"Bids: All Greek To Me!"

[SoExited@FSU]

Bids are totally over my head! Is there anyone from FSU (Or another "Big South" school) who can explain them to me? For example, can a Rushee get multiple bids (From different sororities)? And what if a rushees choices don't match up with the sorority who wants her? Will there still be a bid offered or do they have to be the same? Does it really all come down to the luck of identical order, like it seems?

[zetagirly]

Here's a quick answer. You can only get one bid. But unfortunetly you aren't guaranteed a bid. You put down your top two (or three) choices by order of preference. There is an entire bid matching process that is somewhat complicated but know this. If you put down two or three choices, you should be prepared to accept a bid from any of these sororities.

You may come across the term "suicide" and that means you only put down one choice. That is fine IF they extend you a bid but id you don't you're screwed.

Also, I believe this is nationwide, if you put down more than one sorority on your bid card but DON'T accept a bid from them once it is extended, you can't join another sorority until next year.

There are other methods of getting bids after the formal rush period is over so if you don't get a bid, not all hope is lost.

Your Rush Counselor can answer your questions in more depth and read more threads on this board. The women here are wonderful.

Good luck with Rush!

Originally posted by SoExited@FSU:
Bids are totally over my head! Is there anyone from FSU (Or another "Big South" school) who can explain them to me? For example, can a Rushee get multiple bids (From different sororities)? And what if a rushees choices don't match up with the sorority who wants her? Will there still be a bid offered or do they have to be the same? Does it really all come down to the luck of identical order, like it seems?

[SoExited@FSU]

Thanks, Zetagirly!!

[dzsaigirl]

Okay. Bids can get tricky, so I will try to explain.

I don't know how many days rush is at your school, so I will use mine as an example, and that should be okay.

At U of Houston, there are four days of parties. The first day you go to all six sororities. Neither the rushees nor the sororities cut that day.

Day two: You see all six again. You go home or to your dorm and the sororities cut some people. They send a list or invitation cards to panhellenic with the names of the girls who they invite back for the 3rd day.

Day three: You show up and your rho chi has your invitations. You look and see who invited you back and you can go to a maximum of four sororities this day. That means if all six invited you back, you have to reject two invitations (this is called "cutting a sorority") You go to the parties and have fun! The sororities cut more people this night after you've gone home and send the list of invites to panhellenic again.

Day four: You show up and your rho chi gives you your invites. You can only pref two groups this day, so if you got more than two invites, you must reject some (cutting again). If people have invited you to their pref, they are supposed to put you on their bid list. After you go to these two parties, you go back to your rho chis and they give you a card to fill out. On this card you list the sororities you want in rank of #1 #2 and #3. You put a third down just in case you don't get your first two...it is possible to get your third, so you should never put a sorority on your card that you would not join!!!!!!!

This is where it gets tricky...the sororities make (at least at my school) two bid lists. If a girls first choice is a sorority that put her down on list one, she's a match and gets a bid. Once girls are eliminated from the first list (lets say that a girl was on someone's list but they matched with a different sorority...the other sororities then have to remove the girl from their list) then the next girl on the list moves up a spot and a girl from the second list moves up to the first list. This all sounds really confusing and it is! Some schools (those with large greek systems) have a computer program that processes this info and prints a list. At schools with smaller greek systems, they do it live where rush advisors gather in a room and help the panhellenic advisor with bid matching.

This explanation is general, and if your school has more sororities, more parties, etc. then the number of days, and sororities you have to cut will be different, but you can still tell how it works from my explanation.

If anyone knows anymore stuff that would help the explanation, please post!

As for rushees, do not try to outsmart the system by calculating who you will cut according to where you think you fall on the list, because it can result in you not really getting who you want!! Don't worry about the technical aspect of recruitment. Just be honest to yourself and make your choices according to how you feel in your heart!!!

[SoExited@FSU]

Thanks, Dzsaigirl!

[zetagirly]

As a rush conselor for my chapter, if you go to preference, you ARE on the bid list, it just depends where on the list you are.

My advice, list the houses on your bid card that you would accept a bid too. If you went to three houses during preference but would only join two of them, DO NOT list the third house on you bid.

Exactly right about not trying to outsmart the system. PUT YOUR FIRST CHOICE first even if you don't have a shot at getting in. You never know.

Also, at large greek systems (like mine) many girls early on try to cut the houses early that they hate and based on reputation, what they've heard etc. At my school during different rounds and based on how many girls come to our parties, we HAVE to cut a certain amount of girls. That way we aren't stringing along a lot of girls and then drop them right before preference.

I don't know how you can avoid that but I would drop houses (if you can and if you must) by what you genuinely feel about the houses.

If you can go to three preference parties and have five to choose from and four are houses you don't like, at least you have a shot at one house you do like! As opposed to dropping all the houses you hate in the very beginning (and really how do you know you really hate them based on a ten minute conversation?) and potentially have NO houses to visit for preference. I have seen that happen and it's horrible for the young women.

BUT, biggest piece of advice, to repeat, only put the houses on your bid card that you will accept a bid from.

Originally posted by SoExited@FSU:
Thanks, Dzsaigirl!

[SSS1365]

I think that most schools handle bids the way described above... where you pref them and therefore you can only get one bid. My school does it quite differently, and I'm not sure how many others do too. On our equivalent of pref night, a girl can be invited back to several sororities (some are invited to all, others only to 1 or 2) but she can only go back to up to 3. Then only those sororities that she went back to can extend bids to her. Sometimes she gets bids from all of the ones she went back to, sometimes not. But she can get more than one, in which case she simply has to choose one and sign her bid card.

[SigTauJake]

All I can say is that I am so happy fraternities use informal rush. Although it can be hard for some houses to get the guys to come out and see them, it is so nice not to have to go through all this technical stuff during rush. Techinically you could get 18 bids at my school, one from every fraternity, but you dont have time to make it to every house during open rush. Most likely you can make it to three or maybe 4 houses during open rush, and then those houses choose if they want to invite you back to closed rush. Makes everything so much easier, less confusing and I will admit no matter how many times my sorority friends sit me down and explain formal rush to me, I will never understand it for as long as I live.

[PenguinTrax]

This has been discussed in detail on several posts.

Please use the Search feature and look up "bid matching" in both the Rush and Greek Life forums.

Barbara
Rush Forum Moderator