Every year, thousands of college women go through the process of sorority recruitment. Formerly known as Rush Week, sorority recruitment is the process through which interested women select a sorority they would like to possibly join. Sorority recruitment can be an intimidating time in a college woman's life, but it does not have to be that way.
What is Recruitment?
According to the National Panhellenic Conference, the umbrella organization of America's twenty-six national and international sororities and women's fraternities, sorority recruitment is "a time set aside, usually once a year, for sorority members and unaffiliated women to become better acquainted." The actual recruitment process varies from school to school, so the National Panhellenic Conference suggests that prospective women check with a student activities office for information such as dates and possible fees associated with going through sorority recruitment.
During the recruitment process, women will be expected to narrow down the number of prospective sororities she would like to join. This is often done by attending timed, structured parties hosted by each sorority on a campus, and then going through the college or university's process used during the recruitment time period, which can be a couple of days or a couple of weeks in length. At the end of recruitment, selected women will be offered membership by one organization.
Tips for Sorority Recruitment
Sunday Tollefson, author of the book Rush Right: Revealing Your Best You During Sorority Recruitment and the website SureSister.com, offers several tips for prospective sorority women to keep in mind throughout the recruitment process. Tollefson, a sorority alumnae, stresses that sororities can take up to a year preparing for recruitment, so it is important for prospective members to put their best foot forward.
Develop your own "brand." Tollefson suggests that prospective members sort out their strengths and weaknesses prior to recruitment, and develop a genuine image using those strengths. This should be the image of the actual woman going through recruitment, not a fake personae.
Be prepared for conversation. Talking to prospective women and sorority members is the best and quickest way to become acquainted in a short time. Tollefson stresses that prospective women should be able to present their image and to provide examples and stories of how they have used their strengths and overcome weaknesses in real life situations.
Evaluate sororities how they evaluate prospective women. Sorority recruitment is a mutual selection process, and because of this structure, sorority women have to evaluate prospective women to find those who they would like to invite to join the organization. In order to evaluate women, sorority members often look at what members have to offer to the organization, how they perform academically, and how they present themselves in various situations. Tollefson suggests that prospective women should evaluate sororities in these ways in order to best understand the recruitment process.
Sorority recruitment can be a stressful week for a college woman, especially for those who have not been exposed to the process. However, remembering to stay true to a woman's personality and getting as much information as possible can help make the process easier and more enjoyable.
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