formal recruitment

So I am a sophomore and a transfer student. Are getting involved and am going to try to get the best grades I can, but I'm worried about the rec letter things. I know they help a lot especially if you're not a freshman. But I've asked around and really can not find any alumni that were in any of osu's chapters since no one in my family has gone greek or teachers that I can think of from high school or coaches. Is it going to hurt my chances without having them if I believe I can meet all the other credentials?

^ yes I knew that! Thanks though, thats why I asked though was because I really can't find anyone at all even who didn't go to osu since I'm hoping to be the first in my family and don't have any teachers/coaches that were in one.

asking your mom's friends, people from church, your friends' moms, your siblings' friends' moms...surely out of those groups you will find some Greek women. You can also check to see if there are any Greek alumni organizations in your area (like XYZ alumni association of the Greater Insert Your Area Here).

Recs are not mandatory, but they do help put you in front of the sorority membership chairs/committees, and might help you stand out if you have good recs.

Awesome advice, thanks guys. Also I remember reading somewhere on here that someone said they aren't a written letter but a form to give to the person to fill out that varies by chapter. How are we supposed to get that form in order to send to them to fill out?

So we basically just make a resume of all our activities past and present, photo, and send it to them?

Would anyone be able to give any advice to PNM's who are planning on going through formal? I've got the general idea of get a good gpa, get involved, don't bad mouth chapter, that recs help, keep an open mind of all chapters, don't talk parties or boys, etc.

But is there anything anyone wants to say that could help us PNMs? Kind of like what to talk about and what not. Is it recommended to ask the sister questions as well or just keep talking about ourselves while in a chapter party? What are chapters looking for to make a pnm stand out? What acting/talking ideas are appropriate? Is it better to act overly excited to be there (to show how interested you are) or to act natural and may come off seeming uniterested?

I am a 2nd year and am interested in going through formal recruitment in January. What is the entire recruitment process like? I have basic knowledge of each round but could someone give more details? Like how pnms and sororities narrow down the list of who gets to go back for the second and third rounds, what bid day is like exactly, what happens if you don't get a bid and especially how likely is it for a sophomore to get a bid at osu? Thanks in advance!

Round 1 - Meet the chapters: All girls go to all 15 chapters for 25 minutes each over a 2-day period. You must go to all 15.
After this round, you will group rank your top 10 favorites as "1" and rank 11, 12, 13 and 14 as "2", "3", "4" and "5". You will not rank Gamma Phi Beta because they will not participate in any other formal rounds

Before Round 2, you will get your invitations back. There will be a maximum of 10. If everyone invites you back, you will get all of your "1" votes. If chapters in your top 10 don't invite you back, you will go to 2, 3, 4 and 5 (in that order) until you reach a maximum of 10 chapters. Some girls will not get a full schedule. It happens and the sun will still rise tomorrow.

Round 2 - Philanthropy Round: You will get your invite list, of up to 10 hours. You must attend all of your invites and NOT skip a house because you don't like it. Doing so could disqualify you from getting a bid.
Each of your up to 10 parties will be 30 minutes long. After you finish this round, you will rank your top 6 favorites as "1" with the others ranked 2, 3, 4, 5 in the order you prefer them.

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Before Round 3, you will get your invites back with a maximum of 6 parties on the list. Again, if you are invited back to all of them, you will only see your 1s on the list. If you don't get all of your top 6, you will go down into 2, 3, 4, 5 until you hit a max of 6.

Round 3 is the Sisterhood Round, each party is 45 minutes each and you go to a max of 6 and you can't skip a party. After Round 3 you will rank your top 3 favorite as 1, with the other three as 2, 3, and 4

Pref Round: You will attend a max of 3 houses, one hour each, and you must attend all parties where you are invited. After this round, you are required to rank, in order, 1, 2 and 3. While you have the option to Single Preference, however I absolutely not recommend it. If you only select one, you might not get a bid at all.

Bid lists from the chapters are matched with the PNM lists.
If you rank ABC as #1 and you are on ABC's first bid list, you are a match and everyone is happy.
The computer will match all PNM's #1s with the first bid lists from all of the houses as a match. Of course, not everyone has a 1:1 match.

If you rank ABC as #1 and you are not on ABC's first list, the computer sort of puts you to the side. You might end up getting into ABC depending on how many 1st matches ABC gets and where you land on the second bid list. This is what is called Mutual Selection.

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Mutual Selection
Example: Lets say Quota is 50 and XYZ had 150 attend pref. Their first bid list has 50 names on it, in no particular order (sort of like all of your 1s that you listed). They have a 2nd bid list that does rank the girls 51-150.

If 30 girls that attended XYZ ranked it 1, XYZ will take 20 girls from their 2nd bid list.

So the computer will match all of the First Bid Lists from every chapter with the girls who ranked them 1 respectively. Of course, not everyone will match.

Lets say that DEF also had 150 attend pref and Quota is 50. Assume that everyone that was on their first bid list ranked DEF a 1. Since you have a 1:1 match to quota, you have not slots open to take any of the girls on your 2nd bid list that ranked you as a 1. So, the girls that were not matched that were "set aside", will then start being matched to their #2 choice based on the slots open at their #2 house, etc.

These are the basics and I didn't touch on quota additions. If you want this information, go read the NPC Green Book.

Bottom line...most girls get their #1 choice. I don't know the percentages since Panhel doesn't post them. I think at Miami it is something like 85% get their first choice, 10% get their 2nd, 2% get their 3rd and 3% get no match. No match includes girls who suicided.\n\n\n\n\n