Hiking In Heels

How early should you start getting ready for sorority recruitment? The short answer: ideally, sophomore or junior year of high school!

I know that sounds early, but hear us out! If you know recruitment is something you’re interested in, starting early gives you time to prepare without feeling rushed.

And no, we don’t mean outfits! Focus on the pieces that take time to build.

1️⃣ Sophomore year: Start paying attention to your involvement, leadership, service, grades, and activities. These can eventually become part of your recruitment resume and tell the story of who you are.

2️⃣ Junior year: Start getting more intentional. Keep track of your accomplishments, think about your resume, look at your social media, and learn how recruitment works.

3️⃣ Senior year: If you haven’t started yet, you are NOT too late! Start building your recruitment resume, editing your social media, learning about recommendation letters, and researching recruitment at your colleges.

4️⃣ Spring and summer before college: You want to be refining, not starting from scratch. Finalize your materials, prep for conversations, plan outfits, stay on top of deadlines, and know what your school requires.

The biggest mistake we see is girls waiting until a few months before recruitment and trying to figure EVERYTHING out at once. Do a little at a time so that when recruitment gets here, you feel prepared instead of panicked.

So if you’re a sophomore or junior thinking, “Isn’t it way too early?” It’s really not! 💕 Starting now means you can prepare little by little instead of figuring out your entire strategy a few weeks before rush.

And if you’re already a senior, or a mom of one, you haven’t missed your chance at ALL. There’s so much you can do now to reduce prep stress and give yourself more options during recruitment!

This is exactly why we created the Insider Pass, your ultimate unfair advantage for rush! 💗 It’s our monthly membership for high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors who want to get one step ahead before rush week. Comment INSIDER and we’ll send you the invite to join! 👠💕

Bid Day is exciting, but your first semester after recruitment can feel a little different from what you imagined. Here are a few things nobody really tells you that we wish every new member knew!

1️⃣ You might not find your closest friends immediately, and that’s NORMAL
You’ll meet tons of girls on Bid Day, but it’s standard to take time to figure out who you really click with. Keep saying yes to sisterhood/chapter events and random group chat plans!

2️⃣ Older members may become some of your favorite people
Your experience isn’t limited to your new member class. Big/little, committees, and chapter events can introduce you to girls you may never have met otherwise.

3️⃣ You’ll still need to put effort into making friends
Joining gives you a community, but you still have to introduce yourself and make plans with people!

4️⃣ Your chapter can make a huge campus feel smaller
Having familiar faces and regular events can make college start feeling more comfortable much faster. Take advantage of every chapter dinner, meeting, and philanthropy event!

5️⃣ Sorority life can get busy fast
Meetings, new member events, schoolwork, and social plans can stack up quickly. Most chapters provide a calendar with all the important events at the beginning of each semester. Take time to plug everything in right at the start!

6️⃣ You do NOT need to attend everything
Know what’s required, but don’t exhaust yourself trying to show up to every single event.

7️⃣ Your experience will keep changing
Some new member classes have as many as 200+ girls!! The girls you know in September may or may not be the girls you’re closest to by spring, or even next year. You’ll continue to meet amazing new people each semester.

Your first semester doesn’t have to be perfect for you to end up loving your sorority and your college experience. The best is yet to come!! 💕

If you haven’t rushed yet, preparing ahead can make the transition so much easier! Our Insider Pass has all of the behind-the-scenes strategies, conversation prep, checklists, and resources to help you walk into recruitment already prepared. Comment INSIDER and I’ll send you the link to join! 👠💗

Thinking about trying the COB process? Read this first! 💕

COB (Continuous Open Bidding) refers to the informal recruitment process that occurs outside of the formal recruitment window, after bid day. Most schools have both fall and spring semester COB opportunities.

Since only a select few chapters will qualify for the COB process, you’re always going to have MORE options available to you during formal recruitment. If you’re wanting the most options possible, formal recruitment is the way to go.

With that being said, if formal recruitment didn’t pan out the way you hoped, the COB process is a GREAT way to find your sisterhood!!

