The recruitment process is better than it used to be

For those pnm's who say that the recruitment process is broken, I am here to tell you why it is not. It is so much better than it used to be. Before sororities were required to make large early cuts, they could invite back many more pnm’s in the early rounds and save the large drops for later, and the pnm’s could also decide which houses they would go back to, or not. So that was the origin of the ‘mutual selection process’ you hear about because it used to be mutual selection. A pnm would pick up her invitations in the morning (real actual paper invitations) and decide which ones to accept. She could go to the maximum amount allowed per round, if she had that many, only dropping as many houses as she needed to, or she could decide to drop as many as she wanted at any round and just focus on her favorites, which were almost always the stronger recruiting houses that every other pnm also wanted. Pnm’s were encouraged not to drop more houses than necessary for each round. This is where the phrase ‘maximize your options’ comes from, meaning that a pnm should go to as many houses as possible each round and not drop more than. Sororities loved to have lots of pnm’s attending their parties because it made them look highly desired, the original meaning of ‘high return rates’. Only after the third round did the sororities finally have to get serious about dropping pnm’s and focus on limiting who they were inviting to pref and their bid lists. Meanwhile, the pnm’s would be dropping houses that actually wanted them and were seriously considering them for a bid, having no idea that they weren’t really in serious contention at the other houses. Then came pref round, and BOOM, the huge drops came, and all those pnm’s who had been carried from round to round with no real chance were finally dropped from those houses that were never seriously considering them. So many pnm’s had been led down the garden path, dropping all their other options, and now were left with nothing. Can you imagine? And even worse, pnm’s could have two houses at pref and rank them both and still not get a bid! This is because the house they ranked 1 had them on their second bid list, and the house they ranked 2 had them on their first bid list, and they were cross-cut. There was no quota addition system at the time so when a house reached quota that was it, no more bids. Pnm’s would go all the way to pref only to end up dropped and without a bid. This is why the recruitment process now, with RFM, is so much better even with its disappointments. It is so much better to be released as early as possible from houses that aren’t serious about you, for whatever reason, so you can focus on the houses where you are wanted, and know that if you go to pref and rank them you WILL get a bid. It has always been up to the sororities to decide their own memberships, and forcing them to make decisions earlier rather than lead pnm’s on, is by far the better way.