Rush up 28 percent for sororities

The increased interest in sorority rush comes as the University continues its policy of not officially recognizing Greek organizations and advising incoming freshmen against participating in rush.

Of those who began the process on Oct. 3, 153 completed the four nights of rush and received a bid from Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta or Pi Beta Phi, Platt said.

Platt explained that the rush process is “mutually selective.”

The following account of rush was confirmed by multiple sorority members who were granted anonymity because of sorority rules prohibiting them from speaking to the press. It was also confirmed by Platt.

Any freshman or sophomore interested in rush can sign up and attend events hosted by each sorority during the first two nights of the process.

Each sorority invites some of these women to attend its rush event on the third evening. Women are invited to between zero and three events and are expected to attend each event to which they are invited.

After the third evening’s events, women rank the sororities. At the same time, each sorority decides which women they would like to invite to its event on the final night of rush.

Though all three sororities may want to invite the same woman back, women can only attend up to two final-night events. Women favored by all three sororities are not invited to their last-choice sorority’s event.

After the final night, women and sororities both re-rank each other. Finally, new members are placed in a sorority through a "matching algorithm ... similar to the one used for matching medical students with residencies," Platt explained.

Of the 153 women who were placed in a sorority, 96 percent joined their first choice, Platt said, adding that that “all three sororities had outstanding results, bringing in 49 to 52 new members each.”

Suzanna Sanchez ’04, former president of Kappa Alpha Theta, said she was surprised to hear the size of each sorority’s pledge class.

“Pledge classes were always about 30 girls,” she said of her time at the University. Sanchez added that the size of pledge classes and the number of women who receive bids remained around 105 to 110 when she was an undergraduate.

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Sanchez said that a larger sorority presence would be “a wonderful thing,” adding that she hopes Princeton will one day recognize sororities.

Without official recognition, interested students must rely on informal sources of information to learn about rush.

Sanchez said that learning about sororities is “very word of mouth,” explaining that she first heard about Greek life at Princeton from older students at the University who had attended her high school. She added that she had also heard about Greek life through people she met during orientation week and from her Outdoor Action leader, who suggested that she consider joining a sorority.

Platt noted that while sororities usually publicize rush, advertising has actually decreased this year. “It is possible that awareness of Greek life increased on campus due to the ‘Prince’ articles in the spring,” she said.

In April, The Daily Princetonian published a five-part series on Greek life at the University that investigated hazing, the demographics of Greek organizations, their relationship with the administration, and the future of fraternities and sororities. Two stories from this series were included in the freshman issue of the ‘Prince,’ which was mailed to all members of the Class of 2014 in July.

Following the series’ publication, President Shirley Tilghman said that the administration would reevaluate its stance on Greek organizations. In September, Tilghman established a working group on campus social and residential life, which she tasked with evaluating the role of Greek organizations on campus, among other issues.

The group will release a report this spring.

Regarding the increased interest this year, Sanchez attributed part of the reason to the administration’s letter to incoming freshmen discouraging them from participating in Greek life.

She noted that such a letter did not exist before her freshman year, explaining that “had I gotten the letter, it would have triggered that Greek life was something prevalent on campus.”

“The letter had the reverse impact,” Sanchez said, adding that she sent a letter to Tilghman in April expressing her “dismay” with the letter.

When Sanchez was a student at the University, there were four sororities: Kappa Kappa Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, Pi Beta Phi and Delta Delta Delta. The Princeton chapter of Delta Delta Delta closed in 2005.

Platt noted that despite the increased popularity in sororities this year, the Panhellenic Council is not considering adding a fourth one “at the moment.”

But Sanchez said the possibility was worth exploring. “If we had 150 girls get into [three] sororities this year, then there’s a need for a fourth sorority.”

Editor's note: The online version of this story contains details of the match system that Platt provided after publication.