joining a sorority

Formal rush happens at the beginning of spring semester (just happened last weekend), in that process it is a weekend of 4 days; ice water, round 1, round 2, and pref. Ice water is informal, like a meet & greet. You go to all the sororities round 1, then through a mutual selection process get asked back to sororities as the day goes on. At pref you attend 1/2 parties then vote & find out your bid that night. If you don't get what you want you can drop but then have to wait an entire calendar year (so, next spring) to go through the process again.

Some sororities also have informal rush in the fall if they didn't meet quota or graduated a lot of seniors, but only a few do.

it's very rare that someone doesn't at least get one bid. with eight sororities, usually there's a match for everyone

"The one you want" is a vague phrase. If you are asking about rush now, a little under a year away, you shouldn't have a preference already. A lot of girls go into recruitment with an opinion of different organizations because of reputations/rumors and then they end up dropping because their expectation did not parallel with their reality.


Anyway, with only 8 sororities on campus, all of the chapters have a lot to offer and will have a mix of girls. AU holds girls to the MRABA during recruitment, which is just an agreement that guarantees girls a bid if they rank both of their preference round choices. Some girls are initially upset by the bids they receive but then learn to love the sisterhood.


The girls who find themselves in a position where they have been asked back to an organization they do not want to be a part of have the option to "suicide" vote, also known as intentional selective preference (ISP) voting. These girls aren't guaranteed a bid, but have a chance of receiving one.

The moral of the story is if you're interested in joining, spend the fall going to the philanthropy events and fundraisers (please don't be that girl who only goes to parties to scope out the sororities- you'll be doing yourself a HUGE disservice,) spend some time getting to know ALL the women, and don't worry about the specifics of recruitment, or which sorority you want until January. There's a very specific reason that AU is a spring semester rush, and it's so you're not even worrying about recruitment at this point in the year.

Also forgot to add: if you're that girl who decides she only wants XYZ and makes that very obvious, you're really shooting yourself in the foot come January. Be gracious, open and friendly, and you'll have your pick of the lot. The biggest mistake freshmen girls make is thinking that they're guaranteed anything. You're not. You have to earn the respect of each and every sorority, whether you think they're for you or not.