From Pref Night to Bid Day: What happens?
 

I don't know how much of this is Super Top Secret, but feel free to kindly tell me if I'm not allowed to know how this process goes until after I've been initiated.

What happens between the time all of the PNM's have submitted their preference cards and the next day when they receive their bids? What I think happens is all the cards are collected and given to a team of people. They sort them first by what house each girl has listed first. At the same time, the chapters are putting together a list of girls they want to give bids to. This is where my brain goes a bunch of different ways.

• What if quota is 60 but 80 girls put ABC as their first choice?

• What about when girls don't get their first (or second) choice?

• 60 girls put down DEF as their first choice. DEF only wants 50 of those girls. I presume those 10 unwanted-by-DEF girls will get their second choice?

• And then there is poor Suicidal Suzy, who only puts down GHI but sadly GHI doesn't want to extend her a bid but JKL does...

If anyone has gone through this, or know how it goes could you please explain it to a curious PNM? I know I asked a lot of questions! Thanks a bunch :D !

1) ABC will match to the 60 women highest on their bid list. The 20 other women would be potentially matched with their second or third choice. Someone else will probably explain it better.

2) They would hopefully get their second or third choice. Occasionally, a woman is not matched, but I want to say this isn't that common, but don't quote me on that.

3) If the other 10 women have maximised their options, they will hopefully be matched to another choice.

4) This has been debated, but I believe that Suzy is available for snap bids and JKL is able to extend one. I may be wrong on this one.

You're off.
The chapters gather their list of everyone who attended preference parties, in preference order. They electronically send this list in to rush HQ. The rushees' requests (which are also in preference order) are submitted electonically. All of the lists are run through a program that figures out what quota will be for the maximum amount of placement. Then, any girls who are left unmatched will be assigned quota addition positions. So if it is determined that the most girls will be matched if quota is 40, but there are 10 girls who still don't get matched, they WILL be put into a chapter, as long as they attended every preference party to which they were invited and then put every one of those chapters on the bid card. If they put down less than the total number of options they had and they didn't get placed, then they're SOL. And this is why we tell the girls that they should think long and hard before not listing one or more of the houses to which they attended preference parties. The truth is if you are willing to play along, you'd probably be happy in any sorority on campus.

And, by the way, disregard all of the above if you are talking about Indiana which is a whole number pile of fish.

Snap bids are for chapters who don't make quota. They can contact any girl who wasn't offered a bid elsewhere. The problem is if the chapter didn't make quota, the girl who was too good to put them on their list earlier probably still won't accept them.

Or stated another way, if a girl goes through 2 rounds of rush and then drops out, she would be available for a snap bid. But this is a bad plan of action for a girl dropping out because, especially in the days of RFM (the system explained above), most chapters ARE making quota, and if they don't, they're only missing by a few.

In this system, the girls who literally get cut completely from rush, even when the total number of girls going through is 1000 or more, can likely be counted on 1 hand. 2 hands MAYBE. The vast majority of girls who don't find a home dropped out because they weren't happy with their results. Like if 100 girls didn't complete rush, 95 of them would have dropped out, not been cut.

The University of Illinois provides EXCELLENT statistics on all of this, and you can assume their numbers are comparable to other competitive schools around the country. You can find it from an online search.

That was what I thought, but second guessed myself. I was trying to go off the idea of that chapter wanting Suzy. Although unlikely, maybe ending up without a bid would make her reassess her situation and decide JKL is better than non... I'm a dreamer though.

Disclaimer: my campus was not as competitive as the SEC or any of the other big schools. In my three collegiate years, we had maybe five girls who were completely cut. Everyone else dropped. When I was a Rho Gamma, we had ten girls not match (out of over 600) and all of them chose to SIP instead of maximize their options.

Thanks...we Hoosiers already know we are the special dysfunctional snowflake...but keep rubbing it in. :cool:

Of course, we have seen time and again that not so many women are completely released in SEC recruitments as people would have you believe. Maybe in the way back things were different, but the vast majority of women that enter recruitment walk out with a bid.

And this is part of what makes me question the OMG you absolutely positively need recs to every house theory. Possibly you don't, as long as you are open to every last chapter on campus. It's not a risk I would take, limiting my options over something as trivial as recommendations, but I still think you wouldn't 100% kill your options.

To state it bluntly - don't be a snoot! Happily accept the house you get, don't expect unicorns pooping rainbows - it's just a club when it comes right down to it, be willing to work for your friendships, and make the most of your college experience, in whatever form that presents itself. You are special. But you're not THAT special.

And IndianaSigKap, you know a Hawkeye has to rub it in anywhere she can. But think of it this way, at least you're not from Ohio State! ;)

I swear, it's 2013 and I still think everything is done by hand. :P

Could it be possible for a PNM to only attend two (or, heaven forbid, one) parties that day? Would she still be guaranteed a bid if she listed those two on the card? She technically maximized her options in this case.

It is definitely possible for a PNM to be invited back to one or two chapters. Invite instead of attend because a PNM SHOULD ALWAYS ATTEND every party they are invited to.

There is no such thing as a guaranteed bid.

Maximizing options includes those who had fewer options than those available. So yes, if a PNM only went to one chapter, they could only write one chapter and would be considered maximizing their options. This is the best way for a PNM to walk out of recruitment with a bid as she is not closing herself off of any opportunities she may have to receiving a bid.

In the days of hand bid matching, the bid cards are put in alpha order and read thru by a committee. The woman is matched to her first choice if possible. if she is not on the first bid list of that group, her card is turned over and they go to the next one. As each group matches to a PNM, the person working that group's list moves down a name so that the total number of their matches and available PNMs always equals quota. And so it goes on thru the entire pack of bid cards. And then over and over until all are matched or there is no way to match the remaining cards. Thre is a system for gridlock should it occur. Anyone who has access to the NPC MOI (Green Book) can look it up in there under Bid Matching. The computer programs now do this but they mirror this system.

And just do it much faster. ;)

I will preface this by saying that I went through Rush in the SEC in the 90s, so standard disclaimers apply:

A point I would make is that if you attend a Pref party, you are on the bid list for that sorority. You may be #1 or #201. You position on that list depends on a lot of different variables, many of which I don't understand myself, even after three years of being on "that side" of the process.

What I can tell you is, after the last guest leaves the last party, we whoop and cheer, kick off our heels, help ourselves to the leftover goodies from the kitchen and relax for a few minutes.

Then, the people who craft the bid list go off and do that, and the rest of us change into comfortable clothes and get to work.

We're busy putting together bid baskets, taking down the Pref Party set up, making banners, nametags, cleaning up the house, returning rental items, etc.

We might also get our first meal of the week that isn't mostly breath mints.

Obviously, someone has to go into the basement and start feeding the unicorns cotton candy so they'll be pooping rainbows on Bid Day.

There's a lot that goes into it. My advice is that you attend the parties, trust your gut, and don't worry too much about the one-off scenarios.

Also - LOL at "Suicidal Suzy".

And without all the snippy comments....

^^^ This is awesome . . . and at Ole Miss, those over 21 who don't have to vote because it's computerized, head out to The Square (after chores are done naturally.) Some non-computerized chapters get stuck voting, but that's completely hearsay.