What is Informal Sorority Recruitment?

Many people know a bit about what Sorority Formal Recruitment is. Typically there's a hundred women lined up chanting at you in matching outfits while you nervously walk into the house to talk to a few of the women like you're speed dating. When it comes to sorority informal recruitment things are completely different and not many people know that.

When I was a freshman in college at Ohio University, I went through Sorority Formal Recruitment in the Fall semester. I was in my cousins wedding at the same time so I ended up dropping out and not finishing recruitment; I didn't join a sorority. I was sad because joining a sorority was something I knew I wanted to do in college and hadn't wanted to wait until sophomore year to do it. At OU, we have Informal Recruitment which is held around the end of January/February. Not all of the sororities and fraternities participate, it depends on if their IHQ allows them to recruit more people. My freshman year, my sorority, Alpha Gamma Delta was one of the sororities holding informal recruitment. I'm going to explain here how OU/AGD at OU holds informal recruitment. I know at OU the other sororities do it similarly, but I'm unsure as to what happens at every other school; I'd assume very similar.

To start informal recruitment at OU, the sororities and fraternities all set up tables at an event called the All Greek Expo. It's very relaxed and anyone who wants to attend can come and talk to any of the organizations there. The sororities/fraternities that are holding informal recruitment will let those know that they are and people can sign up for them at the All Greek Expo. This is where I will explain how AGD hosts informal recruitment. Some sororities at OU have an event where all of the women come at once, AGD does it a bit differently. Once we have a list of women signed up our VP of Recruitment will email them and set up a time to have what we call a 'coffee date'. It is normally held at the house so that she can be given a house tour but if preferred we also offer it to be held at a coffee shop; it's about what's most comfortable for them. On the coffee date will be 2-3 women from AGD to chat with her. They talk mostly about AGD and the woman going through recruitment. This allows her to learn about AGD and us to get to know her. We focus on the reasons they want to be in the sorority when it comes down to decision making. If they are in it to make friends, if they want to live in the house, get involved more at school; or if they are wanting to join just to have socials with fraternities. Informal recruitment is a much more personal form of recruitment which is great but also makes the process of elimination much harder. After the coffee date, the VP of Recruitment looks at the number of women she's allowed to extend bids to and has to decide who she believes would be a best fit for the sorority. Recruitment is always a hard process in my eyes. As someone going through it there is a bit of stress especially depending on how much you want to join a specific sorority. On the side of being in the sorority, we want to take everyone sometimes yet can't. After the coffee date and the VP of Recruitment finalizing her list, she will send emails out either offering a bid or saying that you won't be offered a bid. About a week later a bid day is held at the house where all of the sorority is there to celebrate the new members!

I am grateful to have gotten to go through informal recruitment, it's a process that isn't always offered but was just was the right time for me. If anyone is considering going through formal/informal recruitment I would recommend definitely giving it a shot! Informal recruitment isn't stressful, fancy, or anything like formal recruitment. Feel free to comment any questions that I can answer/ add to the post that you have!

xx, Taylor