Perelman Quadrangle was overrun by a bevy of screaming girls armed with cheers and balloons last night in the grand finale to the sorority rush process -- bid night.
"It's been phenomenally exciting," said College Senior Emma Phillips, the current president of the Panhellenic Council. "Every year is like this."
Following a nine-day rush period, hundreds of women gathered anxiously in the Hall of Flags in Houston Hall to receive bids -- invitations to join a sorority.
Unlike fraternity rush, sorority rush concludes with one bid for each woman, following a complicated process of mutual selection and elimination between those rushing and the sororities themselves.
"You should all be fabulously excited," Phillips told the assembled crowd.
Phillips acknowledged the Rho Chi leaders -- current members of sororities who helped interested women through the rush process, while concealing their own affiliation.
"I just want to tell you how proud I am of all of you," Phillips said. "You've made it through a very long process."
The strict codes governing Panhellenic rush -- in addition to its time-consuming nature -- cause many women to drop out as the process continues and becomes increasingly selective.
However, Phillips cited the great success of this year's final selection process, saying that a vast majority of women received bids from their first choice chapter.
"It was a huge percentage -- over 90 percent," Phillips said. "People did really well."
And, with the distribution of bids -- in envelopes embossed with formal Penn insignia -- the room erupted into a cacophony of screaming, giggling, and cheering. Results were compared, cell phones whipped out, and neighbors hugged.
However, there were some present who did not appear satisfied with what they found in their envelopes, and several declared to their neighbors that they would not go through the pledge process.
Regardless, the event was celebratory in nature. College freshman Natalie Youssef, a Daily Pennsylvanian photographer, expressed her excitement following the distribution of bids, while being swept away in the mass exodus to Perelman Quadrangle where women were to join their chapters.
"I never thought I'd be rushing." Youssef said. "Now I'm pledging."
Chapters gathered their new pledges together to lead them to their respective houses. The pledge process will begin immediately, and will end in the official initiation of new members into each chapter as sisters sometime in April.
