It's All Greek to me! : Tomorrow is the Day!!

So tomorrow is the first day of recruitment and I cannot wait to share this experience with you!! I am so excited to have a new home next Sunday! Recruitment at BGSU is split into 4 rounds. The first two rounds are this weekend and the next two, along with bid day, are next weekend. Now for everyone who is not familiar with Greek terms, bid day is the day where everyone finds out what sorority they are in. Afterwards there is a big party and celebration with your new chapter. I will explain more as it gets closer.

At BGSU there are 11 Panhellenic Chapters. Throughout recruitment I am going to name each sorority after a Disney Princess for privacy reasons and so I can express how I truly felt at each chapter during the rounds.

Belle
Ariel
Aurora
Jasmine
Snow White
Pocahontas
Cinderella
Tiana
Rapunzel
Merida
Mulan

            After I receive my bid I will reveal what sorority I join but the other names will not be revealed.

            The first two rounds of recruitment are: Meet the Greeks and Sisterhood round. The first round is split up into two days. I will visit 5 chapters tomorrow and 6 on Saturday. The first round starts at 6:30 pm and I believe ends at 9. I have to arrive at our Student Union, where recruitment takes place, at 5 pm L. Some of my friends and I are going to get dinner beforehand since there isn’t a break.

            For the first round we have to wear a shirt that they provide us with and then we can wear pants, appropriate shorts, and shoes of our choice. I am going to wear pants my first day and shorts for the second day of Round 1.

            At the end of Round 1 on Saturday is when I will do my first pref, list the houses in the order that I like. We can visit up to 8 houses for Round 2. So how preffing works is you will go and write down your top 8 choices and then you will list your bottom 3 choices in the order of which one you like the most to dislike.

            While you do this, all of the other chapters are ranking EVERY pnm (potential new member- what you are before you receive a bid) that they see. When you go through recruitment you hear the phrase “trust the system” A LOT. What they mean by that is where ever you get placed or whatever houses you get asked back to, you need to trust that there is a reason for it. If you get released from a house that was your absolute favorite, you need to trust that it there was a reason for it.

The system is a mutual selection process which means you pick the sororities and the sororities pick you. So if a sorority in your top 8 doesn’t have you on your invite list, you will be released from their house. But if I chapter from your bottom 3 list wants you back but you don’t want them back and all 8 of your top choices want you to come back, you won’t have the bottom 3 on your list anymore. But if some of your top 8 houses don’t invite you to come back, but your bottom 3 do, the bottom 3 houses will start filling in the spaces of the top 3 houses so you will have a full schedule. It is very complicated and confusing but it works!

            So on Round 2, which is Sunday- Sisterhood Round, I can have up to 8 chapters that I can go back to. If I get invited back to 8 house I will have a full schedule, but if I don’t then I will have gaps in my day. At the end of round 2, I will pref again and I can get invited back up to 6 houses. So I will write down my top 6 and bottom 2.

            Next Monday-Thursday is PNM week, and I will be doing fun events with my recruitment group every night. Then Friday and Saturday are rounds 3 and 4 and then Sunday is Bid Day!! I am so excited and can’t wait for everyone to read about my experience J