What Is RFM in Sorority Recruitment? The Complete Guide

Updated July 2, 2026

New to recruitment? Start with our guide to What Is Sorority Recruitment before getting into the details of RFM.

RFM is the math behind every invite and every release during sorority recruitment, deciding how many spots a chapter has to work with at each round. A chapter can like you and still not be able to invite you back, because the numbers only allow so many spots at each round, no matter how the conversation went.

From our Sorority Recruitment Guide

What RFM Stands For

RFM stands for Release Figure Methodology, a mathematical model designed and administered by the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) to determine how many invitations each chapter can send out at every round of formal recruitment. RFM is separate from bid matching, the process that happens after Preference Round to actually pair PNMs with chapters, which we'll get to further down.

Most campuses running structured recruitment, whether Fully Structured Recruitment (FSR) or Partially Structured Recruitment (PSR), use RFM. Smaller campuses with fewer PNMs sometimes don't use RFM at all.

RFM has three goals:

Help chapters invite enough PNMs to each event that they can realistically reach quota
Help PNMs investigate their options methodically, so they're not wasting rounds on chapters they have no real shot with
Maximize the number of PNMs who end up matched with a chapter by the end of recruitment

In other words, RFM exists to make sure the numbers work out for as many people as possible, both PNMs and chapters.

Before RFM

Earlier systems designed to guide how many PNMs came back to each chapter each round left a number of PNMs without bids by the end of recruitment. By the early 2000s, NPC could see a pattern: chapters weren't consistently reaching quota, and PNMs who wanted bids weren't always getting matched. Some campuses were matching only about two-thirds of PNMs who went through recruitment.

NPC piloted the current version of RFM on ten campuses starting in 2003. It's more data-informed and adjusts throughout recruitment week based on real-time results. Match rates on most campuses now land closer to 80%. It's not a perfect system, but it's a significant improvement on what came before it.

How RFM Actually Works

Formal recruitment runs in a series of rounds, and in each round, PNMs attend parties at each chapter where they've been invited. After every round, chapters invite back some PNMs and release others. Based on RFM, each chapter is given a carry figure for every round: the maximum number of PNMs they're allowed to invite back.

Chapters are expected to invite up to that number. Inviting fewer PNMs than the carry figure allows (called underinviting) is discouraged, because it puts a chapter's chances of reaching quota at risk, and if it happens across multiple chapters on a campus, it can hurt the whole community's ability to match PNMs to bids.

There's one exception: if a chapter has already decided it won't offer a PNM a bid, it's allowed to stop inviting her, even if that drops the chapter below its carry figure. Continuing to invite a PNM a chapter has already ruled out isn't fair to her, so RFM doesn't require it.

Each round, chapters submit their invitation list for that round based on their carry figure.

Each round, chapters also submit flex lists: a flex plus list of PNMs they'd be willing to invite beyond their carry figure, and a flex minus list of PNMs they'd be willing to release early if asked. If fewer PNMs than expected are choosing to return to a chapter's events, the RFM specialist can pull from that chapter's flex plus list to add more names and help the chapter stay on track for quota. If more PNMs than expected are returning, the specialist can pull from the flex minus list to scale the chapter's invites back.

Flex plus lists are optional. Chapters can't be required to invite PNMs they don't want to affiliate with, and there's no penalty for not submitting one. Minus lists, though, are required if the RFM specialist requests them.

The number of parties a PNM can attend shrinks each round, following an approved RFM format, like 6-4-2 or 7-5-2 depending on how many sorority chapters are on a campus. Each drop from one round's party count to the next is called a release, and they're structured to be as even as possible, with the smallest release usually happening after the first round.

All of this is coordinated by the RFM specialist. No Panhellenic community runs RFM without one. Separately, a chapter and its national organization can decide in advance not to follow their carry figures, for their own membership selection reasons. When that happens, the chapter has to tell the RFM specialist directly so she can adjust her projections for the rest of the Panhellenic community.

Quota, Campus Total, and Secondary Quota

Quota is the number of PNMs each chapter is allowed to offer bids to during formal recruitment. It's set by a school's Panhellenic Council, not the chapter, and it's based on how many PNMs signed a Membership Recruitment Acceptance Binding Agreement (MRABA, more on that below). Once quota is reached, formal recruitment ends for new-member intake.

Campus total is different. It's the maximum chapter size allowed each semester, independent of formal recruitment and its quota. Because seniors graduate every year, chapters enter formal recruitment below total. If the gap between their current total and campus total is greater than quota, a chapter can continue extending bids after formal recruitment ends, via continuous open bidding (COB). Making quota and being at campus total are different, and a chapter can do the former without having done the latter.

Some campuses also use secondary quota, a smaller, separate allotment reserved for sophomore, junior, and senior PNMs, which is meant to give those students a better chance of getting a bid in a freshman-heavy PNM pool. Read more about how quota and campus total work together.

Why Give Sophomores (and Juniors and Seniors) an Edge?

Chapters typically prefer to extend bids to freshmen over upperclass PNMs. The rationale is that a freshman has more semesters as an active member, which means more time to grow into leadership roles, a greater chance of living in the chapter house, and more semesters of dues paid into the chapter. While that can be true, sophomores, juniors, and seniors can have a lot to offer a chapter, and some campuses use secondary quota to create that opportunity. Secondary quota is also helpful to transfer students, PNMs who weren't ready for or dropped out of formal recruitment the previous year, and PNMs who were released by every chapter in their first year.

Mutual Selection

Mutual selection is the matching process between the chapters' invite lists and how PNMs rank the chapters after each round.

