University of Pittsburgh Informal Recruitment
 

Because of the few alum and actives that are on this board from Pitt...

Good luck to all of your chapters during recruitment! Sorority informal recruitment starts tomorrow night.

Good luck to everyone!

I've seen a ton of flyers, mainly DPhiE and XO. We were never much into the flyer thing (god how i used to hate putting them up at 7:30 in the morning only to have them torn down by the cleaning people by 9am....).

Can't wait to hear about it!

I don't miss standing outside on bidnight with this cold weather.... they really should just reserve the biggest room in the Union for the sororities... have the PNMs pick up their bids in the lower lounge and then walk over to the room. Just be better than everyone freezing outside.

But wait, with spring rush, don't they pick up their bids early in the day and choose which one they accept (since they can get more than one bid) so it's not even a suprise come bid night?

How are they doing it this year?

I'm not big on fliers, but it was something they wanted to do and from what I've heard they've been doing a pretty good job of it! They've also had an ad in the pitt news everyday this week or at least the last two.

I think they are having bid night the same as usual. They did it in the union my freshman year, it was VERY boring! They brought everyone's NM classes in so you saw where everyone went.

I'm super excited! I'll give you the updates when I get a chance!

Yes, PLEASE keep us posted!!

My understanding is that most (but one) of the houses are near total - is that true? I really appreciate being in the loop!

Good luck to everyone!

HOneychile - I'll pm you!

fire,

Best of luck to the Deephers at Pitt :) I know you've got them primed and ready to go!!

Okay. I heard that approx. 91 women signed up for recruitment. about 70 some came through yesterday, which for informal is AWESOME! I'm assuming that those other 20 some women didn't come because it was pretty snowy out yesterday.

I'm not posting anything specific but DPhiE did very well. Unfortunately I don't have any information on anyone else, but if I find out anything, I'll pm you!

I haven't talked to my roommate because she didn't get home until very late, but judging from the away messages i've read KD did very well too.

One thing that I HATE about spring rush and I think is one of the dumbest things ever is that there is no bid matching. We have 6 spots, so we can only offer bids to 6 girls that we pref. Playing the numbers game, it's very unlikely that we'd get all 6 to accept. A girl can get as many bids as possible and can only pick one. But that's how many girls who might not get a bid at all? How many broken hearts does that lead to? Yeah, we'll snap bid/COB in no time, but still, it makes them feel sort of "second class". I really really really hate this about spring rush.

I'd be very interested in knowing how the weather affected the houses not in Amos. Personally, I hated walking to Bayard when I rushed in the fall and it was decent out. There's no way i'd do it in the snow :)

I understand where you are coming from Danielle.

I had a chat with our women yesterday about being fair and not inviting women to preference who had very slim chances of getting a bid so that they may go somewhere else, even if it is not a rule this semester.

Funny I said the same thing last night about walking - but I don't think they had parties last night. There are about 5 groups that have parties tonight - we are off. I think Sat & Sun each group (there is a group A and B) has parties but at different times.

Wwwooooo!!! Yeaaaah! Go Penn go!!!

-Rudey
--Are we talking about Penn?

I really wish more groups would have that chat. But you KNOW that some houses won't. Our girls just had a national officer doing her visit about 2 weeks ago, so I really hope she told them the same thing.

How are they regulating how many women a house can pref?

How was the "circulation" last night? I know that some houses make it so friggin uncomfortable to leave.

I really hope this is a successful rush for all of the houses! I'm so glad to see almost all of the houses (with only 1 exception) really making a push to picking up their numbers and everyone getting more even.

THE big reason why there should be bid matching/more Panhellenic involvement in Spring Rush!

Don't I know it? It's just wrong to make PNMs feel so uncomfortable about circulating when that's exactly what they should be doing!

Yes, good luck to all - ceiling all around!! :)

Quite technically they can't, bid matching can only occur during formal recruitment. If we did it then groups could argue that they should get to take quota.

As far as I am aware it's really up to the women. There is no rule about how many you can invite to pref. and there really can't be. Panhel shouldn't even have set party times for informal, but I think it works for Pitt so....

Of course there will be heartbroken women, but they need to play this game smartly and know their options. They are the winners here because they get their choice of their bids. And while I don't necessarily endorse it - women can get bids from houses that they didn't pref.

ETA: We flick the lights and make an announcement every half hour that they can leave for other parties if they choose.

Just wanted to let you all know I have a friend who is rushing at Pitt durring informal.

Rudey, my dear, let me set you straight on the Pennsylvania school situation :)

My alma mater, THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH aka PITT is not the same thing as PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY aka PENN STATE. Pitt is, in fact, far superior in every way imaginable ;) Now, there is also THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA aka PENN, which is most definitely not PENN STATE. PENN people tend to get really offended when you think that. I guess 'cause it cost like 10 times as much?

Woooo woooo Go Big Green!!!

-Rudey

hijack

Hey, what are the University of Chicago sports teams called anyway? The Fighting Flaming Liberals??? :D

/hijack

LOL (The Maroons). And yes I know we are D3 and all that and we do have some gross liberal folks here who protest Taco bell and all that jazz, but we are also pretty much the geo-center of neo-conservatism and have other conservative superstars under our belt (John Ashcroft et al.).

-Rudey
--I'm so happy those bastards didn't get rid of Taco Bell before I graduated even though I would have bet good government cheese that the lady behind the counter was convicted at some point for mass murder.

Good luck to your friend!!!

You mean the houses are just open all night and you come and go whenever? Yeesh, I would hate that!!

We used to do the structured informal thing and while this did mean we had quota twice a year, it was a LOT easier on the rushees. There were always open bid parties for like a week afterwards so it wasn't a big deal.

