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2nd Round

For 2nd round, sections at each house were 45 minutes long with 10 minutes for travel between each house, which meant that 2nd round dragged on until almost 11 pm, although this was a Friday night - 3rd round would be Saturday night. Each rushee was responsible to go to each house on their own, they could not go to houses they were scheduled to if they didn't want to. The only thing rho gammas did was do check-in at each house to see how many people showed up for each section.

The order I visited houses during this round was:

Rockies
Braves
Twins
Cardinals
Marlins

At this point it should be mentioned that Rockies and Twins are close to each other and that Cardinals, Braves, and Marlins are relatively close to teach other as well. What this meant was that my schedule for 2nd round had just about the most walking possible for 2nd round. Although campus was small, this still resulted in time conflicts as rounds didn't get out on time that often and 10 minutes of walking time in some cases was just not enough time - this will play a part later.

I started this night at Rockies. Before entering the house, I noticed there weren't very many people in this section of the round, which I thought was weird for one of the larger houses on campus. One thing I immediately noticed at this and other houses was how much the attire was ramped up for 2nd round. Whereas first round was nicer stuff that could normally be worn to class, this round was stuff you'd wear when going out on the weekend or going to church. The president of Rockies spoke with a spiel about how glad he was that we all decided to come back and learn about more and that they would learn a little more about the rushees as well. There was then a video about how much this house liked to party, the most impressive part was one of the brothers punching another one bare-fisted and knocking out teeth, another impressive bit was watching a girl at one of their parties smash a beer can...between her boobs - it was very impressive. After the video and another speaker, was the one-on-one. This was actually a 2-on-1. Again, as happened the last time at Rockies, I didn't really have much commong ground with either of the brothers I talked to, although they tried really hard to get to know me. After another speaker, it was time to go to Braves. Overall, I was mildly impressed, the atmosphere of the house seemed fun and they seemed interested in me but I just had a bad vibe of sorts about the house.

Then, to Braves. Right when I walked into Braves (houses didn't do handshake lines very much 2nd and 3rd round) the brother who I had spoken to first round welcomed me back, which seemed nice. Again, Braves had very good food - this round was an ice cream buffet. Whereas other houses had talked about their social events during first round, Braves did it during 2nd round. The presentation was energetic but not over the top, I liked it alot. Then, an alum who had to be in his 50s or 60s talked about how Braves had given him the best experiences of his life both during and after college. Then was individual conversations. To hide the fact their house was small, each rushee was placed in a room and through a period of about 20 minutes brothers would switch in and out of each room, so that each rushee talked to 3 brothers. These one-on-ones were good as I connected with the people I talked to, and one of them really went out of his way to assure that Braves did no hazing (this ended up being a huge lie in the coming months, Braves had some of the worst hazing being almost as bad as Marlins, but I had no clue about any of this at the time). Then, there was a final speech by someone who had better speaking skills than the first round speaker which really made me feel good. After this round, I felt as though I could really see myself as a member of Braves since I connected to everyone I talked to there which was something that didn't really happen at Rockies.

Next was Twins. Twins and Braves were the two most remote houses on campus. Braves was at the south edge of campus, Twins was the northeast edge of campus. My round at Braves ended 2 minutes before my round at Twins was supposed to start. This presented a problem. By the time I got to Twins, it turned out they were waiting for me to start the round for 5 minutes. I felt pretty embarrased at this point. This round started with a speaker, and I noticed quickly that there was only 10 people during this round, which was a very low number to be in a section of 2nd round. I knew most of the people in this group of 10. After a speech that didn't really stick out, we got Subway sandwiches and cake and were then paired into 1-on-1's. I was paired with the president. this was significant because I had known the president since the first day I had arrived on campus and we were very good friends - he had rushed me hardcore fall semester inviting me to every even the house held. He did a very good job of telling me to do what was best for me and that Twins would be very happy to have me. We talked about the one person in the house that I did not get along with, and the president assured me that it would not be a big deal. There was a closing speech that was fairly impressive. After leaving this house, I couldn't decide how I felt because this was easily the house I knew the most about and was the most comfortable about but at the same time I wondered whether or not I would have more fun in a different house that I didn't know much about yet - the impressive 2nd of Braves was really sticking out in my head.

At this point, Rockies was definitely out of the picture as I could only go to 2 houses 3rd round and Braves and Twins had both been better than Rockies.

Then I went to Cardinals. After greetings, I was offered pie and ice cream - apparently I missed the memo that 2nd round was the unilateral dessert round (who knew? :confused:). Being that I had eaten at all 3 houses previous and had to jog to get to Cardinals just to be 5 minutes late, I turned the food down - I was starting to feel a little sick anyway. The brother who was offering me the food seemed to take personal offense to this which to a small degree weirded me out. The opening was a speech which more than anything else struck me as how much more serious it was than anything at any of the other houses during 2nd round - Cardinals made joining their house and greek life and general almost sound like a life or death decision. Cardinals were dressed up more than any of the other houses, and the conversations were structured as a house tour then a 1-on-1. The house tour didn't go too well as 1) I already knew the house layout inside and out and 2) the brother giving the tour didn't seem like he really gave too much of a damn. The 1-on-1 with a different brother went a little better - both the tour and the 1-on-1 were with 2 of the few people in the house I didn't know. After a final speech that was still pretty serious but not as uptight as the opening, I started having serious doubts about Cardinals, even though they had been my favorite house heading into rush. Not really knowing what to think, I then went to Marlins.