After the first round (usually Open House, where PNMs meet every chapter), recruitment becomes invitational. After each round of parties, PNMs submit their rankings of the chapters they attended before knowing which of those chapters will invite them back. Chapters, separately, decide who to invite back, limited by the RFM-determined carry figure. The matching process combines both sets of decisions to build each PNM's schedule for the next round. If a PNM is invited back by more chapters than a round allows her to attend, her own rankings determine which parties make her schedule, meaning she'll go to her top choices of the chapters that invited her back.

But Is It Really Mutual Selection?

They call it mutual selection, but the process may not feel "mutual" to a PNM. In early rounds, a PNM is required to attend the maximum number of parties to which they were invited, and she may have visited chapters she doesn't want to join. Technically, she still has to rank them, and because the chapters' invite lists are applied first, before consideration for a PNM's rankings, it's possible that she will not be invited back to all or any of her top choices and her schedule will be filled with houses she wouldn't choose.

Preference round works differently. By Pref, an invite means the chapter is willing to extend a bid to that PNM; there are no more releases after Pref.

Bid Lists and How Matching Actually Happens

After Preference round, each chapter submits a ranked bid list of the PNMs who attended their final event. PNMs, meanwhile, submit their own ranked list through the MRABA.

Matching software (or, on smaller campuses, a hand-matching process run by trained volunteers) takes both sets of rankings and works through them together. A PNM is matched to her first choice if she's ranked high enough on that chapter's bid list. If not, the system checks her second choice, and so on. A PNM will not be matched to a chapter she didn't rank on her MRABA.

After the matching is done, if a PNM went to Pref, maximized her options on her MRABA, but wasn't high enough on any chapter's bid list to be matched, Panhellenic can create a quota addition. In that scenario, Panhellenic adds to a chapter's quota to make sure that PNM gets a bid anyway.

The MRABA: Where Bid Matching Becomes Binding

After Pref is the first point where a PNM can drop a chapter herself, by choosing not to list it on her MRABA.

The Membership Recruitment Acceptance Binding Agreement, or MRABA, is what turns all of this ranking into something binding. PNMs sign it at the final stage of recruitment, right after their last Preference event, listing every chapter they'd be willing to accept a bid from.

By signing, a PNM is agreeing that if any chapter on her list offers her a bid, she'll accept it. If she's offered a bid from a chapter she listed and turns it down, she's ineligible to join any other NPC chapter on that campus until the next primary recruitment. If she signs and doesn't receive a bid via quota addition, she's still eligible for snap bids and COB.

The match process runs on the agreement that every PNM will accept a bid from any chapter on her MRABA list. When a PNM declines a bid, the chapter that extended it will end up under quota, which is unfair both to the chapter and to another PNM who really wanted that bid. Read more about how the MRABA works.

Suicide Bid Risk Assessment

A suicide bid, more formally called a single intentional preference or intentional single preference, happens when a PNM attends more than one Preference event but chooses to list only one chapter on her MRABA because she doesn't want to accept a bid from the other.

Here's why that matters: if she lists two chapters, she's guaranteed a bid from one of them. If she lists only one, she's taking a risk: she could get that bid, or she could get none at all. The upside is flexibility. If a PNM lists on her MRABA a chapter she isn't sure of and then declines the bid or accepts and later drops, she cannot join another chapter until the next formal recruitment cycle (usually a year later). But a PNM who doesn't match on a suicide bid is still eligible for snap bids and COB.

Neither path is risk-free. Ranking both chapters protects the guarantee. Ranking one keeps your options open if things don't go the way you'd hoped. Read more about the cases for and against Suicide Bids.

Snap Bids

Once bid matching is complete, chapters that are under quota can privately reach out to eligible PNMs (women who registered but weren't matched, whether because they withdrew or used a suicide bid that didn't land) and offer a snap bid directly. Snap bids are extended before Bid Day celebrations kick off, so a new member who accepts a snap bid is indistinguishable from anyone else in her new member class. There's no penalty for declining a snap bid.

COB, aka Informal Recruiting

Continuous open bidding, or COB, picks up where formal recruitment ends. It's a separate, less structured process chapters use to fill remaining spots below campus total. Some campus Panhellenics run a lightly structured COB process with scheduled parties sometime shortly after formal recruitment ends, and some Panhellenics are hands off and let the chapters manage the process on their own. Most NPC sororities expect their chapters to continue to recruit until they reach campus total, even if that means year round COB recruiting.

FAQ

Does RFM guarantee every PNM gets a bid?
No. It's built to maximize the number of PNMs who get matched, not to guarantee an outcome for every individual.

Does every campus use RFM?
No. It's standard on most campuses running formal, structured recruitment, but campuses with smaller PNM pools sometimes skip it and match PNMs another way.

What's the difference between secondary quota and a quota addition?
Secondary quota is a separate allotment some campuses use to give upperclass PNMs a fair shot in a freshman-heavy pool. A quota addition is when Panhellenic adds an unmatched PNM to a chapter that's already reached quota, pushing that chapter over quota to place her. They're unrelated concepts that just happen to share the word "quota."

What's the difference between quota and campus total?
Quota is the number of bids a chapter can offer during formal recruitment specifically. Campus total is the maximum chapter size allowed each semester. A chapter can reach quota without being at total.

Where This Leaves You

Formal recruitment runs on several separate systems: RFM, mutual selection, bid matching, and the MRABA. None of them are designed to be figured out alone, and you don't have to. That's what your Rho Chi is there for.

Back to our Sorority Recruitment Guide

More sorority advice:
→ What Is Quota in Sorority Recruitment?
→ What Is an MRABA?
→ What Is a Suicide Bid?