Chances are if you’re reading this, you’re thinking about embarking on the long and arduous journey to find a “forever home,” a sorority at the University of Illinois. This sisterhood of girls is promised to be your future bridesmaids, the girls you watch the Bachelor religiously with every Monday night, and the girls you go out with every Friday night. There’s a lot that happens before you reach this point though, and I’m here to relay to you the good, the bad, and the ugly of sorority recruitment at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.
University of Illinois has about 20 sororities which participate in formal recruitment. Twenty seems like a lot, because it is. You will visit each one of these and get a feel for what each house has to offer, through the different variations of entertainment, houses and location on campus, philanthropy involvement, and personality of girls in each of the houses.
Not as great as it sounds, but you will get a tote bag that includes an umbrella, water bottle, nametag, and a booklet which you will use to write notes about your experiences at each of the houses. Take this booklet seriously and write real notes. If you write “they were nice” or “had a good conversation,” you’ll be mad yourself when you reach the end of the day after house #10 and you sit down to preference and do not remember any of the houses from the first half of the day.
And chanting, and singing, and clapping. The sorority girls will lose their voices, and you will lose your voice by the end of the day as well. Although you will not be singing, you will be attempting to hold a conversation with a sorority girl in a room with about 100 other people trying to do the same thing. Get used to the singing (you’ll hear it at every single house), and realize that even though some of the girls know it’s annoying and extra, they have to do it anyway so they embrace it, and so should you.
You will hear a ton of sorority songs, and you will be humming them on your way to the next house. I still have Alpha Xi Delta’s chant stuck in my head and it has been MONTHS. I was genuinely impressed with a lot of the songs and chants they made up, which all fall under the “entertainment” category of what each house does per round.
As a girl trying to get a bid, you will be called a “PNM,” which stands for ‘Potential New Member.’ There will be about 15 or so rush groups, each led by four Gamma Chis (a fancy word for the people in charge of each group who are meant to guide you through the process). You will be randomly placed into a rush group, and not given any information about which sorority each of the Gamma Chis is in. At the end of recruitment on Bid Day, you will have a good feel for each of the houses and will find out which house each of your Gamma Chis is in.
Each Gamma Chi’s sole purpose is to help you. They will tell you to make note cards to give to the girls you talk to that include your name (first and last), your rush group number. The Gamma Chis will also give you tips about what to wear to each of the rounds (four in total: open house, first invite, second invite, and preference).
Do NOT underestimate the weather. You will sweat, and your makeup will be a casualty in the run from house to house. Highly recommend making yourself a mini care package that includes necessities, such as a mini- deodorant, hair ties, lipstick, oil blotting wipes, extra pens, safety pins, money, and anything else you think you may need during a fashion emergency or otherwise.
Rounds toward the end of recruitment will require wedges or heels and if you’re not a heels girl (hey, I don’t blame you), make your life easier and slip some shoes in your tote bag to wear on your way to and from houses. You won’t know your daily schedule for houses until the morning of, so if you find yourself having to go from KD in Urbana to Phi Sig in Champaign in fifteen minutes, you’ll want more supportive shoes than your Madden Girl pumps. You’ll see everything from Crocs to shower shoes to running shoes, so wear whatever your heart desires.
This is probably just the beginning of the eye rolling you will direct toward frat boys during your four years in Chambana. The Gamma Chis will do their best to keep people from rubbernecking or taking videos or pictures of you, but it’ll probably happen. In the wise words of Taylor Swift, shake it off. Wouldn’t you get a kick out of seeing a bunch of girls sprinting around in dresses frantically typing their destinations into Google Maps? It’ll probably only be funny to you after it’s over, but that holds true for some of the best things in life.
The Gamma Chis will make it their mission to drill into your head exactly how to line up, when to be quiet, and when to smile. If this sounds eerily similar to the Miss America pageant, it’s because it is. You will have to check in with Gamma Chis at each house before you line up, and make sure you have your note card to give to the girl you talk to, you have your name tag on, and you are in the right order (depending on the house they may want you alphabetically). It must be completely silent when the ladies come out of the house, as well as when any entertainment (singing, chanting) is going on. When you leave the house, you must remain silent, turn, smile, and face the house until the doors close.
