During this year’s winter recruitment cycle, 117 women received bids from sororities, which includes 111 bids during the rush process and six during continuous open bidding. These numbers are up by one from last year’s 116 extended bids, according to the Office of Greek Life.
Alpha Phi sorority extended 15 bids, Alpha Xi Delta sorority extended 17, Chi Delta sorority extended 15, Kappa Delta sorority extended 15, Kappa Delta Epsilon sorority extended 15, Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority extended 15, Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority extended 10 and Sigma Delta sorority extended 15.
APhi, Chi Delt, Kappa, EKT and Sigma Delt all extended slightly fewer bids than last year, while AXiD, KD and KDE extended slightly more.
All eight houses participated in the formal recruitment process, a change from previous winter recruitment, when EKT conducted an independent “shake-out” process. This year, EKT extended four bids during formal recruiting and six additional bids during continuous open bidding, a process similar to shake-out that takes place after formal recruitment, according to EKT winter rush chair Katelyn Rea ’19.
In total, 144 women registered for winter recruitment, an increase from 125 in 2018 and 106 in 2017. Twenty-nine women withdrew from the recruitment process, more than the 20 women who withdrew last year but fewer than the 40 who withdrew in 2017, according to the Office of Greek Life. Four women did not receive a bid.
Rea described winter recruitment as “a lot more relaxed” than fall term, when a larger number of potential new members places a greater burden on houses and sorority members.
“Apparently, there were 300-something girls going through rush in the fall, and the [potential new member] to sister ratio was, like, 10 to 1 or something [at EKT],” said Rea, who was off campus in the fall and took over the rush chair position this term. “This term, it was, like, 3 to 1 during round one … We actually got to talk to the girls.”
This past fall, 375 women registered for sorority recruitment, and 239 bids were given out, which was a decline from 277 bids extended in both 2017 and 2016.
Kiley Galvin ’21, who accepted a bid at Sigma Delt this winter after withdrawing from recruitment in the fall, said winter recruitment was “more pleasant and more chill” than the fall.
“There’s less girls, and so there’s a lot more time to talk to people one-on-one,” Galvin said. “For the fall, just because it’s a huge quantity of girls, and it’s your first time doing it, nerves are high.”
Mila Escajadillo ’21, who accepted a bid at Chi Delt after withdrawing from recruitment in the fall, also said that winter recruitment is more personal.
“I felt like, during winter rush, since fewer other girls were rushing, I got to have better one-on-one conversations, which was great,” Escajadillo said. “[In the fall], it was tough to be all the way myself and be all the way honest about where I was at and what I was feeling in the process when there was [another potential new member] there too that I was rushing with.”
Escajadillo said that going through recruitment but withdrawing in the fall solidified her desire to join a sorority.
“Fall rush was really good because I got exposed to the system and to the houses and everything, so that I was much more relaxed going into winter rush,” she added.
Galvin said that she thought it was strange that the identical fall and winter processes produced such different results for her.
“If this is a system where you are genuinely getting to show people who you are and sort of find a house where you ‘fit,’ why would it end up so differently both times around?” she asked. “That idea of it working out better — potentially better — for you the second time around even though it’s the same exact process is kind of … suspicious, almost?”
Escajadillo also said that, compared to fall recruitment, the Inter-Sorority Council did a better job in the winter of communicating how the algorithm that assigns potential new members to houses works. The algorithm bases its assignments on potential new members’ preferences and the sororities’ preferences, and is designed to maximize the number of women who ultimately accept a bid and allow sororities to meet quotas, according to a presentation given to potential new members at an information session.
“The ISC was a lot more transparent about what the computer system means [in the winter],” Escajadillo said. “That helped clear up a lot of confusion that was going around in the fall. … There were fewer crazy rumors flying around.”
The ISC did not respond to requests for comment.
