Greek Life is something that varies from school to school, as well as from person to person, and it isn’t something that is for everyone. Being part of an organization that you have to invest so much time and money into, you definitely have to want it. I, personally, had always wanted to be in a sorority, because I have an older sister and I went to an all-girls private high school so I just wanted to continue experiencing that sisterly bond in college.
I spent months researching the eight different sororities at SHU as soon as I committed to the school and of course I had my favorites. Of course, me, being a naïve incoming freshman, thought that because I had a favorite sorority, that was the one I would be in. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Every girl with experience in Greek life told us to “go in with an open-mind” and “trust the process” and I thought it was just a formality. As it turns out, those statements are absolutely true. The three days of recruitment were an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish, but I am so glad I put myself through them.
Day One
After a whole day of classes and stress, I added onto the stress going into recruitment that lasted from 5:30pm until midnight, which was honestly the worst part of the whole experience. During this part, you meet with every single sorority for 25 minutes and talk to a bunch of people whose names you won’t remember, sweating the entire time and thinking about the food waiting for you back at your dorm. I rely heavily on vibes when making decisions and I truly got a different vibe from every room, some good and some bad, but it’s different for every person. How the whole night worked is that you had to rank your favorite sororities and then you would be called back the next day by up to five organizations. I got such an undeniably strong vibe from one of the sororities, so much so that I literally got emotional. It wasn’t my initial favorite, but it definitely became it towards the end of the day. This night was just full of emotions: excitement, stress, hunger, tiredness, etc. After this, the worst part was over.
Day Two: Philanthropy Day
This day is a little more chill. You talk to up to five sororities for a little longer, and they show you a video about their philanthropy (their service purpose) so you actually have something to talk about other than your major and hometown. I didn’t get called back to my two favorites and I thought my world was over, but I went in again with an open mind and it made all the difference. One sorority that I put down as my last choice ended up calling me back and I wasn’t happy about it at first but it ended up sky-rocketing to my first choice after watching their philanthropy video (I cried. A lot. Be warned, you will probably cry at every single one.). This was the first of the day so since I had a new favorite, I somewhat closed off my mind again, but then I went to another one which was now unexpectedly tied for my favorite. To be honest, I left sort of confused on where I stood, but I planned out all possible scenarios from best to worst and hoped for the best for the next day.
Day Three: Bid Day (Part 1)
This day decides your fate. It’s somewhat agonizing, considering you basically have to wake up at dawn to get fancied-up and then have to talk to up to three sororities for a whole hour. At this point you’re exhausted, they’re exhausted and everyone wants it to be over so they try and make it as painless as possible. Personally, the two that I got called back for were my second-best case scenarios, so I went with it. I thought I knew which was going to be my favorite and I was set that that was where I was going to end up. Wrong again. The other sorority ended up making such an impact on me that my feelings changed completely and I was confused once again. Some conversations went quicker than others, but after I had visited both, I knew where I belonged.
Day Three: Bid Night (Part 2)
At this point, I had just rolled out of bed from taking a nap and had also given myself a concussion an hour before the main event (I’m not kidding, I gave myself a concussion and refused medical care until Bid Night was over.) Everyone is crammed into the Edgerton Center, eagerly awaiting their finals bids and the room is ELECTRIC. I’ve seriously never felt as much energy in one room as I did in that moment, waiting for my bid. Before we could open the manila envelopes with our bids inside them, all of the recruitment counselors (who had remained neutral throughout the entire process) revealed their sororities, so that was a fun little addition. And then, the time came to open our bids. There was a lot of paper-tearing, screaming, jumping and hugging and everyone sprinted over to their sorority, myself included. I had gotten my first choice and I had never been happier. After this, we moved onto the Quad where we got to see our sorority and then ran to our newly-found sisters as if we were “running home”. As cheesy as that sounds, I truly felt that I found my home in my sorority and I feel so lucky to have had that feeling.
Advice to Recruits:
- On the first day, don’t wear heels or extremely flat sandals with no support. You’re standing for six hours straight, without comfortable shoes, you’ll want to cut your feet off by the second hour.
- Don’t act fake to try and impress a sorority that you really like. They can tell when you’re being fake and just saying things you think they want to hear.
- Be yourself. At the end of the day, you have to be with these girls for a majority of the time so find a group that connects with you and not the Sorority-Barbie you’re trying to be.
- Trust the system. This is a huge one. You might have a favorite that you didn’t get called back to, or you may have gotten called back to one that wasn’t on your radar, but trust these girls because they may see something in you that best exemplifies their sorority. They’ve been doing this for a longer time, they know what they’re doing.
- You have to want it. I know a lot of girls that went through recruitment because their roommates, their friends, etc. were doing it too and that shouldn’t be your reason for doing it. If you’re open to the idea of it then go for it, but if you know by the second day that you don’t want to do it, don’t force yourself to, because you have to invest a lot of time, money and effort into it. Also, if you know you don’t want to do it, but accept a bid anyway, you’re taking away a bid from someone that might’ve really wanted it, but didn’t get it.
- Trust your gut. If you feel during the process that you’re not cut out for sorority life, then don’t do it. There are plenty of other things to get involved in on campus. And if you see your friends having the best time ever, there is always spring recruitment for select sororities and fall recruitment next year.
- Have fun! You only get one first recruitment.