<p>Sorority recruiting (they don’t call it rush) at Elon is a mutual selection process. It takes place during “Fake Break,” the week between winter term and spring term, at the end of January. It is designed that there will be a place for everyone. I’m not sure it always works out that way, but that is the goal. For example, if there are 8 sororities and 400 girls rushing, then each sorority will take 50 girls. Sororities can’t say, “Sorry, we only want 20.” So at least in theory, there is a place for everyone.</p>
<p>If you’re interested in the details: Elon has 8 sororities (and a 9th is colonizing now). This year there were about 450 girls who started the rush process! They are divided into smaller groups, each group has a Psi Chi - an older sorority girl who has chosen to temporarily disaffiliate from her sorority to counsel and guide girls who are going thru the recruitment process. </p>
<p>The first day all girls visited all 8 sororities. After that day, the girls pick 2 sororities to “drop.” The sororities make a list of the girls that they want to invite back (not sure exactly how the numbers work, but they don’t cut very many). The next day, the girls return to the sororities that invited them back. They go a maximum of 6 sororities - if all 8 sororities invited them back, they don’t go to the ones they dropped. If less than 6 invited them, they have to go to all the ones they’re invited to (even if it’s a sorority they chose to drop). After that second day, the girls again pick 2 more to drop, and the sororities whittle their list further. Third day, the girls visit a maximum of 4 sororities. Both the girls and sororities trim their lists further, and on the 4th day - “Preference Day” - the girls go to 2 sororities. After preference day, the girls pick their first and second choice sorority. The sororities take their list and give the top half of girls a 1, the lower half a 2. Then they are matched up (I think all this is done by a computer). In the end, everyone who goes to preference round will be placed in one of the 2 sororities they saw that day.</p>
<p>This year, my D told me that 450 girls started rush. Some dropped out after the first day - just didn’t like it or found it too stressful. Others dropped along the way when they had a particular sorority in mind and it didn’t invite them back. But in the end, I think close to 400 girls stayed with it and ultimately pledged a sorority. I’m assuming that because my daughter’s sorority pledge class has 48 girls! (48 pledges times 8 sororities is almost 400 girls).</p>
<p>I don’t know what happens if someone does not get invited to return anywhere, but I have to think that would be extremely rare. My D’s roommate only got invited back to 4 sororities after the first day, and one of the ones she was invited to was one she had wanted to drop. But she started recruitment with a focus on a single sorority, and D thinks she kind of gave off that vibe to the other sororities. In the end she pledged a sorority, and although it wasn’t the one she had initially wanted, and so far she’s really happy.</p>
<p>Frats, on the other hand, are much less formal. I don’t know how that works exactly, but it’s not a prescribed thing like sororities. The frats at Elon are smaller than the sororities.</p>