Why Sorority Recruitment is Horrible and Needs to Change

[AZ-AlphaXi]

WRC - weak recruiting chapter
SRC - strong recruiting chapter

[BlueCarnation]

Originally Posted by AZ-AlphaXi

WRC - weak recruiting chapter
SRC - strong recruiting chapter

Duh... Thanks!

[ASTalumna06]

I understand the sentiments of the article's author and those that are in some way agreeing with her, but you simply can not have an unstructured free-for-all at these larger schools with thousands of girls going through recruitment.

Also, guys/fraternities are different from girls/sororities in major ways, including:
- number of fraternities vs. number of NPCs
- number of students seeking membership
- emphasis placed on legacies
- pressure from (inter)nationals to have larger chapters
- composition of chapters
- structure and length of new member programs

And the list goes on.

ETA: Instead of recruiting more like fraternities, maybe they should recruit like us. I would LOVE to see the chapters chanting, the potential members anxiously sitting on bid cards, and thousands of screaming guys running to their new chapters

It's no wonder they think we're weird.

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

ETA: Instead of recruiting more like fraternities, maybe they should recruit like us. I would LOVE to see the chapters chanting, the potential members anxiously sitting on bid cards, and thousands of screaming guys running to their new chapters

It's no wonder they think we're weird.

If men were sorority besties...

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

ETA: Instead of recruiting more like fraternities, maybe they should recruit like us. I would LOVE to see the chapters chanting, the potential members anxiously sitting on bid cards, and thousands of screaming guys running to their new chapters

It's no wonder they think we're weird.

Ohhhhhhh nooooooooo, women should aspire to the male standard. If men do it a certain way that means the men have a format that is logically sound and void of subjectivity, frivolity, ridiculousness, pettiness, and irrationality.

How dare you all have a format that is different from yet equal to that of the fraternities?!?!?!?!?!

/small font sarcastic lane swerve

[Allo]

Having very recently gone through the traditional fall formal recruitment myself, as well as having seen and heard intimate details of a less traditional spring formal recruitment at a very small school... I have to say that while I'm sure the Pi Chi who wrote the article means well and has a good basic idea, traditional formal recruitment works. I trust that system and I really think that it places girls where they were meant to be. It would be wonderful if chapters had a longer amount of time to get to know girls before making cuts, it is not always practical(Alabama, UT, other schools that draw thousands into rushing) and it does not always work in the PNMs favor.

Last year I attended a small private university that held their formal recruitment in the spring semester, I didn't end up going through recruitment last year but many many of my friends did and I heard all the stories and gory details. In theory this extended get to know you time is a good idea, it gives people a whole semester to get to know each other. But the real result is that PNMs spend the whole semester walking on egg shells and unintentionally screwing up their chances for recruitment for an entire semester. We are only human, sorority members and PNMs. People who can be jealous, caddy and vengeful. Everyone makes makes mistakes! So in my experience what I saw with that spring recruitment was that in the fall semester many girls who would have made wonderful members would hook up with or start dating a prominent sorority member's ex, not knowing the whole tumultuous relationship and break up had happened. Then prominent sorority member, because she to is a person with emotions, holds a grudge against unknowing PNM and when recruitment finally came around unknowing PNM doesn't gets cut.

I saw that situation quite a few times as well as many others. Some of my very good friends had their hearts broken in the spring because they didn't get a bid and had no idea why, only to later find that it was because they made some slip up the previous semester never knowing that wasn't something they should do. I also saw active members strike up friendships with PNMs and bid promise through out the semester. It was basically a huge mess! And from the stories the older girls told that happened every year.

When I think about what I witnessed last year and the experience I just had last week, I know that the traditional fall recruitment is really the best way to do things. Yes it would be nice if the first round was longer so that chapters could get more of an impression of the girls before making cuts, but it is a system that works and is successful! It was successful for me and and for that Pi Chi who wrote that article.

[HQWest]

Originally Posted by Allo

Having very recently gone through the traditional fall formal recruitment myself, as well as having seen and heard intimate details of a less traditional spring formal recruitment at a very small school... I have to say that while I'm sure the Pi Chi who wrote the article means well and has a good basic idea, traditional formal recruitment works. I trust that system and I really think that it places girls where they were meant to be. It would be wonderful if chapters had a longer amount of time to get to know girls before making cuts, it is not always practical(Alabama, UT, other schools that draw thousands into rushing) and it does not always work in the PNMs favor.

