It’s that time of year again! Make way for eccentric outfits, re-written pop songs, and glitter galore. Cheers, chants, and coordinated outfits, brace yourself. Ladies, break out your pearls: Panhellenic recruitment is here.
Starting this Wednesday, each night Panhellenic Council will host events for girls looking to go Greek. To kick off recruitment, there will be a tea party on the Green Wednesday night for potential new members (PNMs) to come out and mingle with sisters before formal recruitment begins.
Thursday marks Convocation night, the first official night of recruitment. At Convocation, a few girls from each of the four sororities (Alpha Gamma Delta, Delta Gamma, Alpha Xi Delta, and Alpha Omicron Pi) will put on a presentation for PNMs, but affiliated members will not actually get to talk with the girls going through recruitment.
Friday night is called philanthropy night. PNMs will go to parties of all four sororities and begin to get a feel for Greek life and each chapter. At the parties, they will talk to sisters of the chapter and watch a slideshow with pictures of the chapters having a good time at their philanthropy events, formals, and sisterhood events. And yes, there are many silly songs to go along with the slideshow.
Saturday night, being Theme night, will be one of the most fun nights. There’s singing and dancing, but the best part is that since it is your second time meeting the girls, connections are starting to be established.
Sunday morning is Preference round. Preference is the last chance for the PNMs to decide which chapter would best suit them and it is the chapter’s last glance at which PNMs would be a good fit for the chapter.
Late Sunday afternoon marks bid day, the day when the girls receive a formal invitation to join a chapter and they run across the green and find their new letters with all their new sisters. When new members cross University Boulevard and walk into the arms of sisters, their lives are changed in the very best way. They join a family, a sisterhood, not for four years, but for life. And did I mention there are tons of presents?
Recruitment can be stressful, but that’s just your adrenaline talking.
When going through recruitment, keep a few things in mind.
Be Yourself –These girls are potentially going to be your sisters and they don’t take that lightly and neither should you. In the movie Sorority Wars, a sister in the Kappa chapter tells a PNM that she needed to choose a sorority based on what they stood for because she was about to stand for it too. Don’t lie about your interests or intentions. The best part about coming to college is that you can be anyone you want to be, regardless of your past. However, if you are anything but yourself, than how are you or the chapter supposed to know where you truly belong?
Don’t change-physically. If you don’t normally wear make up, don’t spend your next paycheck at Sephora. Wear something pretty, do your make up as normal, and be the best version of YOU. Recruitment is a time to dress up and you should embrace that, but be wise. There’s no need to get an emergency spray tan or buy new shoes. In order for you to get the most out of recruitment, you need to be comfortable and no one is comfortable with blisters. (Trust me on this one).
It’s a Show-Chapter members spend months, yes months, working on theme dances and planning preference ceremonies and that shouldn’t go unnoticed. In the end, though, recruitment is a performance. Six months from now, without all the glitter and glam, where is the sisterhood? The decision you will make will affect you for the rest of your life. Choose a chapter based on who you would want to be your sisters. Pick girls that you connect with. Are they the girls you want to cry with? The girls you want to have study dates with? The girls who will be there for the tragic, the mundane, and even those sleep deprived nights that make the best stories?
Joining a sorority was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. Don’t take my word for it, though, sign up for recruitment here.