<3gpinky<3 recruitment at I.U.!!!
 

Okay, so I know many of you Greek-savvy ladies are thinking, "What? IU's recruitment isn't until December and January?" Well, have no fear, you are still absolutely correct. I've decided to start my recruitment thread now so that you can experience the long months of waiting with me! I know, I'm sooooo nice! :D

So why today? Well, I am officially registered for recruitment! YAY!!! (*big cheesy grin*) I have the two emails in my inbox from this morning, and I get so excited every time I check my email!

I'm a little nervous, too...actually, more than a little. I'm a sophomore and I'm worried that that will affect my chances of getting a bid, especially considering the percentage of girls that don't receive bids here at IU. I did go to a lot of "Go Greek" meetings last year, so I'm not totally clueless.

I don't know when we get to meet our rho gammas, but I can't wait to meet her! I just know she's going to be so nice and helpful. I have some questions for her. Like, how soon do we find out after 19 party that we did(n't) get a bid? I have some pricey plane tickets to purchase for the winter holidays, so I'm hoping we find out soon after 19 party and not after New Years. I couldn't wait that long! And then I'd have to try and change my tickets to come back from break early. hmmm...

So it's the 26th of October, meaning that I have a little over a month to get some work done. I'm hoping to get a few letters of recommendation and house visits under my belt before December 2nd.

What else can I say? I hope that during recruitment I will meet a ton of wonderful ladies and form some friendships, and I hope that I have fun. But most of all, I hope that I will find a house that is just right for me and that they feel the same way about me! Even though I'm nervous, I keep reminding myself that the nervousness only makes the whole process that much more exciting and potentially rewarding!

I'm so thankful that GC is available to me, and that I can write about and sort through my thougths and feelings. I don't have any friends that want to hear about my recruitment questions, experiences, hopes, and fears. But I know that I count on many of you ladies for encouragment and support during these next few months. And that makes it so much better! Thank you all for letting me share my story...more to come soon!

Much love,
<3gpinky<3

Yay! An IU rush thread! I can't wait to read this one! :)

Good luck with recruitment!

Being a total blonde I'm trying to figure out IU. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa (:D), Idaho (:D). Did I forget any "I" states? LOL

I think she means Indiana University-Bloomington. I know they are on a defferred rush. I believe Illinois already completed rush, but I am not sure about Iowa and Idaho.:)

From the comment about the number of pnms that don't get bids, I am guessing Indiana. From what I have read on here, they are notorious for the amount of pnms that don't get bids. If I believe correctly, they also don't have a set quota. Each chapter takes the number of girls that they have available to total. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Haha, I go to Indiana University...go Hoosiers! :) I should clarify that even though we have tons and tons of ladies who go through recruitment, many can't come back in January because they don't meet the GPA requirements (it's sad, but a lot really can't make the cut!) A few decide they don't want to come back early from break, and some realize it's not for them. So the numbers aren't as bad as they are originally during 19 Party. However, at least one rho gamma last year didn't have a single girl go through to pref. That's really scary.

Also, IU's recruitment isn't necessarily deferred, even though this year the 19 party is a month later than last year's. One of the main reasons they hold off on the inivites is to weed out low GPAs. But we're still considered a fall rush by most people.

Oh, I forgot to mention that many girls don't get bids because they were cut from their "favorite" house and decided to drop last minute. Also, because the Greek scene is so huge, many of us know people in sororities already, and some pick their "favorite" and refuse to list or consider any others.

<3gpinky<3

It sounds like you may be confusing party invitations with bids. A bid is an invitation to pledge a sorority and is given after prefs. It sounds like you are needing to know if you have any invitations after 19 party to the next round of parties, on January 4th. Unless you are cut for grades, the likelihood of being cut by every single chapter at a school like IU is highly unlikely. You should already have a pretty good idea if you are likely to be cut for grades. The schedule for IU is:

December 2-3: 19 Party
January 4: 1st invitational
January 5: 2nd Invitational
January 6: Prefs
January 7: Bid day

My advice would be to think positively and plan to be back in time for the January 4th parties! I am pretty sure that they let you know as soon as grades are released for the semester.

"It sounds like you may be confusing party invitations with bids. A bid is an invitation to pledge a sorority and is given after prefs. It sounds like you are needing to know if you have any invitations after 19 party to the next round of parties, on January 4th."

I proof-read my message but didn't catch that I said bids there...thanks for the explanation irishpipes!

I know my grades are way above the panhellenic minimum, but I'm wondering if some sororities have their own minimum GPA requirement? I know that some of the houses on campus love to talk about how good their members' grades are, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had some sort of a personal GPA standard. Does that happen at all?

yes, often individual chapters do have different minimum grade point average requirements which are higher than the gpa required to participate in recruitment. sometimes they post their gpa requirement on their chapter websites or you get that info. during the early stages of recruitment.

i am excited for you and wish you all the best!!