🌟Also, you did not have to register for the formal recruitment process to be eligible to qualify for the COB process.🌟

The COB process is much more informal and looks a little different on each campus. It often involves coffee dates, meet and greets at the chapter house, or other one-on-one meet ups with chapter members. Chapters will announce these opportunities after bid day!

The only downside is that these spots are very, very limited, both in total number of spots available, and chapters participating, so it’s important to go in with an open mind.

Also, if you received a bid on bid day through the formal recruitment process (even if you turned it down) it means you wouldn’t qualify.

Joining a little later doesn’t make the experience any less special. There are so many different opportunities to find a sisterhood and COB could be a great option to find your people!! 💕

If you’re considering COB and want to know more about your specific school, reach out via our website getintoasorority.com and we are happy to answer all your questions! (We get hundreds of DM’s a day and while we try to respond to as many as we can, we don’t want to miss anything!)

PS - Planning to rush this upcoming spring or next fall? Click the link in our bio to sign up for our Insider Pass! It’s a monthly subscription designed to get you recruitment-ready with resources and detailed guides for improving your rush experience 💕

UGA Bid Day was yesterday, so it felt like the perfect time to share this advice from one of our former clients who is now a UGA Tri Delta!! 💗

It’s such a privilege to watch girls go through this process, find their people, and then turn around and give advice to the next group coming through. Such a full-circle moment. 🥹

To everyone still in it this week: you’ve got this!! 💕

Moms, rush week can be emotional for YOU too!! 💕 Here are 7 things to avoid during recruitment:

1️⃣ Assuming a legacy connection guarantees her anything. Legacy policies have changed SO much, and even if you had an amazing experience in your chapter, her recruitment is completely separate from yours.
2️⃣ Comparing her invitation list to another girl’s. Don’t let someone else’s invitations change how she feels about her own!
3️⃣ Assuming a cut means she did something wrong. It doesn’t!! Chapters make a LOT of cuts throughout recruitment, especially at competitive schools.
4️⃣ Texting her for updates after every single party. Let her actually experience recruitment! She’ll tell you everything when she has a chance.
5️⃣ Giving advice based on how rush worked when you went through it. You can absolutely share your experience, but what mattered when you rushed may not be relevant now.
6️⃣ Sharing her recruitment details with other people, ESPECIALLY with moms of girls currently IN the sororities. Her opinions about chapters are hers to share. What you choose to share CAN impact whether she’s invited back or not.
7️⃣ Trying to fix every disappointment. This might be the hardest one. First, just listen, and then help her focus on what she still has in front of her.

One of the BEST things you can do during rush is ask questions instead of giving opinions. How did you feel there? Are you excited to go back? Could you see yourself finding good friends there?

At the end of the day, it’s completely normal to feel HEAVILY invested in recruitment right alongside her! 💕 You’re going to experience the highs and disappointments too. Just remember to give her space to form her own opinions, and be the person she can talk to about everything along the way.

Good luck to all the rush mamas this week! You’re support matters more than you know💕
PS: Mom of a rising senior or a high school student wondering what you can be doing to start preparing NOW? Check out our Insider Pass! 💕 It’s our monthly membership where we share the recruitment prep you can start tackling early. Comment INSIDER and we’ll send you the link to learn more! 👠✨

Getting dropped from a house you really loved can be one of the hardest parts of recruitment. 💔 And unfortunately, it happens to SO many girls, especially at schools with really competitive sorority recruitment processes.

But if we could tell you ONE thing: being bummed about your drops today does NOT mean you won’t be celebrating the happiest Bid Day later this month. Both things can absolutely be true!!

One of the biggest misconceptions about mutual selection is that both sides have an equal say. You rank the chapters, but ultimately, each chapter decides who they invite back. And because chapters have to make huge cuts throughout the week, you can have a great conversation, genuinely love a house, and still not see it on your schedule the next day. And this could be due to a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with you not being wonderful enough. (PS - go read our post from last week ASAP on why amazing PNMs can still get dropped.)

If that happens to you, give yourself a minute to be disappointed. You don’t have to pretend you didn’t care. But then, as hard as it can be, try not to let one chapter completely change how you feel about the rest of your schedule. 💕 Go back into the chapters you have left with an open mind and give the girls there a real chance.

