A Penn State Disney Recruitment!

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I had an interesting conversation with a young lady who from a WRC last night, trying to comfort her and ease her frustration. I asked her if they had felt prepared for recruitment and she said "Yes! I think we did great but it's our campus rep. No matter how cool and nice we are in recruitment, we don't get as many girls. And we are really cool and nice!" And yeah, they are cool and nice, but people don't give them a chance- and it's breaking their hearts

So, for *those* chapters- give them a chance. Get to know them. Reps and tiers are BS in huge systems like Penn State.

Yes, definitely!

And a little side rant here, but I think one of the big problems with ALL chapters (not just weak recruiting ones) is they believe that once recruitment ends, recruitment ends.

Yes, I meant to say that.

Chapter members need to learn how to be outgoing, promote their chapter, put their best foot forward, help others, and make everyone see just how awesome their sorority truly is 24/7/365.

My chapter had maybe 10 active sisters when my new member class joined. 10. Being visible on campus and having people want to join your chapter can be difficult when you have only that many members. But we had one sister (who eventually became my big) who was such a presence on campus that EVERYONE knew who she was. She wore letters EVERY DAY. No, I'm not exaggerating. She would talk to EVERYONE. She was involved on campus, and she was the first person you would see when walking into the cafe because she was always standing up, walking around, and saying hi to whoever walked by. She made joining the chapter so much less intimidating for me. She even came to my dorm and walked with me to my first recruitment party (we only did COB at the time). I think that if more chapters had girls like her, stereotypes and the idea of "weak chapters" may go straight out the window. When girls love their sorority, its values, and they want to share it with everyone, every day, it can completely change perceptions. I think more members need to think outside the recruitment box.

To the OP: At a school like Penn State, with so many chapters, I can't even picture these "tiers" being that significant. I kind of liken it to my high school - we had so many kids there (10th-12th grade, nearly 4,000 students) that once the initial few weeks of school were over, and everyone had settled into their groups of friends, no one really cared what everyone else was doing. There were cheerleaders, and football players, and goth kids, and band geeks... and I'm sure there were issues here and there, but for the most part, everyone just kind of did their own thing. With that many people, it's hard to keep track of who's "popular."

During recruitment, just be yourself at every chapter. You may find (as others here on Greekchat have discovered before) that the chapter members might know you better than you know yourself. In other words, that "top" chapter that you didn't get invited back to.. chances are, you wouldn't have fit in with them anyway. And that other chapter that you're not thrilled about.. they may be giving you the chance to be Greek that you've always dreamed of, but you just don't know yet that they're exactly what you need. There are many girls here who get their 2nd, 3rd, 4th choice.. and after a few weeks, they realize that they've ended up where they're meant to be. Just give every one of the chapters a fair chance, as that's what they've done for you.

Good luck, and enjoy the rest of recruitment!

[als463]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

Yes, definitely!

And a little side rant here, but I think one of the big problems with ALL chapters (not just weak recruiting ones) is they believe that once recruitment ends, recruitment ends.

Yes, I meant to say that.

Chapter members need to learn how to be outgoing, promote their chapter, put their best foot forward, help others, and make everyone see just how awesome their sorority truly is 24/7/365.

My chapter had maybe 10 active sisters when my new member class joined. 10. Being visible on campus and having people want to join your chapter can be difficult when you have only that many members. But we had one sister (who eventually became my big) who was such a presence on campus that EVERYONE knew who she was. She wore letters EVERY DAY. No, I'm not exaggerating. She would talk to EVERYONE. She was involved on campus, and she was the first person you would see when walking into the cafe because she was always standing up, walking around, and saying hi to whoever walked by. She made joining the chapter so much less intimidating for me. She even came to my dorm and walked with me to my first recruitment party (we only did COB at the time). I think that if more chapters had girls like her, stereotypes and the idea of "weak chapters" may go straight out the window. When girls love their sorority, its values, and they want to share it with everyone, every day, it can completely change perceptions. I think more members need to think outside the recruitment box.

To the OP: At a school like Penn State, with so many chapters, I can't even picture these "tiers" being that significant. I kind of liken it to my high school - we had so many kids there (10th-12th grade, nearly 4,000 students) that once the initial few weeks of school were over, and everyone had settled into their groups of friends, no one really cared what everyone else was doing. There were cheerleaders, and football players, and goth kids, and band geeks... and I'm sure there were issues here and there, but for the most part, everyone just kind of did their own thing. With that many people, it's hard to keep track of who's "popular."

During recruitment, just be yourself at every chapter. You may find (as others here on Greekchat have discovered before) that the chapter members might know you better than you know yourself. In other words, that "top" chapter that you didn't get invited back to.. chances are, you wouldn't have fit in with them anyway. And that other chapter that you're not thrilled about.. they may be giving you the chance to be Greek that you've always dreamed of, but you just don't know yet that they're exactly what you need. There are many girls here who get their 2nd, 3rd, 4th choice.. and after a few weeks, they realize that they've ended up where they're meant to be. Just give every one of the chapters a fair chance, as that's what they've done for you.

Good luck, and enjoy the rest of recruitment!

I can appreciate what you are saying about taking pride in your sorority. I agree with 100% on this but, it's as if you are insinuating that these young women in these "weak" chapters do not already do some of this stuff. I know that some of these "weak" chapters at Penn State-University Park, have girls just like your sister that you talked about. I know this for a fact. You have to also remember that your frame of reference is different from what may be going on at other schools. A branch campus sorority recruitment is vastly different to what goes on at University Park. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Thankfully, there aren't any websites that "rank" the tiers at branch campuses of PSU. Girls really should take pride in their organization but, you don't know what these chapters are doing for PR. You can't really compare the two.

Whether we like it or not, there will always be "tier" talk--which is stupid. Girls just have to remember that what may be TOP on their campus is actually BOTTOM on another campus, even nearby. Sorority reputation changes from campus to campus and region to region. Certain chapters that are top at PSU struggle or have struggled at both my graduate school alma maters. One of the "bottom" chapters at PSU is actually the "top" chapter at the school I am attending now. You can't let tier talk get to you because, at the end of the day, if you look like a hot mess walking around in your letters and you don't take pride in your appearance--people are going to judge you (and unfortunately) and your organization.