Defered Recruitment: Pros and Cons

[AUAZD2001]

For all the chapters out there who participate in defered recruitment, what do you see as the pros and cons of waiting until later in the year to recruit?

[tunatartare]

Pros:
*gives freshmen a chance to see what college life is like and adjust
*less of chance of girls joining just to make friends and losing interest once they've made friends outside of the sorority
*gives the sororities all of first semester to prepare for recruitment

Cons:
*gives girls the opportunity to fall into gossip about each of the sororities
*creates the possibility for dirty rushing or bid promising

[Stef the Pef]

Another con is the "recruitment semester." You have to bust your butts all semester long to win girls over instead of having it done in a week. You spend the whole semester getting ready for one recruitment week, which sometimes gets hard on your schedule when trying to balance recruitment prep with classes and other activities.

The "pro" of that is that it gives girls a whole semester to see what the different chapters are like, make friends in those chapters before rush, and get a better idea of what sororities are like. Sure, there are rumors that can be harder to buck after this, but luckily, the smart ones seem to see through the BS in those.

[AnatraAmore]

Also, it gives chapters a chance to make sure that PNM's are going to do well in college academically and gives PNM's a chance to make sure they're actually going to stay at the college/university they're at for more than a semester...

[carnation]

Originally Posted by KLPDaisy

Cons:
*gives girls the opportunity to fall into gossip about each of the sororities
*creates the possibility for dirty rushing or bid promising

Where I was an undergrad, you couldn't rush until you were a sophomore and these cons were very real. Almost every PNM I talked to had her views on each sorority and almost every PNM had the same opinions. Dirty rushing was rampant. Also, many sororities had their bid list already made out with a few alternates in case they lost any of their first list.

You heard a lot of not, "I want to pledge AB," but rather, "I am pledging AB." And they usually got what they said they would because the deal had been done under the table before rush.

I transferred to Auburn my junior year. Due to the fact that AU rush is a week long and that there are so many parties at first (2 days of ice water teas and so on), it would be next to impossible to try to pull it off while classes are going on.

[alum]

Originally Posted by carnation

Where I was an undergrad, you couldn't rush until you were a sophomore and these cons were very real. Almost every PNM I talked to had her views on each sorority and almost every PNM had the same opinions. Dirty rushing was rampant. Also, many sororities had their bid list already made out with a few alternates in case they lost any of their first list.

You heard a lot of not, "I want to pledge AB," but rather, "I am pledging AB." And they usually got what they said they would because the deal had been done under the table before rush.

I transferred to Auburn my junior year. Due to the fact that AU rush is a week long and that there are so many parties at first (2 days of ice water teas and so on), it would be next to impossible to try to pull it off while classes are going on.

Con:
For PNMs attending private colleges with competitive Greek systems, it is very stressful to be "on camera" for an entire semester. They have to look their best at all times as well as constantly have a sunny disposition. Even though the formal recruitment isn't officially until January, these girls are basically rushing all fall under the scrutiny of the actives.

Pro:
The shortened pledge periods of 6 weeks or so that were set by NPC doesn't provide enough opportunity to get 1st semester grades when conducting fall rush. January recruitment ensures that these grades are available.

[carnation]

I've got to agree with alum on these. I'd forgotten how stressful it was to be "on camera" all year. On the other hand, getting January grades would really help with choosing a pledge class....a lot of kids get great grades in high school only because their schools handed out A's like candy or forced the teachers to give extra credit for ridiculous things (getting 5 extra points added to their final average for bringing in 20 cans of food for a drive, don't get me going on that).

[alum]

Originally Posted by carnation

I've got to agree with alum on these. I'd forgotten how stressful it was to be "on camera" all year. On the other hand, getting January grades would really help with choosing a pledge class....a lot of kids get great grades in high school only because their schools handed out A's like candy or forced the teachers to give extra credit for ridiculous things (getting 5 extra points added to their final average for bringing in 20 cans of food for a drive, don't get me going on that).

Even when kids are genuinely the best and brightest in hs, college is a different playing field. At many private colleges/unis and in the Honors Colleges at the public universities, the freshman classes read like a roster of Nobel Prize winners, Olympic athletes, and Mother Theresas. For the first time in their academic careers, these students competing against classmates who are equally intelligent if not smarter. The majority of kids at certain schools scored above 700 on each section, were AP/IB Diploma recipients and saved the world in their spare time.

So in that respect, waiting for grades is not a bad thing.

A point about bias, at colleges that have a national ranking and draw their students from all over the country rather than a local region, it is more likely that the pre-judgement of the GLOs isn't going to be made before school but acquired during the 1st semester.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by alum

Con:
For PNMs attending private colleges with competitive Greek systems, it is very stressful to be "on camera" for an entire semester. They have to look their best at all times as well as constantly have a sunny disposition. Even though the formal recruitment isn't officially until January, these girls are basically rushing all fall under the scrutiny of the actives.

The CHAPTERS are also being scrutinized. By the time these girls get into a rush party, they've probably seen on campus at some point an ABC looking like crap when she's sick or an XYZ having a fight with one of her sisters. Their first impression isn't perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect personas. For good or bad, I think it makes for a more educated rushee, as well as a more educated chapter.

