What to Do if You Don't Receive a Sorority Bid
Options for Women Who Don't Get Selected in Sorority Recruitment
May 30, 2009 Sallie Schaaf Borrink
Campus panhellenics work very hard to see potential new members placed in a sorority. The future of the Greek system at every school is dependent on bringing in new members who will be assets to the organizations they represent. However, as hard as the panhellenics and sororities may work to place every woman who rushes, some women simply will not get a bid. There are several reasons why this may happen. But the bottom line is that when a woman does not receive a bid, she has to decide what to do. When this happens, a woman has a few different options.
Go Through Informal or Open Recruitment
The terminology varies from campus to campus, but usually after formal recruitment, any chapters that still have open spots can extend bids. Some sororities will immediately snap bid the women they want and will not announce that they are still recruiting new members. Other sororities will hold informal get-togethers in the following days or weeks in order to meet potential new members and decide to whom they would like to extend a bid. Not all sororities will participate in open recruitment, so the chapters to choose from may be limited. But for women who want to join a sorority and are willing to be open-minded about where they end up, open recruitment can provide an opportunity to still join a sorority that year.
Try Again at the Next Formal Recruitment
Some women who go bidless will choose to wait another year and try again at formal recruitment. This can work well for women who are freshmen and perhaps had a low high school GPA which hurt them and required heavy cuts from sororities with a higher GPA requirements. These women can take the first year of college to beef up their GPA and greatly increase their chances of joining a sorority.
Waiting another year can also give women the opportunity to network on campus, meet more sorority members and better prepare for the process. This can be an asset the next year when going through recruitment, as being known (in a good way, of course) can make a potential new member more attractive to the sorority members. It also gives you some time to make sure you avoid any big mistakes during the next recruitment.
On some campuses, waiting another year will simply not work. If the sororities are known for extending bids primarily to freshmen, being a sophomore may make it almost impossible to get a bid. But this can vary widely from campus to campus, so it is important to get accurate, detailed information regarding options for rushing as a sophomore or junior. Some panhellenics allow sororities to take upperclassmen as “free”, meaning juniors don’t count in the quota total. But, again, this varies greatly from campus to campus.
Transfer to a Different School and Rush Again
As crazy as it sounds, some women will transfer to another school if they do not get a bid from the sorority of their choice. Some women are highly committed to being a member of a particular sorority and will transfer to another school in order to have a better chance of getting a bid.
Some women will also transfer to a different school if their current school’s recruitment is highly competitive and recruitment at a different school is less so. Sorority recruitment varies greatly in the level of competition on different campuses. For women who truly long to be in a sorority but fail to get a bid, transferring to another campus is an option.
Start a New Sorority on Campus
Some women who fail to receive a bid choose to start their own sorority. Many chapters of national sororities start out as local sororities, so this can be a way of becoming a sorority member and eventually becoming a member of a national organization.
Starting a sorority is a lot of work and takes a tremendous amount of vision and commitment. There are no guarantees it will be a success or that the group will be able to eventually affiliate with a national group. It can take many years to go from a local sorority to being nationally affiliated and the women who start the local sorority may graduate long before it actually happens. But it is an option.
Choose to Be Happy as an Independent
The last option is to choose to be happy as an independent. While there are many benefits to joining a sorority and it can be a fantastic way to bring special memories to the collegiate experience, there are also many other ways to be involved on campus. Although failing to receive a bid from a favorite sorority can be devastating at the time, many women will admit that after they moved on and found other things to do on campus, the loss of sorority membership did not seem quite so bad.
Failing to receive a bid during sorority recruitment can be a devastating experience. But there are other options available and by thinking through those options, many women have the best chance of finding the place for them during their college years.
Girl Thinking About Sorority Membership Options
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