I'm brand new to GC and have really enjoyed the recruitment threads I have read so far. I joined a service sorority and did not experience the formal recruitment process, so it is interesting for me to read. I'm excited to hear what it is like at my alma mater!

Good luck! :)

Agreed (especially the bold part).

You'd think that the chapter and house corporation would align their policies.

I think most house corps and chapters work well together. But, the corporation has bills to pay, and truthfully, are less likely to be emotionally involved with the chapter members. If a mortage or rent payment has to be made, the corporation has to take in enough money to make it. In my post I said that the chapter might make an exception that the corporation may not recognize. To me, that means the chapter makes a decision to violate policy on behalf of a member. So, even if the chapter's policies are in line with the corporation's, if one of them violates a policy, even with good intentions, they are no longer aligned.

I think I am just going to honest. I think it is so much easier. Plus, I have plenty of friends in a majority of the sororities that I am sure it would get out quite quickly that I was married.
When asked about being married and how it will affect my sorority life, I will simply let them know that I am willing and able to make the commitment, I want it, and obviously I am a commitment kind of person (marriage and sisterhood are both life long commitments, correct?)
In my personal opinion, I think I have much more depth than JUST being married, and if the sororities find it more important that I am married and cannot live in, then I don't think it would be the situation or the organization for me. As it states on many of the threads, sorority life is not for everyone. I want it to be, I think it can be for me...but in the end they have to choose me, correct? And if they don't, then it's obviously not for me...right?
I feel good about it. I rather be honest.
Thank you for all your help and opinions. Friday is the first day of official recruitment, I'm really excited to get started, get some questions answered, and to keep you guys posted on how it goes and what I learn.
:)

Does the house corp care if a member doesn't fulfill her live in "requirement" if there are enough other sisters that want to live in to fill the house?

disasterscookie,
you have an AWESOME attitude and I wish you the best recruitment experience possible. Please post and let us know how it goes for you! I will be sending good vibes your way!

In my experience, no.

In my chapter of Pi Phi you had to sign a form during the NM period that stated you would live in the house if needed, and that you were obligated to do so.

But my chapter always had more people that wanted to live in the house than were spaces in the house, so it was never a problem. None of the housing obligation forms were ever "called in," so to say.

According to chapter history, when the houses first opened (2000), there was some initial reluctance to live in the house and the house corporation conducted a lottery to decide who would live in. In that case, if you would have refused to live in, but weren't called up during the lottery, it didn't matter to the house corporation either.

Of course we had only 20 spots in our house and ~80-100 members (we grew a lot during my four years), so it was a much different thin than if we'd had 100 spots to fill or something.

I just found out, but didn't know, is that for girls at our ASU chapter who chose not to live in, they just pay an additional fee (for not living in). Honestly, I would say to the OP, enjoy rush, take it one day at a time and cross the bridge of "living in" when the time comes. I'm sure that something can be worked out between you and any sorority that you might possibly join.

As for being married, I'm sure it just depends on each chapters rules. I remember reading some of our rules eons (literally) ago and it didn't say anything about married sisters or sisters with children. I don't know a part of me thinks that if sororities discriminate because a PNM is married or has a child that it could somehow bite them in the butt (especially considering we live in a very "sue happy" society right now).

When I was a collegian, we had a 1 year live in requirement. It was, in fact, strict enough that if you hadnt lived in the house and were called upon to do so and you didnt, you could be expelled from the chapter. There werent any exceptions, save a planned semester abroad or commitment to serve as an RA. That happened to my first little sister, and it was awful. Her parents threatened to stop paying her tuition if she lived in.

With that said, we DID have two married sisters when I was a collegian. One actually had a bed in the house her first year of marriage. She was exec and execs were required to live in the house. Plus she lived quite far away from campus and it made life easier for her to have somewhere to stay on nights she had late class. Another sister got engaged as a new member, got married, and remained active all 4 years of college (she was a freshman when she joined) so being married and being in a sorority IS possible!

It sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders and that, whatever the outcome, you're going to be happy. I wish you the best of luck.

First flat feet were just a silly example of something that you might not what to announce to total strangers. Instead, I'd like to hear responses to the job and transportation issue I also posed.

I agree that the OP needs to be totally honest and forthright about her relationship, including wearing her ring, during recruitment but I don't think that she needs to announce it to the whole world or should initiate the conversation about her private relationship. I think that doing so will only give potential chapters a reason (albeit, not a very good one) to justify cutting her. I'm not familiar with the campus but if NAU is at all competitive, I'd keep the information under wraps unless asked about it.

Here's what I would suggest as far as the conversation goes ...

