Everyone gets a bid?
 

Before I knew about greek chat, I called the Greek Office on Campus and asked questions. She said that eveyone that goes threw recruitment gets a bid, is that true?

I can't speak for your school, but I would have to say no, this is not true. The majority of girls who go through recruitment do get bids, but they might not take them. The problem I have with this statement is that there are things called Quotas (which are complicated and scary) which in essence mean that not all girls going through can receive bids unless there aren't very many girls.

Do you have any more information about your schools Recruitment Style?

Ditto to what was said above. Everyone DOES NOT get a bid. There are no guarantees. People from Greek Life offices who say that really piss me off.

In this forum you'll see information about Quotas and Release Figures but like Roraem said, it's complicated and scary, and PNMs shouldn't have to be worried about technical stuff like that.

I would say that since you called your schools office of greek life, and that is the advice that most people give around here for people with questions specific to their school I would say that it's true for you school. Had you come in here and ask if you were guaranteed a bid at least a few people would respond with "call your school's office of greek life and ask them." Not to say that everyone who works for a university knows exactly what they're talking about, but there is a pretty good chance the girls you talked to was telling the truth.

Not saying this is the case here, but we've seen on more than one occasion Greek Life offices across the country employing people who have absolutely no clue as to what's going on.

Well, my school doesn't even have an office of greek life. We're like anarchists. But you have to admit that a lot of people tell girls asking questions to call theirs and ask. I wouldn't say either way if what she was told was true. I have no way of knowing.

I completely agree. What would be the point in recruitment if the sororities had no say in who joined? I have just never heard of entire schools where all GLO's were required to hand out bids to everyone who came through... though I have heard of specific chapters doing that. Again, I agree that the odds of there being a clueless Greek Life Office worker is far more likely than a school where everyone gets bids. That's why i'm glad the majority of our Greek staff are actually Greek!

I find this to be a pretty inaccurate statement. The only thing that doesn't make it completely inaccurate is that yes, quota and other "behind the scenes" numbers can get quite complicated. But scary? I would disagree - and the reason I say that is I would hate for PNMs to go into the process thinking there's some big scary thing going on behind the scenes (any more than they already do).

Also, setting quota does not = not all the PNMs going through won't get bids. Quota is determined by the number of PNMs in Recruitment, so it doesn't make sense to me that it would be set on purpose so that PNMs wouldn't get bids. It doesn't mean that there won't be PNMs who don't get bids, but from my experience it's not specifically set that way - hence Quota Additions.

You might find my wording "inaccurate" but PNMs have enough to worry about without all the numbers coming into play. The girl wasn't asking about the inner-workings of Panhel and quota and total and bid matching, she was simply asking if all girls going through would get bids. The answer is most likely no, and yes, quota does matter in that. You're right that quota is dependent on the number of girls rushing, but what hasn't been mentioned is the fact that there are suicides and girls who drop, ultimately throwing off quota.

I just didn't find it necessary to explain why the answer was no and frankly I don't appreciate your judgement on my explanation.

I don't understand quotas at all. My school doesn't have them. They are very scary to me.

:) Thank you. I'm a freaking Rho Gamma (Recruitment Counselor) and I find the cogs and wheels of quota and total scary lol

You're going to risk people passing judgement when you post - not trying to be mean, but it's part of posting on a public board. As for your original statement, it just seemed to me to emphasize how scary an aspect of Recruitment is (quota) and I don't think it helps to focus on or point out Recruitment as scary. And regarding quota, yes there are PNMs who single intentional pref. or drop, but I believe with the new release figures methodology quota shouldn't be set until after preference, which in that case it would take into account at least the PNMs who drop. If someone is more familiar with that than I am, please correct me.

You're correct that the OP did not ask for the inner workings of Panhel. So why bring up quota to only say that it's complicated and scary? :confused: There are many threads that go into quota with great detail if anyone wants to learn more about it. To be fair, once someone takes the time to learn about quota it's not scary at all.

You may find that while most GC members tend to agree that Rho Gammas should be educated about the way quota and all the behind the scenes stuff works; we find they usually have no clue and thus give PNMs misinformation. I'd recomend that if you address any of those aspects with any PNM that you confirm with Panhel that your 100% accurate in your info.

I refuse to argue my advice or statements. I will only say that I am not a clueless ΡΓ as should be obvious by the fact that the VP of Recruitment and I are very close (see above posting) and she would never tolerate a clueless Recruitment Counselor.

