Univ. of Pittsburgh
 

Co-worker of mine has a daughter who will be attending Pitt this fall and she has expressed some interest in joining a sorority. I know recruitment is right when school starts, but other than that, she doesn't know much about it. Out of curiosity, what is recruitment like (similar to Penn State? Competitve for the northeast? etc).

It isn't unusual for upperclassmen to get bids. There are top houses and not-so-top houses, but honestly, that is mostly tent talk. Nothing to really back it up. Rush is nice because all of the groups pretty much live in one building and there's not a lot of walking. It isn't as competitive as other schools in the northeast. If she's keeping her mind open, she will find a home.

Tell your co-worker that her daughter will more than likely have a great experience going through recruitment at Pitt! There are 11 NPC sororities on campus and most everyone going through finds a home. It is fairly competitive, but not based upon alumnae references, family money, what high school you attended, and your zip code, like in some other areas of the country. Pledge classes average about 20, so you really get to know your fellow sisters. Dues are reasonable, as all but one of the sororities have suites that house about 18 women that are in university owned buildings and are renovated and decorated similar to a house would be. One of the sororities owns a house that is located about 6 blocks away. Pitt has 3 or 4 NPHC black sororities, several multi-cultural sororities, and chapters of the 2 historically Jewish sororities on campus. The 11 NPC sororities are also more integrated than I have seen at other schools. Before they started using the RFM (release figure method) of membership selection in the last 6 or 7 years, there were about 3 groups with 75 members, 3 or 4 with around 50 members, and 4 with about 20 members who were always struggling with membership. It now appears that the sizes of the groups have been somewhat equalized. I would advise her to just be herself and look forward to meeting the mostly friendly, sincere women of Western Pennsylvania. I wish her the best of luck and hope she gets a bid from the group of her choice. Hail to Pitt!

Spot on. Especially the bolded. I mean, knowing people can't hurt, but I think overall everyone comes in on equal footing.

The RFM has done wonders in evening out chapter size. A far cry from the experimental recruitment I went through where PNMs could come and go from parties as they pleased and there were no cuts or invites until Pref. That was a nightmare.

:eek:

Was that considered formal rush? Yipes. That might have been why the chapter sizes at your school and mine were almost the same (despite the, oh, 12,000 student size difference).

On a non-recruitment note, tell her to leave her car at home unless she already has a sizable "parking ticket fund."

Are recs necessary at Pitt?

Yeah, it was some sort of experimental thing. But the disparity in chapter size was ridiculous. It was a horrible fit for our campus.

They are next to unheard of. I was technically rec chair for a couple years, but never saw a rec and barely knew what it was. Which means if you know someone to write you a rec, it will make you stand out. But it is absolutely not necessary to track down alumnae if you don't know any to write recs.