[aephi alum]

One of the big pluses to NPC formal recruitment, I feel, is that every PNM has to meet every chapter and vice versa. If a PNM doesn't have to visit every chapter, she may make premature decisions based on rumors, "tent talk" and the like. She may spend all her time at ABC only to find at the end of recruitment they're not going to extend her a bid, while she never steps foot at XYZ, which might have been a perfect fit.

One of the minuses is that PNMs are usually required to accept all the invitations they get, up to the maximum, at each step. So a PNM may know she likes DEF but doesn't like GHI, but GHI keeps inviting her back, so she has to go to GHI's parties just so she can keep going back to DEF. Next thing she knows, she's preffing GHI even though she doesn't really like them and would turn down a bid from them. It wastes the PNM's time and energy as well as GHI's.

I would do something similar to what JocelynC suggested. Every PNM visits every sorority to start with, then the sororities make their first round of cuts. Each PNM receives a list of the sororities that have invited her back and a schedule of their events over a period of a week or so. She can attend any events she chooses for any of the sororities that have invited her (and if she's not interested in a particular sorority, she doesn't have to attend any of their events). After these events, sororities issue their pref invites, and each PNM may choose up to 2 or 3 sororities to pref. From there, each PNM fills out a pref card and bid matching takes place.

I don't know how this would work for fraternities, though. Men and women are different. I'd like to see a system where every PNM visits every fraternity once, just to see for himself what each fraternity is like without relying on rumors. After that, maybe it's best to open it up and let the PNMs go where they will.