Sorority Recruitment Information

The following message was sent to parents and families of women set to go through the sorority recruitment process in early January; this message was sent by the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life.

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Dear Wake Forest University Parents/Guardians,

With spring semester just around the corner, I am writing to share information about the sorority recruitment process and answer some frequently asked questions. Let me begin by first expressing my excitement for your daughter as she goes through the process of exploring membership in a fraternal organization. This is a thrilling yet challenging process, and I wish the best for your daughter.

Sorority recruitment takes place January 7-11, 2016. The residence halls will open on Wednesday, January 6, 2016 at 9 am for women to move in early for the recruitment process. Later that evening, at 6:30 pm, participants will have dinner with their recruitment groups, followed by an opening assembly at 8 pm. Four days of events will then follow, running Thursday through Sunday with bid distribution on Monday, January 11, 2016. Traveling significant distances may require some women to arrive in Winston-Salem on January 5, 2016. If this applies to your daughter, please note that she will need to secure her own housing for the night of January 5, 2016. If there are any concerns about travel, please contact me so we can discuss your specific situation. Additionally, it is important to note that our dining operations are limited during sorority recruitment. You can find the winter break dining hours on the WFU Campus Dish website.

In order to participate in recruitment, a woman must have a firm, minimum 2.50 cumulative GPA and must have completed a minimum of 12 credit hours at Wake Forest University or her transferring institution. In an effort to be supportive of every student’s academic career and the academic mission of the institution, we will not consider exceptions to the GPA requirement. We checked all GPAs and alerted ineligible women last week via email. If your daughter is ineligible for recruitment, she will also receive a $30 refund which is a reimbursement for the early move in fee for the residence halls. Several chapters have made the decision to increase the minimum GPA requirement. Qualifying to participate in recruitment requires a 2.5 GPA, however, six of the chapters’ minimum GPA’s range from a 2.55-2.8. If your daughter is below any of the individual chapter GPA requirements, she would likely not receive consideration in those sororities for membership.

While recommendation letters are not required at Wake Forest, some women choose to send them to one or more chapters. If you are interested in sending in a recommendation, please visit the recommendation letter page on the Fraternity and Sorority Life website.

The recruitment process is successful for the majority of women who participate. However, it is important to recognize that your daughter is exploring membership in organizations that are selective and looking for women they feel best fit their experience. In spring 2015, 439 women participated in sorority recruitment. 88% matched with a chapter, 8% withdrew themselves from the process (although they were still receiving invitations from one or more sororities) and 4% did not match with a chapter.

The recruitment process can be an exciting, yet emotional time for many women. We urge every participant to keep an open mind throughout the process, and we appreciate the emotional support and stability you can provide as a family member. Some of the women that withdraw from sorority recruitment midstream later regret their decision. You can help us by encouraging your daughter to see the process to completion. Not every woman will be invited back to her top sororities, but that doesn’t mean she cannot find great friends and sisterhood in the remaining groups. We often hear students that withdrew from the process reflect that they wished they had been more open-minded to the options available to them.

While we feel there is a chapter for everyone, our statistics show that 1 out of every 8 women does not have their expectations met. Therefore, it can be beneficial to discuss a plan in case your daughter experiences disappointment. Coaching your daughter to develop an alternative plan for campus engagement will help her build resiliency if the plan needs to be enacted. Asking questions such as “what areas of interest do you have at Wake?” and “what makes Wake feel like home?” can be good to start the coaching process. Often women develop their alternative plan around future sororityrecruitment opportunities. For the fall, a few sororities may have membership spots available. We will know which have these openings by summertime. Spring 2017 recruitment is also an option as upperclassmen will be considered separately from freshmen. Furthermore, we have over 150 student organizations to get involved in as well as a myriad of campus activities, committees and more.

There are several important resources for your daughter during and after sororityrecruitment. One of these is her Greek Recruitment Counselor (GRC). These undergraduate women serve as advisors to potential new members. These women are selected through an application process and receive extensive training in order to serve as an advisor for your daughter. Training begins the semester before recruitment and includes education about recruitment policies and procedures, as well information from the University Counseling Center and Mentoring Center. If a woman is upset or disappointed after recruitment, we encourage her to consult with her GRC who has been trained to help students manage a range of reactions they may experience. GRCs are knowledgeable about campus resources that may be helpful to your student.

Additionally, our Residence Life staff, Women’s Center staff and faculty fellows are aware of which residents are participating in the process and will also receive updates when women are no longer participating in the process. If your daughter chooses to withdraw from sorority recruitment or is not matched to an organization, one of these community members will be in contact with her to offer the support of Wake Forest.

Finally, we will host two webinars in January for our parents of students interested in fraternities and sororities. These webinars will discuss the process for joining fraternities and sororities and explain new member education. For those unable to join us for the webinars, it will be posted on our website afterward:

• Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 1 pm – register here
• Wednesday, January 12, 2016 at 6 pm – register here

We encourage you to review the resources on the Wake Forest University Fraternityand Sorority Life website, particularly the parent and recruitment pages. Additionally, the Wake Forest Parents Page has fantastic resources, including Information for First Year Parents, Greek Life Questions and Answers and SororityRecruitment Q&A. Please feel free to contact us with any questions about the recruitment process, the sorority community or student organizations in general. We are here to help as much as possible.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth (Betsy) Adams
Director, Fraternity & Sorority Life
adamseh@wfu.edu
336-758-8020