or sandals, and wear a belt. It just looks more finished)

Thursday, August 23, 2012
Open House Day 2
8:30 AM-2:30 PM

First Round of selections this afternoon

Friday, August 24, 2012
Pick Up schedules from counselors @ 11:00 AM (Your counselor and your group will have pre-determined meeting locations….typically in or around Hogg)

Philanthropy Day 1
12:20 PM-9:35 PM

(Sundresses)

Saturday, August 25, 2012
8:30 AM-4:15 PM

Second round of selections this afternoon. This selection narrows the houses down to a maximum of 6.

Sunday, August 26, 2012
Pick Up schedules from counselors @ 12:30 PM (again, max schedule of 6 houses)

Skit Night
1:45PM-10:15PM

(Dress like you would wear to a graduation or early evening wedding)

Third round of selections this evening. PNMs are deciding which houses they would like to preference. This of course does not mean this is what they get.

Monday, August 27, 2012
Pick up schedules from counselors @ 3:30 PM (max schedule of 3….but remember…it only takes one)

Preference Night
4:45PM-9:45PM
(Black Dresses….think “Little Black Dress” think classy)

PNMs make their final selections after the parties. Rank houses 1-2-3 if applicable.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Bid Day @ 5:00 PM Hogg Auditorium-
Recruitment counselor’s house affiliations will be revealed and girls will join their new member classes and walk as a group to their respective houses. (A note about Moms. UT has not branched into family bid day as of yet, but more and more moms have been attending as of late. Mainly for a quick house visit and a few pictures and then the NMs attend bid day activities with their new sisters.)


Cost

How much does it cost to be in a sorority at UT?

For the first year the cost range in dues is from $2600-$3900 in the new member year (Fall & Spring) For the following year, dues will fall to $2200-$2600. If you live in the sorority house, the cost to live in most houses, plus meals, plus dues will cost just a tad more than room and board at SRD or Hardin. So the first year is really where the majority of the costs are. There are also other costs for merchandise and t-shirts. It is easy to spend $500-$1000 your first year on this stuff alone. Of course that is optional, but the fact is most girls buy the stuff.

What are the best Sororities at UT?

No one on Greek Chat will answer that question, because no one here, or at UT, or in Austin, or Dallas, or Houston, would ever agree. The best sorority at UT is the one that you feel like you can grow as a person and have a great time. DO NOT GO INTO RECRUITMENT HAVING TO BE AN ‘ABC’. If you do that, it will end in failure. It does not matter if your best friend is an ABC and all of her sisters “love” you. She has 200 sisters (and you can't know them all) and the process is so more complex than that, so don’t drink that turnip juice. Also don’t go into recruitment just knowing you have to be ‘AB’ because your mom was an ‘AB’ at Northwestern in 1985. Being a legacy can matter, but the reality is there are more legacies going through UT recruitment than there are spaces for all the PNMs. All that legacy status will do is keep you in the game an extra round but the reality is if you aren’t a match for ‘AB’ then you just aren’t a match, you just get to carry the hope stick around an extra day. Now if your momma and your grandmother were involved Texas ‘ABCs’ then your legacy status probably holds a bit more water. And that is just the truth. Not all legacies are created equal.

The Elephant in the Room

There is not one conversation about UT recruitment where the term “Big 6” does not come up. Full disclosure. I don’t like the term. It was created by a lady named Prudence Mackintosh who at the time was writing for Texas Monthly. She named names and called out 6 sororities at UT (it was the 1970s people) and what made them special or not so special. Each of these houses is still special today and so are the 8 others that form the University Panhellenic Council.

There have been many young PNMs who have come and gone pledging their faithfulness to only accept a bid from a “Big 6” to only be disappointed by what they got. The same can be said about the other 8 too. On the other hand, there have been girls that have been disappointed in the moment, that all of the “Big 6” released them, only to pull their head out of the sand long enough to realize that an amazing sisterhood wanted them to be part of their group and her experience was life changing. Reputation is a tricky thing. A good one can cover a flawed sisterhood and a bad one can cover a good one. Step wisely. Trust your heart.

Round Up

Round up is the weekend after Spring Break this year (March 23-25) and it can be a great opportunity to see Greek Life in all its glory. But again, step wisely. If you are a Senior and go to Round Up. BEHAVE. Everyone is watching. Recruiting is happening. It just is.

Facebook

For goodness sake. Clean it up. If you pretended to be a pregnant teen mom on Halloween, you might want to take that photo down. Out of context…well…awkward.

Best of Luck to all the Texas PNM and Hook'em!

I must say WOW! and WOW! again. Everything you need to know about Texas recruitment has been spelled out for you. I can't think of anything that has been left out. Good Luck!!

