Understanding Your Fraternity Bid: Options & Advice

You were just handed a bid by your friend in one of the fraternities on campus! Congratulations! It really is an honor to be extended an offer to be welcomed to a fraternity’s Brotherhood, community, and network. The best fraternities learn to really get to know you, and make a judgement based on your character and personality traits on if you match their qualities and values. This invitation is a big deal! 

You have that bid, though, and you’re not sure what to do with it. What are your options? What should you do? Well, we’re here to help answer some of those questions! 

Knowing Your Fraternity Bid Options

Some schools and fraternities do a great job at informing their students on the fraternity bid process. Others? Not so much.  

You hold the power when you have a bid, and you should know what your options are. Let’s review them! 

Accepting Your Bid

Let’s say when you’re offered a bid, you already know, or soon make the judgement, that this fraternity is the one for you. This is where you click, feel like you are at home, and see your values most connecting. This is a great development! 

In this instance, you may want to go ahead and accept your fraternity bid! To accept your bid, you should be able to let any Brother know you want to accept, and they’ll likely either let the house know, or he’ll bring you to a Rush & Recruitment Chair to have you accept with them. 

When you accept your bid, you are accepting the fraternity. Every fraternity is different on what steps happen next. For Theta Delta Chi at Wabash College, you’ll soon be moved into the house, and once a definitive class of fellow accepts are together, you will start New Member Education. 

The long and the short of it, however, is that you are agreeing to ally yourself with and commit to the fraternity, and no others. You will soon start a process to go from a New Member (or a pledge in some places) to becoming a full, active Brother of the fraternity. 

Our outstanding 2025 Spring Rush Class after accepting their bids!

Declining Your Bid

In some instances, you find that a fraternity is just not right for you. Maybe they see a connection with you that you just don’t see coming to fruition, or maybe their members don’t have the same values and standards you do. This happens sometimes!

In this case, you may want to consider declining your bid. This cuts you off from that specific fraternity for good, or at least in the possibility of you becoming a member. You may still have friends in that fraternity who you hang out with, and that’s great, but you just won’t be able to join anymore.

Holding Your Bid

What if you really don’t know if you want to accept or decline your fraternity bid? What if you just need more time to check out your options or meet more guys from a house? In this case, you may want to hold your bid! 

Holding your bid is exactly what it sounds like! You are going to hold onto the offer for a time to consider what the best decision for you is.

The extent of time you can hold a bid, though, is dependent on the fraternity, so you may want to ask a Brother or a Rush & Recruitment Chair about that. Fraternities want to put together their New Member Class, and have them start their New Member Education at the same time, so they may have a deadline.

For us, we use a 365 Rush model, which allows you to hold your bid as long as you like. You can accept your bid with Theta Delta Chi at Wabash at any time, and we will work with and coordinate with you and other accepts on when to start your New Member Education.

Our Advice on Fraternity Bids

What we typically advise prospective members of our fraternity to do when we extend them a bid is to hold their bid.

We encourage everyone interested in Greek Life to take their time when choosing a Brotherhood to join. We want prospects to check out their options, ask us questions, make a phone call home, and just do whatever they need to do to feel comfortable committing to our Brotherhood.

For example, our 2024-2025 President, Carter Bertsch ‘26, held his bid for several weeks, as he wanted all the information on the house before joining. This included a phone call to one of our alumni advisors, Kyle O’Keefe ‘08, to make sure he was making the right decision.

Take your time when considering a house and hold your bid if you want! Make the best decision for you!

Better Understand Fraternities with Theta Delta Chi

Fraternity bids are very important, and it is important for you to understand this process if you’re interested in going Greek! We also always encourage you to go the extra mile to learn more about fraternities and to ask questions. If you are considering fraternity life at Wabash, and have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out, and we’ll be happy to bring some light to your questions!