Continuing with the apparent dessert theme, Marlins offered choclate chip cookies that ended up being the best food of any house 1st or 2nd round. the presentation was about what would happen during the pledge period, mostly social events but also weekends blocked out for "brotherhood activities" (fancy term for hazing). This presentation was good in that it maintained the fun aspect of 1st round while still being somewhat serious. The 1-on-1 here went fairly well, as me and the brother had a very good conversation about not only Marlins but also the greek system in general. The final speech was one of those super-emotional speeches about how this one senior had almost failed out of college and made other bad choices but his brothers at Marlins had rallied around him and helped him up - the speech showed what good Marlins could do for a person. Although what Marlins did during first round wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, 2nd round seemed much more down to earth and like a fraternity that I would be happy to live in.

After I got back to my dorm, the rho gammas announced that we would have two hours to make our choices for next round.

These were easily the most stressful two hours of my rush experience. I had to cut 5 houses down to 2. I knew I would not join Rockies, but I was torn between the other 4 houses. Braves easily had the most impressive round - I decided after 5 minutes or so I would definitely be going there 3rd round. Cardinals, which had been my #1 house going into rush, sort of rubbed me the wrong way and made me feel uncomfortable. Although I really liked Marlins 2nd round, I couldn't really tell if they were more like how they acted 1st round or how they acted 2nd round - the 2nd round Marlins seemed much more like an environment I'd like to be in than 1st round. And there was Twins. I knew the house very well and had fun there in the past, but I couldn't decide whether or not familiarity with the house now necessarily meant it being the house for me. Deciding between these three houses was hard enough to me that I ended up making a diagram what I thought to be the pros and cons of each house and if some things outweighed others. I ended up calling an independent upper-classman girl friend asking her what houses she thought I would fit into; she gave me the answer I was afraid I would get - I could fit into any of those houses. Eventually, I finally came up with a ranking of the houses after 2nd round.

Braves (far and away the best house 2nd round and rush overall)
Marlins (the last speech really got to me - I thought this house could be very good to me)
Cardinals (everything i'd experienced before 2nd round at Cardinals had been fun, but then this awful 2nd round made me think perhaps it wasn't all that fun and that I might not have a good time as a member there)
Twins (although I knew most of the brothers in the house and thought they were cool, i just decided they weren't the best fit for me)
Rockies (no way I could be in this house, no matter how interested they were - I decided the 30 seconds at the end of first round had been a fluke)

If I had kept thinking about it for another 5 minutes, it's quite possible that Marlins/Cardinals/Twins could have ended up in a different order.

Finally, the rho gams came back with our lists for who invited us back for 3rd round.

My list was the last one in the rush group.

I scrolled down the page.

I had been invited back by Braves - that was a sigh of relief.

Rockies had invited me back - I couldn't have cared less.

Cardinals and Twins had both invited me back.

But Marlins had cut me.

Not really having time for it to soak in and think about it because it was 1 am at this point and 3rd round was the next night, the rho gam told me to hurry up and pick another house other than Braves - these rho gams would not allow suiciding. Just going down to the next house on my list, I half-heartedly put down Cardinals.

Greg comes into the story now, as we had gone to somewhat similar houses 2nd round - he was suiciding Braves. Right picks for 2nd round, Greg asked me why the hell I was going back to Cardinals and was peer pressuring me, telling me that Braves was the only house I would have any fun at. After comparing schedules, me, Mark, and Greg were all going to be at Braves at the same time.

I talked to Mark after 2nd round; at third round he was going to be at Braves and Marlins. We both had the same idea about Braves - we wish we had gotten to know this house sooner but were both very interested. Although, the funny thing was that we had gotten each other's favorite houses - Mark had wanted to be in Cardinals since the first day he arrived on campus and I at the time would have preferred Marlins to Cardinals.

My 3rd round schedule would be Braves and then Cardinals. All in all, I had decided I would try to go into 3rd round with an open mind about both houses but that Braves would have a slight edge. Essentially, I had gone from knowing nothing at all about Braves to liking them more than any other house, even previously well-liked Cardinals and Twins.

First, before I eventually reveal the house I joined, here are the 10 houses at my school that I did NOT join, in alphabetical order :

Alpha Tau Omega
Beta Theta Pi
Delta Chi
Delta Tau Delta
Delta Upsilon
Phi Delta Theta
Phi Kappa Psi
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Chi
Sigma Nu

3rd Round was an hour long and unlike the other rounds in that it finished relatively early, at around 9 pm so that all of the houses had time to decide who they wanted to cut or keep as well as take down the setup of 3rd round and prepare for bidnight parties.

