Last week, dozens of women in brightly colored dresses showed up at the Swan Coach House to hear Trisha Addicks, America’s leading sorority recruitment coach, read from her new tome, The Rush Bible: Secrets to Crush Sorority Recruitment and Find Your Forever Greek Home (Simon & Schuster).
The road to that moniker began when Addicks, a Charlotte native who now lives in Brookhaven, did not get a bid from a sorority during recruitment her freshman year at UGA. “I got an empty bid card on bid day. It was horrible. I was devastated and embarrassed,” she says. She eventually pledged a sorority the following year as a sophomore.
Fast-forward to 2017: After talking with friends whose daughters were going through the process, she had a lightbulb moment. At the time, there were a handful of recruitment prep companies, but they did not address Addicks’ main issue with her experience. “No one was working on confidence building and preparing for Rush with research and inside knowledge,” she says.
Addicks doesn’t believe every young woman should be in a sorority, but if she wants to be, she needs the tools required for today’s highly competitive process. Before, women registered and showed up, maybe with some light prep from older women. Now, there are new elements to consider, such as a video, a resume, social media, and more. Addicks has been privately advising on these aspects and all the nuanced changes for years, but the height of #RushTok in 2021 sparked the idea for an instructional book.
She realized that misconceptions and misinformation about sororities and the process were being spread, as people who were not from the South became interested in the lifestyle.
The book outlines the Greek world, the recruitment process, and, most importantly, says Addicks, how to get what you want. “You have to set yourself apart, and you can do that by being prepared and confident,” she says. The book was immediately optioned for a scripted television series that will be co-produced by Eva Longoria’s production company. Addicks is also a producer.
“Our services are expensive because of the amount of time we spend with a client, but I wanted to get this information out to anyone who wants to go through Rush or have confidence during this big transition,” she says. “It’s about helping them discover what they want.”
To wit: Addicks considers her greatest success story a young woman who decided she didn’t want to be in a sorority after working with her. “Her parents were big into Greek life, but they loved that she had the confidence to decide that’s not what she wants.”
