Auburn University Recruitment - Fall 2010

[AuburnDad]

Here at the 12 groups that Emma will be visiting today and tomorrow for the Philanthropy round. Other than the Diamondbacks, these are in no particular order of preference.

Diamondbacks
Blue Jays
Angels
Reds
Cubs
Giants
Pirates
Rays
Astros
Dodgers
Orioles
Cardinals

She will have lunch break, so I may hear from her then. She had some interesting insight on the impact of having or not having a rec letter which I will probably share later on tonight.

Carnation, with the next round of cuts, are the PNM's selections "true cuts", or like the first round, do you list all of the groups and then if you don't get your top 7, one or more of the others move up to replace those spots?

[lawgal]

If there are any girls reading this who are discouraged about not having a full slate like Emma and Cassie, do not despair - you can only receive 1 bid. You will be more rested and more able to focus on the parties you are invited to. Sometimes it is just a numbers game - and the girls that talked with you may have loved you, but you did not get to meet as many of the members as you needed (something completely out of your control). Do not give up. There will be a place for you where they will love and appreciate you and you will love them. Some of my daughter's favorite sisters are girls she did not meet until after bid day, as well. Hang in there!

[Amicus]

I am to ditto what Lawgirl said.

I know a young woman who went through rush at a competitive SEC school. After the first round, she received only one invitation to the second round. To best honest, she had neither positive or negative feelings about the chapter that invited her back.

She said she could withdraw from rush and take her chances with COB or go through rushing again in the second semester or the next year. She realized that the odds working in favor were slight if she decided to follow those paths.

She decided that she learn more about ABC sorority and decide if she would want to join that sorority if offered a bid. She attended the second round party at ABC, showing interest and asking questions; she said that she tried not to sound too enthusiastic or too eager so she would been seen as desparate.

She was invited back to the third round and preference night events. Needless to say she was offered a bid, which she accepted.

My friend said she had to weigh there options as well as her feelings. For her, the ABC house was pretty nice place, she felt she could live with the members (realizing that she couldn't expect to like everyone and that every member couldn't expected to like her) and that if she wanted a part of Greek life, ABC was the best option.

She added that her decisions might not be right for every young woman or man wanting to participate in Greek life

[carnation]

Originally Posted by AuburnDad

Carnation, with the next round of cuts, are the PNM's selections "true cuts", or like the first round, do you list all of the groups and then if you don't get your top 7, one or more of the others move up to replace those spots?

Lawgal tells me that these days, the PNMs only prioritize, not cut like back in the day. Therefore, if one of her top 12 cut her, number 13 would move into its place.

[lawgal]

For skit day (7 invites), all her invites would come from the 12 she attended for philanthropy - they will not go back to include the 5 she did not attend for philanthropy, so in that sense, there was a cut.

[GPhiBLtColonel]

Originally Posted by AuburnDad

Here at the 12 groups that Emma will be visiting today and tomorrow for the Philanthropy round. Other than the Diamondbacks, these are in no particular order of preference.

Diamondbacks
Blue Jays
Angels
Reds
Cubs
Giants
Pirates
Rays
Astros
Dodgers
Orioles
Cardinals

She will have lunch break, so I may hear from her then. She had some interesting insight on the impact of having or not having a rec letter which I will probably share later on tonight.

Carnation, with the next round of cuts, are the PNM's selections "true cuts", or like the first round, do you list all of the groups and then if you don't get your top 7, one or more of the others move up to replace those spots?

AuDad - would be interested to hear the insight you mentioned above about having a rec or not....

I was at Auburn today to help with vote counting. It was a sunny hot day - whew! The girls (pnms) - if they wanted - were allowed to wait inside in between parties due to the heat. I had to walk over many of them just to get to the Gamma Phi area and they were all busy scribbling notes about the various sororities onto sheets of paper and in their recruitment handbooks etc.

I understand that when recruitment officially started, there were just under 1200 girls going thru...there had been more than 1200 registered but some dropped right from the outset.

My four local rec girls seem to be doing great so far!

[AuburnDad]

Originally Posted by GPhiBLtColonel

AuDad - would be interested to hear the insight you mentioned above about having a rec or not....

Basically her perception was that for those groups for which she had obtained a rec letter, she was matched with a hostess who "miraculously" had something in common with her - maybe it was her sport, maybe it was the same state, etc. But with the groups which she had not obtained a rec letter for, she seemed to be paired with a hostess who had been picked at random....and as a result there was no common interest. Needless to say those parties didn't go as well. So the rec letters cut both ways - 1) the sororites won't know about you, and you're more likely to get lost in the shuffle and cut; and 2) since they're not as prepared for you, you might not feel a connection and won't like them quite as much and are more likely to cut them.

[AuburnDad]

One more thought on rec letters for Auburn.

I don't know what percentage of PNM's at Auburn obtain rec letters. I was told by the mom of the only AU active we know that the number was around 90%. That sounds kinda high to me. But even if it's only 70%, or even lower, there is going to be a huge competitive disadvantage to not having rec letters at AU.

We started working on ours around May and if I could do it over again I would've started earlier. They take longer to get than you think. Plus, once you find an alumna who will agree to write one, she may go on vacation for a month (this actually happened) or there could be something else that may come up to delay the letter going out (one of our rec letter writers had moved to another state and we sent it to an old address).

One of the reasons that I decided to do this thread was sort of as a thank you to all the GCer's who put all of this useful and important info about sorority recruitment on this site. For someone like me, an old fraternity guy, I really didn't have much of clue about sorority recruitment other than that I knew it was pretty big deal to the girls. Most of what I now know has come from GC.

[GPhiBLtColonel]

Originally Posted by AuburnDad

Basically her perception was that for those groups for which she had obtained a rec letter, she was matched with a hostess who "miraculously" had something in common with her - maybe it was her sport, maybe it was the same state, etc. But with the groups which she had not obtained a rec letter for, she seemed to be paired with a hostess who had been picked at random....and as a result there was no common interest. Needless to say those parties didn't go as well. So the rec letters cut both ways - 1) the sororites won't know about you, and you're more likely to get lost in the shuffle and cut; and 2) since they're not as prepared for you, you might not feel a connection and won't like them quite as much and are more likely to cut them.

...to the girls who attend or are not sure about attending our alum panhel's annual sorority info sessions! They can be helped so much by getting recs. AuburnDad, can I get your permission to use your quote on our power point slides for our May 2011 session?

[OleMissGlitter]

My rec girl at AU has a great party schedule today! She is very excited!

[AuburnDad]

Originally Posted by GPhiBLtColonel

...to the girls who attend or are not sure about attending our alum panhel's annual sorority info sessions! They can be helped so much by getting recs. AuburnDad, can I get your permission to use your quote on our power point slides for our May 2011 session?

Absolutely.

[GPhiBLtColonel]

Originally Posted by AuburnDad

Absolutely.

Thank you!

[AuburnDad]

Originally Posted by GPhiBLtColonel

They can be helped so much by getting recs.

BTW she had a rec letter for every one of the remaining seven.

[GPhiBLtColonel]

Originally Posted by AuburnDad

BTW she had a rec letter for every one of the remaining seven.

...that while I think recs are very important, there isn't necessarily a correlation between getting an invite back to a house and having a rec. In fact, I have been personally contacted at the 12th hour to do last-minute recs on girls chapters were dying to bid...plus I know for a fact that the chapter members can usually run upstairs (or whereever) to get an advisor to sign off on a rec for a girl they want who does not have one. Bottom line - if a chapter wants someone, they will get a rec for her. And just because a girl goes through without a rec doesn't signal the end of the world!