“Just be thankful you’re a guy.”
That statement and so many more like it are the ones I consistently get from my sorority friends during this time of year. And as an outsider looking in, I could not agree any more.
The obvious: sorority recruitment is much, much more intense than fraternity recruitment.
Returning to college after three months of being away from your friends, three months away from your beloved campus, always seems to be a joyous time. That is, until you realize that for the first two weeks of your return, your focus will be all on polishing up for the upcoming five days full of sorority recruitment.
It’s not a dreaded time, per se; but rather, there a somewhat discouraging feeling in the air.
From selecting specified outfits to creating specialized skits, the formal sorority recruitment process is particularly intense. There appears to be an extreme emphasis on the procedure. It’s very methodical – thought out.
But as they are practicing and re-practicing, fraternity members are sitting back, hanging out and catching up with their brothers – not giving many thoughts to the upcoming recruitment period.
Quite honestly, the two processes could not be anymore opposite in nature.
While fraternity men look toward finding other men who seem to mesh well with the house’s current members, sororities are looking to ensure that their potential new members meet and understand all of their values.
Don’t get me wrong, both appear to produce valuable results, as both gain members that will best fit over time. But, what often strikes me is the fact that though both are considered “formal," fraternities focus on being open and approachable to all who may be interested, while sororities quickly narrow down their potential list of new members, sometimes ranking them by who fits best.
Fraternity recruitment, while not always the most organized, is simple and accepting in nature. Sure, it may not put a large focus on the philanthropic portion of Greek life, but it does its best at finding members who genuinely will enjoy being a part of the Greek system – a brotherhood.
Unlike some portions of sorority recruitment, where girls are sometimes not invited to return to a particular house, fraternity recruitment leaves the door open for potential new members to work at finding a belief in brotherhood and Greek life. It doesn’t shut anyone out, allowing first-year students to end up in a house that best fits them or conclude that Greek life just isn’t for them at all.
Often times, I think that is a sacred value of the Greek system. College is largely about finding oneself. And the only way for that to accurately happen is for first-year students to do that on their own, not through the structure of Greek recruitment. However, as long as the system continues to produce desired results, the two processes will remain wholly different. And we will continue to see sororities dish-it-out for the best recruitment video, the better song, and the more glorified skit.
