Most recruitment content online only covers Panhellenic (NPC) sororities, but they're one of several councils, each with a genuinely different process. Here's the real distinction if you're exploring more than one path.
NPC (Panhellenic), the process most guides describe. Structured, multi-round formal recruitment happening over a set week, with mutual ranking and matching, typically in fall (sometimes spring depending on campus). This is what "rush," rounds, pref, and bid day usually refer to.
NPHC ("Divine Nine") organizations. A different, generally more individualized process often called "intake," historically and often still less centralized than NPC formal recruitment, run by each individual chapter rather than a single unified week for all organizations at once. Membership intake processes are typically longer, deeper, and centered on getting to know an individual chapter specifically, often over weeks rather than a single condensed week. Interested students should reach out directly to the specific chapter(s) they're interested in, since timing and process genuinely varies chapter to chapter and campus to campus.
NALFO (Latino Greek) and NAPA (multicultural/Asian-interest) organizations. Similarly chapter-run rather than council-coordinated in one unified week, often with their own intake or membership process, cultural and community values frequently woven directly into the process itself, and again, best approached by contacting the specific organization's chapter on your campus directly rather than expecting a single universal schedule.
The practical takeaway if you're deciding between paths: these aren't competing options so much as genuinely different processes suited to different priorities, some students go through more than one across their college years, and none of them requires you to have picked a "side" before you start exploring. Your campus's overall Greek life or student involvement office typically has contact information for all active councils and can point you toward the right first conversation for each one.