Different methods of recruitment

[luv n tpa]

Hi there everyone. I've been perusing GC for a while now and joined just recently. I didn't expect recruitment to be exactly the same everywhere, but reading more and more about the Southern schools going through their recruitments now make me curious.

I come from a small East Coast state school that only has 4 NPC orgs, no houses and under 50 active girls in each org. Our first night is called Round Robin; all four orgs are in a large room and every fifteen minutes, the PNMs rotate. The second night is 4 parties. The third and fourth nights have two parties each for a longer period of time (all PNMs can still attend all parties). Fifth night is Pref and the next day is Bids.

Getting cut from rounds, skits, "ice water tea" (?) philanthropy night, recommendations and recruitment fees are all quite foreign to us. If anyone could provide any further insight for a curious mind, that would be fabulous. =)

[ForeverRoses]

Well, other than doing a search and/or just reading the various recruitment stories...

Ice Water Teas are usually one or more of the nights of recruitment. As the name suggests, ice water is provided to the rushees.

Skits are, well, skits that usually deal with how great that sorority is. Usually take a movie, tv show, or musical and change it around to make it fit.

A fairly laid-back rush works well if you only have 4 groups- but imagine the headaches if you had 12 groups.

[kathykd2005]

The whole point of "ice water," "teas," or "lemonade," are, as I understood it, to make recruitment fair for all of the houses and PNMs. If one house has great food, great decorations, and more members, some PNMs might be more impressed with it than the other houses. My school also had only four NPC houses, but then again, my school was also located in North Carolina, so it was most likely quite different than yours. The main difference, I think, between your experience and many others is due to the fact that you don't have "houses." There is pretty much an even playing field when PNMs only see the people in the chapters, and not their decorations, or anything else.

[dgdramadawg]

Originally Posted by kathykd2005

The whole point of "ice water," "teas," or "lemonade," are, as I understood it, to make recruitment fair for all of the houses and PNMs. If one house has great food, great decorations, and more members, some PNMs might be more impressed with it than the other houses.

Well, at a lot of schools the "ice water teas" are round one, but there are other beverages and foods served in later rounds. I remember having chick-fil-a, ice cream, and all sorts of other foods during skit round at UGA. The food and the decorations varied from house to house, so it was entirely possible for a PNM to be more impressed by one house's food/drinks/decorations/costumes/scenic design than another house's. I think the purpose of the ice water teas is to keep the PNMs hydrated during the long round one... but who knows.

To the OP: I know that while there are a lot of SEC/competitive rush threads, they are not always specific about how recruitment WORKS. Here is essentially how rush works at my campus. Most SEC schools are variations of this. I encourage you to read some rush threads, but this can kind of help you frame how this works in your mind as you read.

ROUND ONE: PNMs visit 18 houses. At each house, the chapter sings "door songs" or chants and clap and cheer a lot. Then PNMs are picked up by sisters, given "ice water tea" (ice water) and talk to several members of the chapter. Parties are very short (20-30 minutes, I believe) and PNMs have very little time to get to know anyone.

After this round, PNMs rank the houses and the sororities "make cuts" (i.e. invite some girls back and not others).

ROUND TWO: PNMs are given a schedule of up to 12 houses to visit. Most girls are not invited to the maximum; some girls drop out if they were not invited to their favorites. At each house PNMs hear more door songs and are picked up by a sister. They are sometimes given a refreshment (like lemonade or more ice water) and are taken on a tour of the house. Then they talk to more sisters. Parties are not much longer than round one.

After this round, PNMs again rank houses and sororities make cuts.

ROUND THREE: PNMs are given a schedule of up to 6 houses to visit. Most girls are not invited back to the maximum and many drop out. At each house, PNMs see a skit that focuses on the sorority (often based on TV shows or movies popular with PNMs). They get to eat (yum!) and after the skit may have time to talk to sisters other than the one who greeted them at the door. Parties are not much longer than round two.

After this round, PNMs again rank houses and sororities make cuts.

PREFS: PNMs are given a schedule of up to 3 houses to visit. Some drop out of recruitment if they do not like the schedule they are given. At each house, a special ceremony is held. There is food, too. PNMs typically only talk to one or two sisters during this round, which is the longest round.

After this round, PNMs rank the houses they will accept bids from on a preference card. Sororities create bid lists.

BID DAY: PNMs receive bids to the houses they have matched with. Some girls mismatch, but often those girls are given "snap bids" by houses that have not reached quota.