So as an incoming sophomore at my university, I decided to go through sorority recruitment. I was that girl in high school that never felt like I would ever have considered the idea, but in college now I am broadening my interests and thought I’d give it a shot, for the experience at the minimum. The process may vary by the different universities, but here is what I experienced this last week.
- Registration
- Orientation
- Video Day
- Philanthropy Day
- Preference Day
- Bid Day
The Panhellenic Council hypes registration hugely. They post countless reasons why you should join a sorority. They post all the fun their Panhellenic women have and all the good things they do. It starts to gain your interest; so you register. No big deal right?
This is where all of the PNM’s (Potential New Members) get into your recruitment groups and meet your Gamma Chi (a sorority woman who was chosen and disaffiliated herself from her sorority months ago to help you through the recruitment process). You get a run down on how the next few days are going to go and get an outfit list (we had the outfit list weeks before, but you get a better understanding of what you are to wear this day). This day I wore a black keyhole top and teal and white printed shorts.
So video day was on a Friday for my university and that entailed arriving at 4pm for us to make our rounds to all the different parties (each sorority had a room you visited where you would meet, talk to, get to learn about each sorority and those were called parties). In each room you watched a 5-10-minute video on the sisterhood of each sorority. It showed them laughing and playing flag football and doing different work in their philanthropies. This day you dressed pretty casual, but still cute. The conversations you shared with each sorority woman were simple getting to know you questions such as “What’s your major?” , “Why did you choose this school?” etc. This day I wore nice jeans with ballet flats and a tank top. This is the first night you can vote on your favorite sororities.
This day was a Saturday and it began at 10:30 am if I’m not mistaken. This day was dressier than the last but not full on formal. I wore a knee high flowy floral dress with cork wedges and my hair curled. You find out which of the sororities you get called back to and go from there. The conversations expanded and you asked about each particular sororities philanthropies. In each party you attend, they play a video that describes their work in their particular sorority. You speak to more women. Your conversations get a little bit deeper. In one party I attended, the sorority had laid out a question game where it had questions cut out and laid upside down on the table. You picked one up, read it and everyone answered. A few questions got emotional between a few of the PNM’s and sorority women. After visiting all of the parties, you vote again. This is actually where my experience with recruitment ends, but I do know the jest of the next events.
This is the most formal day of recruitment where you wear your Sunday best attire. This is not formal like prom or anything like that but you do want to look nice. I had planned out to wear a floor length flowy floral dress with a different pair of cork wedges. I’ll talk about why I decide to pull from recruitment after these next two events. So preference day is where you get called back to your top two sororities and have your final party with them. Your conversation gets even deeper and more in depth. You connect more. After you go to your parties you vote again. This time you rank the sororities. Before this, every voting has been just putting ‘yes’ on some and ‘no’ on some. This time you rank them. Then you go home.
I’m not sure if it is usually the same day or not, but for us it was. Preference day was Sunday morning at 9:30am and PNM’s who were receiving a bid came back to the school at 6pm. PNM’s who were not receiving a bid were called by their Gamma Chi’s to let them know to not return to the university that night. You get your name called, you run to your sorority and meet all your new sisters.
So, yes I dropped out of recruitment on philanthropy day, but not for the reason that most people that know me would assume I did. Almost every single friend/family member/acquaintance that heard I was going through recruitment said to me “You’re going to hate it,” “You’ll drop out of it”, something to that standard. I dropped out because I was dropped from the one sorority I wanted to be a part of. I did not want to accept a bid from a sorority that I did not feel was home. I did not want to take a spot away from someone else that really wanted this particular sisterhood. I do not know why I was dropped. It could’ve been I was just over the limit of women they were allowed to take, who knows.
I do not have a negative view of sorority women as I used to when I was in high school. I had the negative idea of the stereotype that you see in movies. That is not the case. I will more than likely try again in spring recruitment. It was just a learning experience.
If you’re going through recruitment soon, or are thinking about recruitment soon, I hope this helps a little bit.
