Hi girls. This is your recruitment chair speaking. Welcome. So excited you decided to come out for recruitment this year. Your decision to rush was definitely the right choice. It’s a thrilling, terrifying, exciting, and completely nerve-wracking time, but it’s going to be so worth it. Part of what makes going through the recruitment process so crazy, is that you probably have no idea what to expect. I’ve been getting multitudes of emails, tweets, and Snapchats from incoming freshies begging for recruitment advice, so I decided to address your questions and concerns in the most cohesive, straightforward, and honest way possible: a column. You’re welcome.
DO: Dress to impress.
Think “meeting the boyfriend’s parents.” We want to see girls that are cute, girls that know how to put themselves together, girls who will look good on campus wearing our letters, but please, please, for the love of all that is good, do NOT take that to mean that we want girls walking around with sticks up their asses. People think that all we want is “classy,” but of COURSE we want girls who know how to party. We want to have a great time, so you should be a great time. This doesn’t mean take it to the extreme — we’re not looking for standards risks — so the closet slut in you (we’ve all got a little bit of a closet slut in us) shouldn’t be reflected in the way you dress. Just don’t.
DON’T: Go wherever your friends go.
It can be easy to tag along with your newfound friends, but let’s be honest here for a minute. You’ve known these girls for, what, two seconds? And we’re talking about figuring out who you want to be your sisters. Forever. Sure, it’ll be awkward telling your great new “BFF” that you’re not interested in becoming a “package deal,” but trust me when I say it’ll be WAY less awkward than being stuck in a group of girls you don’t completely mesh with.
DO: Be on your best behavior, but DON’T: act completely fake.
Not only is it misleading, but we can tell. It’s great that you’re trying to make a good impression, but on the other hand, we know if you’re trying to hide something, and if that’s the case, we WILL find out. You think you know how to stalk us? Please. We’re the older, more experienced version of you with YEARS of practice stalking our thousands of potential new babies. You can’t fool us. And trying will get you cut.
DO: Talk about your hobbies and skills.
Tell us something unique that we’ll remember you by. We hear the same, boring speech twelve million times, and I promise you that listening to it is way worse than telling it. We love to find out you have something unique and exciting to bring to our sisterhood. You started your own non-profit in high school? Awesome. When we hear that, we think what a great help you’ll be to our philanthropy chair. You were involved in student government and helped to throw the biggest, most successful dance your school’s ever seen? You’ll be a huge help to our social chair. See how it works? We want to look at your talents, your interests, your passions, and see what you can bring to the table. It’s thrilling for us when we find out we might actually have a shot at winning intramural games this year, and it’ll give you a huge sense of pride knowing that you helped make that happen.
DON’T: Assume there’s one “best” house.
Just don’t. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but even if there were a “best” house, chances are, they are going to drop you. Like 2,000 girls go through recruitment and they drop all but 50 of them. So…
DO: Keep an open mind.
As much as it sucks to say this, not everyone will get a bid from their house of choice. That’s just the way it goes. It’s easy when this happens to be overcome with emotions ranging from extreme sadness, to anger, to indifference, to jealousy, but when it comes down to it, you have two options. You can swear off Greek life and spend the entirety of your four (or five, or six) years of undergrad as a proud GDI proclaiming your hatred of the Greek system and writing Internet articles about how fraternity culture is what’s wrong with America. Or you can realize that ultimately you’re accepting a bid to the best house FOR YOU. After all, do you really want to be a part of a group that doesn’t want you? Of course not. Accept your letters with pride and joy, and get ready for a new family, new friends, and plenty of new memories that you’ll be able to look back on fondly for years to come.
Good luck ladies, and may the odds be ever in your favor!
Nice Move276
Respond
RecruitmentChairTSM
RecruitmentChairTSM (@TheRecruitChair) is a contributing writer for Total Sorority Move. This current grad student and ex-sorority girl survives solely on Diet Coke and the tears of the pledges she personally victimized. She's a Monica, a Marnie, a Miranda, and a Regina. Her favorite hobbies include drinking $14 bottles of wine and binge-watching season 2 of Grey's Anatomy until she cries. You can send her annoying e-mails at RecruitChairTSM@gmail.com
@TheRecruitChair
