For me, joining a sorority was never a difficult decision. I wanted to find a group of people who would make the large campus a little more homey, and as cheesy as it sounds, what I found was much, much more. What I have now is a physical home, where I am welcome all the time and where I will live next year, filled with girls I am comfortable with. While I made great friends my freshman year in the dorms and in other student organizations, they can’t compare to the family atmosphere instilled in each sorority and fraternity. Being connected to not only my pledge class but too such influential women throughout history is an honor. 

Even just having seniors on campus say, “Hi” and giving your child advice in their major is a huge help. There are so many advantages that I have discovered since joining that I never could have known from the stereotypes in movies, and I would encourage anyone and everyone to see for themselves.

Will this look bad on your child’s resume?

Nowadays, an important part of finding a job is networking. It’s not enough anymore to earn a 4.0 grade point average and play intramural tennis. While these are still both impressive and important, they might not find the connections needed to land that accounting job in a Big Four firm. By joining a Greek organization, students are almost guaranteed to meet someone who has the same major or career path, which can help your child out in connecting with the right professor, internship coordinator, etc. Aside from brothers and sisters on campus, reaching out to alumni from Greek organizations is also highly encouraged. These people are already doing what your child wants to do and are already successful. Many, if not most, are more than willing to help Greek brothers and sisters out because of that shared bond. And as far as putting a Greek organization on a resume goes, there are many leadership opportunities that look great to future employers. During my freshman year, I took on two leadership positions that directly relate to my major. As a news-editorial journalism major, I took over the sorority’s newsletter. I also demonstrated organizational skills as the parents club chair, where I planned Moms’ and Dads’ weekend activities. These experiences have already helped me and will only continue to build throughout my next three years on campus. 

How can your child rush? 

Fraternities and sororities recruit potential new members, also called PNMs, differently. Fraternities practice less formal recruitment, while sororities host invites and open houses for their possible pledges. Girls are required to register with Panhellenic council for a fee, and then get a recruitment number. Based on this ID number, girls are split into groups, led by Gamma Chis, who are older girls disassociated from their houses to help PNMs through the recruitment process. Sororities host open houses, where every group visits every house. Through mutual selection, girls are given a list of houses to visit for first invite. They then choose seven for second invite, and three houses for third. Finally, on bid day, girls are placed in houses. All of these details are laid out in a PNM handbook given to each girl at the beginning of the process.

What if your child doesn’t get chosen?

With 36 sororities on campus girls are more likely than not to be placed in a house. However, you can drop the rush process at any time if you have your heart set on one or two houses that don’t call you back. Keeping an open mind is very important. The best advice I can give for parents with sons or daughters considering greek life their incoming semester, is to warn them against choosing what their four best friends from high school choose. This will limit their selection and possibly not offer them the best experience in the long run. Instead remind them to take the time to focus in themselves, do what they feel is best, and they can’t go wrong.

Chrissy is a sophomore in Media. She can be reached at [email protected].