Auburn University Recruitment 2014
 

Anyone out there going through recruitment at Auburn? There are a few of us on here who have had recent experience with Auburn recruitment and are happy to help if we can. War Eagle!

Yes, WARRRRR EAGLE!!!

War Eagle! Wishing all the PNM and all of the Auburn sororities a very successful recruitment!

I'm considering going through recruitment this fall. However, I keep hearing bad things about sororities (hazing, drama etc) and am very nervous going out for it. I need more information on what Greek life is actually like and if those things are true. Thanks!

Any group of more than 5 young people is going to have drama. Unless they're lobotomized.

Take the "warnings" and stereotypes with a grain of salt. More than likely they are coming from selfish, jealous people.

However, if you are planning on going through recruitment at Auburn and don't have your recommendations in to all the sororities, you'd better get going.

Look, I don't know how else to put this but bluntly. I'm an Auburn sorority alum. 33girl is right in what she says about the drama but more so about the recs.

Auburn is not a campus where the sororities are desperate for members and they'll cater to you and spoonfeed you information. It's late in the game--recruitment starts in less than 4 weeks. You are already late in regards to getting recs, which will be crucial, and they're at the point now where few people have the time or inclination to sit down and have lengthy chats about AU Greek life. No one is going to coax you to come out for recruitment.

Read anything you can about SEC sorority life that you can, then make your decision, I guess. But time is of the essence and you are currently behind the eight ball.

I've already gotten quite a few recs in. I was waiting on my transcript to come in so I could register. I've heard good and bad things but I'm going to go through recruitment anyway.

As someone who is a member of an Auburn sorority, I can assure you that your new member period is 6-8 weeks of gifts, not hazing. I can't speak for fraternities, it depends on what one you join. But it seems like you're talking about sorority recruitment. Reach out to all your friends that are currently in Auburn sororities so they can make you promotional posters/slides! (It's a big thing on Auburn's campus!)

What is this? Hope you don't mind me asking, I never heard of this (but I went to school wayyyyy up north).

Sorority members make posters of their friends who are rushing. They usually highlight their top accomplishments. These are done because so many hundreds of girls are rushing and they want to make their friends stand out.

I think I would freak out if I was walking down the hall in my unmentionables and saw posters of rushees smiling at me. Lol

Thanks for that info! Do they put the posters in the sorority house, I guess?

Hahaha, me too!

They are put up in the house, usually in a place where only members would see them. That doesn't mean that girls w/o friends in sororities will not receive bids because they did not have a poster, and it does not mean that every campus and even all sororities on a particular campus do this, so don't worry about it. But at Auburn you DO need recs.

Like in every bathroom stall

Sometimes you never know who made your poster (maybe someone who liked your resume?) Right after I rushed, a member came up to me and said, "I remember your poster! It had those gorgeous stars all over it!"

Poster? Stars? :confused:

And DO NOT ask sorority members if someone made a poster about you!

On the bathroom mirrors, and doors, hallways, doors on the stairways and in the stairways...but NONE downstairs, of course.

Some chapters have a committee that does them for particularly desirable PNMs. Or for towns where you need members. Or majors, or talents...etc.

I'll never forget the moment, early in pledging, I first saw a decorated rush poster under my Big's bed that read, Suicide ZZ. Suicide?! Whatever could THAT mean? She explained it was meant to pump-up the house for rush, but I didn't buy it until I was initiated and on the other side of rush.

we don't have houses at Auburn, so some chapters put the promotional posters up all over their section of the dorm, known affectionately as "the hall". Last year, we did a promotional slideshow instead, and went through it multiple, multiple times per day. On the promo poster, we put a cute slogan that rhymes with the girl's name, to help us remember her. We had two promo slideshows, one for legacies and one for active's friends. It's a big, big deal to know someone in the chapters.

One of my interns is a recent Auburn alumna. I learned a lot about contemporary NPC life from her. I think Auburn must be a great place to be a sorority woman.

Oh Sen, it really is. And it was back in the day too; I often wonder how I lucked out to be (and to be Greek) at such a place.

The registration numbers are not all in yet but the number of incoming freshmen is up this year. It should be another big year for recruitment.

I am an Auburn greek alum as well as my daughter, who just graduated AU this spring. We are in two different sororities and both of us had wonderful experiences through different decades with the AU greek system. It was fun to see how things had changed or remained the same. We have both written Recs for several PNM's we know and are hopeful and excited for their recruitment experience!

Really good tips from Auburn Panhellenic!
http://aupanhellenic.blogspot.com/20...tions.html?m=1

I understand that, currently, a little more than 1,300 have registered. Last year a total of 1,200 went through. Auburn is finally getting that jump in PNM numbers - yay!

I HATE their advice on getting recommendations. Really, really misleading. :mad:

Agreed!

And this is an unfortunate misspelling:
"I had a 3.0, but after this summer it may drop. Will that effect me?"

