What is recruitment (formerly known as "rush")? What does it involve?

Recruitment is a period of time at the beginning of every semester where organizations (fraternities, sororities, and co-ed fraternities) try to recruit members. If you choose to participate, you become a rushee. There are no commitments or promises made during recruitment, so don't worry about feeling any kind of obligations. During this time, we hold a mix of events where we try to give you a bigger picture of who we are, what we do, and what each sister within KPL is like with events such as cultural discussion forums, informational question and answer sessions, and nights at cafes with sisters just talking and getting to know each other. We also host a bunch of fun events-- in the past we've had lazer tag at Lazer Park in Times Square (imagine 60 people on the N/R train trying to get to 42nd street!), karoke, and social mixer events with fraternities on campus. Basically we try to condense a bunch of activities into a week so that you can get a sense of whether or not you fit with us and we fit with you. Wear what you want, say what you want-- just be yourself! It's usually a great week, lots of fun, and totally free for you to attend!

What are the requirements to join? Do you need to be Asian?

In order to be eligible to participate in the intake process, you must have a GPA of at least 2.5 and be currently enrolled in a school at NYU. You do NOT have to be Asian. We have many different nationalities represented within Kappa, and as a cultural sorority we encourage diversity and the last thing we would do is discriminate. We also look for individuals that were involved with a lot of clubs and community service activity in high school, although if you haven't done many extra-cirricular activities that doesn't mean that you can't participate in recruitment, or that you won't get a bid!

What is a bid? How do I get one?

After the end of recruitment week, we ask that you come in and spend some time talking to sisters one-on-one during Pref Night. This is the final chance that we have to get to know you a little better before we give out bids, which is an invitation for you to participate in our intake process for our sorority. Pref Night usually is an hour or less, conducted with other rushes (no interrogation, we promise!) and just a question and answer session where we ask you about your personality and who you are. There's also a recruitment application to be filled out where we ask you for basic information and also your feedback on the recruitment events that you attended, so that we can improve them for next semester. You must attend Pref Night, fill out the application, and attend a minimum number of recruitment events to be considered for a bid. Once you receive a bid, you have 24 hours to consider it and come back to us and tell us whether or not you'd like to take the next step--pledging!

What is the intake process? I heard it was really hard! Do you haze?

If you accept your bid, you become inducted in a formal ceremony with the rest of your pledge class (the girls that also accepted their bids). After induction, you are all officially intakes. The other members of your class (your pledge sisters) and you are on your journey towards sisterhood! There's no specific guidelines on how long it will be, or how hard, but the point of pledging is to challenge you and teach you more about yourself, your pledge sisters, and the sisters of KFL. We DO NOT haze-- nothing extreme, no horror stories-- we wouldn't have done it ourselves if it WAS hazing!

The intake process is difficult. There's no nice way to say that. It's also a BIG time commitment, and one not to be taken lightly. But if you work hard for something, you'll appreciate it that much better when you do earn it, and it's the exact same way for pledging. If you don't try your hardest, then the sisterhood won't be meaningful and you won't really have the closeness with your sisters that you would without the effort. But on the other hand, we've had sisters that work, take 18 credits, go through the intake process, and get a 4.0 GPA, so it's not impossible. It's a question of time management and balancing your schedule, and the sisters would be more then happy to help you at any time. You're here at NYU to study, and that should be your first priority!

What is being a sister like? Why would I want to be one? What do I get out of it?

It's hard to describe to someone what sisterhood is all about. It's being able to sit in a room of 20 girls and all watch Sex in the City together, figuring out who's most like Samantha and who's Charlotte. It's going to a party with everyone and having a blast dancing and going out to eat at a dive in Chinatown after. Its about having someone to wake you up for class when you have to get there at 9:30 for a midterm, even after they stayed up with you helping you study the night before. Its about having someone to talk to when something goes wrong, or when things are really right. Sisterhood is forever, its a bond that we share because of our experiences together, because of the bonding that happened during pledging, because of mutual respect that we have for one another. We have busy schedules; many of us work, take over 16 credits, do community service, join clubs on campus, and all the other responsibilities and opportunities that come with college life, but the one thing that all our sisters have in common is the desire to do something more. College is a confusing, fast-paced time, and it's all too easy to join one club and float through four years without truly accomplishing something other then a diploma. Joining Kappa is a way to have a long-standing impact through community service, philanthropy, and cultural awareness events. It's a way to gain leadership and time-management skills that will be invaluable to you as you move through life. It's also a great way to make lifelong friends =)

How do I know if a sorority is right for me?

There's no one RIGHT reason to join a sorority, but there are a lot of benefits (see above question and answer). However, there are a lot of WRONG reasons to join. Some of them being: "because I want to meet people," "because I think fraternity guys are hot!" "Because I want to party!" "Because I miss my friends from back home," "Because the sisters seemed SOOO nice!" Now that last one's a tricky one. During recruitment, every organization is going to put on its best face to encourage people to come out to their events. It's going to be really hard for you to tell if they're being genuine, or if it's a front that they put up so that you'll join. The best bet is: if you find that the values of the organization to coincide with your own, and that they organize events that you'd like to be a part of, or help organize, then it's probably a good fit for you.

EVENTS SCHEDULE [ SPRING '08]