haha yes! I'm sorry...I got a bit (well, very) anxious and made this thread a bit too early. Rush starts in August when we go back to school. Sorry for making this thread too early! Like I said, I just got really, REALLY excited when I started reading all the old recruitment stories! (And man, have I read a TON of them!)
All outfits are ready to go with the exception of one (pref night, ah!!) and I'm still thinking of a cute & creative "code" for the sororities!

oh no, I was just hoping you would! I can't wait to hear your story!
Isn't that the truth. Haha I'm rushing fall 2010 too and keep getting all antsy to make the recruitment story thread already. good luck with everything! you'll find a great pref night dress. p.s. anthropologie has a ton of cute ones out now! (:

Recruitment is less than a week away!! I'm so excited and a little nervous. Which will probably become a lot nervous in a week! Still freaking out over a pref night dress.. I have literally looked in every store in the mall & all the little boutiques across town. Everything is just too big on me or not what I'm looking for. There was one place that had a dress that could work but was more than I was planning on spending. Oh well, options are limited!

I'm so excited to hear your story! As for the dress, you'll find the perfect one eventually and it will look beautiful on you, so no stress :]

im a rushing as a sophmore too, but at a much smaller southern school. looking forward to reading your story! ill be posting one as well! :)

Well.......
TOMORROW IS THE BIG DAY! I'm so excited to go to all the houses and meet all the girls but growing more nervous by the minute! There are ten different sororities at my school & because of the time I had trying to find a dress I decided to use different stores as code.

1. Express
2. White House Black Market
3. BCBG
4. NY & Co
5. Steve Madden
6. Cathy Jean
7. Anthropologie
8. Francesca's
9. Forever 21
10. Charlotte Russe

(And I know that telling the number of sororities & when I would begin rush will probably be the only clues you need to find out where I go but please keep it quite for those who don't know!) :]

I met with my Pi Chi group for dinner tonight & I absolutely love them! I knew one Pi Chi before rush though..

I have no idea how I'll ever be able to sleep tonight.

oooh stores! How unique...and how amazing that tons of young shopping pnms have never thought to use stores! go Express!

Good luck!

Good luck this week! I'm rooting for Steve Madden (his shoes are my favorite!).

Day 1
We visit all ten houses for day one. (Yes, it’s a VERY long day in the blazing sun!) I was so excited when I met up with my Pi Chi group. My roommates are also in sororities and I think they were more excited about me rushing that I was! (Well, not really but they were super excited too.)

The first house I went to was Anthropologie. I had been warned that there would be tons of yelling and jumping up and down but I definitely didn’t expect to hear it before they even opened the doors of the house! Their cheer was so cute! (Yes, you’ll hear me say this a lot. I loved all the cheers!) The girl that I had was really sweet but it was her first time on that side of things. She was just as nervous as I was! We had a pretty good conversation but it was so loud in the house!

Next I went to Cathy Jean. One of my best friends was in this house so I was really excited about it. Their cheer was definitely stuck in my head the rest of the day! This house was everything I thought it would be and I loved the girl that was rushing me. We had a good conversation and my friend even stopped to tell me hey! I felt the most welcome in this house, I loved that everyone was saying my name as I walked out.
NY & Co was next up on the list. I knew two seniors in this house and they always talk about how much they love it. I talked to two girls in this house and both of them were soo sweet! I had a great convo with the first girl and laughed a lot with the second. I really liked this house when I left.

BCBG was next & to be honest, I was a little worried about it. I had a friend that accepted a bid here last year but later dropped it. Some things that she said about them & things that they had done really had me scared. But the girl I was rushed by was absolutely amazing! I loved her & we clicked instantly. We spent the entire time laughing about our tiny hometowns and other random things. This was my favorite house of the day.

Next I went to Francesca’s. The first girl I talked to was really shy & didn’t talk a lot. Then when she did start talking, she kind of creeped me out with some of the things she knew about me. (No, not the typical major, hometown, high school stuff. More of the apartment I live in who my best friend from home is. & No, they don’t know each other.) The next girl I had met once or twice before through a mutual friend. We just talked about that mutual friend a lot, since they were now roommates. The next girl was super sweet and I liked her a lot.

Steven Madden was the next house I went to. The girl that rushed me was really nice but a lot of other girls stopped by to talk just for a little bit & introduce themselves. A girl that I knew from last year stopped to talk & I was really excited to see her. Overall I liked this house a lot when I left. (And their cheer is STILL stuck in my head!)

Charlotte Russe was after that & although it’s considered one of the “top houses” that everyone wanted & was talking about, I didn’t like it all that much. I talked to two girls and they were both nice conversations but there just wasn’t anything special about it. I love my friends in this sorority but I didn’t feel like it was the place for me.

After Charlotte Russe came Express. They didn’t seem as energetic as all the other houses & just not as excited. I talked to two girls here and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get them off such “scripted questions”. It was always how was your summer, where are you from, what’s your major type questions & when I attempted to ask something about them or go more in depth with things they would change the subject back to what are your classes, ect. They did seem nice though & were probably just nervous like all us PNMs.

At Forever 21 I have a few friends in it but didn’t get to see them today. They had two PNMs to one sister (the only house to do this). I didn’t really like it and the girl I was with was a really shy freshman. I tried to ask her questions as well but she just gave blah answers. I wasn’t that impressed with this house and just had really awkward conversations.

At the last house, WHBM, I was soooo exhausted. I’m sure the girls there were as well which probably played a role in our awkward conversation. We just couldn’t find anything to talk about. It was very obvious when she grabbed another girl to help her out. I liked the second girl more and we talked about football, which I could go on & on about!


At the end of the day, we name our top 8 & rank bottom two. I had:

Express
Cathy Jean
BCBG
Anthropologie
Francesca's
Charlotte Russe
NY & Company
Steve Madden
1. White House Black Market (WHBM)
2. Forever 21

(Top 8 aren’t in any particular order)


Well I have to go get ready for my Round 3 parties so I'll be back soon!

what.

My thought exactly. I told my roommates about it thinking they might know her but they didn't.

Well, there is someone in the chapter who you know is a mutual friend. That member may have gotten additional information about you from that mutual friend. Your address is on your recruitment application, right? So they DO know where you live? Other information may have come from Facebook? Especially if there are things that "friends of friends" can see. It sounds like the chapter did their homework.

Only my home address was on my application, I didn't put my apartment address. The girl I knew may have told her some of the HS info but she doesn't know where I live either. It just threw me off guard and I didn't know what to say to that! :)

This is something I've always wondered at schools w/ recs and sororities "researching" PNMs. How do you (the sorority sister you) walk that line between it being flattering and creepy? I mean I can see at the end of the long day being "oh yeah, you're horse show girl, how goes it?"