Many young women made the move to Iowa State early to join in on a week full of activities held by sororities in hopes of becoming a member of the Greek community.

Five hundred-fifty girls were a part of this year’s Greek sorority formal recruitment, also known as Rush Week. Upon arrival they were split into 17 different groups.

By the second day of Rush, the large number of sorority pledges had decreased by 150 members.

“A lot of girls will drop out for any number of reasons,” said Caitlin Lawyer, sophomore in sociology and a current member of the Kappa Delta sorority. “Sometimes it will be because of the time commitment the Greek life involves, sometimes it’s their recruitment groups. Some girls will figure out perhaps the Greek life isn’t for them, and others will decide they don’t necessarily want to join right now.”

A recruitment guide, also known as a Rho gamma, led the remaining pledges in the bidding process.

“Each Rho gamma led the groups around to sororities and the sororities showed them skits,” said Karalyn Langan, sophomore in early childhood education and another member of the Kappa Delta sorority. “The skits were basically a representation of what each sorority is about.”

The third day included house tours of each sorority where the pledges got the opportunity to meet and greet with current members of each sorority in order to determine their ideal sorority.

Later that night, the pledges gathered in the Memorial Union for a Preference Ceremony where they filled out preferences for their choice of top three sororities. Each pledge would then receive a bid from one sorority from which they had put as their top three choices.

“Bid day is done out on Central Campus,” said Dana Buer, sophomore in animal science. “Bids are given out according to likeness — how the sorority and the pledge got along, how much the pledge liked the sorority and so on. It’s mutual selection basically.”