You’ve seen them around town, dressed in their short dresses and ridiculous name tags walking two-by-two on the sidewalks, you may have even yelled profane and rude names to them while passing by. After two long weekends of no booze and no boys, five hundred women have finally finished the sorority recruitment process.
A quick overview of Sorority recruitment at Iowa:
Step 1: Pay $100 and sign up to be in the recruitment process, and learn that while going through recruitment you can’t hang out with boys and can’t drink alcohol.. good for school , sucky for football games.
Step2: Attend orientation where you meet awesome recruitment counselors (like me) and find out that you could potentially join the sorority of your dreams, or be withdrawn from the process and be unable to join any sorority.. (say what?)
Step3: Attend welcome day, where you go to eleven sororities for twenty minutes, and you usually tell someone what your major and hometown are about 100 time this day! (exciting.) If you really enjoyed a chapter’s company you rate them and they rate you.
Step4: You go to four more events and minimize the amount of sorority chapters you want to join while the chapters also minimize the amount of women they invite back.
Step5: Choose a chapter and go to BID DAY!! On this day you get a bid card and go to a huge picnic and take pictures with your new and random sisters.
For some, the recruitment process is a dream come true, talking with women about yourself and eventually joining a chapter and being a part of something at the University. For others, it’s a nightmare from hell… dressing up, fake laughing and smiling and NOT drinking for two weeks.
“I just felt like I had to sell myself to people, and I wasn’t being myself,” said Maggie Pryde, sophomore at the University of Iowa, “I just hated it, I really hated it.”
Some women feel overwhelmed with how formal the process if and feel as if everyone is being fake, others believe they have meaningful conversations and connections with women at the different sorority chapters.
“I loved talking to different women and learning about the different activities and philanthropies that each sorority had,” said Claire Gelb, Junior at the University of Iowa and active member of Kappa Alpha Theta.
The recruitment process can be overwhelming but, for many it is a great way to meet new friends and have great experiences.