If there's a sorority that may do COB, but I don't know any sisters in there, should I try to 'shove' my way in (Hopefully someone understands that interpretation) or just move on?

I want to, but I don't want to force my way in by using people. :/

Yep, that's what I meant - shove my way into getting an invite. Good point, but that is kind of random - to just walk up to a sister and ask. :x

Definitely, which is why I see that as 'shoving my way in.' There's no real decent way to ask, without having an ulterior motive. :/

If the GREEK LIFE OFFICE tells you that a certain sorority has inquired about women who are interested in COB, that's teh ONLY time you should approach the sorority.

Otherwise, COB is kind of like the Masons - asking for an invite is taboo. The girls invited are often already friends of sisters, which is the point - COB is to be more relaxed, not having to meet a bunch of people you don't know like regular formal rush.

Um hate to break it to you, but you HAVE to ask in order to become a Mason.

Right. That's how it works -- you ask them, they don't ask you. That's why they say, "2B1ASK1."

Yeah, but I mean you have to get to the point where you feel comfy asking someone and with them sponsoring you. You don't just show up at a meeting and say "can I join" without knowing a soul. (Which is kinda what OP is proposing.)

One, I understand that you haven't said anything overly negative about the sororities mentioned. However, I find the mentioning of the individual sororities to be unnecessary. If someone who graduated from UCR and saw this, perhaps they'd be insulted. If a future PNM from UCR saw this, perhaps their choices would be biased...perhaps I'm oversensitive, but I don't see the point of naming them. You could have gotten your point across just as well without using their names.

Two, we can't make this decision. How did you decide where you wanted to go to college? How did you decide on your major (assuming that you've declared)? It was how you felt, was it not? We can't tell you how to feel and we can't make the choice for you. If you want to go through recruitment again or COB, do it. If you want to go through service or cultural organizations' recruitment, do it but don't do it as a backup. There are plenty of people who'd love to join one and not as a second choice.

^ No idea what the Masons are, unless you mean the historical society.

Obviously, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I only mentioned the names to give an idea of which Panhellenic sororities UCR had for people who are unfamiliar with UCR. I did not give any mention to how any of the sororities behaved; if anything, I only split them up because I just didn't feel the connection. If another girl does, then good for her, but it wasn't for me. If future PNMs consider my opinion/how sisters were when I rushed, then that's their thing to do. Going into rush is about having an open mind (obviously you guys know that well), if an PNM is swayed by the opinion of a stranger, then it'll be on her for maybe disappointment.

I'm not asking anyone to make a choice for me, I'm only asking for advice to see what other opinions are out there; seeing outside the box. They are not my back-ups, they were other choices I was considering because I love community service as an org's main goal and I'm also Asian, so I liked having that as something to have in common. I only brought up Panhellenic, because I preferred them the most + their rush was before the CS/culture ones.

I don't want to have to defend my choices, I only wanted advice.

Perhaps because she was looking at multicultural orgs as well?

No, she definitely mentioned "culture" orgs.