<p>so, i'm actually thinking of joining a sorority next year. however, i've heard a bunch of stories of different rush weeks and initiation rituals. im a scared little frosh!!! what are some of the "worst" initiation stories and how can i be put at ease?</p>
<p>Sororities hardly haze or anything anymore; the worst that happens at my school is "wet-bid night" when the sisters make the incoming class drink quite heavily to be initiated.</p>
<p>To have that kind of process of "intitiation" is definitely just an "extra" to the actual ritual. The initiation and ritual processes are supposed to be secret and only known to the sisters of that particular sorority.
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Like many posters and threads have said, sorority/Greek life all really depends on the school. The more public and underground the Greek life is, the crazier it is because of no liablity control.</p>
<p>so how is it set up? are there head sisters or something? how does it usually work?</p>
<p>Again depends on the school.</p>
<p>If you are going to a school with a large sorority system that is composed of primarily inter/national organizations that are members of the North American Panhellenic Council (NPC) then your rush (recruitment, sorry) will be some what similar to this:</p>
<p>Day 1: Some sort of an intro to all the houses and the overall recruitment process. You'll meet your Rho Chi/Rho Gamma/Recruitment Guide (a sorority woman who has disaffiliated from her chapter, so you don't know which chapter she is from, in order to help you find the proper chapter that will be the best fit for you). You'll get your schedule for the first day at this point. Dress is usually pretty casual, or your office of Greek affairs may actually give you a t-shirt to wear. Jeans are okay.</p>
<p>Day 2: Go around to parties at all the chapters. You will basically answer the same questions over and over again as the chapter tries to find out about you. You will get some presentation about the general characteristics of the house and meet members. This is usually a very, very long day, so wear comfortable shoes. At some schools, this day might get stretched into two. Remember not to hold the fact that your tired against the chapters you meet at the end of the day.</p>
<p>At the end of this initial meet and greet, the sorority members stay up late into the night to decide which potential new members (PNM's) they wish to extend invitations to for the next day.</p>
<p>Day 3: In the morning, you will receive your invitations for parties that day, and then must select a limited number of them. 5 or 6 is a typical number but it depends on the number on the campus, and how many days of rush there are. You go back to the chapters you accepted invitations from and get to spend a little more time there, again meeting girls and learning more about the chapter. A lot of places tend to focus this day on the community service aspect of Greek Life, so you might make or do something to help others. You'll also probably see a skit or something. Again after this day, the chapter meets to decide which girls to invite back for the final day: Prefrence Day (pref day).</p>
<p>Day 4: Pref Day
You again show up in the morning, dressed very nicely (the week gets progressively dressier, this day - depending on the school - is typically little black dresses or things that you might wear to nice dinner out). You find out which chapters invited you back, and then can select a maximum of three. You'll then go back, check out those houses one more time. Usually the chapters will hold some sort of ritual that is very special to the chapter, and it can get pretty emotional with some PNM's crying (if you cry at 2 out of 3 chapters, then the one you didn't cry at is probably not for you). After this is all done, you must decide which chapter is your #1, then your #2 and #3. The sororities go through and mark down all the girls that came to their house on pref day from #1 to the end. Then the process of matching those rank order preferences is taken out either by computer (at large schools with a lot girls going through) or by alumnae members of the chapters (at smaller schools).</p>
<p>Day 5: Bid day, you show up at the appointed time and find out your chapter that will be yours for the rest of your life. If for some reason you did not get matched at any chapter, your Rho Gamma will call you and let you know about informal recruitment options (joining outside this crazy hectic process) and save you from feeling embarrassed in front all the girls that did match. </p>
<p>So that's a very generalized overview. I'm not acually a girl but I was in a fraternity and was president of an organization that worked to get HSer's to think about going through and joining a fraternity or sorority. A lot of this is dependent on size (obviously if you only have three chapters, it's going to go much differently. At my school, we had 13 NPC sororities go through formal recruitment and you actually ended up with invitations on the very first day which you had to narrow down to 8 chapters. So our overall funnelling was 13-->8-->5-->3)</p>
<p>As for hazing, it is non-existant in NPC organizations, so you really don't have to worry about a thing. If you do decide to join a local organization, that might increase the chances of hazing, but go with a national name and you have nothing to worry about. </p>
<p>While it does happen that some girls drop out of recruitment or get dropped from all houses mid week, it is fairly rare. Many bigger schools actually have rules that if you go through the entire week of recruitment and do what's called "playing fair" then you will be matched with some chapter. It may end up being your #3 choice, but you will get a bid and you'll have to decide if you want to accept it. By playing fair, it means that you stay through then end and take the maximum number of chapter visits each day available to you. </p>
<p>So if you were going to my alma mater and on 5 party day you only had 5 invites, which included one house you absolutely hated, playing fair says that you have to go there anyways. It also means that if you only have 4 invites for 5 party day (including one chapter that there is no way in hell you would ever join) you have to go to all 4 chapters.</p>
<p>The final thing I will say is that I absolutely loved my Greek experience and there is no way I would have done college without. If I wasn't in medical school I probably would be getting my masters and PhD in college administration and student services so that I could become a Director of Greek Life/Affairs at some university. I really, really strongly believe in it as a worthwhile endeavour.</p>
<p>I can answer any more questions you might have, but i'll also reccomend going to another message board I frequent: <a href="http://www.greekchat.com%5B/url%5D">www.greekchat.com</a> which is entirely fraternity and sorority members. They have a really good section on rush/recruitment and a lot of really nice women who will likely be happy to write any required reccomendations if you don't know any alumnae members of chapters on your campus (they can explain recs better than I can).</p>
<p>heres the deal... as an active fraternity member, sororities dont haze they give presents. there is absolutely nothing to worry about with pledging well aside from the vast time commitment. oh and remember that everything is done for a reason, though it may not seem as such while your doing whatever.</p>
<p>bigredmed, what school do you go to/what sorority are you affiliated with? That doesn't sound at all like the rushing I went through or my friends at other schools.</p>
<p>I assume big red implies cornell.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Brown, how was yours different?</p>
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I assume big red implies cornell.