Good luck!!

Spring Hill College recruitment
 

Anyone out there know anything about rush at Spring Hill College (Mobile, AL)? I know there are 3 sororities: DG, Tri Delt and Phi Mu, but I want to know how the rush climate is, such as: How many girls go through? How many get pledged and/or dropped? How strict are they about grades?

Granted it's been a while since I rushed at IU, but when I did it almost all the sororities had a higher minimum GPA requirement than the panhellenic minimum. (at that time panhellenic minimum was 2.5) We got a little booklet at orientation that listed the minimum GPA requirement for each sorority. If I remember correctly those varied from 2.5 (only about 5 houses) to 2.9 (a couple) - most were around 2.6-2.75 or so.

Hey Lucybug, post this in a new thread and you may get more response. BTW, I saw the Spring Hill soccer team play a local college team here last month!

At my school, the GPA requirements range from 2.0-3.0. The majority of the sororities require at least a 2.5. I'm not sure how your school is, but from what I understand, the first day cuts are most often made for grades. If you have a 2.75 or above, I say you'd be in good shape. Good luck to you and can't wait to hear more of your story!

Recruitment is less than one month away! Question time: is it common that girls go into rush without really knowing people in the sororities? Or does that tend to hurt rushees? I'm not friends with anyone in a sorority so I'm a little worried that I'll be lost in the crowd. Any thoughts?

<3gpinky<3

That's a bigger thing with deferred rush in the south. Heck, even I went through only knowing a couple people and I got into a chapter in Texas. You should be fine at IU.

Don't worry so much. Have fun.

This is VERY common. Don't worry about it! Many girls don't know anyone going into recruitment, but you will be comfortable and NOT lost in the crowd--you'll get to know girls in your pi chi/rho gam group and you'll probably stay in touch with some of those girls long after recruitment. You'll be meeting and getting to know the girls in the chapters, so it's actually good in a way to not know anyone in the sororities right now. That way, you can base your judgement on how well you click with the girls and how much you feel at home, rather than on the few girls you knew, rumors or reputations.
Good luck to you and we can't wait to hear your story!

It may be fine that you don't know anyone in any of the sororities, but you may want to try to secure some recommendations if you can in order to set yourself apart a little. Good luck!

Update: 2 weeks
 

Two more weekends till rush! We got to meet our rho gammas a few times during the last 2 weeks: mine is so sweet! Apparently I got lucky, a few of my friends aren't happy with their rho gammas at all!

So this is going to be one weird rush this year. Basically all the old rules have been thrown out the window. Members don't have to kneel below PNMs, we're allowed to touch, there is absolutely no limit on conversation, etc... Not only can you talk about the Forbidden B's, but the members can also talk about how much they want you back. They're even allowed to explicitly say that we'll be coming back the next day. But some of the sororities will dirty rush to make sure that they make quota. Ugh. We've been warned that dirty rush is, therefore, going to be HUGE and to try and ignore anything the members promise us. Oh, and sororites are allowed to invite back girls with GPAs that are below the limit. I'm still going to stay classy though!

This is beyond frustrating. Any thoughts?

As far as I know, IU doesn't use a quota total system, so not all chapters will be taking the same number of new members.

I think that allowing the members to 'lead' PNMs on regarding invites and stuff is just wrong, but that's just me. I think what they are doing is what gives sorority recruitment a bad name in the media.

Go with your gut feelings, don't get sucked in by the tent talk and be genuine.

Even if you are "allowed" to talk about the forbidden Bs, I would recommend you didn't. It's not going to give you any insight into the sisterhood, and it runs the risk of making you look bad one way or another.

I think this is a horrible idea. I agree with alphagamuga...even if you're allowed to talk about the forbidden Bs, I'd avoid them at all costs. That may end up counting against you, whether or not it's allowed.
As far as touching, we were allowed to do that, but everything else if off limits.
I think it really sucks that they're allowed to promise people invites back. Whether or not they're allowed so say that, though, doesn't guarantee that you will get invited back. I think that's just setting PNMs up for disappointment.
As far as inviting back girls with GPAs below the requirements, that is also ridiculous. I would definitely not support that type of recruitment and I'm relieved that my school hasn't changed things.
However, I think it's great that you're aware of these things ahead of time and that you aren't happy about these changes (as many PNMs would be)...good luck @ recruitment--I can't wait to hear your story!

I am appalled with a member telling a PNM that they will be invited back, as if that member is the end all, be all of that decision. This form of rushing sounds way to dirty for me.

Indiana used to do "bed rush" - only take enough new members to fill the beds in a house. Glad they got rid of that!

