GreekChat.com Forums  

Go Back   GreekChat.com Forums > Recruitment > Sorority Recruitment

Sorority Recruitment Recruitment event and bid day ideas, membership retention, publicity, recruitment policies, etc.


Register Now for FREE!
Join GreekChat.com, The Fraternity & Sorority Greek Chat Network. To sign up for your FREE account INSTANTLY fill out the form below!

Username: Password: Confirm Password: E-Mail: Confirm E-Mail:
 
Image Verification
Please enter the six letters or digits that appear in the image opposite.

  I agree to forum rules 

» GC Stats
Members: 325,122
Threads: 115,503
Posts: 2,196,035
Welcome to our newest member, haledarkz870
» Online Users: 1,819
0 members and 1,819 guests
No Members online
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 08-25-2016, 11:15 PM
Meanjean Meanjean is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 11
Thank you to the GC posters!

My daughter recently went through recruitment at a large SEC school with 17 sororities. She is attending school far from home and was not personally acquainted with anyone else who would be attending/already attended the school.

I knew that her recruitment process would be completely unlike my experience rushing at a small school in the Midwest and proceeded to do what I do when I’m nervous – research! The bulk of our research was here on GreekChat, and we are very appreciative of all of the great info that the GC posters provided.

We knew that we wanted her to have recommendations – no matter how optional the school and the chapters said they were on their websites. We decided to shoot for two recommendations for each chapter – so all we needed to do was to find 34 women to write them – how hard could it be?!
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 08-25-2016, 11:16 PM
Meanjean Meanjean is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 11
Lessons learned from the recommendations hunt: start early and be persistent!

Although she knew from a fairly early point in the college process what her first choice school was, she understood that the scholarship money offered would be a huge factor in where she would ultimately attend. Because of this, the decision between the final two schools really wasn’t made until the beginning of April. We didn’t start seeking recommendations until then because it seemed weird to start asking for recs without knowing where they’d be sent. I wish we had started earlier. It was harder than we thought it would be.

She asked teachers at school but only came out with three from that approach. We had no difficulty securing recs from my GLO, but asking around my general friend group only netted us three other groups. Frustratingly, I appeared to know about 7 people from a group that I was surprised to realize was not at her school. She researched the social media of older girls she knew from activities she had been involved in and managed to get one more from a recent college graduate. We adjusted our goals to getting at least one for each organization.

At this point she began trying to contact local alumnae groups to ask if anyone would be willing to meet with her and consider writing a rec. She got more this way and then contacted the local alumnae panhellenic group to ask for contacts at about the last five. They gave her contact info for four – they didn’t have a rep for the last one. She got three more recs from that.

Ultimately she was out of time and managed to secure at least one rec for 15 of the 17 sororities on campus. One of the groups she had tried to approach three different ways (including 2 different points of contact from the local panhellenic) with no response; and the other we were just never able to locate at all. We googled to no avail and their national website required signing in to find alumnae chapters.

I’d like to mention that she very much enjoyed meeting all of the different women from the various alumnae groups. She went to a lot of coffee shops! Everyone was really great to her and I think that it was excellent prep for recruitment itself.
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 08-26-2016, 12:19 AM
thetalady thetalady is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Big D
Posts: 3,008
WHEW!!! I was almost reluctant to see what a "Meanjean" would be posting here. What a relief to see what nice and positive posts!!
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 08-26-2016, 12:30 AM
Meanjean Meanjean is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 11
Sorry! I take my usernames from favorite children's books. I didn’t even think about the impression I was making! And this is all about trying to have a positive recruitment – mea culpa…

Over the summer we attended her college’s orientation. There was an optional session regarding sorority recruitment that we each (separately – parents and students had different times) attended. It was a great discussion of the process, and one of the main themes of the presentation seemed to be – your daughter is great; but so is everyone else! They talked about the percentages of girls going through recruitment with over a 4.0, involved in student government, involved in a sport, etc… It was a good presentation. Placement rate was high – which allayed my fears slightly – but I was still a little nervous about how competitive it would be.

We discussed the lessons we were taking from GC. Any group the size of the sororities at this school was bound to have people she would love, people she would find annoying, and lots more in between. The goal was to be in a sorority – not any particular sorority. She would not listen to ‘tent talk’ and would make up her own mind about each group. We talked about how there might be chapters with which she felt a connection because they were just really good at the recruitment process and might be able to find a connection with everyone – which would put them high on everyone’s list. And that not being invited back to any group – even one she loved – didn’t mean that she was lacking in some way. Also – to start each round with the thought that the chapters that you have are the only groups at the school (because for you they are!) and to remember that it only takes one. You can only join one anyway. As long as you have one sorority on your schedule, you are working toward your goal.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 08-26-2016, 06:52 AM
Titchou Titchou is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Sweet Home Alabama
Posts: 4,573
Great attitude! Would that all PNMs were like your daughter. We would have a lot fewer dramas to contend with. Thank you for posting your story. I'm sure we'll be referring to it for years to come!
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 08-26-2016, 08:34 AM
Meanjean Meanjean is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 11
Thankfully, daughter is by nature a pretty low drama girl. She doesn’t take offense easily and is pretty good about letting the little stuff roll off her back. That gave me some comfort going in to this process.

