Heading off to college is a tremendously anxiety-inducing experience for many. Not only are you being thrown into a “new normal” where you are surrounded by new faces and places, but you are leaving home to be on your own for the first time in your life. Joining a sorority means finding a home away from home, making instant friends, and having access to endlessly fulfilling events and opportunities. Greek life offers you a chance to join a close-knit community within a sea of college students, making you feel less small and everything else less overwhelming. Your sorority is a new place to call home, flooded with sisters that are a constant support system and always there when you need them.
Joining a sorority was one of the most valuable experiences of my life this far. It thoroughly impacted my college experience in the most exciting ways, and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity. Not only did it give me my bestest friends, sisters, and support systems that I will have forever, but it shaped me into the woman I am today.
If you are wondering if joining a sorority is right for you, I am offering my advice, personal experiences, tips and tricks, and the 411 on all things sorority recruitment below. I hope these will help you gauge if the sorority experience is right for you and leave you with an open mind on the process. Even though each university offers a different sorority recruitment experience, they are all bound by the same routines, values, and practicalities. I will provide you with universal strategies that can be applied to each and every college’s recruitment process, in order to equip you with the knowledge necessary to properly navigate the recruitment process.
From an outsider looking in, the recruitment process may seem daunting, but by the time you get to the end of this post, I hope that you have a greater perspective on how to rush, most, if not all, of your rush anxieties are relieved, and you have garnered the confidence to take this new venture of your life on.
How to Rush A Sorority
So, what exactly is sorority rush? My goal is to enlighten you on the ins and outs of the recruitment process and to share my advice on how to have the best rush experience possible.
You may be asking yourself, how do I stand out to a sorority? Below I am going to list out a step by step guide on how to communicate to a sorority that you are a right fit.
How to properly prep for sorority recruitment
Sororities begin vetting potential new members (PNM’s) months prior to sorority recruitment. The girls are looking at recruitment packets, Instagrams, etc. prior to when you first walk through the door. So how do you get a sorority to notice you? First and foremost, make sure that you register for sorority recruitment at least a month ahead of recruitment’s start date. Next, if your college encourages you to submit a recruitment packet (most of them do), then you most certainly should submit these. These packets include a social resume, cover letter, recommendation letters, and a headshot. Your recruitment packet should include all of the information you wish to speak upon during formal recruitment. Sororities pre-screen this information prior to recruitment to determine if you may be a good fit for the sorority. Also, sororities often tend to pair PNM’s to speak with girls that have similar interests, involvement, etc. The amount of time you spend on compiling your recruitment packet is essential; you should not rush the process. For instance, I would recommend reaching out and compiling potential alumna to write your letters of recommendation sooner rather than later. It may be hard for you to find recommendation letters for some sororities, so it is essential to initiate this process far in advance. These letters are especially important since sorority recruitment teams collect information from them to determine if you are a good fit for the sorority.
How to connect with sorority members through your conversations
Conversations are one of the most, if not the most, important components of whether or not you will be invited back to a sorority. The sorority girls are scoring you after each round and the majority of this score is reflective of your conversations. A great conversation means a great score; so, in order to be invited back to a sorority, it is essential to connect with these girls on a personal level and allow them to see you as a potential friend. The girls are looking for new members that are similar to them, girls that they are confident will fit right in and find immediate friends. In order to be invited back, it is essential to bond over similar interests and connect with the girls on a personal level. For the first few rounds of rush you may notice that you are having similar conversations in almost every sorority house. This is because the sorority members are being trained for weeks leading up to rush on what to say and not to say. The girls are constantly recycling a script of questions to ask every PNM, in order to avoid moments of awkwardness and silence. These questions range from where are you from to what did you do this summer? It is always smart to have a signature or funny story to tell each sorority when asked these typical questions. These stories are what make you memorable and stand out. Looking back on my rush experience, no one ever forgets the hilarious, authentic, and exciting girls. A huge smile goes a long way when it comes to establishing connections with the sorority members. If you come across as very excited to be there, this will definitely give you brownie points.
How Sorority Rush Works
You may be asking yourself, how exactly does sorority recruitment work? If you’ve ever seen a season opener of the hit reality show Love Island, then I would say you have an idea of how round 1 of rush works. During this round, you are meeting all of the sororities on campus alike how the contestants are all first meeting each other. On both Love Island and during Round 1 of house tours, first impressions are VERY important. You are not only gauging the sororities and determining which you are first drawn to, but the sororities are also discovering who their “rush crushes” may be. (Note: For some universities, the first round is held over Zoom. So, rather than touring each house in person, you will be meeting each sorority virtually. If this is the case, my blog post on virtual sorority recruitment will give you some pointers on how to navigate the first round over Zoom.)
