bids

if you maximize your options, meaning that you list every sorority you went to on your ranking card at the end of the day. Each night you rank list all of the sororities even if you didn't like a few of them because if you don't, there's a chance you could go bidless at the end of the week. Maxamizing your options guarantees you a bid to one of the houses you went to on pref night.

to say - this doesn't mean you won't get dropped from recruitment earlier in the week. Like @gggirl said, if you make it to pref night you're getting a bid to one of those houses. But even if you maximize your options earlier in the week, you could still get dropped entirely from recruitment (ex. if you have a horrible GPA, no recs, etc.) after one of the first few rounds. But If you maximize your options every night and then make it to pref round, you are guaranteed a bid.

No no no you're right! You would be maximizing your options if you list every sorority that you WENT TO that particular day! Like after the first round of parties, you should list all 8 sororities. Then the next day you'll get your schedule and it will tell you the houses you'll be going back to for that round. It won't be all 8 houses. The number of houses you are able to go to gets smaller and smaller each round. So at the end of each round when you rank, list all of the sororities that were on your schedule for that round. That would be maximizing your options. Like if after the first round you get invited back to ABC, DEF, GHI, and XYZ for the second round, then when you rank at the end of all the parties of the second round you would need to list all 4 of those sororities in order to maximize your options.

There is a certain number of houses that you're allowed to go to each round. You won't necessarily have that many houses invite you back (it's actually a lot more common than you think to have less than the maximum number possible, so don't be discouraged if that happens to you). But if you make it to pref and the whole week you have listed on your ranking card all of the sororities that you had gone to those particular days, then you will be guaranteed a bid! But if for some reason all of the houses drop you before pref round, like if you have a really low GPA or a horrible reputation etc., then you aren't guaranteed a bid.

A really good website to read is sororitygirl101.com! She has a lot of posts that explain a lot of things like that. She is a mother who was in a sorority and her daughters were too. And one of her daughters is an ADPi at Alabama. I think she recently graduated. She is very knowledgable about competitive recruitments, and she explains a lot of things that could be helpful for you! I advise you to read all of her posts. They get you even more excited for rush too :) I learned so much from reading her website. Also greekchat.com can be very helpful if you find the right threads! It's mostly alumni sorority women from all over the country. Sometimes actives or very recent alums, but mostly ladies our mother's ages. They are very wise in the sorority rush department!

But keep in mind that a lot of times sororitygirl101 is giving her opinion, so occasionally you should take what she says with a grain of salt. But most of the stuff she says is factual and very very useful!
Same for greekchat. Those ladies can get opinionated too so take a lot of what's written on there with a grain of salt also.

Always list in order

I'm going to try to explain this in the clearest way possible because it gets confusing.

The selection process is done at a computer by a member of Panhellenic exec. All 8 sororities will be on the screen. You will choose 2 sororities that you didn't necessarily prefer, and tell the pan exec to move them to the right. You WILL rank these 2 (right=rank). The other 6 will be moved to the left (left=love) and will NOT be ranked.

So, say I went to sororities A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H.
I really enjoyed A, B, D, E, F, and H.
I couldn't really see myself in C or G, but I liked G better than C.
I would tell the exec member to move G and C to the right, with G being 1st and C being 2nd.
A, B, D, E, F, and H will automatically be moved to the left in no particular order.

Left (love)_______________________Right (ranked)
A G
B C
D
E
F
H