Retro Recruitment

[dgdramadawg]

I'm bored sitting around the house and I figured I'd use this time to start my retro-recruitment thread. I hope jessicasigkap won't think I'm stealing her thunder... I just actually have time to type things up! I went through formal recruitment at UGA in Fall 2001, so since it was so recent I will be making some changes to my notes when I type them (since it'd be pretty easy to tell who it was if I mentioned dress color, as most houses still wear the same colors for round one).

A little about me prior to recruitment: I turned 18 the first day of recruitment and was going through as a first-semester freshman, but I didn't realize it might be bad to mention that I was planning to graduate in only three years. Despite having several Greeks in my family, I did not have any idea what to expect from an SEC recruitment and neither did they. I had recs for some of the houses, but certainly not all. I didn't have very many Greek friends on campus, but most of the girls on my hall in the dorm were very well-prepared for recruitment by their moms/sisters/friends, so it was interesting to hear what they had to say since they had already heard a lot about the houses.

Since I am a theatre girl, I'm naming the 18 houses after Broadway musical characters. No, the names don't mean anything (i.e. Marian Paroo is not uptight and Roxie Hart is not a killer, etc.)

Marian Paroo
Roxie Hart
Margo Channing
Reno Sweeney
Lois Lane
Annie Oakley
Janet Weiss
Babe Williams
Dolly Levi
Julie Jordan
Carrie Pipperidge
Eva Peron
Charity Hope Valentine
Anne Egerman
Eliza Doolittle
Kate Monster
Cora Hooper
Magnolia Hawkins

[indygphib]

Love the ladies of Broadway theme! I can't wait to see where you go!

[Soliloquy]

I love the names!

Go Annie Oakley!

[dgdramadawg]

Here's the first of ye olde journal entries. My mom suggested that I carry a small notebook in my purse to jot down notes and then write out more detailed notes in my journal when I got home. I'm taking a cue from susan 314 and making some comments in italics. I tried to take out any characteristics that might give the houses away before the big reveal.

ROUND ONE, DAY ONE:
It is my 18th birthday! I am very excited to rush! I will see 12 houses today and 6 houses tomorrow. Last night I met my rho chi, Caroline. We will get our schedules this morning and then go to our houses. I am excited to meet everyone but I am nervous because everyone on my hall keeps talking about how "competitive" it is.

MARIAN PAROO: When they opened the doors, there was no one in the foyer, but once we walked in it seemed like THOUSANDS of girls started pounding on the walls and screaming at us! Then a girl came and got me and started talking to me. I felt like I kept being passed from one girl to another. (Remember, no one prepared me so I thought this was all so crazy!!) Everyone asked me the same questions. They all had Southern accents. I didn't feel in place here.

ROXIE HART: The house is really pretty! I guess the screaming and being passed back and forth is normal? The first girl asked me what my dad did, which I thought was kind of strange, but the next girl was nice and asked all kinds of questions about my intended major and extracurriculars. At the end it seemed like the last girl didn't know what to talk about so she just stood with me at the sidewalk waiting for it to be over.

MARGO CHANNING: Their cheers were a little less frightening/screamy, which was very welcome. They were all dressed in the same dress and looked like flight attendants. They all seemed really nice and friendly but it was kind of hard to get a good view of the house from where I was standing and talking to people. They seem pretty laid back, which is so refreshing! This is the first house where the girls seem more like me.

RENO SWEENEY: Before they opened the doors they started screaming "[insert sorority name here]!" very loudly. It was very different from the last one! Every girl who rushed me was very skinny and peppy. I wonder if a lot of them are cheerleaders? They were nice and all, but I just felt out of place.

LOIS LANE: These girls kind of creeped me out at first because I felt like some of them were looking me up and down and sizing me up. But once I talked to some girls it was okay. They seemed really, really laid back, with some of them almost like they didn't even care about it.

ANNIE OAKLEY: This house was kind of stereotypical, at least based on what I've been told to expect from the houses. They asked me all the same questions. (Do I mean as the other houses? Or as each other? I don't know what I meant by that.) I didn't really feel anything particular about this house in either direction. Maybe if I come back for round two I will have a better idea of this house.

JANET WEISS: These girls seemed laid back on the level of the Margo Channings than like the Lois Lanes. They were nice and a lot of them were from out of the south, which made me feel a lot more comfortable (I didn't grow up in Georgia so the houses that were filled with southern belles made me a little uncomfortable.). One of them was in a lot of plays in high school and another girl introduced me to her.