Perhaps the OP misinterpreted what the Greek Life person said or the Greek Life person misinterpreted that campus' policy? There are campuses that guarantee a bid to PNMs who participate in good faith and maximize their options during every round. Each campus that does this has specific rules/policies and criteria that must be met for this to apply.

Ultimately though PNMs need to know/remember Recruitment is a mutual selection process. PNMs have to want a chapter and a chapter has to want a PNM. I don't know of a single campus where every PNM is absolutely guaranteed a bid no matter what just because she showed up.

If you are not willing to discuss, and if necessary, clarify and "argue" your advice or statements, you shouldn't post them.

Also, if you will take the time to read some recruitment stories you will see that clueless Recruitment Counselors do in fact exist, and the fact that you are "close" to the VP of Recruitment does not give you the standing or breadth of knowledge that many alumnae here have, based on their years of dedicated service. I will also say that until you are an alumna working on the other side you probably have no idea of everything that is involved. The point should be to give those with questions the most accurate information possible, and not to get your cyber-ego involved.

The way you have described quota makes it sound as though quota always works against pnms. If you are addressing the op, perhaps you may wish to clarify. Certainly it may mean that there are not enough spaces in a particular chapter, but for most campuses quota does mean that there is space for every pnm who is interested in joining - just not perhaps the chapter which is her first choice. Of course, campuses with "bed rush" and those who require everyone to get a bid are a different story.

To the op - there are many informative threads here on GC. No, with a few highly unusual exceptions, you are not guaranteed a bid. Also, you may get a bid but not from your first choice. Your best bet is to read as much as you can here, secure recommendations to all chapters at your school, and do your best during recruitment to put your best foot forward. Don't worry too much about the behind-the-scenes-numbers - you can't do anything about them, and they really don't impact you personally too much unless they mean a chapter you are interested in has to make cuts. Check out recruitment stories for an insider's view. Good luck.

You reminded me of a time when I had a go around with our Panhellenic VP of Recruitment. I argued that something wasn't NPC policy. She wouldn't listen. She knew everything there was to know because she had gone through "training". My years of experience didn't mean squat. I appealed to the Greek Advisor with my Green Book in hand and won.

roraem, you are still in college. most of us posting are very active alumnae who have been involved with multiple chapters during recruitment . we are not experts, but we have had the opportunity to see many different scenarios that can crop up during the recruitment process, including the training of rho gammas. while you may not be "clueless" you have not had the opportunity to have as many experiences we have had. i too was a rho gamma back in the day, and i can promise you i know far more now about recruitment, than i did from 2 or 3 years of rushing in college or rho gamma training i participated in under the guidance of another collegian.

trust us when we ask you to not tell your pnms anything about recruitment is scary. recruitment should not be scary. they are scared enough as it is, without you telling them other things they should worry about. please try to calm their fears, not fan the flames.

quota is set to benefit the chapters and the pnms-nothing scary about that. it is just the number of women each chapter can pledge. most often they take the number of women attending parties on a certain day, and divide that number by the number of chapters on campus. 60 women attend parties on day "x" of recruitment. there are 3 chapters on campus. 60 divided by 3 equals 20. 20 is quota.

I just thought Roraem was using the word "scary" as a lighthearted adjective to further describe the quota system.

I am guessing that the person at the office over simplified the process in explaining it OR the pnm only heard the part where she was told that the girl who maximized her choices on pref was guaranteed a bid at one of those houses.

livingmydreams:

If you are at Texas A & M per your other post, they may have a policy like Zillini talked about; however, if that is the case, the Greek Life office should have said that everyone who COMPLETES recruitment and maximizes their options (i.e. goes to all the events they are invited to and put the maximum available number of groups on their invite cards throughout the week) gets a bid. However, it may be to a chapter you have no interest in.

There is also the chance you can be cut by all the sororities there before recruitment ends - hence my use of the word "completes."

The only campus that I think is still using the "everyone gets to join no one gets completely cut" method is Tufts.

Found the whole Tufts guarantees a bid thing interesting. Their site reads as though this may still not be true. Am I reading it wrong?

http://ase.tufts.edu/greek/eligibility.asp

I think they put that "generally" in there in case someone has a criminal record or something. You will get a bid, it just might not be to the group you want.

Yeah, let us not forget some of the colorful PNMs we learned about in the "Weird Rush Stories" thread. Even the least competitive sorority on the least competitive campus isn't that desperate for members.

