[stargirl007]

I recently went through COB recruitment at a somewhat competitive southern school (around 500 girls go through rush in deferred in the spring for 8 sororities) so hopefully I can help a bit.
Not every house will participate in COB obviously, at my school the only ones that participate are the ones that did not meet quota during formal recruitment. We have 8 sororities here but only 3 participated in our COB for the fall.
I went into COB as a junior myself, but I feel like a lot of it really does have to do with the amount of girls that each sorority can take. Naturally, they will take younger girls - but I think you really have to put yourself out there and show them that you would be an awesome addition to their group.
It helps to know girls, whether it's from class or other clubs. I was already involved in several other organizations on campus so I did recognize a few of the girls.
I would look into your school's greek life office and ask more about your COB - ours was one informal night in the student union where we got to meet girls from all 3 sororities, and pretty much get onto their contact lists. Not all of the COB events are open, most of them were actually invitation only. If there's a night such as this during your COB, I highly recommend going to it - I was given a calendar of all COB events from all 3 sororities that were COBing - so I was able to plan my schedule for the next couple of weeks accordingly, making sure I made it to events of both of the houses I was interested in (pretty much if the event said it was open to everyone, I went to it).
As far as my bid was concerned, I was invited to two preference events the night before bid day - and they just made me fill out a sheet that allowed them to access my student files (mostly to look into my past as far as sorority recruitment was concerned to be sure that I was indeed eligible, and also to look at my course records to look at my GPA and other things of that nature, and also to confirm it with the greek life office so they could officially offer me a bid).
As far as actually getting the bid, it was extremely informal. I received a call from my sorority's recruitment VP to offer me a bid & to come to the house to celebrate a couple of hours later.
As far as COB is concerned, just really be yourself. The girls want to get to know YOU - and COB is an awesome time to just be able to get to know some of the girls on a bit more personal level. They want girls that they can actually see as their SISTERS, the girls they will see as great friends. Bottom line though, I believe my key to getting my bid was outstanding involvement, great grades & overall just showed them who I was. I was completely relaxed & natural, I just acted like my plain old self. I didn't change anything about who I was just to get into a certain house. Just keep an open mind about the process too, the house you may think is for you, may not necessarily be the best fit.

I actually have to head to my new member meeting now but I should edit this back in later with some more detailed information