A while back I remember reading that it was very difficult if you didn’t know anyone, but I notice that many students are now from out of state. Is it really that impossible if you don’t know of anyone or has it gotten better? Thank you.
@citymama9 rush at IU for Sororities has a reputation for being very difficult and emotionally draining, both for the girls and the parents who have a daughter going through it. In years past it was down right brutal due to the bed quota system but IU has moved away from that over the past two or three years. My D went through rush last year and while we are in state, she has several friends who are out of state that went through rush and found homes.
Rush is at the start of the second semester so you have all fall to try and make some connections. As a freshman, you can’t rush until formal rush as you have to have a minimum GPA to even go through so in one sense its nice that you get a semester to focus on adjusting to college life.
I know in her sorority there are girls from all over. A lot of the girls are either from IU or Illinois since IU draws a lot of the Chicago area kids but that doesn’t mean someone from outside of IN or Chicago can’t get in.
My best advice if she decides to go through rush is to keep an open mind, not listen to another website that ranks the Fraternities and Sororities and focus on conversation skills.
To give you an idea, around 2,000 girls will sign up, probably about 1,700 end up actually starting the process and the past few years the quota for each house was right around 55. What normally happens is after the first round of cuts girls will drop when if they don’t get invited back to a particular house and that continues throughout the rounds.
Thanks so much! That was helpful. Do you know how many girls end up dropping out or don’t get a bid? @dcolosi
This is an old thread, but I still remember it. Just thought you should be aware. I have no dog in this fight whatsoever,. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/indiana-university-bloomington/1273221-sorority-recruitment.html
@suzy100 Thank you. I think I remember reading that, but I was hoping the situation has changed. If not then I would not want my D to deal with that knowing how important Greek life is to her. That’s a shame.
@citymama9 I don’t know the final numbers. From what my D told me and her friends, most of the sororities seemed to hit quota. A few took a couple more than quota due to the need to fill up some empty spots. There will be a few chapters that will do an informal after bid night if they fall a bit short.
There are I think 22 chapters so at 55 quote that puts you around 1,200 girls getting bids. I know in my D’s PNM group she said about 5 dropped before pref round. One of her friends said about the same for her group. Round 2 and 3 is probably where most of them dropped after not getting the chapter they liked the most back. If you go into IU rush only wanting 1 or 2 houses then you probably will be disappointed. If you go in with an open mind then your changes of finding a home goes up. For right now, only 1 chapter is unhoused, two others just got houses this year and 1 chapters is in a temporary house so not sure what happens with them after next year.
I didn’t hear about any girls who made it all the way to pref round and did not get a bid but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, I just don’t think my D or her friends know anyone who had it happen. Every girl we know who made it to pref round found homes. Rec’s are not needed at IU but if you can get some then it might get a person invited to an event in the fall which gives them an chance to meet some of the girls before formal rush. Legacy status normally gets a girl through to the second round but after that there are not guarantee’s.
I am interested to see how rush goes this year since my D will be participating from the other side of things.
@dcolosi Thank you again for all your help. Much appreciated!
@citymama9 My D just finished her freshman year at IU. We are OOS. She received a bid and is very happy with her house. However, the process is physically and emotionally draining. The weather is bad in Indiana in January. The girls are standing outside for hours and are miserable–but have to put on their happy face at a moment’s notice. I had calls from my D crying that she wanted to quit when her friends got invited back to a house or two that she liked, which cut her. She got cut from her legacy chapter (mom and both sisters are members at other schools)! Make no mistake, it will be hard. But, it is not impossible. Just as others have said, encourage her to stay positive and keep an open mind. If she wants to enjoy the Greek experience, she should be prepared to take a bid from any house that wants to extend one to her. There are wonderful women in absolutely every single chapter (even the unhoused one which gets dumped on because of that fact alone). Good luck!
@MomfromPA15317 Thanks so much! This process seems so scary and stressful. All I can do is pass this info on to my D and see if she is willing to go through this. Glad your D found a sorority that she is happy with. What do you think gets a girl into a house of her choice if she’s not connected? Is it the relationships she formed with older girls her first semester? Her looks? Bubbly personality? Popularity? Just really curious. Thanks again.
D went through rush last year. As other parents have mentioned, it can be an emotional process for your daughters. In the end, my D was happy with the sorority she joined. It wasn’t in her top 3 at the beginning, but turned out to be a good match.
