HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR DREAM SORORITY
A misconception is that joining a sorority is like joining a club. Sororities are more than just a club. They give women a home, community, inspiration, accountability, forever friends, and a sense of belonging.
Soon after joining my sorority, I saw how my life was about to change. I had a community of over 200 women who were there to support me in my transition as a first-year college student. I had sisters to go to the dining halls with and try all of the different foods. I had sisters to text when I needed to spend twelve hours in the library studying for a calculus test. I had women to get ready with before events and the UGA football games. I had a way to volunteer for the local community. I was inspired by the upperclassmen getting internships, graduating with jobs at KPMG, or moving to New York City to accomplish their dreams. I had a community to support me. I had a sense of belonging on a campus of 30,000 students.
Joining a sorority can be an experience that changes your life.
To have an experience that changes your life, you need to get a bid to the sorority that aligns with your values, beliefs, and experience you want for college. For example, if one of your goals is to get good grades or go to graduate school, you want to join a sorority that has a high chapter GPA. You want to surround yourself with women who push you academically. Women who inspire you to get an internship. Women who inspire you to go into research. If one of your goals for college is to make lifelong friends, you need to find the sororities that have the best retention rates. The sororities that have the most members stay year after year.
Every sorority has a different dynamic and different members. Many of the sororities on your campus are great, but not every sorority is the right fit for you. To get a bid to your dream sorority, you need to have options at each round. To have options, you want to use a plan. This step-by-step plan helps you communicate that you are a good fit BEFORE and DURING sorority recruitment. That way, you are not picking the better of your last two options. You choose the best option from the start.
Have you seen Legally Blonde?
When Warner breaks up with Elle, she is devastated. She wants to win him back. She does not knock on his door and beg him. She creates a plan of action with the end goal of getting into Harvard.
How does she get into Harvard?
First, she talks to her college advisor and gets advice. Next, she creates a step-by-step plan to get accepted.
#1. Study for the LSAT
#2. Take the LSAT
#3. Draft her resume
#4. Make her application video
#5. Apply
The main takeaway is she does not wing her application. She created a plan and used it to get into Harvard. The same idea applies to sorority recruitment. You cannot show up at Round 1 and expect everything to work out. A step-by-step plan helps you stand out during sorority recruitment. When you stand out, you gain Rush Crush status and get invited back to the sororities you like.
How your list will help you get your bid
Once you have created your list, you can create your step-by-step plan for sorority recruitment.
Here is how it works
Your end goal is to get a bid to a sorority you love.
Now, you want to reverse engineer getting your bid.
What steps do you need to take to gain name recognition from the sorority members and the recruitment teams? How will you campaign for yourself?
Answer: Your prepping plan will have the members know who you are and root for you.
How will you gain confidence and walk into each sorority as your best self?
Answer: Your mindset plan will help you unlock your potential.
How will you have unique conversations and connect with the members?
Answer: Your small talk plan will help you stand out from the other potential new members.
How will you play the game?
Answer: By understanding sorority recruitment, you will know how to make the best decision for yourself.
HOW TO CREATE YOUR LIST
[Your list helps you know which sororities align with the experience you want for college]
STEP 1. Visualize your dream college experience
Before you make your list, you want to visualize your dream college experience.
Why is this exercise important?
When you envision your dream life, you make it happen. Your dream turns into a goal. You can then break this goal down into steps, and soon it becomes your reality.
Think of it this way. LeBron James did not wake up on his 18th birthday and try out for the NBA. For him, joining the NBA was a dream. He started playing basketball when he was nine years old. It was not a random accomplishment when James joined the Cavaliers in 2003. He deserved it.
Here is how this idea relates to sorority recruitment. Your dream college experience will help you know what qualities you want in your dream sorority. Then, when you go through sorority recruitment, you know how to answer the questions, what questions to ask, and know you are making the right decisions. These things will guide you to getting a bid to your dream sorority.
Exercise. Write a “future me” letter
A study by Statistic Brain state that only 8% achieve their New Year’s resolutions.
Why do many not achieve their New Year’s resolutions?
When creating resolutions, many say, “I want to lose weight.” or “I want to travel more.” Setting this type of resolution sets you up for failure.
Why does it set you up for failure?
Problem #1. Too general
How much weight do you want to lose?
Where do you want to travel?
This specific information is essential.
Problem #2. It does not share why it is important to you.
You will never follow through with goals if you do not understand the importance of the goal.
Example. If your goal is to travel more, maybe you want to take your daughter to Disney World. You want to see her eyes light up when she meets Cinderella for the first time. You want to watch her get excited to stand in line for It’s a Small World. You want to see her run around the gift shop. Most importantly, you want to have the pictures to remember these moments for the rest of your life.
