If you are interested in joining Greek life at the University of Illinois, your first couple of weeks of school will become very hectic during recruitment time. This process goes through six rounds of talking to active sorority members until you have narrowed down where you want to end up. Although it is a long and tiring process, these 6 items will make you more prepared for what is to come!
1. You might not think it's worth it.
UIUC has a total of 19 sororities that you visit over two consecutive days of open house rounds. You may not have a connection with every house, and it can start to feel like this formal recruitment isn't right for you. Fight through this! Every round after this gets better and better!
2. You will be disappointed at some point.
I went in wanting certain houses simply because I had friends in them or heard that they were good houses. After having mostly good conversations at these houses, I had no doubt that I would be invited back to all of them. When first invite schedules came back and most of those houses were missing, it was a big wakeup call that this was a much more serious process than I thought.
3. Everyone will get sick.
I started out recruitment sick in the open house rounds. While talking to an active sorority member at one house, I completely lost my voice and couldn't continue the conversation. By the end of recruitment almost everyone I know, including girls in the sororities, had gotten sick at one point. Make sure you keep water, cough drops, and hand sanitizer with you at all times!
4. You'll have to go to houses you don't like.
There is a lot of ways that I saw girls handling this. I, however, had incredibly tired feet so I wore slippers instead of heels with my dress into a house I didn't like. But, I don't advise this. You should 100% respect every house you go to, and who knows, you may end up having a better conversation this round than the last.
5. A lot of girls drop out.
Depending on your expectations going into recruitment, it's likely that you will get your hopes up. A lot of girls don't get back their top houses and completely give up and drop out of recruitment all together. My biggest advice with this is to go in open-minded and give every house your full attention!
6. Trust the process!
I changed my mind a million times throughout all of the rounds. However, when I got to the long final preference rounds, I realized what house was best for me. I am there now, and I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!
If you make it all the way through, bid day and your bid day parties have the potential to be the best days of college yet. Good luck getting there!
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