Kansas recruitment
 

I was wondering how competitive Kansas State and University of Kansas recruitment is?

Last fall KU had 750 girls rush; 567 pledged (13 NPC houses). I haven't seen K-State publish its numbers, but usually between 550 & 650 girls rush for 11 houses, and last year quota was 41 (so about 450 pledged.)

I always encourage girls to get recs, but here is a quote from the K-State FAQ section on recruitment:

The Panhellenic Council does not require formal membership recruitment participants to submit letters of recommendation. It will not count against you if you do not have any recommendations, but you are welcome to have them submitted directly to one or more sororities if you wish.

I have known girls at both schools to rush successfully without lining up recs. I am not recommending anyone do that, I just know it to be true.

Recruitment is competitive and the conventional wisdom is that KU is more so than K-State. We have our share of broken hearts and tears during recruitment. Greek life is strong and there are several award winning chapters on these campuses. Having said all that, however, it is overall not nearly as "do or die" as it is at some Southern schools I read about on GC. A few years ago we had a young alum from Texas going to grad school at K-State who served as an advisor. She commented that greek membership was treated much more casually in KS than in TX, where your status as an undergrad really depended on your greek affiliation. (Hearsay testimony, but I think it's relevant.) I was reading the current W & L thread--75% of women pledge!! Wow! K-State & KU are both campuses of well over 20,000 so there are lots of students who are not a part of the greek system. (As at most places, however, a disproportionate # of the leaders are.)

Hope this helps to answer your question.:)

by the way I'm a transfer

You might want to read some of the threads on pledging as a sophomore. Did you go through recruitment at your current school?

While it's true that recommendations are not absolutely essential at K-State, it's also true that several chapters specifically mention recs, in either the "recruitment" or the "alumnae" portion of their web sites. A couple of sample quotes:

"Letters of recommendation regarding women going through recruitment are greatly appreciated." {chapter has been at K-State for 90 years}

"Although recommendations are not required to go through Recruitment, current [name of sorority] members use these recommendations as an opportunity to get to know these women before they arrive for Recruitment." {chapter has been at K-State for 50+ years}

Some other chapters' pages offer links to inter/national web sites' rec (and legacy) forms.

I'd say, in agreement with wildcatfan, that recs are, at the very least, a really good idea.

I go to KU and actually rushed as a sophomore transfer with NO recs whatsoever.

I never felt like rush was "competitive" exactly, but with so many girls and 13 chapters, it's definitely necessary to stand out. Recs and legacies are basically a way to get a chapter's attention so that they can find out how wonderful you are.

I ended up in a great sorority that I absolutely love, but I got cut from a LOT of houses (all but two!) because I didn't know how important recommendations were, and I didn't know many Greek alumnae.

And just a note, I'm being 100% genuine when I say that ALL of the sororities at KU are great! Some of them are more competitive than others, but even a so-called "lower tier" chapter has tons of smart, athletic, talented girls who are active all over campus.

So get some recs, practice playing up your best assets, and get ready to sweat. Recruitment in August on a hilly campus is no picnic. :)

i was also wondering about wichita state rush and if it would hurt not growing up in Kansas

I'm rushing at K-State this August. I was wondering if anyone is familiar with the different chapters. I've been on their websites, but they haven't really told me much....I've heard that all scools have "A" sororites(smart, classy), "B" sororities(skanky), and "C" sororities(nerdy). Can anyone fill me in on k-state's chapters?

It's not wise to come on Greekchat to solicit opinions on the different chapters' reputations prior to rushing.

The best advice we can offer you is to go through recruitment with an open mind and pay no attention to the tent talk you might encounter both online and in real life. The only real way to get to know the chapters is when you rush, not via their website or what you read online.

Listen to OTW's advice. If you listen to Tent Talk, and gossip is what you want, then visit Juicy Campus. Also, what your interpretation of what skanky might be is another's smart and classy.

That's true, but can you really get a good enough impression just from the nerve-wrecking 4 days of recruitment? I plan on keeping an open mind, but I would appreciate a little more information from people who have gone through rush at k-state.

And the girls who've gone through rush at K-State know better than feed the gossip mill. It's called being Panhellenic-minded.

You'll get more of an impression in those 4 days than you'll ever get on a message board.

I'm amused that skanky ranks higher than nerdy.

I had to add my two cents, do not try to find out reputations before rush. You can get your own view of it during rush but looking at reputations can make you make the wrong choice. Of course chapters will have reputations but do your best to not pay attention to them. Paying attention to reputations made me make the wrong choice

This is completely true.