And then it was time for recruitment! She met her Pi Chi group – Pi Chi seemed really sweet and group seemed nice. The first round took 2 days. She texted me an update at her lunch break on the first day. She was having fun! She absolutely loved one of the groups, but liked all the rest she had been to so far. She was taking notes after each party and had devised her own rating system. That night she called me to tell me about her day. She was exhausted, but excited and enjoying the process. Only the one group had her highest rating at this point, but she had positive things to say about each group except one – her legacy group.

Now, we never had any expectations that she would wind up in my GLO. We knew that the odds of that chapter being a great fit for her were really no better than they were for any of the other groups. But she was looking forward to meeting them and telling me how nice they were. Unfortunately, that was the one group where she felt that they were completely disinterested in her. The gal who was her primary contact never really looked at her – kept just looking around the room - and she met one other sister who was polite but not warm at all. She had visited 12 chapters that day and, while there were places where conversation was more difficult than others, this was the only one where she felt turned off.

My cynical side wonders if perhaps this is partly their means of managing expectations for legacies in whom they have no interest. We understood going in that her legacy group probably had enough legacies to fill a few pledge classes. And we knew that they would be required to invite her back to one invitational round. Of course, as I pointed out to her, it could also be that she got 2 girls who were doing recruitment for the first time from the other side and were just not very good at it yet. But despite the fact that I am really not a conspiracy theorist (I swear!), it seemed odd that that was the only group that came across as not trying. And I certainly did not share my darker suspicions with my daughter!

The next day she visited the rest of the houses. Ultimately, 2 other houses received her highest rating as well. She could visit up to 12 houses in the next round and, when she looked at her ratings, there was a natural break after her top 12. So ranking was easy for her. Her 12 number ones were all places she had enjoyed. The houses that she ranked numerically were places where she just felt the conversation wasn’t quite as much fun. In one case that was really just because she had been moved between 6 people during one 20-minute party and felt that she just had no idea what to think of them! She ranked her legacy chapter last.

So the next morning would be the first moment of truth. We knew that she should not be released that round because she had to be invited back by the legacy chapter at least – although that was clearly not a fit! She went out with her Pi Chi group that night. The Pi Chi prepared them that it was very unusual to get back 12 sororities and to be positive about the ones they did get back. She was exhausted and a little nervous.

I was just nervous…
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 08-26-2016, 09:20 AM
BlueCarnation BlueCarnation is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 399
Not meaning to hijack what I think is going to be a positive outcome (I hope so!), but I just wanted to say that I'm sorry your daughter had a hard time getting recs. I'm the main contact for recs for our alumnae panhellenic and my biggest frustration is finding contacts from sororities to send girls to. My goal for this year is to hunt someone down from every NPC sorority and have a local contact. Some of you may laugh, but it's really hard to find sorority women up here; it's not something women talk about. Also, I really don't think most alumnae here understand the necessity of recommendations at certain schools, plus we don't have well established alumnae groups for many sororities--some sororities don't even have active chapters in our state--so it's hard to find one point of contact. Please know that I understand you and your daughter's frustration and I'm sorry that you had to worry about that.
Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 08-26-2016, 12:51 PM
Meanjean Meanjean is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 11
BlueCarnation, we also live in an area where recs are uncommon. I don’t know about the women my daughter met through the ‘cold-calling’ process, but I’m pretty positive that it was the very first sorority recommendation that almost all of our personal contacts had written! Most people seemed surprised that we were asking.

We persevered on the hunt for two reasons. First, my daughter asked a friend who is an upperclassman at a different SEC school if she had done recs. The girl said that she hadn’t but that, now that she had been on both sides of recruitment, she wished that she had. She loved where she ended up, but she felt that the process would have been less difficult if she had had recs. Secondly, from my point of view, so much of the process is out of your hands, why not do what you can to make it less uncomfortable?
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 08-26-2016, 01:12 PM
Meanjean Meanjean is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 11
For round 2, pnms could be invited back to a maximum of 12 houses. The second round also took 2 days. I was up early hoping for a positive text from my daughter. And it was very positive! She had been invited back to 12 groups!

She only had one group from her three with her highest rating, but it was the one she had loved first. She had three groups from her ranked list (the ones not listed at number one), but she didn’t dislike any of them. Her legacy group (the only place she had felt uncomfortable) was not on her schedule.

