Petals' Recruitment Story at Penn State (finally!)
 

Hi everyone :)

After reading recruitment stories since AUGUST, I’d say I’m finally ready for it to be my turn! Tonight was my first info session, and although recruitment doesn’t actually start until the 22nd, I’m just so excited for things to finally get started that I thought I’d start my thread now (hope you guys don’t mind the wait :D ).

Like I said, tonight was a basic info session about Greek life at Penn State. Even though I already knew most of the things they went over because of this site, I was kind of nervous when I realized how many freshmen there really were (I’m a sophomore). It seems that recruitment is a little more laid back up here, though, and I’m hoping that my class standing won’t hurt me too much.

We have 20 national chapters and over 700 women to going through recruitment this semester. The chapters arrrrrre:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Xi Delta
Chi Omega
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Zeta
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Phi Mu
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
Sigma Sigma Sigma
Zeta Tau Alpha

I’m going to try and be as discrete as possible, so I’ll just say that I have some factors working in my favor— some recs/people in different chapters rooting for me/knowing what’s going on thanks to GC— but I’ll *definitely* be biting my nails until bid day.

I suppose that’s all for now… I’m just so excited to get started with recruitment, so if you guys have any advice or questions, let me know!

Yay a Northeast thread! Good luck to you!

OoOo!! thats a nice list of choices!!! i cant wait to read ur thread!

WoW, that is A LOT of sororities! I would get confused naming them all with all the code names and such :) I'll stay up to date with your thread though!

Have fun and can't wait to hear all about it!

<3

WOW, that's intense. sounds like someone's going to need a notebook for in between houses. haha, good luck honey!

Good luck to you at Penn State!!!

PSU threads have to be one of the most exciting, for the sheer number of sororities, if nothing else! petals, I hope you make it even more exciting with a great recruitment - and we'll try to be understanding about your discretion! ;)

Yes! A PA thread! I'm looking forward to this one, there are so many from which to choose. Do you know about how large the quota has been in the past?

Good luck! I will root for my friends in the Syracuse Triad since there isn't an AGD chapter. :) No matter where you go, I am hoping for a great time and good result for you!! :)

Finally a rush thread with ASA!!!:)

A rush thread with Penn State and ASA. Think I've died and gone to heaven.

Penn State rush is HELL on both sides - the PNMs have 20 "open houses", then 14 1st rounds then 7 2nd rounds then 3 prefs. (if you go to the maximum number of parties, that's 44 parties!) You're tromping up and down hills (the dorms with the sorority suites are set on a VERY steep hill), and spending a LOT of time attending parties (not to mention all the time you spend obsessing) and trying to keep track of everywhere you've been and who you've met.

The sororities have it almost as bad - they have to sit through 44 parties and 3 long late-into-the-night rounds of selections (and Penn State uses NO photos and NO resumes, mind you).

On the positive side, with 20 national sororites, then no matter if you're shy or loud, preppy or eccentric, if you keep an open mind, you're bound to find some group where you fit right in.

Good luck Petal, and ENJOY!!!

Hooray for a PA thread! Good luck Petal! :)

What do you mean that Penn State uses no photos or resumes? Do you mean that photos and resumes aren't submitted with the recruitment applications? Surely the individual sororities still use photos and resumes as part of the recommendation process, if they so choose. (Even if that isn't as common as in other parts of the country.)

Penn State's Panhel does not accept photos or resumes. If a particular sorority uses them, it is up to that sorority.

http://www.greeks.psu.edu/phc/tips.htm

maybe since she is "petal" the sororities could be named after flowers?

no matter what, good luck petal!!

It may be better if she doesn't name the chapters at all and just waits until her recruitment is over to post...

I know everyone just loves to hang onto every little word in a recruitment story thread, but I honestly believe there's some bad voodoo-like black cloud hanging over the PNM's who post a blow-by-blow account of their recruitment experience as it happens.

Good luck, petals, whether you post your story as it happens or you wait until recruitment concludes to give us the full scoop. Discretion is best and I hope you enjoy PSU and sorority recruitment.