The night started at Braves. 3rd Round was definitely more serious than 1st or 2nd round had been, as there wasn’t any joking when I entered the house, just a bunch of serious looks on people’s faces. We were led into the dining room where there were personalized place settings. Everything on the table was in the house’s colors, and draped over each chair was a shirt with the house’s letters on it in the house’s colors. Seating alternated brother/rushee/brother/rushee down long tables; each brother talked primarily to one rushee. As dinner was being served, the president with horrible public speaking skills gave a speech about how we had lots on our plate tonight :rolleyes: . What he said next surprised me; he said that Braves had already made their cuts and that we should just relax and take it easy and get to know who we talk to. The dinner was one of the best I’ve ever had as it started out with salad and then led to very tender steak followed up with a dessert of grasshopper pie. The dinner conversation was for the most part small talk with the brothers asking rushees how they were doing and just general chit chat about this and that, nothing too serious. After the dinner was the conversations. Mine ended up being a 1 on 2, as it was one brother and another rushee aside from myself. I was paired with a brother I had never met before and another rushee who I knew was going to join Braves.

What followed was one of the worst and most awkward conversations I ever had.

The brother started asking questions non-stop, and not giving any feedback to my answers, just moving on to the next presumably pre-scripted question. The questions themselves had the tone of assuming that I was going to join Braves, there were questions such as “What leadership roles do you plan on taking in Braves?” and “What do you see as your biggest impact on this house being?” I only got ask one question – What is the strongest aspect of Braves.

I got the worst answer possible.

The brother told me that the strongest aspect of Braves was its academics. I had done some research previously during the day and found out the Braves had the worst greek gpa on campus, well below both the all mens and all greek averages. At this point I had decided that Cardinals would really have to screw up for me to not join their house because there was no chance I was joining Braves. However, the conversation at Braves wasn’t over yet. What made the whole conversation even worse was that the other rushee with me was never asked any questions at all – the only thing he ever said was “Robrun, I know that you would fit in here at Braves and would be a big asset to the house” – the rushee was playing the part of rusher, which just made things worse than they already were.

Luckily, the round ended soon after that, with a short ending speech by the president about how Braves would be very happy to see us later in the evening.

On the way to Cardinals during the 10 minute break inbetween houses, me and some other rushees talked to each other and realized that 7 different rushees were down to Braves and Cardinals. (5 of the 7 in thie group ended up joining the same house as me) Even while walking into Cardinals, the rushee who I was with at Braves who was just coming to Cardinals “for the heck of it” told me that I should join Braves with him and that I could do much better than Cardinals.

The opening at Cardinals was much like the opening at Braves, with the president giving us a speech to try and help us relax and that he had been in our shoes before and knew what it was like and that we should just take it easy and enjoy ourselves in the meantime. The dining hall at Cardinals was much like Braves, with personalized place settings and a similar seating arrangement, this time at round tables instead of at long tables. As it just so happened, Cardinals served a steak dinner too. I barely touched my food, as I had eaten way too much at Braves. Even though the steak at Cardinals wasn’t as good as the steak at Braves, it didn’t really matter. I was sold on this house and something very bad would have to happen for me not to join Cardinals. After some alumni speaker who talked about how his experiences in Cardinals helped him throughout his whole life, it was time for conversations.

This time, conversations were 2-on-2’s, with two brothers and two rushees in the same room. I was definitely more comfortable here was one of the brothers was the person who had introduced me to Cardinals in the first place and I knew the other rushee and the other brother fairly well. The talk here was not tense at all, it was very laid back and like it was four old friends who had known each other forever were just hanging out, which made me feel really at ease.

There was then a final speaker, a former president of Cardinals, who talked about how the ball was in our court now and that even though he would be happy to see us all back at Cardinals in an hour or so, we should do what was best for us. The speaker said some other stuff too, but I wasn’t really paying attention because I was only thinking about coming back to Cardinals later that night – I knew I had found my home for the rest of my college career.

Once I got back to my dorm, Greg was there even though he lived in a different dorm to peer pressure me and tell me I should join Braves with him. Greg did not want to take no for an answer which was very frustrating – it took quite a while before I got him to lay off.

Mark, on the other hand, was in a completely different boat. He could not pick between Braves and Marlins. What ended up happening was that Greg and one guy from the dorm who had suicided Marlins went back and forth trying to convince Mark to join them and not the other. It got bad enough that Mark eventually decided which house he was going to join by a coinflip…he joined Braves.

For the first time since rush started, I knew exactly what I was doing. I had no trouble making my rankings – my rho gammas even asked me If I was okay since they remembered how much trouble I had deciding what to do after 2nd round.

At this point, it was about an hour until we found out which houses we got into. Being tired from rush week, I decided to take a short nap before I ran to my new house.

As it turns out, I overslept and the rho gammas came knocking to my door to tell me to go run to my new house...

...Cardinals!

Bidnight at Cardinals was one of the most fun nights I ever had and it will definitely stick out in my mind for a long time. It turned out that most of my friends had also joined Cardinals which made the experience that much more fun. From that night, I have definitely been

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