Recruitment is the process women interested in joining a sorority must participate in before being extended an invitation for membership.
Do you want leadership opportunities in college? What about a chance to give back to your community? Do you want a space you can be authentically yourself? Sorority might just be the place for you. Everyone who decides to participate in recruitment has different reasons for doing so. Maybe you want to build a network to help you find a job. Maybe you want to create new friends in college. Whatever the reason is, joining a sorority can be one of the most valuable experiences you have in college.
To receive a bid from a National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) sorority you participate in recruitment. Primary recruitment happens once per school year and might be the busiest season for sorority women and potential new members (PNMs). Recruitment could last as little as 3 days and as long as a week. So yeah, it is a very busy time on campus.
Primary recruitment gives participants the opportunity to meet the entire sorority community on your campus. Many campuses will schedule recruitment for 3-5 consecutive days. Schedules will differ by campus and may occur over two weekends before the academic term begins, during the week or over a long weekend.
The Recruitment Process
- Register
- Meet Your Recruitment Counselor
- Visit Each Chapter
- Ask Questions
- Evaluate Chapters
- Chapter Invitation
- Preference Round
The final step to recruitment is Bid Day!
The final step to recruitment is Bid Day! This is where everyone dresses up, cheers and gets so excited to bring home new members they’ve talked to all of recruitment. There are a few things that might happen on Bid Day:
You receive a bid from your top choice chapter
You receive a bid from one of the chapters listed on your MRABA
You do not receive a bid
You receive a phone call offering you a snap bid
If there is an outcome that you were not expecting the best thing you can do is keep an open mind.
You may not think a chapter is the best fit, but you may find it is your home away from home. If you don’t receive a bid there are other options, like participating in continuous open bidding (COB) or snap bidding.