When you need this

Joining has its own vocabulary, and much of it is verbs: you rush, you get a bid, you accept it, you pledge, you get initiated. Americans use these words the way you'd talk about applying for a job, and most of them come in the present perfect or the past, because people are reporting where they are in the process.

The process usually goes like this. During recruitment, you visit several chapters, meet members and have short conversations. Chapters then invite the students they'd like, and you choose whether to say yes. After that comes a new member period of a few weeks or a whole term, and then an initiation ceremony makes you a full member. Sororities often run recruitment as one organized week; fraternities are usually more relaxed.

You're allowed to change your mind at any step, and you're allowed to say no. Hazing, meaning any dangerous or humiliating "test" for new members, is banned by colleges and illegal in most US states. If anything feels wrong, you can walk away and tell the dean of students.

Phrases

you're considering joining, nothing decided

you've signed up for the process

you've started visiting chapters

a chapter invited you to join

your answer to the invitation

you're in the new member period

you're now a full member

you stopped the process before the end

asking about the cost politely

asking about the minimum grades

the neutral way to explain a no, either direction

delaying the decision

Say it out loud

Tap a sentence to hear it. Say it after the voice.

Practice · 3 min

Where are you in the process? Situation on the left, one natural line on the right.

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Say it today

Use it once in a real conversation before tomorrow. Out loud counts, even to yourself.