University of Illinois/Urbana-Champaign Recruitment

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Another Illinois alumna, here. Cuts will be heavy in the early rounds, because there are so many PNM's going through. You can read my rush story somewhere around here, but it was back before RFM, and we went 19-10-5-3. Unfortunately, 18-13-7-3 means that the cuts get worse as the rounds go on, and you have a lot of chapters to keep straight throughout.

All that said, very few women are released from all chapters. The vast majority not completing recruitment drop out themselves. Here are some things to consider, though, if she doesn't get all of her favorite invites:

1) At Illinois, tiers change often. I look at houses considered "top" now vs. when I was there, and some of them are like night and day. Even from the time I was a freshman to the time I was a senior, I saw a struggling chapter get one awesome pledge class, COB their little hearts out all year, and come back the following year twice as strong. On the flip side, some of the chapters most desired by PNM's each year are well below where they should be, which speaks to problems retaining members.

2) Every chapter at Illinois has over 150 women. Every chapter has women who party, and women who go to church, and women who study, and women who play sports, etc, etc. Every NPC chapter has a house, and a barndance, and a formal, and exchanges, etc. Every chapter also has drama.

3) The fraternities vastly outnumber the sororities, something like 50 housed fraternities to 18 sororities. This means that no sorority ever hurts for a social calendar, and every sorority has at least two fraternities that consider that sorority their favorite :-)

4) In the first and second rounds, there are so many PNM's coming through, that most of the chapters do not assign hostesses, and the PNM is paired with whomever happens to be next in line when she walks through the door. This means that your experience with the chapter has a lot to do with the luck of the draw. Everyone tries to let PNM's meet more than one active, but again, in such large chapters, the PNM is lucky if she meets 10%.

Full disclosure: I was in a chapter (no longer on campus) that sucked at formal recruitment. I saw a lot of women show up crying on bid day. Most get over it the first time they have an awesome night out/shopping trip/study date with their big sis, i.e. the first time they make a real friend in the chapter.