Information on COB for Sororities

There are very few COB spots available for chapters that do formal recruitment, so it’s going to be hard to get a bid and tbh probably will not work out. Unless you have strong connections to a house that's COBing, but that's obviously not the case based on what you typed

The exception is SDT which tends to do an informal recruitment, but they participated in formal recruitment this year. They are a smaller chapter so their pledge class was smaller (as planned). I'm not sure what their plan is or whether they will do informal later

Contact the Panhellenic office and ask what you need to do to put your name on the COB list. Panhellenic will share the list of interested names with the chapters who are eligible for COB. If any of those chapters are interested in meeting you, they'll contact you. COB is by invitation only vs formal rush where at least every chapter met every pnm during Round 1.

In other words, go ahead and sign up but don't get your hopes up. Very very few chapters will even be eligible for COB and most prefer to extend bids directly to friends of current members who are essentially pre-vetted.

If you're a freshman who did not go through rush this year then do the following: make good grades this year, get very involved in a couple activities on campus, get a leadership position in an activity on campus, and try to make friends with sorority women (if possible). This would set you up well to rush for the first time as a sophomore.

If you went through recruitment this year and got dropped, something was wrong whether that was your resume or social skills. You can try to correct that and set yourself up to re-rush, but no guarantees on it being successful.

If you went through recruitment and decided to drop out because you didn't like the house(s) you had left, then I don't feel bad for you. You chose not to participate and Greek Life and are being unrealistic in thinking next year will go better for you.

Remember that sorority recruitment is a mutual selection process. It unfortunately is not all about who you feel you're compatible with. You can think you're compatible all you want, but the house has to feel the same in order for you to get the bid.

If sorority recruitment doesn't yield you a bid, there are plenty of other groups to get involved with on campus.

Non-traditional options for socializing & philanthropy--

Re: SDT
If you went through recruitment this year and had them left, you could reach out to them. Maybe they would give you a chance. They don't have a big house like the other chapters, but they are also NPC group (so you will have lifetime benefits from that) and they seem very close due to the fact that they are smaller than the other chapters.

Re: OPhiA
They are a service sorority, not a NPC sorority (so you don't get as many benefits), but you would get to be part of a group of women who are passionate about philanthropy.

Re: Spirit Groups
Obviously these are not Greek Letter Organizations, but they are a great way to get to know people and to participate in social activities, service, and spirit at UT. Really fun, I've heard nothing but good things from my friends who are in Spirit Groups. Just like sororities, they prefer to take freshmen, so I would definitely check them out if your recruitment was unsuccessful this year.

Honestly, I would do one of the above over re-rushing, assuming you did participate in formal recruitment this year.