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<p>I'm assuming Big Red implies Nebraska ;)</p>
<p>thanks for all the help so far. i guess i feel "safer" now lol. bigredmed, wow! thanks so much! very informative</p>
<p>It's Nebraska - Lincoln. </p>
<p>And actually, I'm a guy and a member of Beta Theta Pi. The only reason I know all that information is because as an undergrad, I gave presentations about Greek Life on HS senior visit days. So I had to answer questions about the recruitment process and so on.</p>
<p>Again, that rush scenario is going to be typical of your larger Greek systems with few local sororities. Because of NPC standards nationwide, that is fairly accurate for all schools that have more than 7 or so sororities on campus. You have to realize that Nebraska has 13 sororities that go through formal recruitment, and all are at about 135 members. There is one that doesn't go through formal, just continuous open bidding processes (b/c they dont' have a chapter house). Usually about 650 girls go through formal recruitment at Nebraska each August.</p>
<p>At your smaller schools it will be different. In some cases VASTLY different.</p>
<p>i assumed wrong then.</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>Sororityrush at Washington and Lee is just like bigredmed described. Also as clemsonbo said, sorority pledges dont get hazed - they get candy and presents.</p>
<p>ok, that makes more sense that it's for schools with big greek presence. I am at Brown, which has 7 national frats, 2 national sororities, and 2 national coeds.</p>
<p>First, I need to say my process was quite different because my dad is a past supreme master and one of the most highly regarded men in my fraternity. Basically, what I got from most other people is that during the month of rush during 2nd semester, the organizations have a bunch of open events, and often a few invite only ones. Towards the end of the month, they give out bids, usually each organization has one or two events for biddees, and then you turn in the bid cards, and pledging starts soon after.</p>
<p>The thing that took me by surprise the most of bigredmed's post is that the whole process seems to be 5 very long days, which I don't understand how you give out bids after 5 days of knowing people, and also with school and such, how you have time to spend all day doing this stuff. Unless these aren't 5 days in a row, and you mean more like each weekend you have a day like that, in which case, it is much more normal than I thought.</p>
<p>Brown dude - we're talking about sororities not fraternities, frat rush is very different.</p>
<p>We are talking about sorority rush, but Brown is right. </p>
<p>These are 5 very long days. And the whole process is done over the course of one week. For us at Nebraska, the freshmen girls and the handful of sophomore girls going through recruitment move in to the dorms a week early (they move in on sunday, other dorm residents move in the following thursday, class is the monday after that). Monday is the info sessions, Thursday is Pref, and Friday Bid Day. So the girls know their chapter before school even starts in August.</p>
<p>For the guys, Nebraska, K-state and Kansas all do primarily a summer rush, which I know is very different than most other places. I know that a few other campuses have summer rush, but it is kind of an adjunct period and most rushing waits until school starts, but summer rush is pretty much all we do at UNL. So the guys also know which chapter they are a part of before school starts and as such, can live in the chapter house their freshman year. It wasn't until my late in my sophomore year that I actually stepped foot in to a dorm room that was inhabited by males...</p>
<p>Many schools here in the Mid-Atlantic have a winter or spring rush in January instead, so you get the fall term to figure out which frats/srats you like best.</p>
<p>at clemson we have a relatively large greek scene, i think at last count we have 23 ish national fraternities and 12 ish sororities and rush for both only lasts 5 days. the point of rush is just to get a feeling about the person, pledge season is where you get to know the people. our fraternities have rush in both the fall and spring but sororities only have it in the fall. and yes the rush days are pretty long but the activities are generally at night after classes.</p>
<p>for the people telling me that sorority rush is different than frat rush, here it is the same.</p>
<p>Thank you Bigredmed for clarifying that it is a summer rush, I did not know that existed.</p>