All of this is good advice. Here is one thing that can't be stressed enough:

I would just add to this:

Almost every chapter will drop you after the open house set if they do not have at least one LOR for you. While an LOR will in no way insure you will be invited back to the second set of parties, not having one will insure you won't be invited back to most houses. This applies to all PNMs, even you.

Get an LOR for every single chapter, even the ones you are sure you would never think of joining. Recruitment is hard and often does not end up the way you expect it will. Those chapters might be the only ones who keep inviting you back, and your only choices left .... and you wouldn't even have those options if they'd dropped you after the first set because you didn't bother to get an LOR.

Wow...I guess when recruitment is that competitive you need to find other criteria besides grade risks to help whittle down the PNM pool to a manageable number.

. . .

Well said, and should be said often. Amazingly enough, in virtually all cases, whoever you are, you and your situation aren't nearly as unique as you may think. :D

No, you're completely wrong. I am completely different than the 1200 girls a year times, what, 75 years of Greek life at UT. And none of those girls has been as awesome as me, so I can bypass the rules and common protocol.

/sorry, I just had a snark I had to let out.:eek:

Pinapple this is so well written! Thank you, I hope this will get sticky'd so I can refer girls I know going thru to this thread.

pinapple - AMAZING. Your dedication is astounding, and your insights are amazingly well written.

THIS is particularly good, and deserves repeating a thousand times.

Brilliant Post!! Everything you said was absolutley true...I wish this could be printed in the Panhellenic Guide!

Am I the only one who finds it incredibly random that Cleveland and Dayton, of all places, are listed here? LOL The other OOS groups make sense, but this is just out of nowhere. Maybe someone in the Greek life office has a soft spot for Ohio, the way there are always Pennsylvania references in Law & Order.

I think it is more along the lines that those OOS Panhellenics actually reached out to UT and not vice versa.

Definitely with so many great PNMs with stellar resumes attending college, its become more competitive than ever.

Pinapple well done on an amazing and put-together post. Between this and the general Sorority Recruitment post by adpiucf, PNMs at UT who read GC should have no excuses for not being prepared for Recruitment!

This makes me so excited for Fall! (Even more so than the start of Football!)

Would it be inappropriate of me to wish for a 2012 version of Barbie's_Rush thread on ultra competitive recruitments. Since a lot of PNM started threads are bound to be on one of those schools.

Each school could have a similar write up like this one?

Sorry to hijack your thread Pinapple, I shall now return y'all to the regular schedule UT Recruitment programming ;-)

Panhellenic Love,
28StGreek

over 100 years of greek life at UT... 110 years for the oldest panhellenic chapter. so they really mean business!

Centennial for Tri Delta at UT
 

OT

Delta Delta Delta celebrates 100 years at Univ. of Texas in 2012.:)

And you left off the alumnae advisers who each have THEIR own list of girls they want in. No, they're not supposed to have a vote, but I have a feeling there is some input.

They wish they could invite back 700 ;)

I have a quick question, how early is too early to start sending rec letters? I have a lot of friends active in sororities at UT and they all told me to get my recs in before July, but I'm going to be rushing as a sophomore. Would it look weird or bad if the bulk of mine end up being sent in April?

I just don't want to be one of those girls who gets dropped from the system!

Ask your friends.

I did! And none of them could give me a definitive answer really other than "before July." Like some said "oh yeah why not the sooner the better," but most were unsure so I am confused! I mean it couldn't hurt me at least, right?

Your rec writers don't know? They are, after all, the ones who are supposed to send them for you.

My rec writers are alumnae and family friends from other Big 12 and SEC schools and aren't very familiar with UT recruitment (other than its competitiveness). Most girls in my area that will rush actually don't go to Texas, they mainly all go to Baylor, Tech, A&M, SMU, and big SEC schools. I think that might be why none of my rec writers are really sure about UT; they just don't have much experience with it.

You can send your rec writers the info now and tell them the deadline and really your job is done at that point anyway. AND some sororities are really looking for the recs electronically, in which case it probably doesn't matter when they arrive as long as it's not late. I think you might be thinking you have something to do with sending the recs in. You don't.

Thank you, that makes me feel relieved! I just worry a lot, and the lady writing one of my recs is a little disorganized! I really want to have a successful recruitment and I am just paranoid since I will be a sophomore come recruitment time.

Would it be appropriate to send a small gift (cookies/flowers) and a thank you note to my rec letter writiers after the letters are sent? Or would an email thanking them be better? I'm not sure what the etiquette on that is.

a thank you note is enough. You don't need to go overboard; just be appreciative of the favor you are being given. Also, do send a note to each of the women afterwards telling them where you went. Even if you don't go with their sorority the women are interested to hear how it went. And frankly if you can muster up the energy, the women would love to hear how it's going AS it's going. But that's a lot to ask of you so I wouldn't sweat that too much.

