Sororities at Pepperdine-any comments welcome!
 

I don't know much about Pepperdine, but I do know that all of the sororities were locals that went NPC at once, in 1997 or 1998.

Paging PeppyGPhiB!

You rang?

Hello, sunny. I'm an alumna of a Pepperdine sorority, so I'm very familiar with the greek system there.

There are seven wonderful NPC sororities on campus, all chapters the same age since the greek system at Pepp went national in 1996. The greeks are un-housed, meaning there are no sorority or fraternity houses - members live in dorms/apartments or off-campus with the rest of the student body. About 30% of the students are greek, and I'd say in general the greeks tend to be the most involved students on campus. It's a great way to meet a lot of people, and most people have friends in all of the other chapters. In general the greeks get along quite well.

You will find this out when you go through recruitment, but most of the chapters are very diverse. They do have stereotypes, which I will not share, but let me just say that in many cases the labels were given long ago and have nothing to do with the current chapter. The chapters have changed quite a bit from when I was a student 10 years ago, so know that there is no such thing as the "top" sorority. You will find blondes, brunettes, white, asian, black, west coast, east coast, southerners, business majors, biology majors, english majors in probably every chapter. Yet when you go into the recruitment room and talk with the members, you will just get a feeling for which chapters you are most comfortable with...it's hard to explain. There are not a lot of legacies since this is a private school that does not have a long tradition of NPCs; there will be legacies whose parents/grandparents went to other schools, but it's nothing like what you'd find at most large public universities or certainly the southern schools. As for the recruitment logistics: recommendations are not required but will always make you stand out positively; formal recruitment is usually in the second or third week of September; and if you maximize your options by attending all of the parties you're invited to, you will most likely get a bid (never a guarantee, but 99.5% of the women who go bidless at Pepp do so because they drop out or suicide one chapter). The best advice I can give you is to not obsess over getting in to one or two sororities in particular, and to stick through recruitment until at least after Preference night. Be prepared to possibly be "cut" from your favorite(s), but respect the other chapters that have invited you back each day - too many women (at all schools) have such a hard time with rejection that they let their pride get the best of them and blow off a possibility of fitting in with any other choice. Believe me, all of the chapters at Pepperdine are excellent in terms of scholarship, philanthropy, social calendar and whatnot, and I believe all of them have been recognized by their (inter)national organizations for one thing or another.

Good luck on getting in to Pepp! At least you have the pain-in-the-butt application process over and done with!

ETA: Oh, and if you DO get in and go through recruitment, I hope you come back and share your recruitment story with us. I'd love to read a Pepperdine recruitment story!

I have some friends at Pepperdine who are in GLOs, and PeppyGPhiB summed it up very well. Recruitment seems a little more laid back than some other schools. Recs aren't necessary but they aren't unfamiliar to the chapters and would definitely help. As in most Southern California schools, the recruitment wardrobe should still stay classy but is probably a little more "trendy" than other parts of the country. So essentially, you will see trendy ShopBop.com style summer dresses and gladiators over the tried-and-true Lilly Pulitzer and dress flats. Just something to keep in mind when you are planning your outfits, especially from the East Coast.

Thank you so much for all the advice!