Maryland Recruitment as a Rho Gam
 

Since PhoenixAzul started a thread as Rho Chi, I decided it was time to start mine! I am a senior member of my chapter, and a Rho Gamma this year! I am so excited to be a Rho Gam because mine was awesome and I want to "pass forward" the favor of supporting and helping PNMs.

Maryland has a pretty unique Greek community. We have characteristics of both northern and southern schools. We are a frills campus in that we have pretty elaborate decorations, door chants, coordinated (but not identical) outifts. I wouldn't say that our campus is super competitive, as our number of women who are cross-released is pretty low (last year 11 out of about 500 were released from all 14 chapters). Total is 95, and quota is usually in the low 20s.

One thing that makes Maryland's recruitment unique is that every chapter participates in informal recruitment in the fall. It's because quota x 3 does not equal 95. We are hoping to keep quota as high as possible (which means retention) so that only chapters that need to "catch up" participate in informal recruitment and do not have to compete with larger chapters. My goal, albeit a lofty one, is to have all of my PNMs go to preference and then decide whether or not to drop out.

The Panhellenic Association is giving the PNMs their invite lists right before the parties instead of during the "off" days in between rounds to help retention. This makes it easier on the Rho Gammas, plus the PNMs are dressed and ready to go, so the thinking is that they're more likely to stick it out one more round if they are dissappointed with their invite list.

Recs are basically unheard of at Maryland. MAYBE if you're a legacy you should get one, but chapters will check up on the relation, so it really doesn't matter.

Greek life at Maryland is well-regulated and focuses on vision, but we still have fun, I swear! We have 6 full time employees in our Greek life office, as well as a bunch of part-time advisors and residential fellows supporting us.

Maryland has 14 amazing NPC chapters:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Phi Epsilon
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Phi Sigma Sigma
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
Zeta Tau Alpha

Our schedule is as follows:

Tue Jan 23: Last day to register for recruitment
Recruitment orientation
Wed Jan 24: Classes start
Thu Jan 25: Recruitment kick-off (we meet our PNMs this day)
Sat Jan 27: Round 1
Sun Jan 28: Round 1
Tue Jan 30: Round 2
Wed Jan 31: Round 2
Fri Feb 2: Round 3
Sun Feb 4: Preference
Mon Feb 5: Bid Day

Round 1 is in the student union. PNMs will visit all 14 chapters. Each chapter goes for one of the days, so we only have to rent out 7 rooms each day instead of 14, and chapters only have to set up 1 of the days. The PNMs will visit 7 chapters each day during round 1.

Round 2 is philanthropy and house tours. The PNMs can go to a maximum of 10 chapters for this round. They will go to the chapter houses and get a tour, plus help with a philanthropy project at each chapter.

Round 3 is skit round. PNMs can visit a maximum of 6 chapters this round. Again, this round is at the chapter houses and chapters will decorate the non-sleeping floors of the chapter house for a themed skit. This round is definitely "frills".

Preference is also at the chapter houses and PNMs can visit a maximum of 3 chapters. It is in the afternoon so it does not interfere with the Superbowl, which is kind of weird, but better than the alternative that we tried in 2005. In 2005, we had preference (a Saturday) the day after skit round (a Friday), which was hell taking down the skit decorations and putting up pref decorations overnight, and the PNMs had to wait a whole day between preference and bid day (a Monday) to find where their new homes were.

I will be discreet and generic, because I do not want any PNMs to be hurt by something I say. I will reveal my affiliation and where my PNMs end up on bid day!

I can't wait!

hooray! another R.C. thread :). Any idea how big your group will be?

I don't know how many women have signed up yet, but we usually have around 400-500 women register. There are 34 Rho Gammas, so I could be looking at anywhere from 12-15 PNMs.

I am so excited for this thread!

I am an alum of UMD and a member of a sorority there.

It's been a long time ago since I graduated and the greek system has changed A LOT and back then I would absolutely consider it a competitive school. Maybe not Ole Miss competitive but still very competitive.