KillarneyRose speaks the truth! Just a reminder, though, there's also a State System of Higher Education (SSHE) that consists of 14 (I think) public universities, some with branches. Two of my favorite names of schools are in the SSHE:

California University of Pennsylvania

and

Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

California and Indiana are simply the names of the towns, same as the other SSHE schools. It's kinda like the towns named Egypt or Lebanon. :)

The Cal president wanted to change the name a few years ago (because "people don't get that it's in PA) and everyone got VERY pissed off. The thing he wanted to change it to not only would have gone against naming conventions, but wouldn't have done any more to let people know it was in PA!

I was in Clarion on Saturday. It looked very nice. That's a state school, right?

SSHE schools
 

I'm from IUP, so I thought I'd chime in on the SSHE thing,

Yes, there are 14 state system schools, they are:

Bloomsburg
California
Clarion
Cheney
East Strousburg
Edinboro
Indiana
Kutztown
Lock Haven
Mansfield
Millersville
Shippensburg
Slippery Rock
West Chester

Just an update, I'm really tired sorry about the typos. We did very well yesterday, but i do know that there were quite a few heartbroken girls yesterday and there will definitely be some today. That's why you have to give EVERY house a chance.

Tonight's bid night. Good luck to all!

33girl - the houses aren't open all night. There were an A and a B group. A had their parties on Thursday Sat and Sun, B had FRiday Sat and Sun. Sunday was invitation only parties and Saturday A had parties from 12-3 and I think B had parties afterwards, but I could be wrong on that. The women are free to go where they want. I think Dani is saying that it is difficult to leave the parties because the PNM has to excuse themselves from the conversation.

More later but I am exhausted.

fire,

PM me with good news :)

<snipped>

I so hate to hear about recruitment heartbreak! :( Maybe they can be picked up in COR? Of course, it is my sincere hope that NOBODY has to do any COR for the rest of the year!!!

We so appreciate your updates, fire1977 - please take it easy! When you get a moment to break any news, please post or PM it when you're up to it - thank you!!!

We have nine new amazing pledge sisters. I know it is somewhat archaic to use that term, but we elected to use it nationally. Ive heard that Sigma Delta Tau did well, and some of the ones that didnt do well were surprising. I hope everybody the best of luck during COB!

Congrats to TPA. Nine is a great sized spring class.

For spring rush though, what constitutes "doing well"?

I know that we had 6 bids to give, preffed 12. Not sure what the numbers ended up being, but the chances of the 6 girls all accepting bids is slim to none. Thankfully we have a great snap bid/COR system set up so i'm pretty sure we got to 6 last night (haven't talked to anyone).

I'm sure there were a ton of broken hearts yesterday- this system leads to that. There's always some great girls that end up slipping through the crack. But then sometimes when they pick up their bids they're pressured to sign one that they got, even though they really wanted the other one. They think that they were totally rejected from the one they really wanted- when in reality, it's just because they can only give a few bids. Girl ends up signing the bid to another house because she's pressured to, hates it, then can't rush for another calendar year. It happens all the time :(

Another problem is that with spring rush, especially this year because ALL of the houses were rushing, is that many of the houses want the same girls.

Sorry, this system just aggrevates the hell out of me.

Especially since it's done in such a weird way. It's supposed to be informal, yet Panhel has so much involvement, including is suing rush infractions for stupid things. And so many girls get their hearts broken. Plus I think it's a waste of money to put on rush parties when you only need a couple girls..... Wish Pitt would release placement numbers and that sort of thing, i'd love to see how many girls got bids out of rushed, etc.

Great job Theta Phi! I heard you were doing well all week its good to find out how well.

kddani, I talked to one of your sisters last night when i was trying to find out where my friend ended up. You preffed 12 girls gave bids to 6 and they all accepted.

Not sure on final numbers yet I had to leave early because I wasn't feeling well, I know we definitely have 7, but I got a call from our VPR about signing more women, I'll keep you posted.


Apporx. 30 women as of the start of bid night did not receive bids. And yes there was one very surprising one in there. Also congrats to SDT - they got 8 women!

Congrats to all of the houses out there. SigEp42, did you friend accept a bid anywhere?

Oh yea I almost forgot. Damn miderms are makign me crazy. She went Kappa it was a tough choice for her but I thnk she will be happy there. They are amazing girls.

Congrats to all the sororities at Pitt :) WTG fire on another great job at D Phi E!!!!

Wow! Seems like Theta Phi, KD, & DPhiE did really well! I'm glad to hear that Spring Rush is going so well; I'd love to know how everyone else did.

But I still feel awful about those 30 women who slipped through the cracks. That's REALLY a lot of people to disappoint!!

Honeychile,

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree. For the most part those 30 women are the ones who only went to one or two groups who could take a small amount of girls. They didn't play the game so they lose. I know I sound cruel but if you only want one house and they out of 8 or so spots didn't think you were the best fit for those highly coveted 8 spots, then they didn't want you bad enough.

All but 3 women got preference invites, out of the 80 some people who went through recruitment.

Just got a call from our VPR, we've got 9 signed with possibly 6 more coming!

Sounds like the sororities did really at Pitt! Can someone tell me if Delta Zeta participated and if so, how they did? Thanks!!!

Spring rush is much more structured now than it was when I was there; I'm still trying to decide if I like it or not :confused:

fire1977: Congratulations on a job well done!
I agree with your point about the 30 women without bids. If they really want it, they can try again next semester.

Congratulations to all the sororities at Pitt! :D

And I would agree with you! If you put all your eggs in one basket (especially a basket that only holds a few eggs!), then you've chosen your own fate. I was unaware that was the case - although I should have realized it.

Three out of 80 is really good, when you take everything into consideration!

I believe that DZ took to ceiling, if they didn't they only have 1 or 2 spots open.