There are SO many girls that end up absolutely obsessed with a chapter that wasn’t originally on their radar. Sometimes the house you pictured yourself in at the beginning of the week just isn’t where you ultimately find your people. Fortunately, there are multiple chapters out there that will be a good fit for you.

Your feelings are valid, but your recruitment isn’t over because one chapter is. Keep going and see the process through so you can walk away with ZERO regrets.💖

Share this with someone who needs to hear that they’re going to be okay. 💕

Sending all the hugs this week. 🫶🏻 You’ve got this!

Our morning routine was checking in on all our amazing PNMs getting ready for their recruitment rounds today! 💗🎉

Let’s talk about what yours should look like if you want to be as ready as they were:

1. The best morning routine starts the night before!! Hang your outfit and set out shoes and jewelry ahead of time so it’s one less thing to think about. Your morning self will thank you!

2. Be sure to restock your rush bag. Grab a backup fan, touch-up makeup, and your comfiest walking shoes. We love some good snacks! If you’re packing snacks, bring a disposable toothbrush or floss.

3. Coordinate with your roommate and set your alarm clocks for an hour earlier than usual so you can take your time getting ready. Make a playlist that will hype you up!

4. Eat something + hydrate! Recruitment heat is no joke. Drink plenty of water and allow time for a good breakfast so your energy stays high until the very last house.

5. Double-check your schedule. Make sure it’s written down on paper in case your phone dies or overheats sitting outside the sorority houses. You don’t want to risk missing a party!

6. Feeling some nerves? Get a pep talk from mom or reach out to your rush coach for any last-minute questions, tips, and reminders. Having someone cheering you on makes things less overwhelming.

7. Take a few minutes to think about what you want to share. Briefly remind yourself of the stories you want to share about your leadership and involvement. Think of a few questions you’d like to ask members that round too.

8. Tell yourself, “I'M READY AND I'M EXCITED!” It’s hard to feel excited AND nervous at the same time, so if you focus on the excitement, the nerves tend to fade away. And then go have FUN!! 💕🎀

You’ve got this and good luck!! 👏🏼
PS - If you’re in high schooler planning to rush in the next few years and you’re wondering what you can be doing now to prepare for rush, check out our Insider Pass! 💕 It’s Hiking in Heels’ monthly membership with behind-the-scenes strategies, conversation prep, templates, and checklists to get you recruitment-ready in a low-stress, fun way. Comment INSIDER and we’ll send you the link to join! 👠 ✨

Rush week can get emotional FAST, and it’s easy to start comparing schedules, swapping opinions, and overanalyzing every single chapter or rush convo with your friends. But there are some things you’re better off keeping between you and your mom (and/or rush coach) during recruitment…

Here’s the top 5:
1️⃣ Your exact rankings.
The more you talk about your rankings with everyone else, the easier it is to start second-guessing yourself based on what your friends think. Rank based on YOUR experience, not theirs.

2️⃣ Which houses cut you.
Of course you’re allowed to be disappointed, and your mom is a great person to confide in. But you don’t need to announce your invitation list to every PNM. That can quickly turn into comparing schedules and speculating about why certain things happened.

3️⃣ Negative opinions about a house.
You might walk out of a chapter knowing it’s not for you while your best friend absolutely LOVES it. Let her have her own experience without your opinion influencing how she feels about the chapter.

4️⃣ Private details from conversations inside a house.
If a member shares something personal about her life, friendships, or chapter, treat that conversation with respect and don’t bring that outside of the house. 💕

5️⃣ What another PNM told you privately, especially her rankings.
If your friend tells you her rankings, what houses she has left, or what she’s worried about, don’t repeat it. That’s her recruitment experience and her information to share.

Focus on your own conversations, how you felt in each house, and on trusting your gut when it comes to ranking. It’s completely normal for your opinion of a chapter to change from one round to the next, too.

If you’re a high school student planning to rush in the next few years and you’re wondering what you can be doing now to prepare for recruitment, check out our Insider Pass! 💕 It’s Hiking in Heels’ monthly membership with behind-the-scenes strategies, conversation prep, templates, and checklists to get you recruitment-ready in a low-stress, fun way. Comment INSIDER and we’ll send you the link to join! 👠 ✨