GreekChat.com Forums - Retro Recruitment: 1985

8 Parties

At my school, at least back in the day, they didn’t do a Philanthropy Round. The parties were just like the first round except that they were longer and we didn’t have to go to as many. Like with Round 1, the parties were distributed over two days. It was fun in that I was able to get more of a sense of what every house was about. Sagittarius prided itself in kicking butt every Greek Week. Cancer usually won Derby Days. Virgo had what I remember as my favorite philanthropy; providing therapy to help critically ill children cope with their illness. Aries had sisters involved in high profile positions all over campus.

When it came time after Round 2, I remember putting Gemini and Taurus at the bottom of my choices partly because they each had half of a floor in the sorority dorm instead of having a whole floor each. I knew I eventually wanted to live in the suite and it didn’t seem that would be a possibility since they had half as many beds as the other houses. Plus, I felt like the sisters at Taurus were following a script when they were talking to me and asking questions and the conversation didn’t really flow very well. I liked Capricorn a lot, but they were such a small house; about 1/3 as big as one of the large houses.

4 Parties

So for the next round, my schedule read:

Sagittarius
Aries
Cancer
Virgo

This is where it got tough because I really liked all four of these houses and it was hard to decide on just two for Prefs.

Sagittarius really seemed to have a big presence on campus. It seemed like there were large groups of them, in letters, EVERYWHERE. I could see myself there, and a big reason for that was because they all looked like me! Medium height, curvy, dark brown bob (the only variation: some with bangs, some without). Their skit was amazing. According to fraternity friends, they were a force to be reckoned with during Greek Week and they took their fundraising very seriously. I really liked Sagittarius, but in the end I worried that I would feel claustrophobic there. It was almost like they expected sisters to be “on” at all times.

Aries seemed like a bunch of fun girls who genuinely liked each other. During the party, their interactions with one another seemed genuine and affectionate. The skit wasn’t perfect, but it was fun and they were enthusiastic. I remember noticing during the week that their table at the cafeteria was always loud and raucous, with tons of people stopping by to say hey and they seemed to know everybody! Aside from the fact that many of them looked like Barbie dolls, they seemed very friendly and down to earth. Their attitude during rush was kind of “wink, wink, yeah you know and I know that this whole thing is kind of silly, but we have no choice.” I found that kind of endearing, actually. Plus, I already knew two or three of the older sisters and liked them.

Cancer, I absolutely loved. I think part of that was, in addition to having some lovely sisters, they were expert rushers. I almost felt like they had a dossier on me or something! I remember a sister I’d never spoken to before making recommendations on which professors were the best in my major and thinking, “How did she know what I want to major in???” Everyone I met was adorable and welcoming and I felt comfortable there but I had to wonder how they interacted without being in such a structured atmosphere. I wasn’t sure I saw the “real” girls.

The girls at Virgo were so sweet and nice and their skit was cute. I was a little bothered to find that several of the sisters on the rushing side of things were actually from another school’s chapter because the chapter at my school was very small. I understand the need to shore up numbers so you don’t have rushees without anyone to talk to, but it felt a little like false advertising to me.

What to do, what to do?