Anyway, pros and cons IMO:

Pros:
See above.
Don't end up pledging/initiating women who get homesick after a semester and drop out (taking your secrets and ritual with them).
Can see college grades instead of often-inflated high school grades.
Rushees can get to know sorority members in a normal day to day setting instead of the "show" of rush.
Less chance of burnout by junior/senior year.
The rushees make friends on their own who in the future could become sorority members.

Cons:
None.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by 33girl

The CHAPTERS are also being scrutinized. By the time these girls get into a rush party, they've probably seen on campus at some point an ABC looking like crap when she's sick or an XYZ having a fight with one of her sisters.

At some campuses, the ABCs and XYZs could look like poop half the time and still get their prize pledge class due to rep--and the DEFs could look their best every day and still end up with half of quota. Really.

[ilddd3]

Formal Rush was second trimester at my school. As both the PMN and an active, the hardest rule to follow was strict silence. This caused the most problems between the chapters as well.

As a PNM I was on the dance squad with 8 sorority women. The team was about 11 people with 2 rushing, 1 non-sorority girl in addition to the other 8. Let me tell you that practice was difficult. We went from a group of women who would laugh and joke all first trimester to stone silence, all business at the beginning of second semester.

As an active and a Rho Chi (I can't remember what it is called now) It was difficult to watch the PNMs when their friends could not talk with them.

Our school was small and by second term, you had already already been "placed" into a sorority based upon who you were seen with regardless of the reasons you were seen with them (educational or social) The actives on the dance squad were all Tri Delts. The other chapter on campus definitely assumed that was who I was favoring and I was left alone at their rush parties regardless of how I tried to make conversation. We all had to attend both preference parties and by this time no one was even trying.

Okay, that is my little rant. Not sure if things would have been different had we had rush fall trimester. But I am definitely where I belong

[tunatartare]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Cons:
None.

With all due respect, I have to disagree here. I went to a school with deferred rush, and dirty rushing and rumors were rampant. At the end of first semester, sororities would always try to have parties or dessert socials for freshman girls to get them to remember them in recruitment. Some would also start looking for a spring pledge class in the fall. With regard to rumors, it deferring recruitment gives pnm's a chance to learn more, even if it's not voluntarily. I had one of the fraternity guys at my school im'ing me most of first semester telling me rumors about each of the sororities to get me to try to not rush. My sophomore year, we had a girl telling all of her friends not to go KLP or XYZ (name withheld for obvious reasons) because "all KLP's are fat and all XYZ's are ugly." (The joke was on her because we got two of her best friends!)

[FSUZeta]

i would think that one disadvantage to deferred recruitment could be that recruitment would take place while homework and studying should be going on-in other words, not only would the pnm(and sisters) have the stress that comes with formal recruitment, but the stress of classwork, too.

i only experienced recruitment held before school began until i became an advisor for the chapter at fgcu-they hold recruitment about 3 weeks into the fall semester. there are lots of night classes on that campus, and girls are stressing about class work, studying,tests and papers. the stress level seems to be elevated, and recruitment, in and of itself is stressful enough.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by KLPDaisy

With all due respect, I have to disagree here. I went to a school with deferred rush, and dirty rushing and rumors were rampant. At the end of first semester, sororities would always try to have parties or dessert socials for freshman girls to get them to remember them in recruitment. Some would also start looking for a spring pledge class in the fall. With regard to rumors, it deferring recruitment gives pnm's a chance to learn more, even if it's not voluntarily. I had one of the fraternity guys at my school im'ing me most of first semester telling me rumors about each of the sororities to get me to try to not rush. My sophomore year, we had a girl telling all of her friends not to go KLP or XYZ (name withheld for obvious reasons) because "all KLP's are fat and all XYZ's are ugly." (The joke was on her because we got two of her best friends!)

So did I. We got all the same rumors. So did the other sororities. That way, when we got our pledges, we knew they had heard all that stupid stuff (and some real stuff, too) and wanted to be there ANYWAY. Unlike some of the posters we've had on here who joined before they even took a college class, and then came on and said "OMG this sorority is NOTHING like they were in rush and they never have mixers what should I do?!?!??!??"

FSUZeta, I've heard of schools having deferred rush before second semester starts. For really huge schools/rushes that would be an option. But honestly, I've never rushed NOT during classes. We did, however, spread it out over 2 weeks. I think squeezing rush into a school weekend plus a day is nuts.

[FSUZeta]

at fgcu, they start recruitment on a wednesday or thursday night-first party is around 9:30, after night classes have been dismissed. first round of parties last year there were 4 rush groups for the two sororities-we did not get out of there until after midnite-there was no voting or discussion-all pnms were coming back to both chapters the next day. there were 4 days of recruitment. there will be more rush groups coming thru this year-panhellenic has actually advertised recruitment during orientation this year -i hope that they change the party schedule.

i have suggested that they begin recruitment on friday evening-that way the first two nights of recruitment(when there will be the most parties) would not as greatly impact the girls and their classwork. sunday night would be the first night of invitations, monday prefs. and tuesday bid day. hope they will consider this!!