"A true friend is someone who thinks you are a good egg even though he/she knows that you are slightly cracked"
-Bernard Meltzer
5 Things to Know Before Going Through Sorority Recruitment
By Katie Lyman
For most college freshmen, sorority recruitment happens essentially the minute you walk on campus in the fall. However, for the minority, including Baylor, there’s a whole semester of anxious anticipation, trying to meet sorority women and hearing plenty of rumors about various chapters all before actually getting to experience recruitment. As a freshman, I definitely had a whirlwind of emotions and preconceived notions about recruitment and honestly didn’t really know what I was getting myself into. As recruitment approaches, here are some pieces of advice that hopefully put you at ease!
1.) Be yourself!
Recruitment is just as much about young women seeking out their potential chapter as it is about sororities seeking out new members. Although it doesn’t seem like it, it really is a two-way process. Being authentically yourself, as cliché as it sounds, allows you to find the sisters that you want to spend the rest of your college journey with. Don’t try too hard to impress the girls you meet during the week, they’ll most likely be more impressed by your self-confidence and how you carry yourself.
2.) Keep an open mind
One of the best pieces of advice I received when I was about to start recruitment was to simply keep an open mind. Try your best to avoid deciding which sorority you want at the beginning of the process. Instead, give every chapter, party and girl you talk to a fair chance because you never know which ones might surprise you! When I was a freshman, a few of my friends quickly had their hearts set on one sorority. Throughout the week, they exclusively focused on those recruitment parties and interactions with those girls, only to find a couple of days later that they weren’t invited back. While this is heartbreaking, I truly believe that there is a place for you in every chapter. These friends of mine had a hard time readjusting and finishing out the week with a positive attitude after having such set expectations. Nonetheless, they both ended up in sisterhoods that they wouldn’t trade for the world.
3.) Don’t overthink the details
Every organization has a unique set of strategies and systems for recruiting. Resist the urge to read into little things throughout the week, like where you might have stood in a recruitment party or how many girls you got to talk to. Attempting to “crack the code” of how you might be viewed by a certain sorority based on meaningless details is exhausting and, ultimately, will cause an abundance of unnecessary stress. Every year, there are girls who think they figure out the ins and outs of how recruitment works and the truth is they don’t. So don’t pay mind to the rumors you might hear about how a sorority goes about the week, because they’re usually wrong.
4.) Go through recruitment for YOU
If you are a legacy, meaning your mother or grandmother were Greek affiliates, the odds are you’re going to at least be a little partial to a specific sorority simply because of family connections. Keep in mind that you are going through this process for YOU and as best you can, allow yourself to disconnect from everyone else’s expectations. At the end of the day, this is going to be your experience and your sisterhood. So when it comes to recruitment, allow yourself to be selfish, especially if you’re being pressured one way or another.
5.) Trust the process
One of the most memorable parts of recruitment is the morning of bid day when you excitedly receive an envelope that holds the name of your future sorority. Adrenaline takes over and it seems like a lifetime before you can finally tear it open. This moment can cause either immense joy or unsettling hurt. Recruitment doesn’t always turn out the way we want it to, but the process truly does a thorough job of matching individuals to sororities. Even if the results of recruitment aren’t initially what you were expecting, I encourage you to at least give it your full investment because there really is a place for you wherever you might end up!
Sorority recruitment can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster, but it doesn’t have to be a daunting, stressful experience. Being a member of a sorority gives you the opportunity to be a part of a strong, influential group of women who will likely play a big role in your college experience. That bond itself is something to be excited for! Looking back on my recruitment experience, I had a lot of fun attending all of the recruitment parties, seeing all of the decorated rooms and meeting new people. So be excited, eager and have fun! After all, this will most likely be an experience you’ll remember and reminisce about for years to come.
