UNC Chapel Hill Recruitment
 

Round one of UNC's recruitment is going on now! (Literally!) I'm excited to hear from my contacts there how things are going! Hopefully everyone will find the perfect home where they can belong! I've heard there is a record number of PNM's this year...

From what I have gathered, tonight is part two of round one which I think is an interesting shift to two nights of open houses. I am also a UNC alum so I am excited to see any recruitment stories!

Please keep us posted.

I've had a few short texts from my daughter over the last few days (recruitment started August 29) and from what I can gather, there are a record number of PNM's at UNC this year. Isn't that always the case? She is a Sophomore and this is her first glimpse of "the other side". (She pledged last year.) She is my tender-hearted child, so the member selection meetings that go late into the night just go against her nature, but she knows it's necessary evil. Pref night is going on NOW, and she has a couple of rush crushes that she is hoping to welcome tomorrow as new sisters!

I hope she gets her girls!

Back in my day... all nine years ago as a PNM, open house was split over two nights.

Recruitment ended last night with Bid Day. From what I've heard, a HUGE amount of girls dropped out before the process was over. It seems that they had their hearts set on a few "upper tier" sororities and didn't feel like any of the other amazing houses were worth exploring. Where does this mentality come from? Are we teaching our daughters that they are better than other girls? There has been a lot of talk about not "settling" for a mid or lower tier sorority. Who decides tiers anyway? Can you tell I'm frustrated? I'd love to know statistics of how many girls started Recruitment and how many accepted a bid.

How sad for the chapters and the PNMs. What was quota?

I have only heard from a few groups averaging around 50 but this was the article from the DTH. I also heard a lot dropped during the process. http://www.dailytarheel.com/article/...9/bid_day-0904
There is a video of bid day here: http://www.dailytarheel.com/multimedia/18878

The past couple of years Recruitment started on Friday night with round one and visiting all the houses so it was a change for me.

Kappa welcomed 54 NMs.

MSKKG, do you know what quota was?

No, I got that number off either Kappa's Facebook or Twitter. In a post a few posts above, pbxtilldeath said that some groups averaged around 50, so Kappa's 54 would be right in line.

One of my sons is in grad school there, but I can guarantee you he wouldn't know anything. In fact, when both of my boys were in HS, I would have to ask my friends with daughters who was Homecoming Queen, etc.!

This whole "nothing but the best mentality" is in line with the sense of entitlement SOME kids are growing up with today. Who creates this attitude? The parents in many instances. Their children are an extension of themselves, so they make sure the kids are over programmed in the best activities, go to the right schools, have the right clothes, etc. What happened to teaching kindness and giving back for the sake of doing the right thing, not because it will look good on a resume?

How can intelligent young women not see that the different Greek organizations are more alike than different? Aren't students at UNC supposed to be best of the best? Doesn't sound like there are any leaders in the group. A smart group should be able to figure out that each year the house changes by 25%. A strong group of girls would recruit girls like them and in three years, the chapter would be almost totally different. :rolleyes:

My daughter has friends in various sororities throughout the country and I'd like to share some of their recruitment thinking which boggles the mind:

1. Almost all have visited THAT website and read what THAT website says about tiers, rankings, who is good, who is awful, etc. per THAT website. Even when told to disregard THAT website by this forum or others that website is already in their heads and the damage may already be done. I talked to a PNM who knew nothing about Greek life and she talked about that website. Once she found out about it from another PNM she visited it religiously. She read every single post about fraternities, sororities, etc. and that was her Greek bible. She even had her mom hooked on it and as she went through recruitment she referred back to THAT website. I told her and her mother there was a lot of vile garbage there and she should keep an open mind. Her daughter told my daughter that it was a bunch of old women telling them to ignore THAT website. I unfortunately think a lot of these young adults share that same sentiment about THAT site (it's the Bible) and those who tell them it ignore it (clueless, out of touch).

2. Tent talk is huge. Even when told to close your ears and not listen to tent talk the tent talk is rampant and girls hear things. Not as vile as #1 above but a similar vein.

According to my friends and their daughters half seemed to have made their minds up before they even went to school based on social media. The other half seemed to be heavily swayed by tent talk. One girl said "nobody wants to be in THAT house, they're all awkward (seems to be the current negative word)". If they can't have what they want then they'd rather do without all together. Maybe it's a princess generation but open-mindedness doesn't seem to be a strong trait for some.