BABE WILLIAMS: This chapter is very diverse, which I love! I got to talk to a couple of drama minors and everyone was really nice and friendly.

DOLLY LEVI: The house is so pretty! A couple of the girls I talked to even wished me a happy birthday! (Of course I was too naive to think of the fact that they might have noticed that little tidbit on my recruitment form...) I felt really welcome at this house but all the other girls in my rush group have told me a lot of rumors about this group. I feel like the things they are saying can't be true because the girls seem so nice. I'm not sure how much attention I should pay to the rumors.

JULIE JORDAN: They wore really cute dresses in one of their colors. They were nice and really friendly, but I'm so tired!

CARRIE PIPPERIDGE: OMG I love this sorority! They have really catchy cheers and their house is so cool and different from the others. This is my favorite so far!

EVA PERON: This house was really similar to Annie Oakley. But their nametags were cuter. (lol, I can't believe I wrote that. You can definitely see how tired I was at the end of the first day!)

Rush is a lot crazier than I expected! My favorites from day one are definitely Carrie Pipperidge and Janet Weiss. I also really liked Julie Jordan, Dolly Levi, Babe Williams, and Margo Channing. Some of the girls in my dorm keep telling me that certain chapters are "better" than others, but I don't think there can be such thing as a "popular" house on a campus with this many people! My next door neighbor in the dorm (who is a legacy at Marian Paroo and Eliza Doolittle) says that the most important thing is for me to be happy and she said not to listen to the other girls.

Tomorrow, I will visit the next six houses:
Charity Hope Valentine
Anne Egerman
Eliza Doolittle
Kate Monster
Cora Hooper
Magnolia Hawkins

[UGAalum94]

I really love this one! It's going to be fun to see if I can guess who is who! I'll keep them too myself, of course, at least until the end.

[sailboatgirl]

I'm so loving these retro threads! They definitely provide a "fix" until recruitment starts in full swing late this summer!

[tld221]

Originally Posted by dgdramadawg

ROXIE HART: The house is really pretty! I guess the screaming and being passed back and forth is normal? The first girl asked me what my dad did, which I thought was kind of strange, but the next girl was nice and asked all kinds of questions about my intended major and extracurriculars. At the end it seemed like the last girl didn't know what to talk about so she just stood with me at the sidewalk waiting for it to be over.

i STILL find this weird that this is asked during rush. that is such a tacky way to find out if a PNM comes from money (which really isnt any org's business). and what if the PNM:

a. has an MIA father/in a house where the mom brings home the bread
b. is unemployed/does something "undesirable"
c. has 2 moms (hey who knows)

i mean, would my chances be lesser if i was like "well my father isn't in my house... and btw he's a construction worker. but my mom works for a bank?"

i jus think its really tacky to ask something like that. i would seriously have to ask the active "why is that important?" have any PNMs been embarassed by that or am i making a big deal for nothing? if so, i can swallow it and jus accept it as the NPC way.

[susan314]

Originally Posted by tld221

i STILL find this weird that this is asked during rush. that is such a tacky way to find out if a PNM comes from money (which really isnt any org's business). and what if the PNM:

a. has an MIA father/in a house where the mom brings home the bread
b. is unemployed/does something "undesirable"
c. has 2 moms (hey who knows)

i mean, would my chances be lesser if i was like "well my father isn't in my house... and btw he's a construction worker. but my mom works for a bank?"

i jus think its really tacky to ask something like that. i would seriously have to ask the active "why is that important?" have any PNMs been embarassed by that or am i making a big deal for nothing? if so, i can swallow it and jus accept it as the NPC way.

I don't understand why the question is asked either - as you might remember, I declined an invitation to a house after Phase A for being asked the same question.

Generally being an optimist and wanting to believe the best in people...I'd like to think that such a question being asked is more a mistake by an inexperienced rusher than anything that a chapter would deliberately want asked. Perhaps she felt at a loss for conversation, was trying to make small talk, and happened to ask a "bad" question without any real malice intended?

I definitely don't think it is a commonplace amongst all organizations on all campuses...if anything, usually we're cautioned against discussing all the Bs (booze, boys, bank and/or bucks, etc.) I suppose there may be an individual chapter on an individual campus here or there that really does care, but on a national level I don't think its a generally accepted question to be asked?


P.S. One of my chapter sisters/roommates in the house had 2 moms. (Well, she had a mom and dad who were divorced, and 2 step-moms - one via her mom and one via her dad.)