Indiana University Recruitment

[pinkmama]

Questions (for IUGreekGrl):

The women who attend Pref and don't get bids, do they have full schedules?

Like, do they attend 3 Pref parties (whatever the max is for IU) and STILL go bidless?

If so, that's really rough. It's rough for ANYONE to go bidless, but to go all the way though and attend a full day of Prefs and not be placed anywhere must be heartbreaking.



[/QUOTE]


When I was there, alot of girls did attend 3 pref parties but would suicide to one house therefore, high chance of going bidless. There were two girls on my floor that went to three houses and didn't get bids. These were two girls that were able to cut houses first two rounds so they were getting full cards each round.

[IUGreekGirl]

I don't have a statistic on whether those 150 girls have full 3 party. I would assume that stat is inclusive of girls that have 1,2, or full pref rounds though.

[TigerOwl]

Honeychile---check your messages.

[pinkmama]

I rushed at IU in the mid 90's.. wow, I graduated 13 years ago. I was an ADpi there, currently the house that is half full. When I rushed, we had a full house. The pledge class under me had 39 member, I believe and then we took another 12 in spring rush. It was great.
We also did 19 houses, then 14, then 9, then 5 then 3 for preference. I think before I graduated we then did the 19, 12 etc and now I see they are back to the 14 houses. IU is very cut-throat and its crazy to be on the both sides to see what goes on.

[homeward*bound]

I can't imagine how difficult it must be for these women to even start the recruitment process knowing what the odds are. I know the experience would have crushed me at that age. Does the school have any special counseling services set up for the women who end up bidless?

[IUHoosiergirl88]

Just so you guys know, I'm more of a lurker, but I am a current IU student and do pop up from time to time :]

Chapters at IU are HUGE. Like IUGreekGirl said, there are bigger chapters that house 100+ girls and have live-outs, and I know several girls in other chapters that honestly do not know everyone in their house. Gamma Phi and AXiD come to mind as two of the bigger chapters in terms of actual numbers of people. Most of the physical houses (with a few exceptions...Tri-Delt comes to mind as one of the smaller houses in terms of square footage) are roughly the same size though. Some are a little bigger and some are a little smaller, but roughly the same size. I'm not sure what you mean by 'sleeping porches,' but if those are the same as cold dorms...then a majority (not all, but probably ~60-75%) of the houses have those.

In terms of what people were talking about with the whole bed v. quota thing...it's a very ingrained idea at IU. As much as it pains me to say it, because I'm definitely not like that, a lot of the greeks at IU are very elitist, which fosters that culture that IUGreekGirl talked about earlier, and because of that, I think a lot of them are very hesitant to opening the greek system up. We don't have the type of competitiveness that say, Texas/'Bama/UF/LSU have, but it's cuthroat. You know the odds going into it, but you do get very emotionally invested in houses that you fall in love with, and that makes it very tough.

[srmom]

IUGirl, I agree that living in does make you bond more with your sisters. Usually most girls are ready to move on in their senior year to an apartment- at least that was how it was when I was in the house.

When I was in college, you couldn't get into the house until your senior year, unless you were an officer, so everyone looked forward to living together in the house senior year! So I guess everyplace is different!

This quota system seems really brutal when so many girls are left out even after going all the way through rush and preffing - and this year it was 150 people??? WOW!

[geneva]

My daughter will be a freshman at IU this fall and is very excited about going through rush (sorry, recruitment). The houses on your campus are beautiful. I was in a house many years ago at University of Oregon where it wasn't competitive at all, so the IU process is quite intimidating. We've been told letters of reference are extremely important at IU. Could you ladies give us some advice on how it works? To whom do we have friends send letters (local chapters? your panhellenic group? local alumni organization?)? And when should they be sent? Does she need a letter for every house if she has any hopes of being asked back? And also, is she at a disadvantage not being from Indiana (we live in Northern California)? Thanks for any help you could give us as we figure this all out.

[lyrelyre]

Originally Posted by geneva

We've been told letters of reference are extremely important at IU. Could you ladies give us some advice on how it works? To whom do we have friends send letters (local chapters? your panhellenic group? local alumni organization?)? And when should they be sent? Does she need a letter for every house if she has any hopes of being asked back? And also, is she at a disadvantage not being from Indiana (we live in Northern California)? Thanks for any help you could give us as we figure this all out.

The person writing the recommendation should know when, where, and to whom to send it.

[geneva]

Well actually, if someone asked me to write a reco I'd have absolutely no idea when, where or to whom to send it. Where does one find that info?

[FSUZeta]

sometimes the collegiate chapters list an address where you could send recommendations on their chapter website.

definately try to have a recommendation to each of the chapters at IU. you never know which chapter your daughter will fall in love with during recruitment.

[IUHoosiergirl88]

Personally I didn't find rec letters to be an issue, but that was just with my experience. Also, being from out of state doesn't matter, I've found. I know girls in chapters from TONS of different states

[IUGreekGirl]

Yeah we're definitely not concerned about where you're from haha.

But on recs- all houses deal with recs differently. I didn't have a rec to the house I ended up joining so it isn't the number one thing on our list when we're rushing girls.

But it's a good idea to get has many recs to the 19 houses as possible. It can only help you!

[futurehoosier13]

I'm going to be a freshman @ IU in the fall and will definitely rush!! I'm really excited, but there's not much info on the IU Greek Life website...i know we rush way later then most schools, so that may be why there's not a whole lot of info for formal recruitment 09-10 right now. However, I need let all my sponsors know when & where to send their rec letters. I've looked at all the chapter websites & not all of them have been updated recently. Are there any current students at IU right now that could tell me just the general time I should send in letters? I'd also like to know where exactly to send them...is it the sorority house, the national headquarters? Thanks so much!

[IUGreekGirl]

Information about where to send everything should be on the house's National Organization page.

So kappakappagamma.org
not
http://www.indiana.edu/~kkg/