Greek life: While incredibly fun in my opinion, it can be admirably overwhelming from the outside. There’s a lot of slang and practices that are pretty hard to catch if you aren’t in greek life. Whether you’re about to go through the process, just rushed, or even live on a campus, I hope you can find this guide helpful.
1. Fully Initiated
Someone that has completed the new member process and has gone through their chapter’s formal initiation. Once you’re fully initiated, you’re an active member of the house and are able to wear your letters with pride!
2. Brother/Sister
Calling someone a bother or sister just means they’re an active, fully initiated member of their greek organization.
3. PNM (Potential New Member)
This is an abbreviation people use to describe someone who is going through the rush process, whether it’s formal or informal. When a sorority is recruiting a girl, a sister will refer to her as a “PNM.” For example, you might hear someone say “there were 12 PNMs at the event tonight!”
4. Bid
When a chapter formally invites a PNM to join their sorority/fraternity, they will receive a bid. A formal card is presented to the PNM with the offer to join and, if the PNM chooses to accept, they’ll be on the road to becoming a fully initiated member.
5. NIB (Newly Initiated Brother)
This abbreviation is commonly used in fraternities to describe someone who was just initiated. Usually, brothers pronounce “NIB” as a word.Â
6. COB (Continuous Open Bidding)
This is an abbreviation people use when referring to informal recruitment. When a chapter is still giving bids after formal recruitment, the chapter is participating in “COBing”. You can use “COB” as a noun or a verb. Someone who is “COBing” is someone going through informal recruitment, or you can say someone is a “COB.” This abbreviation is said as all three letters and isn’t pronounced like corn on the cob.
7. RCs (Recruitment Councilors) or Gamma Chis
When going through formal recruitment, a few active members will disassociate from their chapter and lead the recruitment groups through formal rush. Basically, they’re meant to help make sure everyone gets where they need to be at specfic times. These people get called both RCs and Gamma Chis.
I know this is a lot to learn, but at the end of the day, you will pick up on it and dont be afraid to ask if you need help!
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