The Big Four Transfer Recruitment
 

I love sports and we have four sororities on campus so I'll be going with a sports theme. The sororities, in the order that I visited them last night, will be Basketball, Hockey, Football, and Baseball teams. To give you all a bit of context I am a transfer student at a small, southern school that does not have houses. Last night was sisterhood, tonight will be philanthropy, and Friday night is preference.

Wednesday Night: Sisterhood Round, 4 Sororities, Sundress

• The first sorority my group visited last night was the Basketball team. They were very sweet and nice. They had the best skits of the four and seemed very proud of their sorority. I enjoyed the conversations but by the end of the night they were the least engaged, not only with myself but with all of the other girls they spoke with. There were a few girls that I really connected with but the majority just didn't seem to take a genuine interest in who other than their current sisters was in the room.
• After that we were taken to the Hockey team's room. This is a new sorority that will be chartering on campus this semester but they are going through the formal recruitment process in order to find the first few founding sisters. I felt at home immediately. I felt a connection with the leadership consultant and the national representative. I have leadership experience and find the idea of starting something new very appealing. I also fell in love with the values of this particular sorority. I teared up when they read their creed to us and just can't get over how right it feels. I am keeping my mind open to other options though.
• The third room we visited was that of the Football team. I love these girls. They were welcoming, friendly, and sociable. We talked about everything from food to sports to sisterhoods to the things that we are passionate about and what we like to spend our free time doing. I felt like these are the girls I could be best friends with and absolutely loved their sisterhood video. I was very disappointed when the bell rang to move to the next room and am hoping to be invited back to continue some conversations. I have classes with a few of these girls and they are all wonderful women.
• The fourth and final sorority that I met was the Baseball team. They are known around campus for being wild and elitist, but I tried to set that aside and get to know the girls. A few of them did come off as very entitled but most of the girls I spoke with were very kind and seemed like a lot of fun. One girl, however, was very taken with letting me know how often they party and pair up with the different fraternities on campus and I felt slightly uncomfortable in that situation. This room was also one that I wasn't quite ready to leave but I hadn't made as strong of a connection with any of the girls as I had with almost every girl in the previous room.

RANKING:

1. Hockey
2. Football
3. Baseball
4. Basketball

On a related note, I have a question for anyone with rush experience on either side. The guy that I am dating is a member of XYZ fraternity on campus. He has let me know that they get along very well with the Football team. I have met many of the men of XYZ and have become very good friends with quite a few of them. My question is whether or not to mention that I am friends with these men in order to make a personal connection that stands out. I am not interested in the Football team because my friends like them. I genuinely feel like I would get along amazingly with these girls. I would only ever bring up names of XYZ boys in order to let them see that I am socially in a similar place to where they are to try and build another extra connection during recruitment. Is this a good or bad idea? I have been told to stay away from mentioning boys at all but these aren't just boys I am dating, they are also my friends.

Bad idea. You never know if the sister you are talking to just got dumped by an XYZ or whatever. If they bring it up, something like "We have a social with XYZ this month!" you can say "I know some of those guys, and they are great," but you should not bring it up first.

Bad!

When I was recruiting on the other side, I specifically remembered and instance when I was pared with a PNM who ended up being the younger sister of one of my (now) husband's fraternity brothers. She mentioned her brother and his fraternity a few times in the conversation--she had this cocky attitude that she knew ALLLL about Greek life because of him. It was really off putting to me. Felt like she was trying WAY to hard and I barely got to know her. I am not sure if that's how she acted at all chapters and I obviously don't know what other chapters thought of her, but needless to say she didn't finish recruitment.

I'm not saying you will make the conversation all about XYZ, but you honestly never know how a sister will interpret it. To me, it was the "trying to hard" vibe which was a huge turn off. Let them get to know you! :)

Thanks! I never even thought of that being a possibility! I really appreciate the input. :)

Perfectly answered by the ladies above me.
Follow their advice and be sure to come back and let us know how it goes.

Just because I love it so much...I am totally rooting for football! lol

Tonight I was invited back by all of my top 3 sororities for Philanthropy Night. We spent an hour with each group.

Thursday Night: Philanthropy Round, 3 Sororities, Business Casual Dress

• The first sorority tonight was the Baseball team. The conversation felt awkward and the few girls that I do connect with were busy with other girls. It wasn't hard to rank them tonight.
• The Hockey team was second. I cried, again. This time it was their philanthropy video that caused me to cry. I sat in the front and let the national representatives know how interested I was. I'm really excited to see what they do for pref night because I feel like this could be the perfect fit for me.
• The tricky part is that I also feel like the Football team could be a perfect fit. Their faces light up when they see me and I think we could be best friends. There were a few girls who sat down with me and we fit with each other immediately. It wasn't the same old major/hometown/interests conversation I had with the Baseball team. Their philanthropy video also made me cry and I'm totally confused about whether I prefer Hockey or Football.

RANKING:

1. Hockey
2. Football
3. Baseball

Thanks for the update, so happy to hear it's going so well!
While it is so important to make this choice on your own, you will be spending a lot of time with your pledge class. In my case there were a lot of the same girls going to the pref parties I was going to so that didn't help. I made some great friends during rush and we all agreed not to say what we picked until afterwards. I got lucky and one of my very favorite new friends became my sister. We only had one house in common and I actually thought she was headed to a different house. Looking forward to hearing how your next set of parties go.

Thanks! Tonight is Pref and tomorrow morning is Bid Day so it won't be too much longer but I still can't wait to see what happens!

I actually have made quite a few friends during rush already and while the closest is also very interested in the Hockey team the majority of girls on campus want to go Baseball. As for Football, that's where most of my friends who are already Greek are. So we'll see. I'm more nervous about making the right rankings tonight than anything else.

Hope it is going well - let us know!:)

Sorry for the delay. It's been an exciting few days. Friday night was pref night and I was invited back to my top choice, the hockey team!

I walked into the room and I'll save you any details for any PNMs who may not have experienced a pref round yet. What I will tell you is that even though it is a colony the round was still very similar to how it normally would be except that we had our conversations with those rushing us in groups of about 5 PNMs each. I got to know the representatives a little better, they got to know me, and I got to know my potential sisters. It was an amazing experience and I cried in that room for the third night in a row. By the time I left I was very sold on the fact that the sisterhood that I had ranked first in every single round and had a great feeling about from the very beginning was the place where I belonged. My home.

After rankings my Rho Gamma told me that I would get a call by around midnight or so if I hadn't received a bid. I stayed up until almost two in the morning with crazy nervous feelings. No phone call! Saturday morning I woke up at six am and couldn't get back to sleep. I knew since I had only been to the one pref round where my bid would take me but as we are a colony I didn't know who any of my sisters would be. It was nerve-wracking! I checked my phone multiple times just to double and triple check that I hadn't missed a phone call.

10:15 came and I made my way to the Greek Life office. It was half an hour before everyone was there and we finally received our bids and another hour before everyone had accepted or declined and we were allowed to go outside and meet our new family.

I could not have been more excited and with everything that happened yesterday I know that I was five hundred percent right in my previous rankings.

I could not be happier to be a founding sister in the newest chapter of....







































ALPHA SIGMA ALPHA! <3

Congratulations and I hope that you have a great experience as a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha's new colony!

Congrats on Alpha Sigma Alpha! It's a great organization! How exciting to be a founding member!

Congratulations on your bid!

Founding members are special & have such a unique opportunity! You get to establish your group and it's reputation on campus. Good work and congratulations!