Can we NOT have the "tell or not to tell" come up everytime a PNM posts a story?
She's been reading since August. She gets it!

Anyway, good luck Petals!

With 20 sororities, I'd expect more highlights, and less details! Petals will be busy enough.

Well, maybe by the next to the last round.... :D

I know I would have serious trouble keeping them all straight. :D

oh, Petals, definately take notes. Even if you're familiar with the sororities after 20 parties ADPi and AOPi start seeming more and more similar :)

Added you to the thread...

best of luck

Penn State, Iillinois and Indiana WoW
 

Penn State---20 NPC's
Illinois---19 NPC's
Indiana---19 NPC's

We should all be lucky to have someone post from those schools. It is an exhausting event.

Penn State 34 "parties" open house and 1st round
Illinois 30 "parties" open house and 1st round
Indiana 31 "parties" open hosue and 1st round

It is exhausting for all the PNM's, collegians and advisors.

700 +/- PNM's for Penn State
1,387 PNM's for Illinois
1,250 +/_ PNM's for Indiana

Yes, all sororities will love to have and NEED letters of recommendation and pics. It's imperative with the numbers! Ask any advisors and recruitment chairs. It soooooo helps the conversations.

So GC members----Set your daughters, grand daughters, neices, neighbors up to succeed! Send those letters, resumes and pics!

I can't wait to read all about Petals experience! I so love Penn State!

All the best, and please keep us as informed as you can. Take notes please! Because you will laugh and tear at all your experiences. Keep them, because they are words from your 18 year old life.

TigerOwl

Penn State Panhellenic
 

Oh one more thing----It really is a shame that Penn State's panhellenic does not accept letters or resumes or photo's. 33 is that True? If that is true, then the Greek Advisor has never "sat in the seat" of an alumnae with a grand daughter going thru recruitment at the beloved halls of Old Nittany or any other university for that matter.

Good Luck Petals! I definitely recommend keeping notes. My school had 15 chapters and notes helped me keep everything straight back in the day.

In case anyone thinks I'm hallucinating:

I know a number of great girls slipped through the cracks of recruitment at PSU because we so often got into arguments about who was who ("the one sitting by the patio door?" "no, no, no - she was sitting by the piano!")

On the other hand, I like how it doesn't discriminate against those not groomed from birth for rush. The 1st generation collegian who never even thought about sororities until she got to college still has an excellent chance of getting a bid from a great sorority -- it isn't all about who your "people" are. She can find out about Greek Life, and give it a chance without worrying that she's starting rush with an insurmountable handicap - no professional photo or reccs from all of Mama's friends.

On a practical note: the advice quoted often here -- that you may want to consider wearing an interesting bracelet/watch, earrings or necklace --- is particularly salient with a rush without pictures. Nothing freaky - just something to help people remember you (in a good way).

No, it isn't a shame, for the reasons that LionTamer stated.

If a sorority alum wants to send a rec DIRECTLY TO HER SORORITY, she's more than welcome. The point is that Panhel doesn't want to mess around with it. With 20 sororities, I can't blame them.

Another word of advice that applicable at Penn State: without resumes, you need to let the chapters know what you're bringing to the table (other than your great personality and winning smile).

Some talents that they might be looking for:
- proven leadership skills (for chapter and Panhel exec positions)
- proven organizational skills (along with leadership, the biggest need - people who would enjoy organizing parties, recruitment, outings, Thon solicitations, philanthropies, etc etc etc)
- singing, dancing, choreography (for Greek Sing/Greek Week)
- drawing, painting, graphic design, scrapbooking, photography, web design, calligraphy (for Homecoming windows, Historian, Editor, Webmistress, t-shirt designer, party decorator)
- reporting/writing (someone has to send chapter news to the national magazine)

When you're asked about your interests, hobbies or high school activities, be sure to highlight your skills and accomplishments. It's not bragging to tell them how much you enjoyed heading up your Prom Committee or doing all the artwork for your yearbook - it's giving them information they need to make the decision "what does Petal bring to our organization?"