It was a hectic round for her because she had to navigate to all of her parties herself, at least once with only 5 minutes in between parties. She heard that there were girls who were released from rush for missing their parties this round.

She continued using her rating system. First favorite remained the same, but a group who had been on her ranked list (not at number 1) from the first round jumped up to second favorite. Ultimately, she didn’t dislike any of them. She could put 7 chapters at number 1 after the second round. Once again, there was a natural break in her system that made it very easy to choose her 7 top choices and rank the rest.

She was feeling pretty good about recruitment!
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 08-26-2016, 01:41 PM
ChioLu ChioLu is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: SoCal
Posts: 1,273
I wish we could sticky this as a thread to refer PNMs to who ask if they need recs when schools say they are not required.

Looking forward to hearing more of your daughter's recruitment story!
Reply With Quote
  #11  
Old 08-26-2016, 06:41 PM
FSUZeta FSUZeta is offline
Super Moderator
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: naples, florida
Posts: 18,410
Meanjean, it is so sweet of you to post this story. I am waiting with bated breath for a good outcome!
__________________
I live in Fantasyland and I have waterfront property.
Reply With Quote
  #12  
Old 08-26-2016, 06:56 PM
DubaiSis DubaiSis is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Back in the Heartland
Posts: 5,424
Quote:
Originally Posted by Meanjean View Post
...from my point of view, so much of the process is out of your hands, why not do what you can to make it less uncomfortable?
This. I am not a fan of the recommendations system (I think it should be reserved for close personal/family friends and that's it) but it is the system that is in place so why fight it? Do the work and you can at least check that box.

Great story so far. Waiting for more.
__________________
"Traveling - It leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller. ~ Ibn Battuta
Reply With Quote
  #13  
Old 08-26-2016, 09:27 PM
jolene jolene is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 756
Quote:
Originally Posted by DubaiSis View Post
This. I am not a fan of the recommendations system (I think it should be reserved for close personal/family friends and that's it) but it is the system that is in place so why fight it? Do the work and you can at least check that box.

Great story so far. Waiting for more.
Amen, my Alpha Xi Delta sister. I was the first in my fam to go to college, much less go Greek. I would have been screwed even though I had a great GPA and activities, but no connections or a clue about sororities. I joined to get involved/plugged in to campus. Originally, I thought you had to be asked to rush and didn't know it was something girls could easily sign up for.
__________________
AΞΔ
Reply With Quote
  #14  
Old 08-26-2016, 10:55 PM
Meanjean Meanjean is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 11
I understand completely why the panhellenic council at the school and all of the chapters stress that recs are totally optional. But I think that the girls to whom they are doing the biggest disservice are the ones who don’t have any familiarity with greek life and with this kind of competitive recruitment. I would bet that the majority of the in-state girls came into recruitment with all of their recs done.

What if they said something like ‘recommendations are not necessary, but can be an excellent way to introduce yourself to each chapter.’ They could follow up with suggestions for how to seek them out. (Teachers, family friends, local alumnae panhellenics.) It would not have been too difficult if we had done it in a more timely fashion, and if we had felt more of a sense of urgency. The mixed messages about their worth made us hesitant to push too hard.
Reply With Quote
  #15  
Old 08-26-2016, 11:02 PM
Meanjean Meanjean is offline
GreekChat Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 11
For round 3, pnms could be invited back to a maximum of 7 houses. Third round was one day. Once again I could barely sleep waiting for a text from my daughter.

But she called me instead. Her Pi Chi had texted her that her first party wasn’t until after lunch, she didn’t have to be there until then. She was worried – she was pretty sure that there were only 4 party slots after lunch. So she had gone from 12 groups to a maximum of 4. Suddenly this was a little less fun.

Time to pull out the GC wisdom. It only takes one group. It’s fun to have more, but you can only join one in the end. And whoever you have – they’re the only groups on campus. Give them a chance because they want you. Look at how one group shot up last round from not a number one to a big favorite.

She texted me when she got her schedule. She had only 2 houses left. One was the group that had been her favorite from the beginning. The other was a group that she had put in her numerical ranking each time. I texted back – it only takes 1!

She called during a break. She was sad to have lost many that she liked, but was prepared to look for the best in both groups left. I was so proud of her! I reminded her that, as long as she was invited to and attended at least one preference party, she would be getting a bid. I also told her how much I admired her for being able to do this. She said that she was really glad for the research we did going in because she really understood that it only took one. She knew two girls who had been released from recruitment this round. She was glad that she was at least moving forward.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Top 10 posters on GC SAEalumnus Chit Chat 24 02-11-2005 11:05 PM
Top 10 Posters on GC AOX81 Chit Chat 148 09-03-2003 05:49 PM
How many posters does it take... Ginger Chit Chat 8 12-06-2002 06:24 PM



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 04:05 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.