When returning back to the University of Maryland after a long winter break, there is one question that is on many girls’ minds: Which sorority house will I end up in? Spring recruitment is a formal process where women who are interested in joining the Greek community have a chance to meet the women in each chapter on campus. Throughout the process, the women discover which chapters they are most interested and comfortable in.
(Photos by Krista Stucchio)
This year, spring recruitment took place over the course of two weekends, starting on February 3rd, and bid day was held on February 13th. Thankfully, the weather was surprisingly decent, so the girls going through recruitment did not have to suffer through cold, icy walks to each of the 14 sorority chapters on campus. This beats last year’s recruitment weather by a mile.
Something that was also a little different this year was that every girl going through recruitment wore the same recruitment shirt while attending the first round instead of wearing an outfit of their choosing. This certainly made the round more casual and comfortable so first impressions could not be based off of what the girl was wearing, but rather who the girl was as a person.
There are many different types of women who go through recruitment, and each and every one of them has a different outlook on the experience and a different wave of emotions as they go through.
Jess Johnson, a sophomore elementary education major, described the recruitment process as “a rollercoaster of emotions.” “I personally was always excited to start the next round,” Johnson said. “But on the walk to Ritchie every morning I was super nervous.”
However, since Johnson is a sophomore, she admitted that she was not as nervous as a lot of freshman girls going through. Since she already had friends join Greek life last year, they were able to fill her in and calm her down about the process.
(Photo by Liz Roberts)
However, other girls found the process to be quite overwhelming. Emma Ratpojanakul, a freshman history major said, “Recruitment was so stressful since we all know it would shape the rest of our time in college.” She also said that despite the stress, it was also very exciting because she knew she would finally find her “home” at college.
She thought that the last round of recruitment, preference round, was her favorite round because it made her realize where she wanted to be in Greek life. Recruitment “was most definitely worth every minute!” Ratpojanakul said.