DubaiSis, thank you for your advice!

The "magic" date for recs at UT is June 1st.
It *used* to be that they wanted the recs in before summer orientations started because of all of the "dirty" rushing that went on. Those days are supposed to be over, and for the most part are. I would send your packets to your rec writers now and ask them to please have them in by June 1st. Most sororites will take them later, however, they get so many, it's best to get them in early. Good Luck!!

Just to make a point. There are Big 6 houses on campus right now who are taking spring pledges. There are also some "non-big 6" houses taking pledges. There was Big 6 house last spring that took spring pledges. There were some "non-big 6" houses last spring that took spring pledges. To most experienced people in the Greek world, this would be considered a weakness in the formal recruitment class. The Big 6 is not the golden ticket of Willy Wonka fame. Girls can leave for all sorts of reasons, but girls do leave the Big 6 houses after they pledge in the fall because things are not always what they seem. Girls also leave houses across the board. I don't like rankings to begin with, but frankly, most people don't like to go into things to come in last. Ranking houses is a natural thing, but it is so skewed, it can't even be formulated. But if you are dead set on a house that has the reputation of being superior, and then you realize it is all smoke and mirrors; and you feel forced to leave that house, then in the end, you really have lost. It is so important you look past the letters and not only look at the girls in front of you, but also look at the girls beside you. On Pref night the girls standing beside you will be your new member class. If you are in love with the letters and not the girls, you are on a slippery slope.

Ohhhhhh you mean they weren't at total and have people pledging now to get to it. For a minute, I thought you meant they were having HS seniors pledge underground and was massively :eek:

SWIMMING POOLS!!!
 

Lane swerve here....

I looked at some of the UT Chapter web sites. And some of the chapters have SWIMMING POOLS!!!

Holy shit...makes it sound like a resort. In my day, a few of the fraternities had them but not sororities.

And Alpha Delta Pi has kitchenettes connecting rooms in addition to a swimming pool.

Okay, I loved my college days, wouldn't change it for the world. But, I swear I would have traded my tiny closet room and sleeping porch for a pool and kitchenette ANY DAY!

THOSE SOUTHERN TEXAS BELLES HAVE IT GOOD.

Makes my days look like CAMPING...and that was just <mumbles>nearly enty years go.

...End of lane swerve...

This made me want to go look for house pics, and I can't stop laughing at this unfortunate grammar error I found on one of the chapter's sites:

"Every two weeks we host a Mexican Guest Lunch where each member can bring a guest to the house for lunch"

Another question! I have a foreign name that is not long or particularly hard to say, but is not something anybody would've heard before.

Would it hurt that I don't have a "normal" name? I really don't want to go by a different name, but realistically speaking, am I going to be at a significant disadvantage because of it? I'm a sophomore, so recruitment will already be a challenge and I really wouldn't be opposed to going by a cute American name for a week if it would help me get a bid.

^^^I would edit this ASAP. You may have just given yourself away.

In total agreement. There are all types of problems that can arise from this.

When I was a collegian years ago, a young woman came through rush who had an extremely unusual name. I can't remember how she spelled it, but after all these years I remember that it was pronounced like the phrase 'silly canary' because that's what she'd added to all her pre-recruitment forms and even her name tag. It made her memorable in a positive way and took a lot of stress off the sorority members who would be meeting her and unable to pronounce her name otherwise. It also provided a conversation topic. Perhaps you can come up with a similar tactic with your name.

The name "issue" seems a critical part of the fun the sorority members have in preparation! How DO you pronounce that girl's name? Whoever gets her, make sure you ask her how to say her name! Believe me, you will be discussed if you have a weird name. And discussion is good. The US is not compromised of Smiths and Joneses so own your name. It's also a good conversation tool. What is its ethnic heritage? Have you visited there? Do you have relatives there? You can see how just your last name can kick start a whole string of questions that can lead on to more interesting topics.

On the flip side, I remember women with the same name coming through, i.e. there were two Suzie Smiths almost every year. Having a duplicate name is much worse than having a unique one.

Don't get me going about the 2 girls with the same name who came through rush 1 year and both went to the same pref but 1 got a bid there and the other didn't. The wrong one was handed a bid. What a mess.

Yes, some of them have swimming pools. Some also still have sleeping porches so its a big mix. If I remember correctly, most require that you must live in the house as a sophomore - but that would certainly be something to ask about.

Most houses encourage the girls to live in house after the freshman year, but the reality is most houses don't have enough room for everyone, so those rooms are usually given out based on some type of point system.