Background on sororities?
 

Hello! I'm going to be rushing at a Midwestern university this fall, but my school's website doesn't give the fullest profiles on the sororities we have :(. I was hoping to get some more in-depth information on each of these sororities:
Alpha Omicron Pi
Tri Delta
Chi Omega
Alpha Chi Omega
Kappa Delta
Pi Beta Phi
Delta Phi Epsilon
Alpha Xi Delta
Phi Sigma Rho

I've looked at the national websites for most of them, but I would really like to hear the opinions of people who were/are actually involved with them! Also, any rush tips for a large Midwestern school would be great! Thanks!

They are all wonderful organizations. We cannot tell you much more. Each campus is different and fit people differently. We do not discuss reputations here.

I just want to clarify, I'm not looking for bad/good reputations of sororities! I was hoping for more along the lines of more information on philanthropies, what qualities each looks for in PNMs, how rush is at large public universities in the Midwest, etc. Sorry for any misconceptions I may have presented!

I see what you are asking now. We are often asked about reps so it is an automatic reaction.

Again without knowing your exact campus it is harder to answer. For instance, KD has four national philanthropies. Every chapter I have ever known has their main philanthropic event focus on Prevent Child Abuse America. The event is called shamrock and can be a basketball tournament, spaghetti feed, 5k run, lip sync contest and more. Every chapter does it differently. Each chapter interacts with the Girl Scouts differently as well. My chapter had the, over for confidence building things as well as general mentoring. Others help them sell cookies.

We can't say the qualities looked at because A) it's different for each campus and, more importantly, B) it is private membership selection. Generally being well round is best. Have good grades, extracurriculars and be somewhat outgoing and nice.

Large public universities in the Midwest vary from the super competitive to the not so competitive. Have you searched for your campus on GC?

I have, unfortunately all that shows up are chapter directories and fraternity information. Thanks for the information on Kappa Delta, that's a lot more than I've previously been able to find!

Alpha Xi Delta's national philanthropy is Autism Speaks, who we have partnered with since 2009. Before Autism Speaks our philanthropy was Choose Children and chapters were allowed to choose their own philanthropic causes that benefited children. Since 2009, we have raised over $1 million for our philanthropy.

"The AmaXIng Challenge is Alpha Xi Delta’s signature fundraising event designed to raise funds for Autism Speaks. Each college chapter hosts at least one of the following AmaXIng Challenge events per year: Step It Up Walk/Run Now for Autism Speaks, Xi Man Competition, Jail ‘n’ Bail, Xi Marks the Spot, Football FrenXI, Puzzlepalooza"

Alpha Xi Delta helps women to realize their potential. I.E. to become the best they can be and strive for personal excellence. Many of our values are reflected in our creed, known as the Symphony of Alpha Xi Delta.

Fun fact: the Panhellenic creed was written by an Alpha Xi Delta and is still recited on college campuses today!

:) That's awesome! These are really helpful, thank you!

One thing you could do is check out the greek life pages at colleges in your area to get ideas. The AXO on one of my campuses did a breakfast, on my other campus, they did a softball tournament. For every organization, there will be a wide variety of events. So if you are going to university of _____ check out ______ state university's greek life.

One thing that might be interesting is to look at the creeds for each organization. Again, the personality of the chapters will be dependent on the campus.

I did a profile on each of the 26 NPCs last November, one per day, on my FB page, for my friends who were curious ("why are you in a sorority?"). (Aside: MysticCat, I'm doing yours this November, along with the NPHCs and a few others!) Through that simple act I learned boatloads about every sorority, just from spending time on their websites. Oh my gosh, you spend an hour or two looking and you're gonna be blown out of the water at what each sorority's chapters do for philanthropic activities. The information is there. I honestly don't think you looked hard enough. Case in point: Kappa Kappa Gamma's online edition of its magazine has the information you seek. So does Tri Delta's, Delta Gamma's, Alpha Phi's, Pi Beta Phi's and so on and so forth. You just have to search a little bit and you don't even have to look hard. It's all there. Honest.

The rest of your questions pertain to membership selection and reputation - as my Panhellenic sisters have already pointed out, we don't discuss that here.

Word of caution: don't study up on each sorority and start spouting facts about their philanthropy or anything else related to that sorority at the members during recruitment. That's just weird. And creepy.

Every NPC sorority has a website. They all include a ton of information. And most chapters have websites as well, although admittedly some don't get updated with as much frequency as they should.

And if you find the chapter locator app on the sorority (or women's fraternity :D) site, you can look up the Chapter on your campus . . . that information will likely include the Chapter's web site. The Chapter's web site may possibly list a FaceBook page, twitter handle for following, a YouTube channel, a tumblr blog, and maybe even a Pinterest account. If you can't find these things on the first try use your search engine to locate them. Search and ye shall find!

The national websites have all the info on history, philanthropy, etc you could ever want. Check threads for recruitment stories on Greek Chat for your particular school. Recruitment looks different at each school...also depends on whether it is before school starts, second semester in the winter, etc.

I figured out what school this is, and several chapters actually don't have individual web sites, but they all have Facebook pages, and of course each as its national/international website.

Also look for the recognition awards given to the chapters by the university. It will give a sense of the strengths of each chapter.

The best thing to do is just to attend the rush events and be yourself! The chapters will tell you about their philanthropies and all the activities they do. In the end, every chapter is different and every girl is different. Just enjoy this time. :)