Some may think it nit-picky, but for cryin' out loud, this is a university! They should have chosen the correct word!

I'm concerned that there are still PNMs out there who've been slacking in getting their recommendations (as shown by several such questions) and now will use Panhellenic's "validation" as an excuse to go into recruitment "rec-lessly". With the large numbers expected, Auburn will surely be in the ranks of those schools considered to be ultra-competitive.

I have a daughter going through AU rush this year! She is really excited and terrified at the same time! We have done our best getting recs, but will have a few missing and that concerns me!

Well, I was just perusing the website of my former company last night and they had page after page of employees talking about their "favorite past time." (And their answers were things like baseball, knitting, etc., not "the Dark Ages" or "The Roaring Twenties.")

My daughter will be going through rush at Auburn. I was not in a sorority so this is our first rodeo. I found out on Friday night that we didn't put enough postage on the envelopes that went to the alums for rec letters. So I have been texting, emailing and face booking all our rec ladies asking them if they noticed the wrong postage. Some did some didn't so I'm trying to get it all corrected. I have about one week to figure it out.

I love all the recruitment stories and have learned a lot from them. When I try to tell my daughter all the tips she will listen for about two minutes. She is not anxious about anything yet and I want to keep it that way. However, I do want her to be prepared. Open mind but not a blank slate, so to speak.

Brittin, we know you are worried and anxious about the whole recruitment process. My 2 cents worth of advice .... try not to get more involved in this whole thing than your daughter is. IF it is not so important to her, don't let it wreck your peace of mind! You can lead the horse to water. Probably really easy for me to say, since I am not a mom. Take a deep breath!

I am a mom and that is good advice. If Brittin's daughter is anything like mine was, she is trying to sever the last thread of apron strings as most baby birds do who are leaving the nest to go off to college, so she will not be eager to listen to advice from mom. They want to keep us at arms length, but that doesn't last long (for us it was over by Thanksgiving).If you wait and let her ask the questions, she may be more receptive to listening. For all you know, she might be secretly reading about Auburn recruitment on Greekchat, and just doesn't want you to know-they do that sometimes. And Brittin, you are so right to understand that you might get on her nerves, no matter how important the message. Just be patient with her, and let her take the wheel. Good luck to your daughter!

Brittin,

My daughter is also rushing this fall and like your family it is our first. I have been stressing and reading and actually making myself sick over recruitment and she hasn't been worried a bit. Suddenly yesterday she tells me she's been reading on here, has all her "ducks in a row" and is ready. She promises she's not dropping out of school if she doesn't get a certain chapter and she would really rather be Greek than nothing. She said if she doesn't get a bid she will be fine. I am going to relax and let her handle it. Evidently I am stressing over nothing. Good luck to your daughter.

I am not a PNM mom - but I do have a view from the trenches, and this is good advice. Remember - whether you have not been through it or been through it somewhere else or somewhen else, recruitment is always changing. Auburn is an SEC recruitment, but not as crazy competitive as Arkansas or Alabama. There are so many great groups and they are competitively friendly. Girls can join different groups and still find time for outside activities and friends after recruitment.

The best advice here is that DD feels good about herself and her prospects from day 1, as she will project that and make the best impression. If she has friends already in sororities, they can help her with this the most, because they can help her thing about what she wants out of her years in a sorority and they can help her figure out what group she might feel most comfortable in.

Also - she may have recommendations and not know it. The girls are working hard to find information on the women going through recruitment - especially if they know them already or they have a great overall package.

Our recruitment director just sent out a list of all the girls registered so far with their hometowns and high schools, and there's 1301 on the list so far. Getting excited for #aurec14 (awesome hashtag!)

Out of curiosity, how does that compare to last year at this time? More, the same, less?

I believe we had 1100 going into recruitment last year. The overall number of freshmen is up this year,

Brittin, I will share something with you that my recent AU graduate said she appreciated during her rush week. I gave her a box to open the first day of rush. It was filled with notes of encouragement to be opened everyday. I included silly old pictures, or little happy's that would fit in envelopes. I even wrote one day from her dog's perspective. I am sure countless moms did the same as it helped me "let her go" and gave her a little hug from home each day. When she would text or call during that week (I let her initiate this), we purposely did not talk about rush, unless she wanted to, and I always would say, "well, what do you think?". By the end of the week, she was exhausted and just wanted text/call and talk about anything but rush...yeah, she even skyped the dog :). She kept an open mind all week and ended up joining a sorority of wonderful young women that was different from her legacy groups. She had a fantastic AU greek experience, as did I, decades earlier. AU has an awesome Greek System, and she had friends in almost every sorority. Both of us have been writing recs this year and we talked about the excitement and the challenges ahead for our young friends, and she reminded me about the notes (I had forgotten) and the communication and how much it all meant to her, so I thought I would pass it on (even though she may read this and it wouldn't be a surprise, it is still personal between you and your daughter :)). Best of luck to your daughter!