Finding what's right for them

Sophomore Sophia McCormick walked the steps to the sorority Friday. The beautiful sound of music echoed from the house as she waited outside in the cold. \nHer recruitment counselor led the group in, and McCormick was welcomed to the house with the same singing she heard outside. The sorority members circled the entranceway, serenading their house song.\nBut one of the women attracted her attention, and right then McCormick said she knew she wanted to be a sorority member. \n"It was all gorgeous-sounding singing, then there was one girl with the worst voice in the world. She was just screaming at the top of her lungs. \n"That's so me," she said, smiling. \nFor McCormick and over 1,000 other women who went through Formal Recruitment over the weekend, this time is about finding what's right for them in a sorority.\nMcCormick said it's been a challenge but one she has enjoyed.\n"You can say 'Oh, I want a quiet house where I can study' and then you go in a quiet house and it feels weird," she said. "You wonder if the girls are even friends."\nMia Laflin, the IU Panhellenic Association vice president of recruitment, said this is the time to get to know the personality of each chapter.\nThe entire process began in the fall, when interested women registered for recruitment.\nIn November, potential members visited all 19 of the sororities on campus over a two-day period. Laflin said the women got an overview of each chapter, a house tour and got to meet some of the members in each chapter.\nThey then returned from break early and ranked their top-12 chapters they wanted to visit again. Thursday and Friday, the women visited their chapter choices for a closer look and selected six potential sororities. If the sororities asked those women to return, then a match was made and they could continue to the six houses on Saturday and select three houses to visit for Sunday.\nEverything culminates tonight -- "Bid Night" -- when the potential member ranks her three choices, and the sororities list who they would like to join. Laflin said a recruitment counselor will hand the invitation letter to the new member if she is selected.\n"We have buses around campus that will take the women to their new home," Laflin said. "They will get their sweatshirts, chapter letters and meet their new sisters."\nMcCormick said this has definitely been an eye-opening experience. She said her first impressions weren't always true.\n"I found that a lot of the girls could have an intellectual conversation in small talk," she said. "My favorites are my favorites because I was able to have that deep talk immediately."\nShe said she was surprised some women in the chapters were able to open up so quickly.\n"The girls that I liked can talk to me about something other than where I'm from and what my major is," McCormick said. "I can have a conversation about random things like the Middle East crisis."\nFor McCormick, this was the most important thing she said she wanted to find in a sorority. In this time of important choices and life-long decisions, McCormick said many of the potential members feel confused about what to do and what they want.\n"I really talked with my counselor and figured out what I wanted right up front," she said. "But there are some girls that still don't know what they want or where they want to be."\nAs one of the recruitment counselors last year, senior Carrie Zboch said that's the reason she was there.\n"We act as an unbiased assistant to help the women go through recruitment," she said. "It's to help them decide."\nMcCormick said her counselor was always a shoulder to cry on if she needed it. She said many of the women on her floor found whatever encouragement they could during the week.\n"Throughout the dorm there's lots of conversations with Mom," she said. "Whatever support group there is, the girls are always on 24/7."\nTonight at 9 p.m. McCormick and the other women will be eagerly waiting for their invitation letter and their new home.