questions about informal recruitment?

[ari115]

A little confused about how this informal rush thing works. A new sorority is colonizing at my school and I decided to go for an interview because unfortunately I missed formal rush (I didn’t know you had to go to the sorority’s Instagram pages to register?? I had been looking on my school’s greek life page & there was no info about fall recruitment. Anyway, registration closed by the time I figured it out.)

My interview was late and actually on bid day (morning) and they had already bid & decided on everyone. My cousin had passed away and I was out of town for his funeral so they made an exception. The interview went okay, it wasn’t what I was expecting at all so I was a little unprepared. From everything I had read and watched videos on and such, it would have been a girl around my age & she was going to ask me questions about myself and what I’ve been involved in, etc. The woman who interviewed me was older & she kept asking me what I thought about the sorority and if I had any questions. She asked me like one question about my life. I guess I’m kind of confused because I thought they were going to tell ME about the sorority. I mean I had read about it & the philanthropy and whatnot but I didn’t know what kind of questions I should have been asking. I thought it was like they see if my personality is a good fit & bid on me if so? So the interview was kind of awkward for that reason & worried she didn’t like me much or thought I was unprepared.

Anyway, do they contact you regardless if you got a bid or not? They asked for all my contact info afterward and said they would be contacting me soon. The sorority & some of the founding sisters followed me on social media but it’s been about 3 days and I haven’t heard anything. I wasn’t sure if they just didn’t want me so they didn’t bother to follow up or if maybe they forgot about me? I wanted to email them and ask but I don’t want to look pushy. Any advice? I'm pretty anxious as I really wanted to rush this year. I'm going to be junior next fall so I'm worried I'll have an even slimmer chance of getting a bid.

[Titchou]

Colonization is different from COB. They are not the same thing and the processes are very different. A colonization team usually consists of women of a variety of ages. There are interview and events. If they have already had their Bid Day, you did not receive a bid. They may be doing COB and other groups on campus might be as well. At this point, talk with(in person) the school's Greek Adviser to find out which groups might be doing COB, how to sign up or let them know you are interested, and what format they use. Normally they have several casual events and then issues bids but they could be doing something different. Your campus Greek Adviser is your best source for that information.

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by ari115

A little confused about how this informal rush thing works. A new sorority is colonizing at my school and I decided to go for an interview because unfortunately I missed formal rush (I didn’t know you had to go to the sorority’s Instagram pages to register?? I had been looking on my school’s greek life page & there was no info about fall recruitment. Anyway, registration closed by the time I figured it out.)

My interview was late and actually on bid day (morning) and they had already bid & decided on everyone. My cousin had passed away and I was out of town for his funeral so they made an exception. The interview went okay, it wasn’t what I was expecting at all so I was a little unprepared. From everything I had read and watched videos on and such, it would have been a girl around my age & she was going to ask me questions about myself and what I’ve been involved in, etc. The woman who interviewed me was older & she kept asking me what I thought about the sorority and if I had any questions. She asked me like one question about my life. I guess I’m kind of confused because I thought they were going to tell ME about the sorority. I mean I had read about it & the philanthropy and whatnot but I didn’t know what kind of questions I should have been asking. I thought it was like they see if my personality is a good fit & bid on me if so? So the interview was kind of awkward for that reason & worried she didn’t like me much or thought I was unprepared.

Anyway, do they contact you regardless if you got a bid or not? They asked for all my contact info afterward and said they would be contacting me soon. The sorority & some of the founding sisters followed me on social media but it’s been about 3 days and I haven’t heard anything. I wasn’t sure if they just didn’t want me so they didn’t bother to follow up or if maybe they forgot about me? I wanted to email them and ask but I don’t want to look pushy. Any advice? I'm pretty anxious as I really wanted to rush this year. I'm going to be junior next fall so I'm worried I'll have an even slimmer chance of getting a bid.

If they want to offer you a bid, they will find you! I don't think it would be pushy to send an email explaining how much you enjoyed the meeting and hope to be able to join their chapter. I don't know if they will let you know if you do not get a bid.

Now I am going to say something that may be a bit harsh... at many, many schools, rush is not just something to walk into unprepared. There are thousands of pages of information on rushing & how to prepare, questions to ask, what to expect on this site and others. It is very much like a job interview.

Interviewers are looking for YOU to shine and show your personality, to bowl them over with some enthusiasm. Their purpose was not to convince YOU to join them. That interview was your chance to tell them why you wanted to be an XYZ and how YOU would be an asset to the chapter.

[ari115]

Originally Posted by thetalady

If they want to offer you a bid, they will find you! I don't think it would be pushy to send an email explaining how much you enjoyed the meeting and hope to be able to join their chapter. I don't know if they will let you know if you do not get a bid.

Now I am going to say something that may be a bit harsh... at many, many schools, rush is not just something to walk into unprepared. There are thousands of pages of information on rushing & how to prepare, questions to ask, what to expect on this site and others. It is very much like a job interview.

Interviewers are looking for YOU to shine and show your personality, to bowl them over with some enthusiasm. Their purpose was not to convince YOU to join them. That interview was your chance to tell them why you wanted to be an XYZ and how YOU would be an asset to the chapter.

Oh okay, thanks for the information. I didn't really show myself very well honestly. I was taken a bit off guard. I didn't really know how to answer her questions or know what she wanted to hear. I mean I told her I've been fostering and rescuing animals since I was in middle school and so community service is really important to me and that I am a biology major hoping to become a vet. I said I was looking forward to joining a sorority as I really wanted to get more involved with school. I am a little shy and I definitely open up after some time but I know that's a bad thing for interviews. I was a bit intimidated by the older woman, it seemed like she was expecting some things and honestly I don't have any friends in Greek life so I didn't have a chance to talk about this to anyone. I wished I had done formal recruitment. I think I would have been a lot more comfortable talking to a girl my age.

[Titchou]

COB will be with the chapter members. Please go see your Greek Adviser.

[ari115]

Originally Posted by Titchou

COB will be with the chapter members. Please go see your Greek Adviser.

Forgive me but, what does COB stand for?

[Titchou]

Continuous Open Bidding (COB) or Continuous Open Recruitment(COR) are the actual NPC names for informal recruitment. It means that chapters who have open spots in their quota or total can continue to recruit until they get to that number.

[ari115]

Okay well figured out what COB is. Not sure if we have a Greek adviser though? The Greek page only says we have an assistant director and a student assistant. There's no office listed or anything either...should I email one of them?

[Titchou]

Whoever is in charge of sororities - Greek Life- is who you should see. If you want to PM me, I'm happy to look it up for you.

[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!

[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.

[Titchou]

I've chatted offline with her. I know the Greek Adviser at her school and have given her that information.