After the first round, potential new members select and sororities vote on who they would like to see next round. Prior to the second round, you will receive your invitation schedule of sororities you will be visiting that round. Just like Love Islanders, the sororities decide who their top contenders are (those they connect with the most) and turn down the rest each round. During sorority recruitment, the sororities have the power to decide which potential new members to invite to each round. Potential new members may assume that their schedule for the second round will have all the sororities they selected, but the majority of the time this is not true. The majority of girls do not get invited back to all of the houses they select for the second round.
This same selection and voting process continues until bid day. After you receive and accept a bid, you are now a new member of the sorority. There are some cases where girls may open their bid day letter to a sorority they did not want. In these instances, you have the ability to refuse your bid after talking with a recruitment counselor. I recommend that girls always go to Bid Day; the sorority you may believe you don’t want could turn out to be much greater than you think. You may have an idea about them that is not accurate, but rather formed based on hearsay. Always give the sorority a chance, you never know the connections you could form on bid day with girls you have never met before.
Here are a few tips to help you get through the Rush process:
1. The Sorority girls are just as nervous, if not more, than you are.
Sorority girls spend weeks preparing for sorority recruitment. They spend several hours a day learning how to recruit girls, practice conversations and door chants, prepare dances, skits, and entertainment, shoot videos, etc. For instance, right before Rush week you might find your TikTok For You Page flooded with sorority Tik Tok pages posting full-out dance routines, funny videos, and rush hacks. These videos are typically shot during work week; the week leading up to rush where sororities gather to prepare for long-awaited recruitment. In all candidness, these are not one-take wonders. Rather, these girls are giving it their all, re-recording many times before they get the perfect video. During work week, the pressure is on. Leading up to and during recruitment week, the sorority girls are just as nervous, if not more nervous, than the PNM’s. They are giving it their all in everything they do, even in silly TikTok videos. Always remember that the girls want YOU more than you want THEM.
2. Wear clothes that you feel your best and most comfortable in.
Most girls place high stress and importance on purchasing and organizing their recruitment outfits. Although it is fun to wear a cute outfit, as long as you look put-together and not like you just rolled out of bed in the morning, you will look the part. We also all know that most of the time when we look our best, we feel our best. When deciding what to wear, make sure to pay close attention to the weather patterns in your college town. You always want to be prepared for potential rain or hot weather. Be sure to keep a rain jacket and fan in your rush bag, so you can always be prepared. Lastly, always remember: a smile is your best accessory.
3. Make sure you approach each and every sorority with the same positive, enthusiastic, and respectful attitude.
Sororities talk. Even though you may think they are not in communication with one another during rush week, word does get around. If word gets out that you were rude, negative, or unapproachable to a particular sorority this can spread to other sororities. Not only will this cast a negative light on you, but it could also result in sororities not inviting you back.
4. Don’t rush a sorority based solely upon stereotypes or what you hear around the grapevine.
You may have an idea about a sorority, but you later discover that the sorority is not what it's cracked out to be. Rather than listening to rush gossip, you should form your own opinions on the sororities based on your own experiences and connections in the houses.
5. You cannot rely on legacy status to get a bid.
For many sororities, you are not guaranteed a bid if you are a legacy. This means that if your mom or sister were in the sorority, this does not give you an upper hand during the recruitment process.
6. It is almost always never a good idea to tell a girl that you want to join her sorority.
Once it starts nearing the end of recruitment, the pressure is on for both you and the sorority girls. On pref night, the night before bid day, the sorority girls may resort to pressuring potential new members into telling them what sorority they are leaning or if they would accept a bid. It is best to divert from this conversation by remaining enthusiastic while simply expressing that you have enjoyed your time meeting the girls and have had a great time with the sorority throughout the week. Especially if you still have another house to visit on pref, you should never tell a sorority that you are going to accept their bid. Word can always get out to other sororities. For instance, if you have Kappa Kappa Gamma and Kappa Alpha Theta on pref night and decide to confirm with Kappa Kappa Gamma that you will be accepting their bid, this could reach Kappa Alpha Theta and result in them cutting you. Even if the Kappa Kappa Gamma girls assure you that you will get a bid, nothing is ever certain, which is why you should always keep your thoughts to yourself.
7. Lastly, trust your intuition when making your decision. It will never steer you wrong.
This might be one of the most essential pieces of advice I can offer you. Make sure not to listen to the outside voices, whether this is your mom, siblings, sorority girls, friends, etc. and always trust your gut and go with which sorority you think is best for you. The choice you make for you and only you, is always the best decision.