For first and second invite rounds after Open House, you will get at least one thirty-minute break in between visits that you can use to eat. I found myself pulling money out of my tote bag and trading it for a ham and cheese sub, while texting my sisters for emotional support. You will be tired. You will be hangry. It is imperative that you eat during the long days of recruitment so that you can put your best foot forward and treat every round like the first.
Most surprising for me was that I actually made a lot of friends within my rush group, some of which ended up in the same sorority as me. Where I expected to find forty of the typical ‘sorority girls,’ I found a fairly diverse group of people who I actually enjoyed spending the sometimes ten hour days with. Of course, there will be people you like, people you don’t like, but by the end of it you will find yourself fairly close with this group of girls because of all you went through together. I still see some of the people in my rush group and say hi to them around campus, which is a pretty awesome bonus.
Not to make it sound like Survivor, but it is a difficult process. A variety of things can happen that could cause someone in your group not to come back the next round. One, they could drop out. The sorority rush process is not for everyone and if you find that your heart isn’t in it, it can be a good idea to drop out before you are given a bid in order to save time, as well as money in the long run. Two, they could have not gotten any invitations back. It’s sad, but it happens sometimes. You’ll find that there are certain houses that you click with more, and some houses you do not like at all. That is perfectly fine, and actually a really big part of the whole process.
The Gamma Chis will do their absolute best to help you understand the preferencing process. This is when you go to the Foreign Language Building at the end of the recruitment day and list the houses that you liked in order, number 1 being your favorite. You will have a preference building where you meet back up with your group and Gamma Chis at the end of the day, and you will write down your list there. Then, you will walk to a computer lab and transfer it to the computer.
They say the recruitment process is rough. You grow attached to houses, you have good conversations with people, and then you go and rank. People often forget that the girls in the houses rank you too (it’s a mutual process), so it’s almost certain that you will not get a house back that you liked. Try not to let it get to you though, it’s your end destination that counts.
Open House will last two days, and is the first round of formal recruitment. You and your rush group will visit each of the houses split over this two-day span. This round is the worst, because everything happens so quickly and it’s hard to get more than a few words in with the little amount of time you get at each house.
In the classic case of life imitating art, you will be forced into at least one situation where there are two PNMs and only one sorority girl. We have all watched this play out on the Bachelor, and it usually doesn’t end pretty because DUH it’s super uncomfortable. Sorority recruitment is basically like speed dating, which means that if you are put in this position, you have to try your best to fight for your time to shine. This is especially true if you like the house. With so many PNMs, it’s going to be hectic and uncomfortable but let yourself SHINE.
As the rounds progress, the outfit requirements will be fancier. Do NOT be that girl frantically searching Urban Outfitters for the perfect dress the day before the final Preference round. I promise you that if you buy a dress from Urban Outfitters or Apricot Lane or any place on campus then there will be a classic Who Wore It Better? with you versus about fifty other PNMs. Save yourself the frustration and PLAN AHEAD.
Pro Tip: Do not pay attention to the so called “ranking” of each house. What is important is how you feel in each of the houses, and the conversations you had with your potential sisters. These are the girls that you will be spending a whole lot of time with, so you need to make you factor in real reasons when deciding whether or not you like a house. Coming down to the final preference round after open, first invite, and second invite, you should develop favorites. Make sure you do what YOU want. Not what your roommate or your mom or your friend wants you to do.
I don’t know if it is just that you are surrounded by 1,000 other girls in Foellinger Auditorium who have gone through the same grueling couple of weeks with you or that recruitment is finally over and you are about to receive an invitation into your forever home, but there’s something about Bid Day that is guaranteed to make you cry. Whether it’s excitement or relief, there is no way to describe how it feels to open the envelope and see your name on the bid card that you worked so hard to receive. Running outside and hugging a bunch of sweaty, happy girls and sprinting back to the house is a memory you will never forget and makes the crazy journey so incredibly worth it.
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