Children and young people are not just a reflection of their parents but of society in general. I don't like your politics and therefore you are the worst person alive and not worthy of another day's worth of life is such a common sentiment on TV, radio, social media, how could an 18 year old not think along those same lines?

I can accept that regardless of how much a girls knows she shouldn't listen to tent talk, that is all but impossible where the rubber meets the road. And how could you possibly join that sorority that EVERYONE is saying is horrible. It would be so EMBARRASSING! And telling that girl that the day after rush virtually all of that talk goes away is a waste of energy. The problem, as I see it, is while there are a lot of those girls, a lot more ARE accepting their bids, so quotas are going up and COB opportunities are going down. So their unintentional snotty attitude will really bite them in the arse, especially at the biggest Greek schools. But hey, live and learn! This may be why colonies are doing well, and seemingly better than they used to. A non-entity doesn't have post after post of garbage about them so the girls are more comfortable taking the plunge.

Lovethesand is right...."awkward" is the code word for "that" house. A young woman very close to me rushed last year at a big competitive university. She had the three max pref, one that was one of her favorites. Despite my begging in all kinds of ways, she suicded to her fav, stating the other two were "awkward" and she "didn't connect". If she didn't get her fav, she would rather live off campus. Fortunately for her, she got her fav and is very happy. She is a level headed, sweet girl who is kind to everyone . I KNOW the tent talk got to her. I won't lie, I was disappointed in her but it sure brought home how much influence the tent talk has. Sigh

My contact at UNC said quota was 48.

@DubaiSis I actually don't think colonies have it any better. Our Arizona colony is already getting slammed on THAT site and we haven't even had bid day yet. Meanwhile things are going great and the team is so excited about the turn out.

I don't want to derail this thread but colony leprosy is an issue. Everyone loves the expansion process, everyone loves the finalists, they are so excited to announce. Then when you get to campus all bets are off.

I hear from some young people "oh, a colony will take anybody, i.e. they take the girls nobody else wanted" or "if recruitment doesn't go well, just join the colony". These are incorrect assumptions but too many young people spout this off and too many think it's correct. This thinking then follows the new chapter on THAT site and in tent talk for awhile. If the kids could only appreciate our wisdom now.

UNC Recruitment
 

This is official from our recruitment advisor for Tri Delta at UNC.

Official quota: 48 (includes upperclass quota)

Tri Delta new members 50

This is SO true! Another fallout from this year's Recruitment is girls not accepting their bids. They preffed a house, ranked it and on bid day when they opened their envelopes....they just didn't show up at the house afterwards. The houses didn't know what to make of it. Lots of preparation (and money) had gone into bid day festivities at trampoline parks, movie theaters, farms, etc. including transportation arrangements. Lots of TIME had gone into making door decorations for dorms, nametags and crafts for new ''babies", etc. Not to mention the fact that they waited and waited before going to these places to make sure no one was left behind. It's so incredibly RUDE to just ignore a group of women that stuck their neck out for you and extended a valuable invitation to join their sisterhood. If these girls that think they are too good for the house where they were offered a bid expect to do well in next year's recruitment, they have another think coming (as my Dad would say!) Sororities talk.

Wow, just didn't show up??? That is beyond rude.:mad:

I want to tell those chapters who had women not show that they will be better off in the long run without those women. I know they must have hurt feelings, but no one deserves the privilege of membership in their chapter if they are going to be as rude as to not show up. Keep your heads up ladies and you will find new members worthy of your organizations.

See. This right here is what gets me so angry. I'm so sick of girls coming around and crying, "Poor me," and then acting like that to either my sisters in Phi Mu or any of my NPC sisters. It's obnoxious and really angers me. I agree 100% with you IndianaSigKap (as great minds think alike ;)) because it makes me laugh how some of these women are just "too good" for some of these organizations because on their campus--and sometimes some of these little rinky-dink campuses where Greek life is not really the end-all be-all, these GLOs are unpopular when in all actuality, if they just go over to a campus right down the road, that chapter is a top performing chapter that everyone wants. We have one sorority on my campus that was known as being "bottom" but, most of my high school went to another school nearby my hometown where that "bottom" chapter is the "top" chapter and girls are beside themselves if they don't get a bid.

NOTE: Just because it is bottom where you attend school does not mean it is bottom everywhere! No NPC could survive if that was the case! Take your bid and be thankful. If you didn't get the "top" chapter on your campus even though you are a special snowflake--but, instead you got the "bottom" chapter---open your eyes and realize there's a reason for that. Stop turning your nose up to these women like you are too good for them! Ugh!

