how to have the best recruitment

Going through recruitment can be overwhelming and disappointing if you go into it with the wrong attitude. Here is my best advice:

1) Have faith that ALL houses will give you the fantastic Greek life experience that Bama is known for. We all have a great social agenda, we all take OOS, we all have good grade averages, we all average around 400 members, so no matter what house you join, you will find your tribe, from hard core partiers to hard core honors students and everything in between. You get out of your sorority experience what you put into it, so make the most of the house you land in and you will gain memories and friends for life.

2) Because of #1 above, go into recruitment with an open mind and be ready to enjoy meeting members of every house. Leave behind ranks, status, OR/NR, what house your friends like, and vicious gossip. Open your head and heart to every house. You will be surprised by the variety of houses you enjoy. If you focus on certain houses, your disppointment could be high.

3) With #1 and #2 in mind, know that recruitment days are long and continually conversing with new people will be draining, even for the most extroverted and natural conversationalist. There will be points in your day where you, or the person you are meeting, has hit a wall where conversation just does not flow. This happens to everyone, so don't get hung up about it, be willing to laugh about it and then ask them what they did this past summer. Always be generous in thought, never tell yourself a person is totally awkward, just assume they hit the wall. Many PNMs are surprised when a second round is amazing after an initial awkward meeting. Everyone will have great and awkward conversations and have hits and misses with personal connections. VALUE the connections you make and, here is the hard part, completely LET GO of the misses.

4) Realize cuts are not personal. Every house has a list combining a number of factors: connections, legacies, GPAs, recs, etc. Even if the person you met in a house loved you and you loved them, realize that great connection scenario is what we all seek and happily it is happening over and over, but other factors come into play. A wanted PNM could unfortunately be pushed down and off the reinvite list by a similar connection that occured with a legacy or someone with a higher GPA. Almost every PNM is cut by a house where they thought everything went well. When cut, YOU HAVE TO LET THEM GO and focus on the ones still on your card. Remember #1.

5)EVERY house makes cuts. Sadly, girls are cut by all house and released. If this happens, either shyness or GPA was the most likely factor. The recruitment process based on conversation can be very hard for shy/quiet people. If this is the case and you still want to be in Greek life, consider re-rushing after you have made friends in houses.

6) Knowing every house makes cuts, VALUE the houses that invite you back and know they invited you back because they VALUE YOU. Remember #3 and #5. There was competition for your spot on the reinvite list and every released person would love to be invited back to any house, so be open to and enjoy every house that invites you back and do your part to making deeper connections with each one.

Finally, if you follow the above, you will land in a house that wanted YOU for YOU. What's not to love about that! Remember #1, get involved and give all the different members a chance to love you and you will love them.