alpha phi recruiting process exposed

Having been in my chapter for 4 years, I wish I understood why I was put in certain bump groups. I was even on the recruitment committee for my house and don't understand it. Some groups were very clear that even if they weren't "favorites," they were certainly all a specific type of girl (crunchy granola girls, hermes bracelet girls, etc) but what was I? If I were to base what my chapter thought of me off my bump groups, I'd say they either thought I was nice but shy or just totally random, which isn't how I view myself in my house at all. Who knows, maybe I was just a wrangler or placed specifically to bring something out in different sisters.

I think there are aspects of the A Phi article that we're all familiar with but there are some major differences. My house absolutely does not recruit girls just for looks. We would rather have a decent looking girls with a good personality, grades, and activities than a true beauty who is a poor student and not very interesting. Alpha Phi would take the beauty. Every time. They have some girls who are smart and have great personalities, but that just happened by chance, not because they were looking for those traits. Also, she said it was cutthroat because the actives had to judge each other by looks, personality, etc. for the bump groups. That would be harsh. We were assigned by someone on the recruitment committee who put together groups that were more well rounded so they would appeal to a wider range of girls. And we didn't have to judge each other. Btw, not an A Phi obvs but I don't hate them either. I ranked them at the bottom the first day because the girls I met seemed boring to me. I'd say my house is upper middle and we have lots of beautiful girls. But they also have lots of other attributes.

I mean it’s not odd to organize bump groups to appeal to PNMs most effectively, but the difference is the laser focus on looks. There’s no reason to do an in person coffee date if you’re not considering appearance so heavily. My chapter does google forms to get the interests, major, hometown, etc of each member and matches them based on that info.

Do the recruitment chairs make a “pretty” group or two to hit that demographic? Maybe, but it’s not the main focus

I think it's actually nice that the coffee dates are in person because chapters are so big now that I feel like it's hard to get to know anyone that well! Plus I would tell the rush chair stuff in person about my experience at other houses that I would never write down! Competitive info is useful when you want to improve your rush, and we're the ones who went through it last so I totally get it!

I found out that my chapter recruits girls from certain high schools. I think that's even more shallow and arbitrary than recruiting girls who are cute. Why does it matter what high school she went to? Because you want to get more girls from that high school? Why? Money? Status? So it's easier to get more girls from that area the next year? How is that any different? It's kind of arbitrary and shallow. And the girl has like zero control over that. It's just based on her parents and where they live!
Well isn't that why some groups recruit for looks? Because maybe they can't get the girls from those high schools so they have to find their own way to compete and they want to get more girls who are cute so they can get mixers and guys will talk about how great their chapter is to their friends! It's a snowball thing.

The rush chair was not listening to the girls’ opinions about rush. It was a sham to judge their looks. Would it be great to sit down and do a coffee date with every sister to get to know each other? Yeah, but that’s not what was happening here.

Also, rushing from high schools/hometowns= you may know the girl personally, you can guess if she can pay her dues (since it’s probably a nice area), you definitely can ask around about her reputation, you can gauge if she will stay or transfer

Rushing for looks= you know she looks nice

A whole house of pretty party girls isn’t just going to decide they’re established enough and start picking the more “studious” girls. They’re gonna keep picking girls they like, like any other house does. I think aphi’s made it pretty clear that being on a campus with a heavy emphasis on grades and involvement in Greek life is not gonna change the way they recruit.

You’re right though that sometimes we don’t consider that reputation can make it much easier for a chapter especially with grades. My chapter always wants to raise our gpa but it’s hard to recruit those girls when other houses with better reps want them too.

This doesn't sound that much different from what was in the article honestly. I think the author was just naive that there was any real thought behind it. It's a nice position for her to be in to be so naive so it must be a pretty strong house at Michigan.
But maybe she isn't giving their process enough credit? Some are assuming that to recruit for looks means sacrificing grades or activities or well roundedness. But look at the Bama pool of women! Maybe what usually happens is that 95% of girls who go through recruitment are self-selected high achievers with tons of leadership, diverse interests, talents, poise, etc. So really the only obvious difference from one house to the next is their "popularity" factor among boys and attractiveness. Every group has great girls. But it's hard to deny that the "top" groups are usually either really hot or come from affluent super well-connected families. At least here at Bama. I think she just didn't like it when she saw the curtain peeled back. But the processes used now are way more discreet and 100% less catty than they were when your mom was here.

So true! On pretty much every point.

I still don't like it though. But also I would never be on the recruitment team if the whole thing made me that uncomfortable. Did she think the pledge class would be chosen by the flip of a coin? At some point you are judging others. That's just how it works.

There isn't anything wrong with recruiting cute girls but A Phi recruits only on looks so their cute girls are QR and VERY low grades. We would release those girls the first day no matter how cute. That's why A Phi has so many scandals - their choice of girls.

the only other sororities that nationally score on image are zeta and aoii. some chapters of kd and adpi do it too.

The way y'all were picked isn't normal or cool.

Seriously? My chapter doesn’t. And neither do
My friends chapters at other schools.

Don’t drop other chapters names without PROOF like the proof we have of alpha Phi and their nationals being incredibly demeaning to PNMs and it’s own sisters.

Not defending the specifics of all of it but some things she has a problem with seem pretty standard and other things just seem unique to her chapter like maybe they were having issues of slipping in the preferences or something and nationals was sent in to address it.

In this case, she says they were weeding out for looks, but why do we assume that the cute ones they kept didn't have just as many great qualities as the ones they dropped? Did the pretty girls automatically have poor grades, no talent and a lack of involvement? I doubt that. Most girls going through recruitment are pretty well rounded or they don't subject themselves to the process to begin with. Maybe it just means that chapter had a great pool of PNMs and from that pool chose the most attractive of the girls who had all those other qualities too. Maybe I'm oversimplifying because this article could be written about any one of our chapters depending on the year, but It would be hard to find a chapter here that wouldn't want the whole package if they can get it.