The Truth about Sorority Recruitment

Being in a sorority has changed my life drastically for the better.  As cheesy as it sounds, my involvement in the Zeta Kappa chapter of Delta Zeta at Ohio Northern University has made me a better person.  My sisters and my sorority play a great role in helping me become the person I want to become.

Today, our sorority welcomed 21 special new sisters into our sorority and I could not be happier!

After many recruitment rounds and endless nights of voting, you could say that recruitment week is pretty exhausting.  After going through recruitment as a PNM (potential new member) last year and seeing it from a sorority sister’s perspective this year, I have found that there are completely different viewpoints and opinions of recruitment.

Last year, I was an excited potential new member, looking to make an impression on all of the sorority members I liked.  I will hopeful, nervous and eager for each round that I attended.  From progressive dinner, to open house, to philanthropy round, to sisterhood round and finally to preference round, I was so focused on getting the girls to like me and trying to make the decision of where I wanted to go.

This all worked out well for me last year and I found I am exactly where I am supposed to be.  During recruitment, I wanted girls to feel the same way I did about a certain sorority when I was going through recruitment.  Just as PNM’s usually have a certain sorority in mind, we also have certain girls in mind to fit into our sorority.

Being on the other side of things this year, I discovered how much work has to be done in order to give a good impression to new members.  Months in advance, we plan what outfits to wear for each round.  Just like PNMs, we spend a decent amount of time to get ready and look our prettiest.

I also realized how much judgment is involved.  As much as I love Greek Life at my school, I hate how much judgment is done to these girls to see if they will fit into our sorority.  We have about a week to really get to know these girls.  Some of the girls we never see outside of the mini time blocks at the recruitment rounds and most of us have never even met some of the girls.  We rely majorly on what others say about them and go from there, putting our trust in the opinions of our sisters.

As exhausting as recruitment can be, I believe it ultimately makes our sorority stronger.  We have to learn to trust each other to make decisions.  We spend countless hours trying to creep on as many girls as possible but at the same time, get to know our own sisters better as well.  When we know we want a girl in our chapter, it is because we know they possess the qualities we value in our sorority and will make our bond as a chapter that much stronger.  Recruitment made me realize how much every new member matters.  Even if we didn’t get every girl in our sorority that we wanted, we know every girl is where she is meant to be.