Charlotte Alumnae
Panhellenic Association
Panhellenic Recruitment
Sorority
Recruitment
101
Registration
Check with your campuses fraternity and sorority life office to make sure you know how to register for recruitment. Typically, registration opens in the Spring/Summer, there is a deadline and most likely a fee associated with recruitment.
Recruitment Counselors
You will be assigned to a recruitment group with a recruitment counselor. Some campuses might call their recruitment counselors “Rho Gamma's”, "Gamma Chi's" or something similar. Your recruitment counselor is like your guide to recruitment—she can answer any questions you have about the process, and she is also there to listen to how you feel about each chapter. Recruitment counselors disaffiliate from their chapters prior to and during recruitment, so you shouldn’t know what chapter your recruitment counselor is in. This makes her an unbiased resource for you. She is specially trained in guiding potential new members through the recruitment process.
Recruitment Rounds
The recruitment process includes a number of rounds, and each round includes a number of events. Rounds are identified by the theme of the round, i.e. philanthropy, sisterhood, preference etc. and by the number of events ("parties") for the round, i.e. six-party round. Each chapter you visit during a round is a party. After each day of recruitment, you will meet with your recruitment counselor to decide how you liked the chapters. You will narrow down the list of chapters you are interested in at the end of each day.
Each round of recruitment has fewer events, and with each round, individual events get longer. For example, at the first round, you may have 45 minutes at each chapter, and during philanthropy round, you may have an hour. The final round of recruitment is preference round. This is the longest time period you have with the chapters going into your final selections. On a typical campus, you will attend two or three parties during preference.
Bid Day
Bid Day is the final day of the recruitment process! There are several scenarios that can take place on Bid Day. Depending on your school, the processes vary. You could receive your top choice or maybe your second or last choice. It is possible in some situations not to recieve a bid at all. Obviously, not all of these options are ideal. However, it's important to keep an open mind. Recruitment is just a fraction of chapter life and while you may not think that a chapter is the best fit, but you may find that it is your home away from home.
So you're interested in participating in sorority recruitment. That's great!
Here is a general overview about what to expect and how to prepare.
