[Katmandu]

Recruitment at Miami of Ohio is very competitive for the 17 NPC chapters on campus. Most of the women participating in recruitment are freshmen, but there are always some sophomores as well. Delayed recruitment means that sophomores are second semester sophomores, and by the time they are initiated and well-immersed in the chapter, they are rising juniors--so yes, it is more difficult to receive a bid as a soph, but every year, there are sophomores who have a great recruitment and receive bids they welcome. There is not a separate upperclass quota, so sophs should be strong candidates with good grades, activities and recs.

You should try to get recs to as many of the chapters as possible and let your friends know that you will be participating in recruitment. Keep your grades up fall quarter, and become or remain active in campus and/or community activities. Those elements are important for any woman rushing at Miami, and particularly for sophomores. You should put everything into place during the fall semester you can to help insure a good outcome.

Another option is to check with the Greek Life Office to see if any chapters will be participating in informal COR during the fall semester. While freshmen cannot accept a bid in the fall, if a chapter is under total (around 150) they may be offering bids to upperclass women. Chapters that are under total simply due to senior graduation and who always make quota in formal recruitment do not typically participate in informal during the fall, but there might be some chapters who will.

However, if there are chapters participating in fall informal, they will be the smaller chapters on campus, and you have already indicated you didn't feel comfortable with at least one of them. You might want to re-think feeling that you don't fit in with a chapter that had sweet girls you liked.

Being out of state is absolutely meaningless at Miami.... it may be a public school in the middle of Ohio, but their student population comes from all 50 states. I had to really look to find the local girls on the bid list. Tennessee, Michigan, Mass., Connecticut, Virginia, Iowa, New York.... It's an alphabet soup of states in all of the chapters.

Good luck with whatever you decide!