To the girl getting ready for sorority recruitment;
First off, I am so excited you decided to take a step towards joining greek life! Regardless of the outcome, you're about to go through one of the most fun experiences you'll have in college. You get to learn all about the greek community and get to meet some great friends along the way. Recruitment truly showed me an incredibly new side of Ohio State. I cannot thank this process enough for giving me the opportunities it did.
Coming from someone who experienced every possible part of recruitment (being ineligible for recruitment, informal recruitment twice, and an unsuccessful formal recruitment) before I found my home, I want to give you some advice. Now this isn't advice to get you into your "dream chapter." If that was what you were looking for in this article, still hear me out! Recruitment is stressful, and my goal is to let you know what my experience was like and things I wished I knew before I began the process to finding my home.
Don't Be Anyone Other Than YourselfYou're looking for your future sisters during this process -- The girls who are going to accept you for you. It's easy to want to talk yourself up to seem better or to try to act a little different, but don't! Your sisters want to know you for you. I truly believe there is a home for everyone if they want one, so don't sweat. You'll enjoy your greek experience less if you go through recruitment acting like someone you're not. You may end up in a house that wasn't a good fit for the real you. The process is good at matching girls with their right homes, but not when a girl is pretending to be a different person. Just know, even if you don't find your home right away, your time will come. Just be yourself, because trust me, yourself is more than good enough!
Everyone Is Nervous
The girl next to you, your Rho Gam, the girl talking to you from (insert sorority name here) -- They'll all nervous too! You are definitely not alone. There is this ominous cloud that floats around during recruitment that makes you feel like pressure to be "perfect". Look good, but your outfit isn't going to completely ruin your rush. Do your makeup, but if you don't wear lipstick, you'll be fine. Talk about fun things, but don't worry if you haven't recently went skydiving to seem interesting. The girls from each house want to impress you just as much, if not more, than you want to impress them. Your Rho Gams get to know each of you and connect with you, and feel pressure to help you find your home. It's scary for everyone involved, but only if you let it become scary.
Keep An Open Mind and Heart
The biggest mistake people make is narrowing their options so quickly. It's easy to get your heart set on a house after the first round, but try not to because it sets yourself up for a bad recruitment. Each house honestly has amazing things to offer. The only opinion that matters is yours. Don't listen to what other girls think of chapters and don't talk bad about chapters to other girls. Also, just because you're a legacy somewhere, doesn't mean your best fit is in that house (and side note, does not guarantee at ALL that you'll even make it past the first round there). You need to keep an open mind to find the right house for you. You'd be surprised at the houses you never thought about that you'll end up loving. Letting yourself get set on a chapter just sets yourself up for heart break. Let your heart tell you where you belong!
If You Don't Find Your Home, It's Okay
Like I mentioned above, I believe there is a home for everyone who wants one. Whether that sorority is a PHA sorority or not. It took me personally much longer to find my home than most girls, but I ended up in the right place and that's all that matters. Maybe you go through recruitment and decide maybe greek life isn't for you, that's totally okay too! What matters is that this system is designed to help each girl discover who she wants to be and find her in the right place based on that. So if you decide that your place isn't in greek life, don't sweat! You're going to find your niche on campus, whether that is in greek life or not.
Enjoy It!
There is a lot going on, and it can definitely be easy to get wrapped up in the stress. It's important that you remember to enjoy it. I have some amazing memories from going through formal recruitment (even though I did get cut from all the houses during formal). You're going to make friends and you're going to get to see sides of each chapter that you wouldn't see other wise. Plus, let's be honest, it's a ton of fun seeing the inside of all these gorgeous houses. Have fun talking with each girl. Enjoy the snacks. Enjoy looking fabulous. Smile! It'll be tiring, but you're going to have a blast. This experience is as great as you make it
Good luck!
- An excited friend