Sounds like you're going into this with your head on straight - good luck, Petal!

pnms at penn state do have to fill out a recruitment application, don't they? does panhellenic not provide copies to each chapter?

do the sororities get lists of which pnms will be attending which party?

We Are...PENN STATE!!!

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system! ;)

Yes, PNM's do fill out a recruitment application and yes, the sororities know exactly who is in each party every round.

The four years I was there, the recruitment groups were formed in alpha order for the sophomores and freshman together. The juniors were grouped separately and they were alpha order too.

There are usually 23-25 recruitment groups.

I'll second what LionTamer said, there truely is a sorority for every type of girl at PSU.

Quota is usually 19-25ish, depending on how many girls stay in recruitment all the way through. I wish we could get the kind of numbers UofI and IU get!

Good luck Petals!!! Awe. . .I miss PSU. . .That's all for now. :)

Good lord, I can't even imagine going through recruitment with 20 houses. Wow!

Good luck with recruitment!

And as LionTamer said, with 20 sororities, everyone is bound to find one that fits them!

Good luck Petals and have FUN! I'm going through recruitment at IU so I *know how fun it's going to be with so many houses to visit and so many faces to see! :p Do your absolute best, I'm rooting for you!

i love your quote, reese87. good luck to you at iu-hope that you will post your thread when the time comes.

Good Luck Petals, my cousin goes to Penn State but is going to wait till next year to rush.

I wonder does it hurt your chances if you are a sophmore? I am not aware how strict they are about about primarily recruiting freshman?

sophmore
 

being a sophmore at psu doesn't hurt ur chances at all, most pledge classes end up being about half freshman and half sophmores plus a junior (the average class size being 20 +/- 2 based on how may girls go all the way through recuirtment and juniors don't count towards quota)... besides as a sophmore u may already have friends in sororities which will help make sure u don't fall through the cracks during recuritment.

Penn State Panhellenic
 

Penn State Panhellenic placed that comment on their website because they don't want hundreds of resumes/pictures and stray letters of recommendation sent to them.
Who can blame them!!!
However, they were contacted regarding the negative effect that comment makes about letters of recommendation. They do not refuse them at their doorstep, nor destroy them when they are accidently received. The Panhellenic office just puts them in the suite mailbox of the particular chapter. They will be looking at that particular wording and will try to reword it or delete it altogether. They realize that resumes/pics/recommendations are important to the chapters that make them important. So that is why they refer anyone reading the website to check with the national organization of the particular sorority.
Again I will state, letters of recommendation are always welcomed by the volunteer advisors of the chapters. Set yourself up to succeed. Set your daughters, grand daughters, neices and neighbors up to succeed.

Best of Luck Petals! Have your comfortable shoes/boots ready for the 1st invite round.
TigerOwl

Hello all!
As I’m sitting here trying to get some major mid-term paper writing out of the way before recruitment starts on Sunday, I thought I’d pop in and say thanks for all of the kind words/info/advice. While it was probably a good idea to move recruitment to late October overall, I’m kind of hating that I’ll have to balance mid-term work and recruitment at the same time (at least in the earlier rounds, it looks like things last from 5:30 until 9 or 10 PM... which translates to actually sitting down and starting homework sometime after 11 :()

I’m SOOOO so so excited to get this thing started, though… 20 houses *is* a lot to take in, but as LionTamer said, I’m feeling really confident that there’ll be a sorority that’s perfect for me somewhere in there.

Something that I’ve been thinking of that will probably be a big help once the parties start next week are some fall-back kinds of questions to ask if conversation gets slow between a member and myself. I know I found a list of them somewhere on GC once, and I’ll definitely try and find it again this weekend, but if anyone has some suggestions for example questions or directions to go towards, that’d be such a help! Blanking out and akward conversations are definitely my biggest fears for the upcoming week… fainting and breaking my neck or spilling a drink all over someone are nothing :)

Thanks again, guys!

"tell me about thon"

"does your chapter require study hours?"

"what was your favorite sisterhood activity?"

"does your chapter participate in intramurals?"

then too, you can always ask for advice on courses and professors.