HOUSING: (for OP to ask member)
Instead of this: "Tell me about your house. Since I'm married, am I required to live in the house?"
Try this: "Tell me about your house. What are your live-in policies and are their any exceptions?"

RELATIONSHIP: (if member asks about the relationship)
Instead of this: "I'm married, will this be a problem?"
Try this: "I married a wonderful man # years ago but really want to get the most out of my undergraduate experience."

In both situations, the OP is honest but is not providing an obvious reason for the chapters to cut her based on her private situation.

I too will not go into a room and announce to all that "I have Flat Feet!" :D

I know the corp I work on now doesn't care who is in the house, as long as it is full. But, the way it is worded is that it is each member's responsibility to live in the house, and applications for exception are only considered after enough contracts have been received to fill the house. So, if a member still chose not to live in, her choices would be to pay for the empty bed or take suspension.

Great Verbal Skills!
 

Kansas City- great suggestions on the verbal skills! It is all in how you pose the question. It will also show interest and have the chapter member talking more about their guidelines. I would imagine many members would not know how to answer the marriage question. Unless they had been posed the question before. ( Or unless thier panhellenic brought it up)

WEll done!

NAU has greek dorms...
 

NAU has a Greek dorm. I believe that each sorority has a floor. I do not know if members are required to live on the floor.

It's encouraged...to say the least.
Depending on the sorority. The smaller culturally based ones require each sister live in for a minimum of 2 years. I think the larger NPC sororities are more lax...I hope. But I shall find out for sure come Friday!

OMG! SO SOON!!! :p

In my chapter, I was property mgr. for a year and if the house was full and we knew all the beds were going to be filled the following year, it was OK.

There were many girls who lived in the house well beyond their 1-yr requirement which "saved" others from having to live in the house, but if it got to the point where there were empty spaces, we went down the list of those who hadn't put in their 1 - yr requirement.

There were very few exemptions - if your parents live withing a certain radius and you were living at home, or if you were an RA, or if you were studying abroad or something. I don't recall being married being one of the exemptions though.

Formal Recruitment Officially starts tomorrow!
The closer it gets the more nervous/uncomfortable I get.
I think I can handle the pressure, but nobody likes rejection.

As hard as rejection can be, bear in mind that you only need ONE bid!

I'm rushing at NAU too! I went to the sorority luau in Reilly, it was a blast. The recruitment councellors are all so nice, they made me even more excited about rush. (If that was even possible!) Friday can't come soon enough!

Are you a freshman?
If so you have a pretty good chance.
Hmm...should we disclose who we are to each other and maybe be buddies?
You could even contribute your own experience to this thread, it is just for NAU recruitment...not just my experience.

I am a freshman, unfortunately, but yeah the girls were telling me I had a great chance which was exciting. I hope I get in one of their groups because they were awesome! We (jokingly) said we'd fight girls out of their group to switch, haha! I'm so excited, but I'm kinda bummed to miss the NAU vs. ASU game. I'll send you a message with my info so you'll know who I am if you see me. I'll be sure to post up my opinions in here too. I have 4/6 that I think are amazing, but I'm trying to keep an open mind because the other girls could potentially "blow my mind," so to speak.:)

[/mini-hijack]

GO DEVILS


(this coming from someone who did her grad work at NAU, but I'll always be a "Devil" at heart ;)

Well, I am in my 3rd year at NAU and I know a lot of girls from each sorority and I can honestly say they are all amazing! I hope that you get the experience you are hoping for, and the sisters you've always dreamed of :)
Good luck and hopefully I will see you around.
(I feel so old...haha.)

Hahaha! Yeah, well my hope is that they give them a good game, but most of the time they do anyway. Who knows...

ALSO! TONIGHT IS ORIENTATION/INFO NIGHT! I'll post up some info later on what I thought :]

NAU Recruitment starts today. Good luck ladies, and I hope you find your home!

Ditto what OTW says. Good luck to all PNMS.

Have fun tonight...

First night!
 

Okay, this is like a novel to type out, so when I don't feel like passing out and trading my feet in for new ones I'll post more. Basically every girl I talked to with the exception of two were fantastic! One of the two girls turned me off completely, but I'm still keeping an open mind because one of her sisters before her was amazing and made me really like the sorority. It's funny how one girl can leave such a sour taste.

The first two groups I went to were traditional sororities and, while I didn't want to join up a Latina sorority, I was very polite and acted extremely interested. They tried to get me to sign up for it and come back for September 15th recruitment (seperaate from panhellenic) but I just said I'd have tot hink about it and if I was interested I'd email them or something. I didn't want to insult them or anything...some other girls in my group were sitting on the side of the room not engaging in conversation or anything,I felt SO bad!

