COB info please
 

Hi
My daughter went through Spring Recruitment last week at a major northeastern university but did not get a bid. To say she and I were pretty shocked is an understatement. Though it's not all about looks, she didn't get passed over for being 'heavy': She's 5'7, a size 2, gorgeous and with a super positive personality. Anyway, she is totally devastated as being in a sorority/friendships mean everything to her. :(

The greek office on campus stated that under 40% of the women who went through Spring Recruitment got a bid (over 100 participated). I was also told that some sororities will now do Continuous Open Bidding - some via invitation and some open to all- to fill the remaining vacancies.

Questions:
Should my daughter do a 'wait and see' for an COB invitation?
Should she try to contact the (few) members she knows in each sorority to hint that she would love to be invited?
Any other advice you can give her would be great.

Thanks in advance to all sisters who take the time to respond.
This is so important to my daughter. She has so much to offer a sorority: loyalty, talent, a fun spirit....seems such a shame.

Was this formal recruitment/the first time freshmen could rush or was formal recruitment held in the fall?

Freshmen could go through Fall recruitment.
My daughter wanted to wait and get used to campus life before joining so this was her first try.

So if formal's in the fall, she can wait and go through next year, she'll get exposure to all the sororities then, not just the ones doing COB. I'd recommend she just keep in touch with the girls she currently knows that are greek and keep trying to meet more people in class, she may have better results in the fall.

This seems like a weird number/percentage ... is it possible this is the percent of women who accepted bids?

Perhaps so. That number came from the Greek office at her school. It seems that only a few of the sororities on campus were participating in Spring Recruitment (the rest had full membership quotas). One of the sororities only had 5 placements --probably one of the more popular groups. No doubt they were inundated with bids.
The cold reality is that there were not enough placements in the most popular Sororities. A few spots may open up via continuous open bidding, hence my inquiry here as to whether she should contact members she knows in these sororities.

I just want my daughter to be happy at college.
Thanks to all who have responded.

It sounds like she would have her best chance at joining in the fall assuming that it's typical for sophomores to rush at her campus.

Formal recruitment allows each groups to give a share of the total number of bids that would give each girl still participating in recruitment in the last round a place.

That doesn't mean that it works out perfectly or that every girl gets a place at her most desired chapter, but her chances are certainly better numerically than in the informal process you described.

I agree with everyone who says that she should wait till next fall to go through formal rush and meet ALL the sororities.

Actually, the most popular sororities probably reached total back in the fall and therefore can't take any new members. A sorority doesn't get to go over total just because it is "popular." If that is something that is of the utmost importance to you and/or your daughter, COB isn't what you should be doing. Plus, even if they lost one or 2 members to graduation, it's very unlikely they will go to the trouble of COBing (unless it's a girl that the whole chapter already knows very very well).

I agree, Buttonz. I only mentioned the weight issue as on other threads it was mentioned on GreekChat.com as one (rather sad) reason that some girls might not get in.

As to your second point, she wasn't stuck on one particular sorority. She put in bids on three.
In retrospect she feels that if she had been less wishy-washy about her choice, that is, more focused on one (as her friends were) that she might have gotten in.
At the last party she was somewhat pressed by one sister as to if XYZ sorority was her first choice. Maybe she should have said yes.

The night before pref night she called me lamenting that she could see herself in any of these groups: the girls were all so nice and she would have been happy in any of them.

Anyway, her spirits are better today.

As much as this may suck, it may have played a large part in the result. I have seen it firsthand MANY times. I'll just agree with everyone else that she should wait for Fall Formal Recruitment.

In the meantime, she should cultivate her friendships with the sorority women that she knows, and she should get involved on campus in organizations that interest her and provide opportunities for leadership development. Since you have not indicated her exact location, I don't know how competitive FR is for sophomores. But it wouldn't hurt to at least begin thinking about recommendation letters for the fall. They will provide the additional information that sororities are looking for and in some cases could help a sophomore get that "second look" when she might otherwise be released. Since you indicate that you have read other threads on GC, it might be worth your (and her) time to check out the stickied thread(s) on securing recommendations. :D

I waited until my sophomore year to rush and still had a VERY fulfilling Greek experience that continues today.

Isn't that the cold reality in any recruitment?