This made me want to go look for house pics, and I can't stop laughing at this unfortunate grammar error I found on one of the chapter's sites:

"Every two weeks we host a Mexican Guest Lunch where each member can bring a guest to the house for lunch"

Another question! I have a foreign name that is not long or particularly hard to say, but is not something anybody would've heard before.

Would it hurt that I don't have a "normal" name? I really don't want to go by a different name, but realistically speaking, am I going to be at a significant disadvantage because of it? I'm a sophomore, so recruitment will already be a challenge and I really wouldn't be opposed to going by a cute American name for a week if it would help me get a bid.

^^^I would edit this ASAP. You may have just given yourself away.

In total agreement. There are all types of problems that can arise from this.

When I was a collegian years ago, a young woman came through rush who had an extremely unusual name. I can't remember how she spelled it, but after all these years I remember that it was pronounced like the phrase 'silly canary' because that's what she'd added to all her pre-recruitment forms and even her name tag. It made her memorable in a positive way and took a lot of stress off the sorority members who would be meeting her and unable to pronounce her name otherwise. It also provided a conversation topic. Perhaps you can come up with a similar tactic with your name.

The name "issue" seems a critical part of the fun the sorority members have in preparation! How DO you pronounce that girl's name? Whoever gets her, make sure you ask her how to say her name! Believe me, you will be discussed if you have a weird name. And discussion is good. The US is not compromised of Smiths and Joneses so own your name. It's also a good conversation tool. What is its ethnic heritage? Have you visited there? Do you have relatives there? You can see how just your last name can kick start a whole string of questions that can lead on to more interesting topics.

On the flip side, I remember women with the same name coming through, i.e. there were two Suzie Smiths almost every year. Having a duplicate name is much worse than having a unique one.

Don't get me going about the 2 girls with the same name who came through rush 1 year and both went to the same pref but 1 got a bid there and the other didn't. The wrong one was handed a bid. What a mess.

Yes, some of them have swimming pools. Some also still have sleeping porches so its a big mix. If I remember correctly, most require that you must live in the house as a sophomore - but that would certainly be something to ask about.

Most houses encourage the girls to live in house after the freshman year, but the reality is most houses don't have enough room for everyone, so those rooms are usually given out based on some type of point system.

As far as the name things, that happens everywhere - anyone who went to college in Pennsylvania has run across some corkers of German/Italian/Slavic names. (Including myself in this one.)

I didn't even think of that! I guess it really could be a positive! Thank you all for being so helpful, especially you DubaiSis. Now I just have to cross my fingers I get a bid come August!

I'm glad to help.

Okay, I am sure that I along with my sisters are not only ones who did this.
We would look at the names of all the girls and see if there were funny names or odd names. It didn't matter if we could pronounce them or not, we just looked.
At the time, Effie and Heddie were considered "odd." I think that we also had an October come through. Not hard names to pronounce, just different. Well, to us, they were.