Every August, over 1,000 UT collegiettes gather together for arguably the most stressful week of a young woman’s life—sorority recruitment. Over the course of eight days, each girl goes through several rounds of parties which help her to figure out which house—of fourteen—are right for her. By bid day, the decisions are made and each girl has a new place to call home. We’ve put together a guide to what each day of recruitment means, and how to make it count.
The day before any parties start, each Potential New Member (PNM) goes to Opening Convocation, a large general meeting meant to orient the girls to the week. Each PNM is organized into a rush group by last name, and this is the group of girls she will travel with to each house for the first two days. After that, the rush groups serve as the means for the girls to find out their schedules for the subsequent rounds. The groups have an assigned group of Rho Chi’s, or recruitment guides, to help them with any problems that may arise.
Day 1-2: Open House takes up the first two days of recruitment. During this time, the PNM’s travel with their rush groups to each of the fourteen houses where they are welcomed with loud and memorable door chants unique to each chapter. Each girl will be ushered into the house and will have a quick conversation with one of the active members of the chapter.
This is one hectic couple of days. Both the actives and the PNM’s are nervous, as this conversation might influence the decisions of that day or those of later in the week. Everyone is eager to make a good first impression.
My advice: BE YOURSELF. That goes for each round of recruitment, but especially Open House. From the first, you want to make sure that you can act natural and comfortably in this house. I mean, you wouldn’t want to be sisters with girls you can’t be yourself around, right?
Outfit: Requisite t-shirt, khaki shorts, and gym shoes.
Day 3-4: Philanthropy Day comes next. Girls have made it through the first round of cuts, meaning they’ll have a maximum of 10 houses on their schedule. I remember when I went through, it was the first day that the whole process became real to me. Each PNM will spend a somewhat longer time at each house this day, often watching a video or presentation about the houses’ philanthropies and partaking in a small craft.
This is the day to start looking around at the actives and really paying attention to your conversations there. The actives are passionate about their philanthropy—it’s part of the reason they’re in that chapter.
My advice: Think about the chapter’s philanthropy involvement—is it something you could see yourself doing? Does their participation in their philanthropy satisfy you? Some houses have philanthropies that make it difficult to do a lot of local work, while others are constantly at their philanthropy’s headquarters. It’s important to think about how involved you would like to be in that charity, because it’s integral not only to the personality of the chapter, but of their National organization as well.
Outfit: Nice dress—like something you might wear to a brunch—and heels/wedges/flats.
Day 5: Skit Night is when things take a more light-hearted turn. PNM’s will receive up to six invitations this round, meaning another round of cuts and possible heart break. But never fear! Each chapter has put together a small 15 to 20-minute skit that is meant to display their personality. Often it will involve celebrity references or be revolved around a well-known story.
These skits are important to the entire recruitment process because they allow the PNM’s to gain an insight into what the actives are like when recruitment is all over. Chances are, one of the girls a PNM will talk to that night had some hand in putting the skit together—it’s definitely a collaborative effort!
My advice: Pay attention to the skit and see how well the sense of humor portrayed in it matches up with your own. Do you find yourself laughing more at one house than the others? That might tell you something. But don’t worry about not laughing either—often the jokes in the skit are funnier to the actives because they know the girls in those roles to be the pledge class comediennes, while you don’t. But talk to your active about it—ask her who played the main character or who was in the dance. It might be her roommate or best friend!
Outfit: A slightly nicer dress than for Philanthropy with heels/wedges/flats.
Day 6: Preference Night (or Pref Night) is often viewed as the most important night of the entire week. Every girl—active or PNM—dresses in black to acknowledge the solemnity of this evening. PNM’s will be invited back to up to three houses, meaning that the end is almost near. This night that is meant to portray what this sisterhood means to each of its members.
At each house PNM’s will often talk to girls they had a particular connection with on one of the other days. Their active will most likely talk about her recruitment experience and how she chose her chapter. The chapter president might speak, and often a ritual of some sort will introduce the PNM’s to the sacred foundation of each house they visit.
My advice: Look around—some of the girls who are eagerly waiting to enter the house with you will be your sisters. It’s important to make sure that you would be comfortable sharing a lifetime bond with these girls. And when talking to your active, make sure to ask her how she chose her house. She might have felt conflicted, but something drove her to make a choice. Finally, if you are decided on a house, let them know that you feel at home there, that you could see yourself there, or some other way of letting them know. If you are decided on a different house, it’s often polite to tell your other houses, but also do what makes you feel comfortable.
Outfit: Formal black dress and nice heels/wedges/flats.
Day 7: BID DAY IS FINALLY HERE!!! Every PNM will gather once again at the Hogg Auditorium at around 5pm to receive their bid cards. After sitting through a long meeting where each Rho Chi will reveal which house she’s in, the PNM’s will open their bid cards. After that, it’s off to the house for an evening of bonding with your new sisters!
My advice: If you’re completely ecstatic about your bid—congratulations! Every girl deserves to have the house she wants on Bid Day. If you open your card and are upset about the house you were given, I recommend at least going to the Bid Day party—often you won’t know the personality of the house until you’ve spent some time with the girls there, especially if you were hyper focused on a different house all throughout the week. And if, like most girls, you don’t know how you feel about your bid, that’s okay too! Recruitment is a long and arduous process full of fantastic moments and disappointing ones. Go to the Bid Day party and meet your pledge class—it might take some getting used to, but if nothing else, I really believe the system works.
Outfit: Sundress and heels/wedges/flats/cowboy boots.
Recruitment is a wonderful process, but it can be draining. I like to think of it the way my mom thought about finding out the sex of her babies: Before you find out the decision, you have myriad paths in front of you—you might be this house or that house or another. But then you find out, and while you might not exactly disappointed with the outcome, you find that all those other paths you had imagined are now closed to you forever. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just a part of life.
I encourage any girl who wants to find a home within the enormous UT campus to join recruitment. Even if you’re not a freshman—I wasn’t—it can be an amazing experience with benefits and joys unimaginable before.
It definitely isn’t easy, but then again, nothing worth much is.