Western Michigan University Recruitment?

I'm a junior and was wondering how competitive WMU's greek life is and if there is any way I could get a bid with my class standing? I plan on rushing in the spring since I couldn't this fall because of work. I hear a lot of the sororities do COBs in the spring. Is this true?? Also I'm a junior but I'm in a program that takes longer and I won't graduate next year. I don't know if that helps. Thanks.

[DubaiSis]

Based strictly on the numbers, it doesn't look like it's too competitive. Quota this fall was 14 but chapter total is 75 which means most of the chapters will probably be looking to add as many quality women as they can (of course meeting their criteria, being well-liked, etc.).

Nobody can tell you what your chances are. I say go for it, keep an open mind, have a good time, and just see what happens! You'll need to register with the Greek Life office, and they should be able to give you a better idea of the process there and how close the chapters are to total which is the determining factor of if they'll be doing informal recruitment or not.

[AXOrushadvisor]

I went to Western Michigan many many moons ago. I think total was 75 when I was there! We used to take as big of pledge classes in the spring as the fall, but I'm not sure if that is the case any more. Call the Greek Life office and make sure you get either a list of chapters participating or your put on a list so that chapters can contact you.

[Psi U MC Vito]

*paging AGDee*

Did AGDee go to Western too? Are the chapter totals set up so that they can only take in a certain amount of people or something or is that just how many end up in it?

[Benzgirl]

Dee went to EMU, but she would know about Western.

[AGDee]

It has been ten years since we had a chapter at WMU so my information/knowledge may be old. At that time, they weren't very competitive and COR wasn't unusual. I think they are pretty much like Central Michigan in size of Greek System. Strong enough to be fun, not so strong that it is impossible to get in. I would contact the Greek Life office and ask them about it. I would say DubaiSis' evaluation based on quota this fall being 14 and Total being 75, there are bound to be some chapters with open spots. As always, with a Junior, especially a second semester Junior, I'd let them know that you will NOT be graduating the next year.

How does the that work? Like if the total is 75 and they only take 14 in the fall, does that mean that if the sorority has a lot of girls graduating or something they'll do COBs in the Spring? I thought they'd just take more than quota in the fall?

I'm freaked about doing it not formally. I don't want to wait another semester to do the formal recruitment because I don't want to be cut right away when they see my class status or whatever. My friend at Michigan State said even there where things are a lot more competitive that they still take juniors and she knew quite a few that got in. Am I just worrying for no reason?

Thanks!!

[33girl]

You can only take more than quota if taking quota does not get you up to total.

We'll use Dee's example of a quota of 14. Say ABC chapter had 65 going into formal rush. They can take 14 people. That's it, no more.
Say XYZ chapter had 50 going into formal rush. They can take the 14 + 11 more.

Unless the school has 2 structured recruitments with quotas a year, the only time that more members can be taken is if a chapter is below the total of 75. This can be due to graduation, transfers, members terminating, or never having gotten up to total through formal rush.

[AXOrushadvisor]

Total and quota are two separate things. If total is 75, but quota during formal recruitment is 25 and there is currently 75 members in the Chapter then Chapter can take quota of 25 and they will be at 100. If this was the case during spring or informal recruitment and the chapter only lost 10 seniors they would not be eligible to participate in informal recruitment or "COB" because they would be above total. We used to do formal recruitment in the fall and also an informal spring recruitment at Western not sure that they are still doing it that way.

Oh, okay. Thanks.

It just confused me because I thought that schools that are less competitive would have a lot of spots open and that would be the big point in whether they take girls in spring or not. Theres a lot more to it than I thought.

At Michigan State I know every chapter but one did informal recruitment even though they're supposed to be competitive. Are they one of the schools that does 2 structured recruitments?

[33girl]

Even if a school is less competitive, their total shouldn't be so unrealistically high that everyone is under it and COBing all the time. Panhellenic has made an effort to force campuses to re-evaluate totals more often in recent years.

And the level of competitiveness on a campus doesn't always matter when it comes down to whether or not you like the sorority women and they like you.

Informal recruitment is not what I'm talking about. It is likely that the groups at Mich State had seniors graduate midyear and spots to fill.

So its likely there won't be a lot of chapters doing it this spring then? Does anyone know if wmu is one of the schools that cuts juniors right away during formal in the fall?

Isn't it kind of weird for 12 out of 13 chapters on campus at State doing informal though?

[Regina.George]

Originally Posted by Bronco

So its likely there won't be a lot of chapters doing it this spring then? Does anyone know if wmu is one of the schools that cuts juniors right away during formal in the fall?

Isn't it kind of weird for 12 out of 13 chapters on campus at State doing informal though?

No. It simply means that their current total doesn't completely reflect the current realities of their campus. It may be a brief hiccup or it may be a situation where total will need to be readjusted at some point. Some campuses go through cycles. It has nothing to do with you or your recruitment situation at a different school.

[AGDee]

From Irish Pipes NPC Recruitment thread:
Michigan State University East Lansing, MI: September 19-27, 2010
Quota=29
Campus Total=115
Quota last year=23
***************
Alpha Gamma Delta, Chi, 1921-2002
Alpha Phi, Beta Beta, 1922 (30)
Kappa Delta, Alpha Alpha, 1924
Kappa Alpha Theta, Beta Pi, 1926
Chi Omega, Xi Gamma, 1926
Sigma Kappa, Alpha Tau, 1927
Alpha Chi Omega, Beta Epsilon, 1928
Kappa Kappa Gamma, Delta Gamma, 1930
Zeta Tau Alpha, Beta Phi, 1931
Alpha Xi Delta, Beta Theta, 1934-2001
Alpha Omicron P,i Beta Gamma, 1934-1969/1989 (32)
Delta Zeta, Beta Rho, 1941-1979
Gamma Phi Beta, Beta Delta, 1944
Pi Beta Phi, Michigan, Gamma 1945
Delta Gamma, Beta Xi, 1946 (26)
Delta Delta Delta, Phi Gamma, 1948-1992
Alpha Epsilon Phi, Epsilon Alpha, 1952-1973
Phi Mu, Delta Nu, 1955-2002
Alpha Delta Pi, Gamma Omega, 1956-1978
Sigma Delta Tau, Beta Beta, 1964

Note that three chapters closed in 2001/2002. This greek system is not that strong for the size of the school. I don't think I'd rank it as competitive quite honestly. As with any Greek system there are "top tier" chapters that are more competitive, but someone with an open mind is going to find a home, recs are not unheard of (the chapter would know what to do with them) but definitely not required.

MSU accepts about 5000 students more per year than Michigan yet their greek system is smaller, that says something.