bids

So I'm in a national sorority so I only know for sure how it works for Panhellenic recruitment, I'm not totally sure about locals. But for nationals, you'll only be able to put at most 2 sororities on your final preference sheet. It's basically a contract saying you'll ONLY accept a bid from the sororities you write down. So, for example, say you get invited back to 2 national formals. I'll call them ABC and XYZ. You decide you definitely do NOT want to be in ABC, so you wouldn't write ABC on the sheet. This tells ABC that you would not accept their bid.Therefore ABC knows not to bid you. But you do like XYZ, so you write them down. XYZ knows you like them and therefore if they like you, they'll give you a bid. However, the contract isn't binding. So even if you do write down XYZ and they do give you a bid, you still have the choice to not accept it. All it's saying is that you would consider accepting a bid from them.

There's also the possibility of getting a snap bid from a national. If you drop out of recruitment or if you're cut from all the sororities before recruitment is over, a national sorority might offer you a snap bid if that sorority does not reach its quota. You could get a snap bid either on bids day, or after bids day during the first week of pledging.