Participating Chapters
Sororities participating in continuous open bidding change each year, and no chapter is guaranteed to participate in a given year.

The chapters participating in COB in fall 2024 are Alpha Delta Pi and Kappa Alpha Theta.

What is COB (Continuous Open Bidding)?
There are two types of recruitment: formal and continuous open bidding (COB). COB occurs after the conclusion of formal recruitment and will take place in the fall semester. While both formal recruitment and continuous open bidding are both types of recruitment, they follow different processes and rules. COB is not a guaranteed method of receiving a bid from a sorority, and the most likely way to receive a bid is by participating in formal recruitment (beginning in January).

To better understand COB, it is important to first explain what the term “total” means. Total is set twice a year – once in the spring at the conclusion of formal recruitment and once in the fall at the start of fall semester. When it is set, total is the average chapter size of the Panhellenic sororities. These differing numbers take into account the graduating senior members and smaller membership numbers in the fall. Chapters with membership sizes below total (below average chapter size) can offer bids until they fill their available spots through COB.

It is possible for a chapter to exceed total. This can occur during spring recruitment when chapters take the quota of new members. Quota is determined based on the potential new members remaining in the process on the final day of recruitment. Taking the full quota of new members can cause a chapter to go above total, but this is the only exception to the definition of total.

If a woman withdraws from the recruitment process before signing a preference card, she is welcome to go through recruitment the next fall or spring. Some sororities might have spaces available in the fall of 2015 through Continuous Open Bidding (COB), however, we do not recommend women withdraw from spring recruitment to give fall COB a chance. During fall term, only some chapters are eligible to take additional members, and we won’t know which ones those are until the start of fall semester.  Not all sororities will offer bids via COB either.