If you are blessed with the opportunity, one of the best parts of growing up is leaving behind your childhood home and going away to college where you can redefine who you are, take the classes you want and learn what true freedom entails. Another perk to beginning college is the social part that comes along with it. Some choose to join clubs, go out to bars once they are 21, and others choose to join greek life organizations, better known as sororities and fraternities. These organizations have a lot to offer from parties with fraternities or “mixers,” to formals or dances, and philanthropic events for individual causes. To join one of these organizations, one must go through the tedious recruitment process known as “rushing.” Read on to find out the best ways to prepare yourself for sorority recruitment and score the best house for your personality.
Sorority recruitment at each university either occurs at the beginning of first semester or the beginning of second semester and usually lasts about a week and a half. The process is divided into “rounds” that decrease in the number of houses you are called back to as the days go on. Everyone rushing begins by visiting each sorority house at their school. After the first day or two of this round you receive a list of the houses that have invited you back. You complete each round with a list handed to you each morning that gets smaller and smaller until the last round when you visit only two houses. After this last round you rank your last two houses. On bid day you receive an envelope that tells you which house you have been invited to be a part of. You then run to your house banner and cheer along with all your new sisters!
One of the best parts of sorority recruitment is that you get to let the best parts of your personality shine through. This can be achieved through great conversation with the chapter women, highlighting all your great memories and accomplishments. You can also show off your personality through the clothes you select for each round of recruitment. The rounds progressively get fancier, commonly starting with jeans and a Panhellenic shirt that everyone is required to wear. When it comes to the second round, it is time for a little more creativity with your wardrobe. This round is typically dressier than the first so opt for a nice sweater, depending on the weather, or a cute romper and some booties. The third round is, again, dressier than the last so depending on where your school is located you may want to wear something like a dressy jumpsuit, sundress or sweater dress and knee-high boots. The last and final round of recruitment is the dressiest of them all. Most girls typically sport a cocktail dress with heels or a dressy jumpsuit. This is your last opportunity to leave a positive lasting impression so make the clothes shine as bright as you are!
Going through recruitment can be exhausting. The days are long and hard and there is very little time for resting or even breaks. Especially during the first few days of the process, you are constantly running around from house to house and talking to tons of chapter women. Because of this, there are certain items you must carry that will alleviate stress and pressure. The things you might consider packing with you every day are cough drops, bandaids, a water bottle, aspirin, a phone charger, some small snacks, lip balm/gloss and some comfortable walking shoes if you can fit them into your bag.
When you are in the mix of things the whole process can be very overwhelming. Treat this experience as a learning one or as if you were preparing for a test in one of your classes. Your first instinct is to jot down as much information as possible so when you go back and study you you will know you did your best to prepare for the test, or in this case, you had everything you needed to make the best and most informed decision for you. When you leave each house write down two things you like about the house, two things you dislike and a question you want to ask when you return. This will be helpful in the moment and when you make the final ranking decisions after the final round.
You will be told many things throughout recruitment from girls telling you they see you in so-in-so house or that one house is “better” than the other. The key thing to remember throughout the whole process is to always be true to yourself and eventually rank the house that you feel most comfortable in as your first choices after the last round. Many girls, including myself when I went through it, feed into the gossip surrounding recruitment because you all happen to be going through the same unfamiliar, overwhelming experience, and in the end this hurts more than it helps. The ironic part about sorority recruitment is that while the goal is to become a part of a social organization, the whole process is entirely personal. Choose the chapter you can see yourself being proud to be a part of for four years and the one that you feel you can make genuine, lifelong friendships in.
This will be one of the strangest experiences you go through during college and even your life but it is important to remember to take it with a grain of salt and not view getting into your preferred house as the end of the world. There will be harsh cuts each round, girls will be let down and you will hear the phrase time after time again to “trust the process.” While this may seem cheesy when you are caught in the mix, trust it because everything always works out in the end. Stay true to yourself, make smart, thoughtful decisions and knock ‘em dead!
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