As I like to note, it's been a long time since I've done rush. But we were permitted to say things like "I hope to see you back next round" if you felt it. It sent the message that you'd like to see the PNM again, but nobody who did rush at my campus would have thought of it as a bid promise. Heck, you pretty much heard it as the end of every party.

Maybe this is the kind of thing that is now permitted.

pinky, understand that the rules you have been quoted are the panhellenic council rules-each sorority will have its own rules that it must abide by. even though you have heard that sororities will be asking back girls with low gpas, what the rule might actually be saying is that as far as panhellenic is concerned, the sororities can invite back low gpas, but , in reality,the sororities might still make grade cuts.

as many others have said, please do NOT listen to anyone tell you that you definately will be getting an invitation to the next round from them. you never know if they are telling everyone the same thing, so all the pnms put them down on their list.

forbidden "b's"-avoid them at all cost.

we are not telling this to bring you down, or make your nervous, we just want you to be as well prepared as you can be, so that recruitment works in YOUR favor. best wishes!!

Ha, recruitment at IU has always been a mess. Good to see they are living up to expectations.

IU still does "bed rush"...houses will typically only take the number of girls that they have "beds" for, since chapters do not have live-out policies...this is one thing that hasn't changed, unfortunately!:rolleyes:

How do you know all this? When I was a PNM, we were told when to show up and what to wear. That was it. I had never heard of the "B's" or cutoff GPAs, etc., until I was a sorority member myself and that was many, many months later when we did a recruitment workshop.

I wouldn't worry about any of these rules. Just show up at the times you are supposed to, follow the dress code, be polite and friendly, and be yourself. If you're shy, work on being a bit more inquisitive and smile a lot. If you're enjoying a chapter tell the sister rushing you that you're having a great time and that you really like XYZ sorority.

Hi hi hi!
 

4 days, woot woot! :) Tonight all actives and PNMs went to a presentation by a speaker. It was fun and informative, and it's making everything start to become real! We get our cute little t-shirts on Friday, our schedules on Saturday (I think :confused: ) and who knows when we get our 19 information cards to fill out before bright-n-early Saturday morning?!? YAY!

My hopes are officially up wayyyy too high so I'm going to try and stay calm about this whole she-bang until January (which isn't going to happen but it's the thought that counts.)

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and won't have too much shopping to do this coming weekend so that you can read a new rush thread by little-ol-me! I'll be writing soon!

<3 GPINKY <3

yay i cant wait!! good luck pinky :)

So excited for you! Can't wait to hear your story...I'll be looking for a post Saturday! <3

Have fun! All the houses at IU are amazing - it's worth it just to get to go in and see what they look like on the inside. :)

1700 is a TON of girls! Is this the second rush of the year or do they only have one rush? How large are the chapters and how many sororities?
I don't think I would have rushed if I was required to live in the house.

IU has defered recruitment which has one round - an open house - in the fall. This is followed by invitational rounds the week before the spring term starts.

Here's a link to the 2003 report of GPA and membership numbers.

http://www.indiana.edu/~sao/greek/re...spring2003.pdf

Hey! I decided to make a quick post so that tomorrow night I don't have to spend time typing up this information when I report to you all. As most of you know, IU has 19 sororities:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
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
Zeta Tau Alpha

I decided to pay tribute to some of my favorite past and present names from Crayola crayons! Here's the list, which will be later jumbled:


Atomic tangerine
Banana mania
Bittersweet
Burnt sienna
Cerise
Cerulean
Fuzzy wuzzy brown
Granny smith apple
Jazzberry jam
Laser lemon
Mac-n-cheese
Mango tango
Mauvelous
Mulberry
Prussian blue
Purple mountain’s majesty
Razzmatazz
Shamrock
Wild Watermelon

Here's my schedule for tomorrow:

11:00-11:30 Fuzzy wuzzy brown
11:50-12:20 Jazzberry jam
12:40-1:10 Laser lemon
1:30-2:00 Purple mountain’s majesty
2:20-2:50 Mango tango
2:50 Lunch
5:00-5:30 Granny smith apple
5:50-6:20 Mac-n-cheese
6:40-7:10 Burnt sienna
7:30-8:00 Banana mania
8:20-8:50 Bittersweet

Okay, I'm off. I just finished making my cards with pics and all my info. I have some more work to do before I have to be up in 8 hours. I'm going to try to get some sleep tonight!

P.S. We've had a few more meetings in the last few days, and I have my shirt and nametag and everything...I'm just about ready! Wish me luck and I'll try to post as soon as I can tomorrow night!

<3gpinky<3

<hijack>
What's interesting about that report: The number of members of the NPC sororities doesn't vary that much, ranging from 102 members (ADPi) to 168 members (AOPi). The numbers of members in the IFC fraternities, however, varies pretty wildly: the smallest has 17 members (KDRho), and the largest has 174 members (Sigma Pi). Only 8 of the fraternities have over 100 members!