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I joined during informal recruitment but it was a little different at that time on my campus. Basically, Formal Recruitment was in the spring and was what we know as formal recruitment here on GC (maybe with a few smaller differences due to the size of my campus and its chapters). Informal recruitment in the fall was actually partially structured - there was a two week period where all the chapters were holding parties, they tried to coordinate so that if someone wanted to go to more than one chapter they would be able to, but a PNM wasn't required to go to all the chapters. I went to all of my chapter's recruitment events, including a preference round (most chapters on my campus had preference during informal recruitment at that time) then all the chapters participated in a bid day which included showing up at PNM's dorms/apartments with balloons and surprising the crap out of them (although they're not really that sneaky - I heard them coming about a mile away). PNMs were able to receive up to five bids (one from each chapter) and then had 24 hours to decide, although most people didn't take that long. The chapters would then wait at their houses for the PNMs to come and sign their bids, then have a party with cake (which ended up getting smashed) and then they would be off to some sort of activity (bowling or the movies or something).
My campus doesn't work this way that I know of now. Many chapters will start bidding for the fall New Member classes before classes end during Spring semester (shortly after their spring classes are initiated) and then they COR until "bid day" which is the kickoff to the fall New Member period. This means they can bid anyone that's been to enough recruitment events, which don't necessarily happen all during a certain time period.
I realized, though, after I graduated, that the recruitment parties really weren't what drew me to my chapter. It was because individuals were consistently recruiting me the entire time, which is the heart of COR. They started recruiting me when I was working as an Orientation Adviser over the summer before I joined. They showed me their house and invited me to hang out with them without me knowing that they intended to recruit me in the fall, I thought I was just making friends. However, after making friends with a handful of women in the chapter, in addition to those that were my friends before they even joined, it made it so much easier to see myself as a member of the chapter.
I feel like chapters work harder during informal or COR than they do during formal recruitment. They actually develop relationships with PNMs before actively recruiting them. As a result, I think, classes of New Members that joined via COR or informal recruitment tend to be closer with the chapter upon initiation, because the sisterhood bond has been developing since before formal pledging even began.
On my campus (this does NOT fly for most other campuses) often times the fall new member classes are larger than the spring new member classes unless the chapter is just below or over total. If they have 10 spots to total, they tend to fill all their spots. During spring recruitment they bid to quota, but it tends to be smaller (5-8) and since houses are already at total from fall semester they don't often go over quota unless they get a quota addition.
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