initially, i was really anti-greek. one of the RAs on the hall had spoken to my bf at the time and told him that she wanted to talk to me about possibly joining her group. he basically told her not to even bother bc i was so against joining that i probably wouldn't even be nice to her. lol. the summer before i rushed, i met a group of women that i really liked. they were fun to be around and were not what i thought were "sorority" girls. it was almost the end of the summer before i found out that they were in a sorority. i knew i had to be in that group.

i would never have made another choice on my campus. hazing was a big deal and was practiced by three of the four sororities.

i went through recruitment and i was surprised by one of the top chapters. i thought they were the "mean" girls. they were actually really a good group of women. they hazed like none other, but they were much nicer than i had thought. as the years went on, they really appeared to have a strong sisterhood. they traveled in packs and were very involved on campus. i became good friends with one woman and she said she regretted being in this group because the "sisterhood" that everyone saw was just a facade to keep up their status on campus. another chapter was known to be the "snobby" group. this was proved to me over and over again. the third chapter was the "average" "mixed" group. i guess i could have found a home there, but they were trying to haze as much as the other groups. i have several friends from this group.

I knew NOTHING about any "reputations" going into recruitment. We had deferred recruitment, but I was a commuter and pretty out of the loop as far as greek politics went. I basically judged the groups based on how my conversations went, and wether I felt comfortable there. I remember visiting the one of the biggest (membership wise) group on campus and wrote "too big" LOL in my rush book. Little did I know they were one of the "big 3" on campus at that time. But looking back, even though we were small when I was a collegian, and we had to work EXTRA hard with recruitment stuff and it was VERY stressful, coming VERY close to being closed, I couldnt be happier in hindsight with my decision to become a Zeta Tau Alpha. They were my first choice after all!

Definitely Made the Right Decision!
 

I pledged freshman year; had a great rush except was cut right before pref by XYZ sorority that my mom and my grandmother were in. I had decided before then I didn't like that sorority that much, but it really hurt my feelings. You're like why? Looking back, knowing what I know about recruitment- probably grades. had a 2.5 GPA. I ended up making 3.5-4.0 in college. Their loss.:cool:

So then it was down to DG, which was a chapter that had all types of girls, and another sorority, say ABC, which was made up of only blonde, beautiful girls. Also every girl from my school in my group went ABC. But they were really cool about it; by that, I mean they didn't act like I was a sure thing. ABC was really nice, but I just didn't feel like it was for me. I also wondered if they were really that nice or just fake. After I decided on DG, they(ABC) were so nice to me. I could have been happy there in retrospect. But I'm very much a want to make friends on my own, not be chosen for who my parents are.

I did go through an "I wonder" phase, but only because the DG that rushed me ended up being my big sister but wasn't around that much. ABC had this girl rushing me from my school that I liked so much. So I was sad about it because she just was a great person. At our school, sororities didn't mix too much with each other.

I was right about most of the chapters except for my own. :) Apparently we were a 2nd tier sorority just up from 3rd tier. :rolleyes: I knew we were 2nd tier but didn't know the move up was pretty recent. In fact, short story- evil fraternity XYZ asked our sorority to a swap (mixer) for April Fool's Day and it was a lie. Because to them we were a bunch of fat chicks. About 6 years before I pledged. :mad:

During rush I was wowed by the rising sophomore & junior class of DG. These were sharp girls. The seniors were cool too, but kinda different. When our amazing pledge class got in, the guys took notice! They had been taking notice but finally all the fraternities wanted us to have mixers with them! Even evil fraternity XYZ! That was a really boring mixer.

Now the years have flown by: almost 20 years! The chapter is amazing and I know I've personally contributed to that. Been very impressed with the leadership at Executive Offices and seen one colonization as well! I hope my daughters go Delta Gamma.

It's funny, my niece went ABC at the same school and is really happy there. I'm glad for her.

Looking back, I can see how deferred rush vs. non-deferred rush affected PNMs in the universities I attended and you know what? It ws 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

At the first school, you couldn't rush until you were a sophomore. There was a lot of dirty rushing and women had their opinions of each group set in stone way before they ever rushed. The "weaker" groups got dumped hard and fast right after first parties. So did the PNMs who weren't "in the know". There were literally hundreds of unhappy women.

At the second school, you rushed before freshman year started. Girls who were "in the know" about Greeks had their choices made before recruitment (so did some of the sororities) and girls who weren't had to cut and be cut so fast that a lot of girls ended up (still do) unhappy with their choices. I doubt that there's much depledging, though, since getting a bid as an upperclassman isn't too easy.

So I lucked out and got a bid I loved but looking back, I can see that I would have been happy at several sororities--maybe not right off, but as I got to know the girls.

Bringing this thread back from a couple months...

I rushed as a sophomore in spring, so "informal rush" for our school. My sorority recruits a week before the others in spring, so when I was invited to rush, I didn't think anything of it. Because I was always a "non-sorority girl", I didn't pay attention to Greek Life at my school except for the occasional roll-eye at Greek letters (I hate to say it now, but I did!). When I went through their rush, I had absolutly NO idea what I was doing. Pretty much going in completly blind. My eldest brother had been a DTD at USC but I hadn't really heard any stories from him and only had one, not-so-great experience of his to go off of. The second day of recruitment I still didn't know what I was doing (I honestly thought that I was just going to different events with this sorority. I never really got the clue that I was "rushing" until initiation...sad, right?). I got a tip from my brother telling me to ask fraternity guys on campus about the different sororities because they "had the dirt" on the sororities (his words).

I talked to a few teammates who were in the same fraternity and asked them which sorority would be a good one to rush, without mentioning the chapter I was rushing. They automatically said this one, then a few more. Over that week I gathered information about the different sororities on campus and realized slowly that the group I was rushing had, according to Greeks and Non-Greeks alike, one of the best reputations on campus.

Looking back now, I wish I could have had the chance to rush each chapter to see what would have happened, but even looking that way I know I made the right choice. Not only do we have a fantastic reputation on campus, but we're one of the strongest chapters in the nation, not to mention our region. It's sometimes overwhelming that I joined a sorority because it is not what anyone would have expected, and overwhelming that I have this reputation to keep up.

But things that I heard about other sororities throughout the spring, some things have been correct and some have been wrong. I like to think that our campus Greeks work very well together, albiet some arguments. But I wasn't too influenced in that aspect. I do know that talking to fraternity brothers and asking about different chapters helped my decision, though...I guess that would be influence. All I know is I am most definitly a Pi Beta Phi and proud of it!!

So that was a novel. And I kind of went in circles. Ah well. I love writing about it!

I'm going to comment on the last two posts (the last two posters are also Pi Beta Phis).

First, I agree with Carnation that I could have been happy at several other chapters. I has a difficult time deciding between my first and second choice chapters, and could have been happy at either. I had lots of friends in "the other house." I might have even been happy with my third choice. I always remember the conversation several of my sisters and I had once on this topic. One of my sisters said, "Sometimes I wonder if I'd been a -- instead of a Pi Phi. I think that I'd be an entirely different person than I am now." Most people could fit into more than one chapter on any given campus. Some chapters are much more diverse than others, and can encompass very different personality types.

But I also agree with the last poster. I, too am most definitely a Pi Beta Phi. And just like you, I am very proud of it. Looking back, I would not have changed anything about my experiences. You can always play the "What If" game. However, the best GLO will always be your own. Before I went Greek, I could not undertand this, even when my best friend tried to tell me. It all goes back to the "on the outside, looking in" versus the "once on the inside, total understanding" theory. You have to be Greek and have your own Greek experience to understand just how special your own chapter really is. :)