You’re a freshman in college starting your first week of classes. You’ve printed and highlighted your schedule, purchased your books online, and attended all of the orientation events. But you may have forgotten to do one thing over the summer: prepare for recruitment! If you’re like many rising freshman, you spent your summer hitting the beach rather than hitting the books.

Or maybe you are a newly initiated member (or parent of a new member) and are feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the information being thrown your way. Well here’s a crash course in all the vocabulary you need to know to understand and fit in:

Rush Week: If you know anyone in Greek Life, or even if you’ve just seen a movie about it, you probably know about rush week. It’s the recruitment period where potential members meet everyone and learn about the organization. Rush week culminates with bid day.

Bid Day: The final day of rush week, where pledges get their “bids”, or official invitations to join a Sorority.

Big: Bigs or big sisters (big brothers for Fraternities) serve as mentors for new members, called littles, throughout initiation.

Little: Littles or little sisters/little brothers are the newest members in a Greek organization. All littles are assigned a big to guide them throughout the initiation process.

National Panhellenic Conference (NPC): The umbrella organization that encompasses 26 sororities around the United States and Canada.

North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC): Similar to the NPC, this is an organization for collegiate fraternities.

Composite: Usually found on the wall of a Sorority or Fraternity house, a composite includes a picture of all the members of the organization as well as the organization’s crest.

Greek Yearbook: We’re a company that specializes in composite, bid day, and convention photography. We work with over 400 colleges and universities and aim to provide the highest quality photography for fraternities and sororities.