The fall 2023 Inter-Sorority Council primary recruitment concluded with 288 out of 401 potential new members receiving one bid to seven of the eight ISC-member chapters that participated in primary recruitment. This term, recruitment saw a 71.82% retention rate, as compared to 66.2% in winter 2023 and 64.3% in fall 2022, according to an email statement from ISC president Isabella Fox ’24.
According to Fox, this fall’s recruitment cycle saw 192 more bids extended than the 96 bids offered during winter 2023. The number of new sorority members decreased by nine members from fall 2022 recruitment, when the ISC extended 297 bids.
According to Lily Chabica ’26, who rushed this term and accepted a bid from Chi Delta sorority, the recruitment process, also known as “rush,” consists of three main rounds. In the first introductory round, each potential new member talks with members of each house and identifies their top five preferred houses. Over the next two rounds, PNMs continue to identify their top two preferred houses, while houses also rank their preferred PNMs. After these three rounds, the rush process culminates in “bid day,” which took place on Oct. 7. A computer algorithm combines the PNM and the house’s rankings and assigns the PNMs to a house which has extended a membership offer.
According to Fox, the Epsilon Kappa Theta sorority conducts recruitment through a “continuous open bidding process,” which occurs on a rolling basis and is less structured than the primary recruitment process.
Chabica noted that although attending this year’s rush events was “fun,” and that it was nice to “have silly conversations and get to know new people,” the process was also evaluative, involving brief conversations that may not not provide great insight into PNMs.
“[The sisters] judge you based off of that five-minute conversation,” Chabica said. “And I don’t think that’s fair for everyone. There’s a lot more to a person than answering a couple questions.”
Catherine Horner ’26 said that she did not receive a bid while rushing this term. According to Horner, the fall 2023 rush process was “time-consuming” which placed a greater deal of pressure for her to receive a bid.
“It’s an unfortunate box you find yourself in where the amount of time that you put towards rush also increases the stakes and the feeling of disappointment in the end,” Horner said. “But [the time commitment] can make it a bit more intentional.”
Horner added that she chose to rush partly because many of her friends had already committed themselves to the process, making it more difficult for her to resist the pressure.
“Some of it was mob mentality,” Horner said. “Some of it was a genuine desire to enter into a community.”
Horner added that her involvement in the Christian community lowered the stakes of joining Greek life.
“I feel like I have that solid community already in my life,” Horner said. “And a lot of my close friends from the Christian community [and] outside of it are not rushing, and so I feel like there is this real diversity of experience.”
Sade Francis ’23 rushed in fall 2021, the first in-person recruitment cohort since the pandemic. Francis has seen both sides of recruitment, as she interviewed PNMs in fall 2022 and winter 2023 for Kappa Kappa Gamma recruitment.
“We no longer have to wear masks, [but] other than that, it's kind of the same,” Sade said.
Francis highlighted that people can often have “a misconception” about rush.
“They think they need to impress people, or they need to treat [rush] like an interview,” she explained. “[Greek life] is not the end of the world. It is just another space.”
Leadership from the Gender-Inclusive Greek Council including Alpha Theta, Phi Tau, and The Tabard; and all ISC house presidents: Alpha Phi, Alpha Xi Delta, Chi Delta, Epsilon Kappa Theta, Kappa Delta, Kappa Delta Epsilon, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Sigma Delta did not respond to requests for comment on their fall 2023 recruitment process by press time.