I will tell you my affiliation at the end of this thread too in case anyone cares.

I am going to try *really* hard to figure out all the houses and see if their "reputations" still hold up.

Even though we all know reputations aren't always true and to follow your heart and give it a shot...

Have a great rush!!

Don't keep any details out. I want to hear everything!!!

I'm not exactly sure what I will be reporting in this thread, probably how many women I get in my group, when someone drops out, where everyone goes at the end, warm fuzzy stories, funny stories, and my affiliation at the end. Anything else that I would put in here? I guess I'll see what PhoenixAzul puts in her Rho Gam thread.

Of course I will not give a play-by-play of what every PNM is thinking about every chapter during each round.

YAY!!!! UMD Recruitment!!!! I still remember Recruitment time in College Park like it was yesterday. Meeting new members at the chapel and then running down the hill......I was a recruitment counselor back in the day, except we were called Rho Chis still then.....LOL (dating myself, much?) I hope you have a fabulous time being a Rho Gamma and that all your girls find homes. Maryland greek life was so awesome when I was there!

I dunno if this will help you, but I've done the PX thing before and I wrote a thread about it. http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ht=Recruitment

Yay, a Maryland thread!

It's already been said, but things have changed so much there (especially since I was there). Five sororities have left; one's arrived. Rush used to be in the fall. Pretty competitive. Total was about 135 with quota around 35.

Maybe aabby remembers this better than I do but weren't Rho Chi/Rho Gammas just called Rush Counselors?

One thing that I wish hadn't changed is all the sorority members used to stand out in front of their houses singing before the PNMs filed in. The whole place was a noisy riot. It was great.

I'm looking forward to your stories! I hope all your girls get their favorites. :)

We still do door chants for rounds 2 and 3 and songs for pref but we stay inside, probably because recruitment changed from September to January...nobody wants to stand outside in January. It'll be fun getting to hear everyone's chants again! Thanks for all the well wishes!

I remember my freshman year they would run screaming from inside their house and then do a huge song and dance on the lawn. And then inside was incredibly decorated.

Yes Rho Chis were called Rush Counselors.

Yes, several sororities have gone. One recolonized a few times and then closed again.

I think back in the day when tours (first round) was 18 houses. Quota was high 40s or low 50s.

And, the most devastating change of all? The Vous is no longer there.

Don't get me started!

I can't wait for more of this thread!!

PBF left in 1991
KKG and AGD left in 1992
AXD left in 1993
GFB left in 2000

CW attempted colonization in 1996 but withdrew.

What!?:eek:

The Vous was an institution at Maryland! Where else in College Park could you possibly have the pleasure of being packed into a smelly, decrepid building and have to stand in 3 inches of beer, sludge, and frat-boy urine? Kids today are missing out!

Is it Cornerstone that took over the Vous?

I think but am not sure that Cornerstone is where The Cellular used to be.

The Vous was on the corner caddy corner from Ratzies.

The Cellular used to have 25 cent pitcher nights on Monday with a $5 cover. Even before then you could show your meal card and slip the bouncer $5 and get in.

Good times.

Yeah, it is. I dont think they have it in there anymore, but they used to have a ton of old Vous memorabilia in there. My parents were really shocked by that too! I am a 2nd generation UMD alumna (both my folks went there a LONG way back in the day) For a while we had Terrapin Station as a "replacement" for the Vous which I think closed in '96 or '97, but that got shut down over the summer of my freshman year (summer '99)

From what I hear College Park has gotten progressively more dangerous since I was there. I heard something about a shooting or a stabbing outside of Cornerstone last semester? And they have a "no ghetto" policy in there now? Crazy......we heard about that when we were there for Homecoming. To think back on some of the things that I did when I was in school that were SO DUMB even then, would probably be even worse now. (ie I used to walk from the Row, cut through that area of trees between the Row and the Book Exchange parking lot to go buy cigarettes at the convenience store....alone....at night) Whatever, I still miss it though.....DP Dough, Jungle Grille, and late night runs to WaWa........man I miss it a lot.