Sorority recruits face bizarre SPITTING ritual… as insiders lift lid on outrageously catty secret hand signals and the brutal reasons why rush applicants can be rejected

Freshmen nervously ‘rushing’ at colleges across America are going to ever increasing lengths to ensure they are recruited by their first choice of sorority. 

A lucrative industry that has popped up to advise the most eager potential new members (PNMs) is helping to lift the lid on the brutal and notoriously secretive processes. 

And even if students receive the news they are hoping for come ‘bid day,’ being accepted into the fold of Greek life is not always the end of the ordeal, insiders have told the Daily Mail.

The Rush Guide Co, which offers consultancy services to help girls ace the numerous selection meetings they face to become a pledge, charges up to $2,949 for its advice.

Its consultants, who claim to have witnessed more than 40 recruitments from behind the scenes, have highlighted the crucial role of so-called ‘basement’ girls during the process. Their job is to keep track of who’s who during rush, record their standing within the PNMs and examine their social media.

The ‘basement’ – which is typically a backroom, but can be an actual basement – is usually made up of three to 15 women, including existing undergraduate members of the chapter and a few alumni advisors, the consultancy said. 

They are the guardians of a ‘keep-or-release list,’ which determines who will progress through each stage of the process. 

After recruitment parties, members will gather together to review each PNM. The less drama they cause, the more likely they will be to get into their chosen chapters, The Rush Guide Co said. 

‘We are the puppeteers of rush week,’ a woman who only identified herself as C, and who owns The Rush Guide Co, told the New York Post.

‘You got to know everything that was going on: What every conversation was about, who was talking to which [girl], the results of the voting,’ Olivia Bourgeois, a former basement girl at the University of South Alabama, told the outlet.

‘You can say that “basement girls are like the CIA of sororities,”‘ Bella Lee, a former sorority girl, told the outlet.

‘We know everyone coming and going from the rush rounds, even though they’ll never meet us. We know where you went to high school, what sport you played, what your major might be.’ 

A former insider at a prominent sorority in the Midwest told the Daily Mail that during the exhausting process sorority members would use secret hand signals to rate PNMs behind their backs in real time.

And for those who receive a ‘bid’ from the coveted mansions, what comes next can be even more shocking. 

Those who get in may face a sometimes grueling process known as ‘pomping,’ where sorority and fraternity members spend endless hours making homecoming floats out of paper – and a whole lot of spit. 

One former student, who attended Zeta Tau Alpha at the University of Missouri, told the Daily Mail some sororities participate in a bizarre ritual called ‘pomping’.

‘You literally spend hours after class in fraternity basements spitting onto pieces of tissue paper to create a gigantic float for the homecoming parade,’ the source said.

‘There were individuals called “Pomp Nazis” who came around and would crush your work if you didn’t do a good enough job’.

The final designs sometimes amount to beautiful artworks, but the process is so long it interferes with some students’ school work. 

‘I have only had about six required hours a week, until this week, where I have 23 since homecoming is so close,’ Helen Yeater, also a student at the University of Missouri, told The Maneater, the school’s student paper, in 2016. 

‘I think it is a waste of time. I could be studying for my three tests I have next week instead.’ 

Members have to roll tissue paper around a circular object, like a pencil, use spit to seal the paper to itself, before dipping it in glue and then on the foundation of the float.  

Each house has different requirements for how long members have to put in weekly to finish the project on time. 

The long hours allow sororities and fraternities to get to know each other and bond over the laborious project.  

If they make it through rush and pomping, the new recruits only have that small matter of getting a college degree left to worry about.