Are you planning to participate in sorority recruitment, aka rush, at Vanderbilt University this spring?
We’re so excited for you!! Firstly, congrats on getting into Vanderbilt. You’re going to look great in black and gold.
Now that you’re all set on your school, let’s talk about the next steps as you prepare to head off to Nashville this fall: getting ready for sorority recruitment.
Vanderbilt has a huge Greek community with nine amazing sororities to join, and formal sorority recruitment is one of the best ways to get involved on campus!!
Here, formal recruitment takes place in the spring. It’s a week-long process in January with four rounds. When you participate in recruitment you’re required to “rush” every house vs. selecting just a few chapters to get to know.
One unique thing about spring recruitment at Vanderbilt is that you’ll have plenty of opportunities to meet sorority members and learn more about their chapters during the fall semester!
Speaking of, Vanderbilt University has 9 Panhellenic sorority chapters as part of its Panhellenic Council. These chapters are:
- Alpha Chi Omega
- Alpha Delta Pi
- Chi Omega
- Delta Delta Delta
- Kappa Alpha Theta
- Kappa Delta
- Kappa Kappa Gamma
- Pi Beta Phi
- Zeta Tau Alpha
2025 Vanderbilt Sorority Recruitment Schedule
- Potential New Member Orientation: January 3, 2025
- Round One: January 4, 2025
- Round Two: January 5, 2025
- Round Three: January 10, 2025
- Round Four (Preference Round): January 11, 2025
- Bid Day: January 12, 2025
What are the important dates to know for fall?
The Panhellenic Council at Vanderbilt organizes formal recruitment in the spring semester, with registration opening on September 15, 2024, and closing on December 15, 2024. If you miss this deadline, you are not eligible to participate in sorority recruitment, so keeping tabs on these dates is a must!
One of the best things about Vanderbilt’s recruitment process is the opportunity to get to know the sororities during the fall semester. There are Panhellenic Coffee Chats, Philanthropy Events, and the Panhellenic Sorority Social in October, all designed to help PNMs casually meet chapter members before recruitment kicks off in the spring. There are also unofficial “rush dates” happening all semester.
Last but not least, there’s a Panhellenic Preview Day on November 16, 2024, for those registered for formal recruitment (another reason to register early). This is a chance to meet the sorority girls again prior to recruitment!!
How do you maximize your chances of getting MORE invitations and therefore, boost your chances of getting a bid to a chapter you LOVE and are EXCITED about?
Sorority recruitment does NOT begin in January during formal recruitment.
A unique thing about Vanderbilt’s sorority recruitment is that it’s common for chapter members to ask PNMs on “rush dates” during the fall outside of the official coffee dates.
These begin on syllabus week – the first week of classes. Think of invites like coffee, breakfast, lunch, dinner parties, etc. They (the sororities) encourage their members to do this) because the sorority girls aren’t allowed to vote on you during recruitment unless they’ve met you. This is super important!! GO on as many of these as you’re invited on. Having the cutest outfits during rush is FUN but it will not help you if you have not met enough girls who are eligible to vote for you come January.
The more rush dates and coffee chats a PNM goes on, the more sorority girls she meets. The more sorority girls she meets, the better position she’ll be in during formal recruitment.
Don’t yet know any sorority girls yet? That’s perfectly ok!
Let’s talk about how to maximize your chances of getting on the recruitment team’s radar and getting those dates.
At Vanderbilt, yes – Letters of Recommendation are a MUST.
- How does a PNM get on a recruitment team’s radar if they don’t know current members at that chapter? One way is with Letters of Recommendation, which are also called Recruitment Information Forms (RIFs).
- If you do not know anyone in the chapters (and even if you do) you should STILL obtain these.
- Turning these in earlier can help you stand out and therefore, help your chances at getting asked on MORE coffee dates.
- Vanderbilt has a very competitive recruitment process, and you absolutely need these if you plan to rush here.
- Why? Aside from the fact that turning these in shows interest, if you don’t personally know anyone and you aren’t able to register for recruitment until September (when the Vanderbilt registration typically goes live), turning in Letters of Recommendation helps the sorority chapters:
- 1) know of your existence
- 2) get to know you before recruitment and most importantly – get excited about you!
But if the chapters don’t know you, they can’t get excited about you and ask you out on rush dates as early. It’s like expecting a cute guy from one of your 100+ person college classes who doesn’t know you yet to ask you out. You could be the cutest, sweetest, most interesting girl in the class, but if you haven’t introduced yourself, a date’s pretty unlikely, right?
Same for recruitment. Cute outfits & great conversations alone will not guarantee you a bid.
Click here for our Sorority Recruitment Guide with a step-by-step Checklist & Action Plan!
Do not underestimate the deadlines! There are LOTS of you and 3-4 members on each chapter’s recruitment team. Rush is a math & numbers game.
- In order to maximize your chances of receiving more invites back, these sorority Letters of Recommendation are due on – or even better, before – August 1st (regardless of the listed dates on the University Panhellenic website & Instagram account, Vanderbilt sorority websites, and your city’s local Panhellenic Association’s suggested dates.
- Yes, technically you can turn them in later, but think of this like you would a job application.
- If a company opens a job application for 90 days, sure you absolutely can apply the day before they take it down. But if they’ve already found the right candidates and they’re excited about them, and there are only so many open jobs – what do you think your chance of getting that job is going to be? Less likely than the earlier applicants with similar qualifications – that’s for sure.
- Ignore any other deadlines and have your Letters of Rec turned in by August 1st if you want to maximize your chances of receiving more invites from more chapters. (If you’re reading this after August 1st – deep breath, don’t panic. It’s way better to get them in over the summer or early fall than not at all. *If you’re unsure if you’ve missed the window for recommendations, you’re welcome to contact us and we can help you fully understand what to do / when it’s due / and how to expedite this process.
- We can help PNMs navigate this entire process surrounding what these letters are, where to turn them in, and who can/should complete them, but we can’t do anything after the window to turn them in closes. What are Letters of Recommendation (LORs), Recruitment Information Forms (RIFs), and Letters of Support (LOS)? Read our 5-min blog post.
Plan to participate in sorority recruitment at Vanderbilt this spring? Don’t risk slipping through the cracks!
Work with a sorority recruitment coach who specializes in Vanderbilt recruitment and celebrates as tons of our PNMs happily receive their bids every year!! We’ve been nationally recognized in WSJ, CNBC, FOX, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Elite Daily, NBC, and many others.
A lot of the big decisions with rushees involve paperwork and are made months before recruitment.
We know exactly what the Director of Recruitment Records is looking for on your resume, how the sororities will rank your social resume and rec letters on a scale (and how you can get a higher ranking), how the bid list ordering and cut process works, and what you should actually be discussing during each round. (Hint – it’s not what the Panhellenic guides will tell you!)
Working with a rush coach maximizes a PNM’s odds and gives your daughter an advantage long before she steps foot on campus for recruitment so she can go in more relaxed and confident.
It’s just like the SAT – it’s better to go in prepared. Let’s get you (or your daughter) recruitment ready!
To reserve your spot with a sorority recruitment consultant, call us at (512) 827-7586 or complete the form below: