questions about informal recruitment?

[ari115]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Here's a little more advice for you: start reading this website. Read through maybe 100 threads. Look at your school's sorority website and read all you can about each of the sororities represented. Come back here and ask continually more thoughtful questions and don't argue with the answers (which is not the same as asking follow up questions). Sorority life is not what outsiders might think it is. it also is great training for the real world, interviewing, working with different kinds of people, the skills you learn impact a lot of areas of your life.

Then, that being said, colonies always have to add more members soon after starting. Many girls just aren't prepared for the tremendous amount of work it takes. Plus it seems to be the trend in colonies these days is to allow the colony members to start tackling recruitment pretty soon. So do your homework, know the lingo, bone up on your interview skills, have your elevator pitch ready (google it), and then put your best AUTHENTIC foot forward. And let us know!

Not sure what you mean by "arguing the answers" I simply elaborated on my experience to give more background to determine if I had done things right/wrong. I had no idea this site existed before today. I had previously been watching Youtube videos of girls giving advice for potential new members. Almost all the videos explained what you should say/not say but didn't mention the interviewers would be asking about why you want to join the sorority specifically. In formal rush, I believe you talk to every house, correct? Even the ones you don't think you'll fit in. I saw nothing about telling each sorority about why you think you'd fit in there. I thought you generally speak to someone and hopefully you feel a connection and can see yourself with that house. I assumed it was the same for this, except a little later and only one house. I guess I was unprepared, but everything I read and viewed didn't tell me to prepare they all just said "be yourself" and see if you make a connection with a house. I do know most of the lingo, just not COB because it wasn't applicable to my situation.

[33girl]

If you had to go to the sororities' insta pages to register, that is NOT formal recruitment. Formal recruitment is organized by the school's Panhellenic and you register with them, not individual sororities.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by ari115

Not sure what you mean by "arguing the answers" I simply elaborated on my experience to give more background to determine if I had done things right/wrong. I had no idea this site existed before today. I had previously been watching Youtube videos of girls giving advice for potential new members. Almost all the videos explained what you should say/not say but didn't mention the interviewers would be asking about why you want to join the sorority specifically. In formal rush, I believe you talk to every house, correct? Even the ones you don't think you'll fit in. I saw nothing about telling each sorority about why you think you'd fit in there. I thought you generally speak to someone and hopefully you feel a connection and can see yourself with that house. I assumed it was the same for this, except a little later and only one house. I guess I was unprepared, but everything I read and viewed didn't tell me to prepare they all just said "be yourself" and see if you make a connection with a house. I do know most of the lingo, just not COB because it wasn't applicable to my situation.

But did you look for Colony help? You didn't do formal nor COB/informal. You did colony recruitment. You really do not seem to have a grasp of what all this is about nor how to get the information from your school. We're trying to help but can only do so much.

[TXDG]

Originally Posted by ari115

Not sure what you mean by "arguing the answers" I simply elaborated on my experience to give more background to determine if I had done things right/wrong. I had no idea this site existed before today. I had previously been watching Youtube videos of girls giving advice for potential new members. Almost all the videos explained what you should say/not say but didn't mention the interviewers would be asking about why you want to join the sorority specifically. In formal rush, I believe you talk to every house, correct? Even the ones you don't think you'll fit in. I saw nothing about telling each sorority about why you think you'd fit in there. I thought you generally speak to someone and hopefully you feel a connection and can see yourself with that house. I assumed it was the same for this, except a little later and only one house. I guess I was unprepared, but everything I read and viewed didn't tell me to prepare they all just said "be yourself" and see if you make a connection with a house. I do know most of the lingo, just not COB because it wasn't applicable to my situation.

You're missing the point that colony recruitment is COMPLETELY different than formal recruitment or COB. Everything about it is different - the structure, the process, what the sorority is looking for in terms of members, etc. It would have helped for you to have researched colony recruitment because you would have been prepared for the alumna's interview questions (they sound pretty typical for a colony interview), but hindsight is 20/20.

I'm also unclear about your comment about singing up for formal via each chapter's Instagram because I know of exactly zero campuses where that is the protocol. Formal recruitment is always sponsored by the campus' Panhellenic council.

Do you have any friends or door mates who are sorority members at your school? I think it would help you to get the lay of the land on your campus by talking to them about their sorority experiences. Then maybe in the spring you can seek out COB opportunities. The new colony will almost definitely take a spring new member class. Not knowing your school, it's impossible to tell how realistic it is for a junior to get a bid during fall formal; at some campuses it's almost impossible and at others every group takes a few.