If you're at Penn State, then you REALLY need to be more open minded.

Penn State has a HUGE greek system, and a lot of sororities have VERY strong chapters there (my own included, KD).

The places that may have the best reputations and being cool or popular might be the very places that make you the MOST miserable. There are so many to choose from at Penn State (i think they have at least 20 different NPC sororities). I think their rush is fairly competitive as well, so if you narrow yourself so much from the beginning,you're going to shoot yourself in the foot and significantly lower your chances of getting a bid ANYWHERE!

Basically my advice, and I think a lot of people would agree, is to take everything you've heard from other people about this or that sorority and- THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW. The only information you should keep is what you've learned off the sororities websites, or from totally neutral places (like here! GC's pretty good with this stuff).

Go in and listen to every house like it's the first time you've ever heard anything about them. If it's formal rush- this is great b/c you HAVE to go to every house the first round.

Start forming your opinions and preferences then, not now.

BTW- YEAH PITTSBURGH! I'm a Pitt alumna, and now a Pitt Law student. Pittsburgh's cold as hell right now, but i'm sure PSU is too. And as a good Pitt fan, i just gotta say- Penn State Sucks :) In the nicest possible way. But their greek system rocks!

oops posted twice... sorry :(

Tom has made a great point (as usual hehe). However, most of us who go to other schools likely know very little about the individual chapters there. Even if people from Penn State are on here & know about the chapters, they probably won't and shouldn't tell you what the sororities there are "known for", because you never know how wrong labels can be. Chapters can also change dramatically within even a year.

Take my school for example: Some of the previously smaller chapters have doubled in size since last Fall, and the previously more desirable chapters have become less desirable. Factors in the sizes or reputations of may include graduation, marriage, money troubles, grades, sickness, personal conflicts, participation rates, and so on. Anyhow, just go with your instincts. Use your own judgement & impressions when you meet the girls. If you act fake at all (*not* assuming that you will), they will catch on to you. If they don't notice you are being fake, you could end up in a sorority where you can never be yourself.

Ask lots of questions of the girls about philanthropy, sisterhood activities, retreats, mascots/symbols, leadership positions (if you're interested in running for offices later on), intermurals, etc. DON't talk about fraternity guys *unless* you are reffering to mixers, formal, etc. Especially don't talk about partying, drinking, or other sororities.

I don't think there is an Alpha Gamma Delta chapter at Penn State....

I know the best advice is to disregard the reputations of each chapter and that's what you all are saying, but let me ask you something: Would you honestly want to join a group that had a bad reputation? I'm not saying I wouldn't join a certain house just because it wasn't the most popular, but I'm going to be honest here, I would not join a house with a reputation I didn't like.

That said, being open-minded is good. Sometimes the most popular sororities are not the right ones for you (that was the case with myself), and you really do need to go with the one YOU like best.

If you ask different people on one campus about sorority X, you will get totally different answers. One fraternity will say they are snobs; another will say they are so much fun. One sorority will say they always dirty rush; another will say they have a really strong sisterhood. One independent will say they are stereotypical sorority women, and another will say they are actually really great women. That's why asking what a chapter is like is risky - everyone has a different idea.

That website is old. AGD (Alpha Gam) no longer has a chapter at Penn State, but is hoping to get it going again soon.

Hrm.... Thanks!

I was just getting ready to post that, upon further investigation, the page hadn't been updated since 1999. I wonder why PSU keeps the page on its list of Greek orgs? Maybe because they are trying to come back... makes you wonder about loreli and how she can be interested in AGD when they aren't there anymore.

Its like anything that has a website, especially schools. You're going to forget about lil pages that really dont matter to the school or org overall. After all until I did a page one year, my chapters site hadnt been updated since '96 and the girl who did it deactivated.

Lorelei, I want to add my voice to those asking you to keep open minded and give each sorority on your campus a fair chance.

I was so sure that I would go a certain sorority that its symbol is still on my bedroom wall at my parents' house! I checked out the books, the statistics, the composites, and just knew exactly which ones I'd rush and which ones I wouldn't.

Then I rushed. I knew from the start where I felt "at home" - and it wasn't the sorority I had planned! I kept trying to give everyone a fair shake, but when push came to shove, I still knew what was right for me. Interestingly, I didn't like the composites (too cutesy!), the write-up in the Panhellenic handbook (how bland!), the pin (too plain!), the symbols (how boring!) - absolutely nothing about the sorority I chose - other than knowing that it was the right choice.

Now that I know the background, I love my pin, the symbols, the colors, and my sorority.

You stand the chance of dissing the very sorority that is right for you, should you take your present stance. I urge you to give this matter some more thought.

AND, may you love the sorority you chose, and may you chose the sorority that you love!

honeychile

I didn't know that the AGD's weren't active at PSU. I'll be honest the only research I've done into them was online, and talking with people I know who went to PSU, thats how I came to have a few in mind. And I never said that I was ruling all others out. Geez... sorry. I DID plan on making a more informed decision after going through the whole process, I was just curious. I guess I came to the wrong place to ask that particular question.

Thank you to everyone who responded. If i decide to rush I intend on keeping an open mind, but thanks for the advice... especially to those who didn't make me feel like a shallow person :)
I was honestly just curious.

loreli2 - I'm new here as well, and I can allready tell you that you came to the right place for the advice that you needed. I wish you the best of luck with your recruitment process and if you have any questions, especially about ZTA, I'm more than happy to help you out! :) Good luck with everything and keep us posted on how it goes!

loreli -

I'm sorry if you feel like people jumped on you - it's just that a lot of Greeks have heard the same type questions so many times IRL and on here. Plus some of us have had people not join our groups just because of a "rep" and some who DO join because of it. Either way, it can be very hurtful. So it is a touchy subject on GC.

And as FuzzieAlum said, ask 10 people and you will get 10 opinions. Part of Greek unity is wanting every rushee to find what is best for them, not coloring their opinion or trying to "sell" them on a particular sorority.

Just go through rush and have a great time, and keep us updated, because we are rush story addicts!! :D

Loreli- please don't feel bad! :( We only want you to have the best experience possible with Greek Life. It's perfectly normal to decide you "have to be an ABC" to start with, and maybe you will be in one of the ones you like best, or perhaps when you meet them you'll go, "What was I thinking??"

Please don't stop asking questions here, because there are sooo many wonderful people on this forum who can offer different viewpoints on any Greek issue you can think of. If I hadn't found GC before I went through rush in 2001, who knows what would have happened? I might have become frustrated & dropped out, or I might have joined a different sorority for the wrong reasons.

Go with your heart! No matter where you end up, as long as you're happy there, we'll all be happy for you! :D