Last year I attended a small private university that held their formal recruitment in the spring semester, I didn't end up going through recruitment last year but many many of my friends did and I heard all the stories and gory details. In theory this extended get to know you time is a good idea, it gives people a whole semester to get to know each other. But the real result is that PNMs spend the whole semester walking on egg shells and unintentionally screwing up their chances for recruitment for an entire semester. We are only human, sorority members and PNMs. People who can be jealous, caddy and vengeful. Everyone makes makes mistakes! So in my experience what I saw with that spring recruitment was that in the fall semester many girls who would have made wonderful members would hook up with or start dating a prominent sorority member's ex, not knowing the whole tumultuous relationship and break up had happened. Then prominent sorority member, because she to is a person with emotions, holds a grudge against unknowing PNM and when recruitment finally came around unknowing PNM doesn't gets cut.

I saw that situation quite a few times as well as many others. Some of my very good friends had their hearts broken in the spring because they didn't get a bid and had no idea why, only to later find that it was because they made some slip up the previous semester never knowing that wasn't something they should do. I also saw active members strike up friendships with PNMs and bid promise through out the semester. It was basically a huge mess! And from the stories the older girls told that happened every year.

When I think about what I witnessed last year and the experience I just had last week, I know that the traditional fall recruitment is really the best way to do things. Yes it would be nice if the first round was longer so that chapters could get more of an impression of the girls before making cuts, but it is a system that works and is successful! It was successful for me and and for that Pi Chi who wrote that article.

^^^ I agree.
Guys recruitment at these big schools works because guys look at chapters where they have friends or see like minded men with similar interests. They also have a bed quota more or less. Guys do not get upset when they do not get a bid from a group where they do not know anyone.

It does not seem to work with women because some women insist they belong in a certain group because that is the BEST group or because they like pink the most. They get upset when a group of women they do not know prefer a woman they already know or have a connection. It would put even more emphasis on legacies and connections or recs. There would be more women cut out of the process and more struggling chapters.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Allo

Last year I attended a small private university that held their formal recruitment in the spring semester, I didn't end up going through recruitment last year but many many of my friends did and I heard all the stories and gory details. In theory this extended get to know you time is a good idea, it gives people a whole semester to get to know each other. But the real result is that PNMs spend the whole semester walking on egg shells and unintentionally screwing up their chances for recruitment for an entire semester. We are only human, sorority members and PNMs. People who can be jealous, catty and vengeful. Everyone makes makes mistakes! So in my experience what I saw with that spring recruitment was that in the fall semester many girls who would have made wonderful members would hook up with or start dating a prominent sorority member's ex, not knowing the whole tumultuous relationship and break up had happened. Then prominent sorority member, because she to is a person with emotions, holds a grudge against unknowing PNM and when recruitment finally came around unknowing PNM doesn't gets cut.

I saw that situation quite a few times as well as many others. Some of my very good friends had their hearts broken in the spring because they didn't get a bid and had no idea why, only to later find that it was because they made some slip up the previous semester never knowing that wasn't something they should do. I also saw active members strike up friendships with PNMs and bid promise through out the semester. It was basically a huge mess! And from the stories the older girls told that happened every year.

When I think about what I witnessed last year and the experience I just had last week, I know that the traditional fall recruitment is really the best way to do things. Yes it would be nice if the first round was longer so that chapters could get more of an impression of the girls before making cuts, but it is a system that works and is successful! It was successful for me and and for that Pi Chi who wrote that article.

Bid promising happens at pre-freshman rush schools, too. If girls are doing that, it's not the fault of the timing. It's the fault of the girls not being educated that it's an uncool thing to do, and most likely pressured to maintain and increase membership numbers by any means necessary.

If your school is so small that you're continually going to trip over people's exes and drama, you need to learn to manage it sooner rather than later. Six degrees of separation....ha!! Half that. Quite frankly, I'd rather bid women who are already conducting themselves in a discreet and adult manner and have figured it out on their own, rather than bidding a girl and giving her a "dos and don'ts" list. That to me is just one of the worst sorority stereotypes come to life.

I hate to use the term "hookup culture" but it seems like that (which there's always been a certain amount of in college) and the increased photo/internet documentation of everything under the sun has made this sort of jealousy and pettiness worse. It's one thing when you hear that some random girl hooked up with your ex. It sucks but you usually pretty quickly get over it. It's another thing when you can Facebook/Twittter stalk her, obsess over her pictures and see her face all the time. The wound doesn't heal.