Keep in mind that the PMNs don’t have much of a choice in the matter. It’s really up to the sorority and specifically if your D makes a connection with the person she speaks with at each sorority during rush. It’s up to that person to advocate for you or not. My D would say the most important aspect of getting chosen is conversational skills followed by luck of the draw. First impressions are important too.
According to my D, there is a sorority for all PMNs at IU if they don’t drop out of the process.
Most campus with national sororities use a system where if the PNM accepts the maximum number of invitation in each round, she will receive a bid in the end. Don’t know if IU uses that system, but I bet they do. It’s not perfect, but it has increased the number of girls who receive invitations over the last 10 years or so.
Unfortunately, being a legacy is a mixed blessing. For my house, if you are a legacy and you are invited to Preference, you must receive a bid. Sounds good, but it often means that they have a shorter number of parties to get to know the PNM.
@citymama9, if you haven’t read “paying for the party”, you might enjoy it and get some insight into IU (including sorority rush.)
@gardenstategal Ooh that sounds interesting. Why do I have the feeling that it’s going to be both fun to read and it’s going stress me out, lol. Anyway, I’ll check it out.
I don’t think it’ll stress you out too much actually. The girls followed in the study who were at the greatest risk (of leaving IU - sororities are only one part of the story!) had very different profiles than your D. It’s an interesting, if rambling and not always well organized and edited, look at a large public university and the various tensions between what attracts FP students, who the school serves and how, and who “succeeds” and why. I am pretty sure there is a full thread here on CC about it. I think you will find it interesting!
I am an IU graduate and was in a sorority there in the 80s. My daughter just finished her freshman year at IU and also joined a sorority, although not the same one as me. Unfortunately, she was released by my sorority after round 3. Some of the IU sororities respect legacy relationships, but some do not put much weight on it.
Some girls do go into the process with strong connections in sororities . . .they might be from a big Indianapolis area high school or one of the Chicago suburbs that sends a lot of kids to IU. Having these connections only helps if they see you as someone they really want in their sorority.
My daughter was from out of state and knew almost no students at IU before attending. She did join several organizations in the fall and met some upper classmen Greeks that way, but not a lot or to a point where I feel it made much difference in her recruitment experience. We did acquire recommendations / references for about half of the sororities, and she was invited to several legacy nights in the fall.
The numbers stated above are about what I’ve heard also . . that there were about 1800 who registered and about 1200 who pledged a sorority. I’d say that the way IU recruitment goes these days is probably about 1/3 of the girls who go through it have a really strong experience and end up with a lot of options, about 1/3 get released by more sororities but if they stick with it will probably have options and will end up happy, and about 1/3 either get released for not making the required GPA or they get discouraged with the process after tough releases and drop out. Very few girls will get released by every sorority, although it can and does happen.
What used to happen at IU . . . when I was there and even up until a few years ago . . . was that many of the sororities would over-invite girls back. It led to girls ending up with no bid. IU Panhellenic is now working to control the number of invites better (why some girls are released by so many sororities up front) and have the sororities extend more bids.
As far as what qualities help a girl in this process, I guess it is my observation of watching girls go through this process at a number of big campuses . . . first cut is grades. Some sororities will cut anyone with a first semester GPA under a 3.2, some a 3.0, some a 2.8, etc. Beyond that, they may not care that much if you have a 4.0 or a 3.3. What kind of impression do you make in five minute conversation . . . are you a good conversationalist, are you upbeat, how attractive and put-together are you, do you seem like a fun girl, have you gotten involved with anything on campus. Some sororities seem to put a lot of weight on how connected you are in the “party scene” first semester, although they are not supposed to talk about drinking / parties during recruitment.
Parents take note . . . there seems to be an inverse relationship between what are considered the “strong” sororities on campus and with the sorority GPAs. The reality is that nearly all the sororities at IU are very strong.
Actually there is very little difference in GPAs across sororities - regardless of their supposed “rank”. https://studentaffairs.indiana.edu/doc/sll/grade-reports/2017-fall.pdf
I feel that a 3.56 average GPA for a sorority is significantly different from a 3.29. The 3.29 isn’t terrible and isn’t far off from the all-women’s average for the campus, but I think on a lot of campuses you will see the supposed “top” sororities also have some of the strongest GPAs.
I just can’t stand the stereotypes. There are plenty of academically talented women in the “top” sororities at IU as well. I know because i have one 
I was in a sorority that had more engineers than other houses on campus (at a recent reunion I learned of even more engineers than I thought we’d had). I really have no idea if the engineers were helping or hurting our house gpa, but I know they were good students and are very successful engineers today.
@Ohiomomto2 Thanks a million. Great and helpful information!