Panhellenic gives sorority rush tips

Women’s recruitment for the greek system kicks off this weekend with 20 Party, an event in which the women rushing get to know all of the chapters on campus.
Recruitment begins at 10 a.m. Saturday and ends at 7:50 p.m., with the same hours Sunday.

Laura Walker, the vice president of recruitment for Panhellenic, said this can be a stressful time for women going through the process.

She offered a breakdown of what women need to know if they’re about to rush, or even if they just have friends about to enter the process.

How to know where to go
Before recruitment begins, every woman rushing is assigned a recruitment counselor, or Rho Gamma. She’s a temporarily unaffiliated member of the greek system who’s there to guide the girls and show them where to go and when.

“They help them through the whole process, including where you’re supposed to go, which chapter you’re supposed to go to first,” Walker said.

She said the Rho Gammas also have master lists of each girl and where she’s going.

“For 20 Party, they visit all 20 chapters, so they go from one chapter to another to another, and you’re with the same group the whole time,” Walker said.

She said recruitment counselors and “recruitment team” members will be present at each chapter and just generally around during the process.

The girls will be taken from chapter to chapter on buses from the campus bus system marked “Rush.”

Buses will pick up and drop off girls at designated stops.

What to wear
Round One, 20 party (this weekend)
“Just wear jeans and we provide a red shirt,” Walker said. “All the women going through recruitment will be wearing the red shirts, and usually people layer that and wear coats and stuff.”

Round Two, 14 party
“For the 14 party, it’s going to dinner with your boyfriend’s parents,” Walker said. “This includes leggings, jeans, sweaters, nice shirts and Ugg boots, typically.”

Round Three, 8 party
“It’s a little bit more formal,” Walker said. “Most chapters will be in cocktail dresses, so women will wear a cocktail dress, or a shirt and a skirt, or black pants and a shirt.”

Round Four, Preference Round
“Most women in the chapters will be in full-length dresses,” Walker said. “A lot of women still wear cocktail dresses.”

Walker also said women typically bring their dresses to change into at the actual chapter house.

What to bring
“Mainly, they just need to bring their Go Greek booklets, so that they can take notes at the chapters,” said Courtney Fluke, the director of recruitment counselors for women’s rush. “A pen. If they need snacks, that’s something they could throw in their purse.”


What the chapters are looking for
“It definitely depends for each chapter,” Fluke said. “They all have a set of values that they’re looking for. Women that are interested in scholarship, civic engagement, sisterhood, that are also interested in community service and a philanthropy. They’re just looking for real women that they can see themselves being friends with and that can also portray the values that are instilled in their chapters.”   

Fluke said being natural is key.

“It’s one of those things where I tell them honestly being themselves will be best in the end,” she said.

What to expect
“When the girls go in each house, usually it’s one on one,” Fluke said. “So, they’ll talk to one or two people at a time, and then they’ll talk to three groups of girls total once they’re in.

“It’s just a free conversation. They get to ask questions, and the girls get to ask them questions.”

The women who are interviewing the women rushing will commonly ask about why the women want to go greek, what they’re involved in and any leadership skills they have.
“I would say that being open-minded is number one,” she said. “It’s kind of like looking at the greek system as a whole, so it’s thinking about what they want to get out of the system and what they want to contribute.”

How to kill nerves
“There are moments where it can be stressful, but it’s a really fun process,” Walker said. “There’s a lot of meeting people that is always fun. Talking to their recruitment counselors is really beneficial because they’ve been there and they’ve been on both sides, so they’re kind of an unbiased person.”

Walker said it might help the women rushing to remember that the women interviewing inside the chapter houses are just as nervous.

“Everyone’s nervous, and everyone’s excited,” Walker said.