CPC recruitment is a four-day event from January 11th to January 14th that invites women to meet and potentially join the women of the CPC community.

 At Longwood we have deferred recruitment, which is when students cannot go through recruitment until they have completed at least one full semester of classes or have 12 Longwood credits and received at least a 2.5 grade point average, although some individual chapters may require higher. Members also must sign up for recruitment online and pay a fee of $50 that will cover various recruitment expenses.

 During recruitment, you will be assigned a recruitment counselor, which will also be referred to as a Rho Gamma. Recruitment counselors are sisters of different organizations who are there to help potential members. All potential members will be divided into groups, and each group will have their own recruitment counselor. Potential members will not know which sorority their recruitment counselor is affiliated with, as it is important for them to not have any biases towards specific chapters. Recruitment counselors will guide them throughout the weekend and answer any questions the potential members may have. The first night of recruitment will be an orientation for potential members to meet their recruitment counselor and learn about the upcoming weekend. The first full day will be values day. On this day, potential members will visit all NPC chapters and learn more about each chapter and its members. The following day is philanthropy/sisterhood day, where chapters will go over their philanthropies. You will visit up to five NPC chapters on this day. The final day, preference day, is the most serious day of the weekend, where potential members will meet up to 2 chapters.

 The key to recruitment is mutual selection. At the end of each day, both potential members and chapters will preference who they liked and would like to see the next day. The following day chapters will see less women, and the women will visit less chapters. The number of chapters you will visit depends on both the recruitment schedule and how many chapters ask you back. After visiting on chapters on preference day, potential members will put in order which sorority they would like to join, and sign a MRABA. The MRABA will bind you to any of the sororities that you list if you are to receive a bid, and potential members will be tied to the bid for a year whether they choose to join the organization or not, meaning they are unable to join another sorority for a year. Women will only either receive one bid or none at all.

 Recruitment is an exhausting weekend, both physically and emotionally, but it all culminates with bid day. Bid day follows the preference round of recruitment.  If you ask any sorority member, they will probably tell you that bid day is the most exciting day of the year. It is a celebration amongst the entire Panhellenic community of welcoming new members. Once a woman opens and accepts her bid card, she has the opportunity to run home to her new sisters, and is often met with cheers and tons of hugs. After the long weekend of recruitment is over, the journey of being a new member of a sorority begins. While you may feel relieved that you will never have to go through recruitment as a new member again, just remember it will come around again next year, but this time you'll experience it as a sister of your organization!