Can't we all just get along? The squabbles in this thread are ridiculous and getting a bit mean and personal.

To answer your question, you did the right thing by asking your Greek Life/Student Activities office; however, I would take their answer worth a grain of salt and ask the question again if you have decided to go through recruitment. There should be an orientation session prior to the parties where you will meet with panhel and your recruitment counselors. If you persist enough with your question, you should be able to verify a response. Without knowing anything about the particular school or their situation I doubt that anyone on this board will be able to give you a 100% accurate answer ... it's all just our personal best guesses.

Good luck with recruitment.

Hahahahahaha. n00bs. They're so cute.

Ridiculous? Um, no.
Mean? Still not seeing it.
Personal? Hardly.

Misinformation will not be allowed to be put forward without correction because it might hurt someone's feelings. If a poster is foolish enough to post something silly, they can expect to be called on it.

You are looking for Happy Pony Rainbow Land.

This is not Happy Pony Rainbow Land.

Might I suggest that if you, after your whopping 27 posts, don't like it here, you hie you to HPRL and leave the rest of us to wallow in our ridiculous, mean and personal "squabbles". (I've read, and re-read this thread, and I really don't see anything "mean". Am I missing something?)

Being told to behave as though GCers are a bunch of unruly kindergarteners . . . thanks, but no. We've got it handled, I think.

Is it just me, or are there more newbies who feel obligated to play referee now? It's getting on my last nerve . . .

OTW...please don't post the picture of the weirdly muscular pony with the rainbow coming out of his butt! I can't take it!!:p

What is it opinions are like? Oh, that's right.

Your limited number of posts, and the manner in which you attempted to control the thread, means that you have not participated enough in GC to understand the general tenure of posting here. The fact that you don't get the HPRL reference confirms your status as an outsider - which means you can't come in here and attempt to impose your standards without it being brought to your attention that it is not your place. If you are insulted by that, you have a very thin skin, and the whole internet thing may cause you to break out in hives.

The question was being answered, and a post which might lead to a pnm stressing about something they really shouldn't stress about was discussed. The poster's attempt to claim authority by virtue of her" being close to the VP of recruitment "and a recruitment counselor was also dealt with, and in a manner consistent with Greek Chat's modus operandi.

This isn't a mean thread. I could show you some mean threads.

And OTW, you MUST post that picture!:)

Way to be welcoming and respectful of others. This fight you are having with me and others on this thread is not enhancing your on-line image. You gave your opinion and I gave mine, I just ask that you be as respectful of my opinion as I am of yours.

I'm not having a fight. I don't see what there is to fight about, unless you are arguing that pnms should absolutely stress out about quota. Is that your point? And I don't see where you are getting the idea that I'm fighting with "others". If anything, you started everything by feeling that you had to come in and insult those of us who had posted be calling our posts "mean". Looking over this thread, I'd go so far as to say that more "others" are with me than against me.

I have asked you to specify what you consider "mean" or "insulting", but instead of responding you deal in vague generalities.

Near as I can tell, the only person having a problem here is you. I'm not worried about my "on-line image". If you'd like, you can review every one of my posts here on GC (I'd give my link to my newspaper column, but I'm not all that eager to encourage any cyber-stalking). After doing that, then let me know about my "on-line image". I'm confident that those GCers who have followed me on this site are quite comfortable with my "image".

It's obvious that you are trolling for a fight, and I'm sorry, GC, for falling for it. I'll be good from now on . . .

Temporary closing for cool-downs!:)

Texas A&M
 

Hello,

I was wondering if everyone gets a bid because I called the Greek Life and the lady told me that. Is that true??? And what is the point of a rec??

Everybody getting a bid? The answer is still NO. http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=98212

Purpose of a Rec - It is an introduction on your behalf by a sorority alumna and in some cases, a sorority collegian. It gives a little more personal insight to your character and achievements that cannot be fully conveyed in your recruitment application.

She might have meant that everyone who is invited to at least one chapter's preference party (meaning you are somewhere on their bidlist) is guaranteed a bid if they maximize their options (meaning attending all parties to which they are invited for which they have space). Some schools guarantee bids as described above as a way to discourage PNMs from "suiciding" (ranking only 1 chapter when a PNM attends more than one preference party). If you get cut from all chapters, obviously, you won't get a bid.

As mentioned in other threads, only Tufts (and Creighton?) guarantee a bid to every PNM who signs up (to the point where chapter advisors may have to fight over who gets stuck with certain PNMs).