I have a question though...some of the girls got switched like 5 times every sorority and the most I ever got switched was three and that was once as well as talking to two girls in another one the rest I talked to one girl...is that a bad thing?

By traditional...you mean NPC?

As far as your question goes --I'm having a hard time deciphering it. If I'm understanding it correctly, the chapters just do their rotation differently...that's all.

No they're....I forget the abbreviations, but they called them "traditionally cultural." As for the question, I'm sorry, I'm exhausted haha!

Is it bad if you don't get rotated a lot?

PS. I love the Rho Chis!

Edit: NALFO Sororities is what the abbreviation was.

Every chapter is going to have a different rotation system. Some will favor more rotations with shorter conversations, and others will favor fewer rotations with longer conversations. Since NAU is likely a school where chapters get few recs, and recruitment is in the fall, the chapters probably don't know too many PNMs before and wouldn't know who to target to whom/if they would be interested in a particular PNM for the first round.

Don't read into it, because it probably doesn't mean anything.

I second this statement... That is very true for NAU...

Ok, each of my experiences at each house was amazing! But I think a lot of you were right in saying that the things that I say could be broken down A LOT and the sorority revealed. So I am going to wait and make my whole day by day post until after Bid Day (which is the 2nd, so you guys don't have to wait this long) But I will say this.
1)It was the longest night of my life :)
2)I am so sore!
3)I definitly already fell in love, but I am also definitly keeping my options open.
4)My Rho Chi's are definitly the most amazing people...EVER!
5)My preconceived notions flew out the window last night!

So all in all, I am super excited! Can't wait to get the whole/real story going!

That sounds like the first round of recruitment in a nut shell...

So I think it's time to tell you
 

Edit: I'm going to start a new thread so I don't hijack disaster's thread with my rush story. :]

OMG!
 

This is probably one of the most amazing recruitments I have had. Quick update!
1. I am so glad I went into this with an open mind! One of the groups I never really knew about and I kind of wasn't interested in is now my favorite!
2. I got cut from my second favorite after the first night, but you know what? I was totally ok with that! Out of 6 NPC's I got 5 on my schedule, I cannot complain.
3. There is one group that I was super interested in before rush that has completely let me down and really dropped the ball. I had a letter of rec for them and everything (it's not really a big deal to get rec's at NAU since it's so chill, but I was so interested in them I wanted to make myself known).
4. I am so nervous to get my schedule for tonight! If my top 2 are on there I have no idea how I am going to chose at the end!!!!!!
5. I am having the best time of my life, and even though I am a junior, I don't feel like that is counting against me at all!!!

Wish me luck!

Things sound great! Good luck to you!!!! :)