Completely agree with you and my SK sister. Preach it ladies!!!:D

Cinder1965, thanks! I'm glad some people agree with me. That belief is what got me threatened and berated by someone in another group because I was being "unbecoming of a sorority woman" when I essentially told PNMs to stop whining and crying for not getting their #1 choice as they turned away bids from their "bottom" choices because they "didn't feel comfortable" or "have a connection" with the ladies. We really need to preach a Panhellenic spirit overall or girls will continue to go and visit THAT site and make decisions based upon what group of girls can be the most catty.

Seriously??? Well, I just can't feel that bad for these girls who don't maximize their options and label houses without giving them a chance and forming their own opinions. I was around several girls last year going through rush and hy drove me nuts with their ranking comments. :mad:

I apologize in advance for ranting.

As an active I don't get the "didn't feel comfortable" or "didn't have a connection" after meeting half a dozen actives in any house and deciding to drop out. PNMs are making judgments after meeting so few of us and I don't understand it. If we're being honest the entire process is crammed into a very short time period and can be very superficial so how do any of us, PNMs or actives, really get to know each other, especially complete strangers?

On Bid Day I had 3 choices and while I liked all of them, I really liked one because the 2 girls I spoke to for a total of 30 minutes had something very specific in common with me. That's why they were my favorite. Looking back at my notes they didn't even register on days 1-3. That is how fluid and quick the process is. Now being an active, knowing more girls in every house, I completely realize that house would not have been a fit for me. I trusted the process and gave it time. I'm sorry but I don't get PNMs who don't give it a shot because they think: they're better than me and my sisters (or other houses), because they think we/they are awkward (and yes, everybody uses that word and it's not in a kind way) and they don't want to be part of us/them. They take pride in saying they rejected our/their bid and would rather not join a sorority then join ours/theirs.

There is a house at my school that struggles each year to meet quota (not my house). They are beaten down on THAT awful site. I admit I thought they were awkward when I went through recruitment. I am ashamed to say that I was being superficial and petty. I've met so many of these girls and am proud to call them my friends. They are classy, involved, occasionally dorky in such a good way, funny, and true friends. They are a credit to the Panhellenic spirit and PNMs who throw away bids to this house (or houses they think are like them) are missing out on great opportunities based on the glow of recruitment.

Sorry for the rant but reading about girls not even going to Bid Day ticked me off. My mom always tells me first impressions can be misleading. She met my dad and immediately disliked him. They've been married 25 years.

I can't add anything except, DITTO. You sound a like a mature person and a great representative of your house. I will never forget accidently stumbling on "THAT SITE" and just being shocked at mean and cruel things that are posted. Truly shocked (I don't know why) I am so sad that PNMs look at that site and see that crap. :mad:

Look, for a lot of women, this is their first big rejection. It's okay for them to feel lots of things, many terrible. It's okay for them to say things, to their rho chis or their moms, or even their close friends. I'm not going to fault any of that.

The thing is, after the feelings, after the venting, THEN, it's time to put on your big girl pants and give the other chapters a shot.

I'm ok with a little bit of feeling bad, but, you are right, you got to grab those big girls pants and get to moving :cool:

The thing is, you have to look at the bigger picture and do some math.

If you meet 10 girls from a chapter of 50 and don't get along with any of them, does it mean that is not the chapter for you? Probably. That's 20% of the membership you are not digging.

If you meet 10 girls from a chapter of 160 and don't get along with them, does it mean that is not the chapter for you? Probably not. That is a much smaller percentage - 6%. A lot of times the girls on here who say they didn't "feel it" are talking about even fewer numbers of sisters they met and even larger chapters. That's like saying all the clothes at the mall are ugly after walking into one tiny boutique and not liking it.

I mean, I would completely understand if someone at my alma mater (very small system) would say "I met this sorority and they are not right for me." But I just can't envision walking into a chapter of 300 people and saying that NONE of them will be someone you could call a sister. The law of averages doesn't support it.

But the law of averages is logical and PNMs are not dealing with logic-they are dealing with emotions.

I know....that's why you have to try and be logical before rush starts and you're thrust into emotion-land. It also doesn't help when you don't have anyone else around other than people who are going through rush either as PNMs or sisters, but that is another thread. :)