When you make dinner after work, it does not seem like a chore. Take-out might sound good, but that $150 gets you closer to the end goal, watching your daughter run around Disney World.
Problem #3. You do not have the plan to implement your goal.
After you know why the goal is essential, you create a plan to reach it. For taking your daughter to Disney World, when do you want to go? How much do you need to save per month?
Now, it is your turn. You want to write a letter to your future self. Imagine you graduated from college and are reflecting on all you have accomplished.
Why is it important to start at the end?
If you know what you want to accomplish throughout college, you will work towards making these moments your reality.
When writing your letter, you want to get specific with your visualization. Instead of saying, “I created an incredible friend group”, you want to say, “Today, I have five amazing women in my life. We have lived together for the past three years….” This exercise might feel like you are writing a fictional story because you have not lived out the moments YET.
STEP 2. Define your why
To find your why, answer “Why are you going through sorority recruitment?”
You should be able to pull your answer from your letter. Your answer should have a clear intention.
STEP 3. Three qualities you want in a sorority
These qualities are must-haves in your dream sorority. They are there to guide you throughout sorority recruitment– figure out what questions to ask, help you make real connections with the members, and help you find your dream sorority.
STEP 4. Is the experience you want similar to the experience you had in high school?
Look again at your future me letter and qualities. Is it aligned with your high school and, or college experience? Is it an experience that is different from high school and will push you outside of your comfort zone?
If you want an experience different from your high school experience, that is amazing! You can achieve it! With sorority recruitment, the members recruit potential new members who are similar to the current members – they look similar, act similar, have similar beliefs and experiences, etc.
Are you similar to the current members of the sororities you want to join or on your campus?
Look at all of the sororities’ Instagram accounts. Do you look like them? Do the members look like your friends? Do they look like they have similar experiences and interests to you?
If the answer is “no”, you either want to re-evaluate what you want out of a sorority, or you have to push yourself to grow. For example, many women want to join the most popular and social sororities on campus. I completely understand why. You want to be liked and accepted. If you are different than them and do not have similar interests and experiences to them, the members will not connect to you or see you in a sorority. Most likely, you will not be invited back. Other sororities on campus will give you the experience you want! All sororities have a philanthropy, great members, incredible friendships, and social events.
If you want to be invited back to sororities that will push you outside of your comfort zone, how will you push yourself to grow? Conversation skills? Mindset? Buy new clothing? Change your Instagram feed?
STEP 5. Create your plans to gain name recognition, unlock your potential, and stand out in your conversations
A Harvard study that analyzes how goals and a plan influence salaries in ten years. In the study, only 3% of the MBA students wrote salary goals and created a plan to achieve their goals.
Did the student who created a plan make more money than the other students?
YES! These students made TEN TIMES more money than the other students.
Creating your list is step #1 to receiving a bid to your dream sorority. You have to do the work. You have to create your plans and implement them. You have to believe in yourself.
If you need help creating your plans for sorority recruitment, I encourage you to check out The Ultimate Guide to Sorority Recruitment. In this ebook, you will learn:
How to prep correctly for your college and create your prepping plan
How to unlock your potential and grow into the woman you want to be during sorority recruitment
How to stand out with your conversations [Know how to answer the members questions and have conversations that allow the members to see you as a friend]
Understand how sorority recruitment works and how to make the best decisions
Click here to get the ebook version
Click here to get your copy on Amazon
DO YOUTUBE AND TIKTOK HELP YOU STAND OUT OR GAIN RUSH CRUSH STATUS DURING SORORITY RECRUITMENT?
When you depend on Youtube and TikTok for advice, you prepare like everyone else. When you look like everyone else, you do not stand out. If a sorority can only invite back 30% of all PNMs, how will you show them that you deserve to be in the top 30%?
Instead of using advice and being the Overlooked Potential New Member, you want to use a step-by-step plan to gain Rush Crush status -- stand out, have options, and run home to a sorority you love. Click the video below to see how CRUSH [sorority recruitment coaching] can help you create and implement your plan.
You have a math test in two weeks that is worth 90% of your grade for the class. You want to get an A. You are looking for guidance on how to get your A.
First, you ask a friend, not in your math class, “How do I get an A+ on my test?” She says, “You need to study.” This answer leaves you frustrated.
Then, you ask your teacher, “How do I get an A+ on my test?” She gives you a step-by-step plan.
Who was more helpful?
Your teacher, right?
To get an A, you need to know the right information and have a step-by-step plan.
To get a bid to a sorority you love, you have to communicate you are the right fit for the sorority before and during sorority recruitment. A step-by-step plan tells you how and when to communicate.
BUT… why do so many women going through sorority recruitment ONLY use the advice they find on Youtube and TikTok? Does it help them stand out and get a bid?
Click the video below to see how The Ultimate Guide to Sorority Recruitment can help you create and implement your plan.