Every year, there is a lot of speculation around the sorority ritual practice of bid day during recruitment week. Usually, a lot of people just don’t understand it and see it as a bunch of girls running to another group of screaming girls or view it as over the top excitement.

This may be true to some, but there’s a lot more that goes into it. 

Generally, it’s an annual practice that takes months of planning, only to have it be compressed into one week of recruitment, otherwise known as the “rush” portion of the event. 

Within “rush,” there are three rounds of sorority recruitment that takes place at Presbyterian College; philanthropy night, sisterhood night, and preference night. Each night for each of the sororities is making connections with each of the girls, known as potential new members, and trying to find out which sorority would best fit them overall: Alpha Delta Pi, Sigma Sigma Sigma, or Zeta Tau Alpha. 

Potential new members have the opportunity during “rush” to visit all of them on the first night. Afterwards, both the sisters in the sorority and potential new members will vote on each other, while the former will start slowly closing in on which sorority they feel interested girls will fit the best in. 

The good news is that potential new members do have help on their side when figuring out that process.

At the end of each semester, sisters from each sorority are chosen to guide potential new members during sorority recruitment, otherwise known as Pi Chis. During this time, the sisters will disaffiliate from their sorority during the summer until the end of recruitment, so that they can help find interested girls in the sorority they feel will fit them the best in an unbiased way.

After the whole week is finally over and every vote is cast from both the girls and the sisters of where they would like to be, the highlight of sorority week comes into session, otherwise known as “bid day.”

For each of the girls involved in sorority recruitment, they will receive a bid from a sorority and have the opportunity to accept or reject the offer as they receive it.

Furthermore, depending on the voting process, potential new members may not get a bid from any sorority on campus. However, the sororities involved will let them know ahead of time in the morning prior to the start of bid day. 

On campus, the sisters of each sorority will dress to a theme they picked out months in advance and decorate a place on campus to celebrate their new sisters after they accept their bid. For the past bid day cycle, Alpha Delta Pi had “Welcome to the Jungle,” Sigma Sigma Sigma used “Carnival,” and ZTA chose “You’ll always find your way back home” from Disney’s Hannah Montana. 

At Neville Hall, once the girls are given their bids for the sorority they want to be a part of, they then run outside the building, known as “running home,” to celebrate with their new sisters one by one. Furthermore, Pi Chis are reunited with their sisters at bid day after disaffiliating over the summer for recruitment.

The suspense is thrilling because once a sorority gives a bid to someone, you don’t know who is going to run out towards you or who will even run to another sorority! 

Additionally, there is a limit on how many bids you can give out each year. This all depends on how many potential new members sign up for recruitment, so that no sorority overpowers another during recruitment. 

Here at PC, we try to keep things as fair as possible so that in a perfect world, everyone can hand out the same amount of bids and allow the girls the opportunity to choose wherever they want to go. 

With these bonds that you have been thrown into creating, with the pressure of making a good impression coming from both sides, and walking on eggshells trying not to say the wrong thing, you finally get to relax on bid day after recruitment week!

It’s the big celebration to end the all of the stress and welcome the girls home, as well as welcoming back what we call Pi Chis!

The whole day may be a Greek life ritual, but bid day is a huge part of the sorority experience and a celebration to end the recruitment process, something that could change the course of a life for a student that becomes involved with it.