COB
 

Hi everyone! I am a sophomore transfer student at a small, private university. I went through formal recruitment; however, I did not receive a bid. I was told that it was due to the record number of freshmen PNMs. I recently met a sister of one of the chapters I was invited back to that asked me about doing COB. She said she would fill out a form for me. I know that not all PNMs that were offered bids accepted them, so they are most likely below quota. Can anyone give me more info on how this works?

This is really campus and chapter dependent. You have expressed interest to the sister, so she or someone else in the chapter will likely reach out to invite you to an event. You say you got dropped from FR...how are your grades?

I'm a 4.0 student. I was pretty shocked to be completely dropped because of that. I'm not the most outgoing person, but I have made an effort to attend campus events and be friendly with everyone.

Okay, so you may have just legitimately fallen through the cracks. It sometimes happens, and you were a sophomore transfer, which can be tough at some schools. I would say you should wait about a week to see if you hear from them, and if you don't, drop the sister a line.

It seems a little late to be holding COB events for fall semester. It doesn't seem as if there would be enough time to hold events, pledge the girls, hold the required new member meetings and activities and get them initiated before the semester would be over. Perhaps the sorority member meant that her sorority would be holding events next semester? Just another reason to check with the member or the greek life office.

I'm not sure about it being late for this semester. I talked to the sister today, and she is supposed to give my name to the COB chair. I will check with greek life, too.

And nobody said initiation had to happen before Christmas. They could do 4 or 5 weeks before the semester ends and initiate as soon as they get back for second semester. Or they could have a crazy short pledge period. Whatev. But since initiations are happening right now at a lot of places, if they wanted to do a 2nd fall pledge class, now would be the time it would happen. Good luck to you! COB is a much different process and for a lot of girls can be just the ticket they needed to find their home.

As far as the process, it varies wildly, but (presuming you get invited) you will get invited to get together with the sisters. It might be a party, or dinner at the house or a trip out to the ice cream parlor. Then there may or may not be a second event you get invited to. Then hopefully a sister will show up and present you with an envelope with a bid in it.

The coolest thing about COB ( which was basically the equivalent of informal at my school) was the manner in which my bid was delivered. I will never, ever forget that night, tho many woudn't see anythig super special about it. A Cherished memory, indded.

Hope it works in your favor!