Recruitment consultants help navigate sorority life!
Nowadays, many young people outsource stages of college prep work to experts such as college admissions advisors and dorm room interior designers. Recruitment consultants are also becoming part of a young woman’s arsenal, helping prepare them for sorority recruitment (formerly known as rush). It’s a big business: The National Panhellenic Conference, the governing body that rules over sororities in the United States, estimates that in 2023, more than 5.8 million members were initiated into 26 sorority organizations that raised $28 million for philanthropies nationwide.
Buckhead resident Leighton Newberry is the founder and owner of Recruitment Ready that offers young women and parents one-on one coaching, online courses and in-person events related to sorority recruitment. She has made it her full-time job to help women succeed in getting bids to their top-choice sororities. Unlike recruitment of yesteryear, when a young woman might just show up and hope for the best, it’s now a process that needs management, says Newberry. She estimates that up to 50% of an incoming pledge class uses an advisor. “People don’t understand how much work it can be,” she says. Here, she shares how to prepare, why the process is worth it and why you might want to hire a professional to handle the details.
Plan (Way) Ahead
Registration for August recruitment opens in May, with the majority of sororities rushing the week or two before school officially begins. While any participation in recruitment takes planning, Newberry has parents approaching her 12 to 24 months in advance, with some electing to go through the confidence-building or etiquette programs she offers as early as the first year of high school. “We’re already working with girls for 2026 recruitment,” she says.
Application Station
Pieces of the application process now feel distinctly 21st century. Newberry estimates that 90% of sororities have a video requirement that asks women to introduce themselves in a one- to three-minute clip. She suggests that young women clean up their digital footprints to represent themselves in the best light and create a social resume that outlines their accomplishments and includes a picture.
Recruitment gets a bad rap for being superficial, but what young women wear can be a deal-breaker according to Newberry. It’s less about the labels and more about presenting themselves in the best light. “It’s important to not show too much cleavage or wear something too short, for example,” she says. Newberry offers styling sessions where no detail gets overlooked, including which towels match a dorm room’s interior design scheme. Letters of recommendation are still an important tool at highly competitive sororities. Newberry puts it into perspective: “Each sorority can receive several letters of recommendation for one potential new member. Some schools have 19 sororities. That’s a lot of letters to coordinate,” she says.
Confidence is Queen
“Recruitment can be an overwhelming situation, but it can help you find your people,” she says. To do that, young women need their confidence built up so they feel steady during the process. Newberry’s offerings include coaching, organizational checklists, templates, tips, conversational role play, information on unspoken rules, networking tools and more to help young women feel as confident about the process as possible.
Confidence is the key to having successful recruitment where lifelong friends, long-term connections and networking opportunities begin to bloom, says Newberry. “The skills you use during recruitment week can help you far beyond that, such as with finding an internship or a first job,” she says. “I believe confident women can accomplish anything.”
RECRUITMENT READY
recruitment-ready.com
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