Thoughts of a First Year College Student.

Sorority Fall Recruitment 2016

                                                                                August 23rd, 2016 

Over the past week I had been a part of the annual fall recruitment for sororities at my college. The first day was a chance to meet all of the various chapters at the university, including ones who were not participating in formal fall recruitment. The next day everyone hoping to join a sorority got to meet with each of the nine chapters. The following day people had a maximum of seven chapters that they could visit again, only going to less if they were not invited back. Then the field was cut down to a maximum of five for each person, with the same disclaimer as the previous day. The second to last day the maximum went down to two sororities. The final day is called Bid Day and if you get invited to join a sorority that's when you find out.

During the second day of rush (in which you get to talk to each sorority for twenty minutes) I thought I did pretty well and thought my odds were good of getting ask back to all of my top seven. As I put my bottom two down and ranked them I honestly didn't think it mattered that much which order I put them in. I still put the one I liked the least last, but I thought my chances of having to worry about not getting asked back to my favorites were really slim. I was very wrong.
When I got my third day's schedule, I was crushed. Not only had I not been invited back to my top two, but i was only invited back to one of my top seven. The other I was invited back to was none other than my least favorite. I had the last two "party" slots so I had a lot of time to sit around and wait before them. As I sat there, I considered dropping more than once. It kept coming back to me, I thought "what is the point in all this if it's not what I even wanted". The words of my Gamma Chi, the person who lead my group of fourteen through recruitment, kept coming back to me. When we had our first meeting that first day she had told us to not just have our hearts set on one sorority and to trust in the system of mutual recruitment. Mutual recruitment is kinda like the dating app Tinder. If you swipe right and they swipe right, then that's great. But if you swipe left and they swipe right, you're going to be going back to them the next night if one of the ones you swiped right on swipes left on you. At the end of the day, I decided to go and see how things ended up. My least favorite really began to grow on me. They seemed a lot better organized with things the second night. Perhaps the first night seemed awkward because this was their first formal recruitment as last year they were brand new on our campus. The other I got invited back to I started liking more as well. This could be because that night we had thirty minutes to talk to each.
The next night was the night of five, but I only had two to go to for forty-five minutes each. This was the day that they showed us a little more about their philanthropies. I started to like what had been my last choice even more than before, but still not as much as the other chapter. I feel like there was more of a connection there. The whole trust in the system thing ended up being good advice and I was glad I hadn't prematurely dropped out. I was happy to be writing down both of the ones I went to as I prepared for the final round of rush, called Preference.
Preference is where you only go to your top two sororities, or the one or two that invite you back. I was only invited back to one, not getting invited back to my former least favorite. Spending an hour with the chapter was really great. Everyone I had talked to was really nice and I got to talk to someone with whom I had spoken with before. I started developing a real connection to the chapter. At the end of the "party", I went down to turn in my preference sheet. Unlike the previous ones however, this didn't go through our Gamma Chi and was legally binding. By signing it you say that you will accept a bid of any of the two chapters you list (if you sign it and don't pledge then you can't join another until the next fall recruitment, but you can still go back and pledge to the one who invited you into their sisterhood), or one if you choose to "suicide bid". "Suicide Bid" is the term given for when you went to two of the parties but only write down one of the chapters on your preference sheet, or really if you just write down one chapter that counts too. If you do not get a bid to the chapter you write down, you do not get a bid to the other one, if you went to two. As I only went to one party I was forced to "suicide bid".
The next day I got a call from my Gamma Chi to meet her outside my dorm. I had gotten invited to join the chapter. I went to the bid day reveal, where my Gamma Chi's sorority was revealed and all the Gamma Chi's got to put back on the letters of the sororities to which they belonged. I then left to go to the sorority's bid party for which I had gotten an invitation to join. I got to meet my "heart sister" and other members of the sorority.
Come Monday, I ended up making a phone call to the President of the Sorority to let her know that I was not going to be able to pledge this fall. I am still in contact with my "heart sister" and a couple other members of the group. My "heart sister" is amazing and super nice, she even said she would let me know when they had events going on and that I was welcome to come with her to them. At this time pledging was not in the cards, I'm hoping that at least by next fall it will be, if not this spring.