Info Night/ Oreientation
 

Oh. My. God.
I would have to say that this night was the longest night of my short existence. I am so glad that I don't go to a really large really competitive school because I don't think I could handle that kind of pressure! I was there from about 3:30 to 11pm without having eaten and barely drank the entire time! But all and all it was a good night. I am going to go through the different sororities and what I thought of them in the order was saw them.
So in no certain order, I am going to rename the houses:
Muffin
Cupcake
Scone
Cake
Pie
Cookie
I don't really care about actives reading it or anything, I want to keep you girls guessing about who I end up with though ;)
Muffin: I was really excited for this house because this is the house that I was interested in last year. We went in and I got rushed by an active who was pretty friendly. They are a smaller sorority on campus so it was one active to two PNM's (potential new members). We were talking about their intramurals they take part in because I really like sports. They had won Greek Week in May 2007, so that is really cool. We touched a little on their philanthropy, which is really cool. The other PNM that was with me was really awkward and quiet the whole time. Not to talk shit but she was a rather big girl, in a group of girls rushing sororities...this group of girls is quite thin and ridiculously beautiful as a whole to be honest. Our time with the muffin's was cut super short though! We were supposed to have 20 minutes to chit chat but I would say we got like 10. This was really disappointing to me because our Rho Chi's let us know that somehow the muffin's got the time messed up, and unfortunately, this made them seem unprepared and kind of turned me off to them.
Scone: The girl that rushed me was really nice and we kind of hit it off when we started talking about sports. But this time, since with muffin I was only there for 10 minutes, the 20 minutes seemed super long. Their chapter room was really crowded and we were basically screaming in each others faces. It was a little embarassing, but the room was super full! She asked me where I lived and I responded in South Family. She kind of gave me a strange questioning look and I showed her my wedding ring and told her I was married. She was really excited about this and told me that I was super lucky to have found my soulmate so early in life, etc. I was surprised because I thought this would be a turn off to any sorority. I left this group a little indifferent.
Cake: I was excited about this house because one of my friends is a cake. I got rushed by a girl who is their social chair and she was really awesome. We talked about our majors, movies, their philanthropy which is an amazing organization to be involved with any which way! I told her how I liked to do crafts, so she grabbed my hand and excitedly brought me to their display table and went on and on about how they do so many crafts, etc. This girl was so bubbly and really seemed like she loved being there. It really turned me on to this group. I don't really remember how, but it came up that I was married, she seemed a little surprised at first but then I started talking about it and how long Andrew and I have been together and she just seemed really genuine when she congratulated me. I liked this group.
Pie: I absolutely fell in love with this group of girls within the instant I walked in the door! The girl who rushed me was amazing! I can't describe it, but I really felt like she and I clicked! We talked about how we are both really OCD with scheduling things and planning things. We talked about crafts and she too excitedly showed me their display table of all their crafts they do. She was awesome. I really really really liked this group of girls. I also liked that a lot of their symbols and mascots were less traditional than the other groups. Their philanthropy is an organization I am wanting to get involved with anyways. I left this group knowing I would rank them number 1! :D
Cookie: I was a little indifferent to this group initially because they are well known for being kind of snooty around campus. Well, entering their chapter room they were all really dressed up, which surprised me because this is the first night where we are encouraged to dress comfortably. I got rushed by a girl who is also in my Stats class. This was a good conversation starter because we got to talk about how terrified we are of this class, etc. Then she asked me where I was from and I told her and asked her not to judge me. She laughed and asked me why. I then continued to ramble on and on about how much I hate my town and why. I think I probably rambled too much but she kept laughing and commenting like "how awful." I don't really think I made that great of an impression. I left this house kind of indifferent.

Then we had a 20 minute break. I was relieved but at the same time we were all crowded into one hall and we literally could not move. It reminded me of being at a concert right in the front when people are literally on top of you. I felt like I was going to vomit if I didn't get some water, so luckily I was able to get some. The weird thing is you are not allowed to bring anything with you or take anything out with you. Not water bottles, no purses, nothing. Unless it's medication you will die without. While we were waiting and hanging out someone bumps into me. I turn around assuming it was an accident and there was my entire old sorority whom I knew would come up to me because they are just bitches like that. The sororities are technically not allowed to come out of their chapter rooms and mingle with us...but apparently approaching me was important enough to them to break the rules. So they intentionally bumped into me, and then proceed to be blatantly rude to me. When we get back with our PNM groups I tell my Rho Chi what happened and that I absolutely don't want to go into their chapter room. They were the next group we were visiting, so I got to sit out and just chill with my Rho Chi's who are amazing!

Gamma Alpha Omega: A predominantly minority based group with only 2 members. Though I am sure that they are an awesome organization with great goals and such, 2 girls isn't a sorority to me...that's like IDK less people then you go out to dinner with. I did talk to the girls and they were really nice, but I have done the whole minority sorority before and I am not interested.
Cupcake: The last group! I was so freaking tired and Andrew had been blowing up my phone because he didn't know where I was and I couldn't text him back because we weren't even supposed to have our phones with us. I was so tired and thirsty and hungry. I hadn't eaten anything since noon that day and I knew that it was past 10 (we weren't allowed to know what time it was either). So I got rushed with the other girl again (the big awkward one). We got rushed by a girl whom I had had Philosophy with my first year here. We talked about a lot of things but then she got bumped! Which surprised me because no other group had bumped all night to my surprise. The next girl was really thin! And she kept telling us how to be a cupcake you have to love food and love to eat...I looked her up and down and kind of laughed to myself. But then we started talking about sushi and I got way too excited. Poor awkward girl, getting grouped with me twice...shame. No one is going to remember her because I am a conversational professional. Then that girl got bumped too! The last girl to rush us had a really funny name. She told us her last name and made fun of herself. I thought she was really funny and very cute. I had a good time talking to her. I left this group thinking that they were just interesting and different enough to be the group for me.

Though the night was entirely exhausting, I am glad that I chose to do this again. Tonight I see if I got invited back to 6 out of the 8 and then I go to their parties. Tonight it philanthropy night where they tell us in detail their involvement with the community, etc. We are supposed to kind of dress up tonight, so I am wearing a really cute red dickies dress with black tights and black heels. I know a lot of girls are going to be wearing black or brown, so I want to make sure I stand out :)

So far I would rank them accordingly:
Pie
Cupcake
Cake
Muffin
Cookie
Scone