So many female students in this time have decided to go to college because college can help them in the future with great jobs and opportunities, but did you know that you could have much more help through college and potentially have some memorable and fun experiences?
You can, by joining a sorority to have a great college experience! Lots of people who want to get into sororities in the future or who are in colleges currently might not know how to even be considered to be in any sorority house or how the recruitment process is even supposed to take place. That’s why in this informational article I will be talking about just that, which is how to “sign up” to be a potential sorority house candidate, how the recruitment process works and how your experiences in a sorority can be!
Recruitment
By “Recruitment” I mean making yourself available to be a sorority candidate. According to East Stroudsburg University’s guide on recruitment, in order to sign up to be a candidate for recruitment, all you have to do is fill out a registration for your recruitment participation. Once you would be done with that, then would come your recruitment experience.
Recruitment for sororities will begin with a welcome to all the new sorority candidates from the sorority house(s). The recruitment process will be a week-long process that would end in “bid day” which I will talk about next.
The Recruitment Process
The process to get into a sorority home is a very wild ride, and by that, I mean there’s much to do! According to University of the People’s sorority info, when women want to find a sorority home, they have to go through these steps: rushing, pledging, and lastly initiating.
Rushing
The recruitment process overall could be called a “rush” which is why considered sorority candidates are called rushees. In that time, sorority members from different homes each meet rushees to see if they could fit into the sorority’s lifestyle. After the rush is finished for everyone, sorority sisters could then decide whether or not to recruit a rushee. If you’d get recruited, you would then get a formal proposal to join that sorority on bid day, which is the last day of rush.
Pledging
If the sorority’s chosen candidate accepts the sorority’s formal proposal, then she will become a pledge, which means to understand or make an agreement. As a new member, she will then get to learn about the sorority home. Once an applicant accepts a sorority’s bid, she is considered a pledge. Now, the new member learns more about the sorority, including their history, requirements, and values. Pledging a sorority often requires a lot of time and dedication since many pledges are required to take an entrance exam. After spending some time studying a sorority, pledges are required to take and pass a test where they are quizzed on their knowledge of facts such as Greek symbols, a sorority’s founders, and other relevant details which the pledges could have learned about when they first became a member.
Initiation
New members of the sorority will then go through a rite of passage where they are introduced into the sorority and during the initiation, pledges could then learn about the sorority’s home secrets which could be secret passwords, handshakes, and others. There is usually a ceremony based on sisterhood as well!
Great experiences
You could have so many amazing experiences being a sorority sister when you’re in college, such as planning fun activities to just being in company with your sisters. In fact, a past Animo Jefferson teacher, Liz Borum, actually participated in the Zeta Tau Alpha sorority during her time in college at Cal Poly Pomona. I asked her some questions through email, and here’s how she responded:
“Honestly, I have endless memories of being in college because of being in a sorority. All our formals, our events, but my favorite was probably Greek Week. It was so fun to spend time with my sorority sisters getting ready for whatever event we were working on. There were so many late nights dancing for skit or building a silly wall. It was just fun to work on. It didn’t hurt that all four years of my time as a Zeta Tau Alpha that we won Greek Week!”
Borum responded that her most memorable moment when she was in a sorority was Greek Week when she was working with her sisters for events and having fun on other activities. According to Western Kentucky University, Greek Week “celebrates the founding of the Greek community and its union and sorority and fraternity homes participate in Greek Week to show fondness for scholarship, service, leadership, brotherhood and sisterhood by doing fun competitions against other homes.” Borum’s response truly shows how you can have great experiences.
In conclusion
The process of wanting to be included in a sorority from the recruitment to the recruitment process might seem difficult, or perhaps easy or fun for you, but it’s always nice to get a full experience that can provide unforgettable and fun experiences such as what Borum shared! Now that you know how sorority recruitment works, would you want to join a sorority?
