I think that the girls had tried to piece together information about me, but, since I was from out-of-state, they were not able to gather too much. Yes, I was matched with the few girls from either around my area or my hometown, but none of them went to my high school or volunteered with any of the organizations in which I was involved. In a town as large as my hometown, it's impossible to know everyone.

I chose to go to UGA, where I was the only person from my high school, rather than UF or FSU, where I would have known hundreds of girls. So much for the path less taken ;)

Yep. if you are in state, they know lots about you before you walk through the door and probably have researched you all summer long. But if you are from out of state, it's a different story.

I too was out of state at UGA and I'm sure nobody knew a thing about me.

Didn't you fill out a recruitment application and/or send your resume? How could they have known nothing about you?

I'm not trying to be rude, I am just curious. You didn't meet any of the sorority members when you came down for orientation before classes or anything? I've never been at UGA during rush, so I'm not sure how it works there.

There is a generic rush application that I did fill out but the majority of information that the chapter gets about girls is through word of mouth, connections to home towns, high schools etc. I had only met one person prior to rush that was in a GLO at UGA and she was graduated by then. So they had some generic information but I know from being on the other side (the sister side) of rush that most of the information we 'used' about girls was from someone who knew her from home, knew her family, knew someone that went to school/church with her etc. Although it seems like a large state, when it gets to rush it can be very small!

Re: i loved formal recruitment!
 

Aren't you the sweetest thing? I just LOVE your response! I wish I had thought of it at the time!

My mama was absolutely fuming - and this was a very good friend of hers!!

Eh, I didn't mind going through Formal as a PNM. I think I said and wore everything wrong that I could but I still made it through. I don't particularily enjoy small talk but thanks to my mom, I can make it with the best of them.

I didn't get to experience Recruitment much on the other side. My sophomore year I was on Panhel Exec (though looking back I really could have and should have been with my chapter). My junior and senior years I was mostly a floater or in a skit. In fact, I really only rushed one girl my whole time in the house and that was on Pref night my senior year. I must have done something right, though, because she later confided to me that I was the reason she joined.

Where were you from originally, and how'd you do with recruitment?

What is "leg line"? I'm picturing a line of sisters shaking their legs at the PNMs in unison. :p

I think it's legacy line.

I know there's a house at my school that asks the money question - I had a friend rush this fall (we have deferred) and she asked me questions since really, I'm unaffiliated. She called me and said "The girl at XYZ asked what my DAD does, WTF?" I was really surprised - I mean, really, we go to a fairly expensive school, obviously everyone's at least a little well off.

I had a lot of fun with formal recruitment. I always enjoy talking to random people so I had a good time. I met a lot of friends during recruitment.

I had even more fun as an active. I really believe it's more stressful for the sisters during recruitment than the PNMs. You have to watch what you say to the PNMs so it doesn't get misconstrued into a verbal bid, remember all the entrance and exit song/dances, and keep a smile on your face the whole time. You're dead tired because you just dealt with Spirity Week and now you have to be at the house everyday at 8am and you're not done until 1am. Still, I loved it. Recruitment time always made me closer to my sisters and it always reaffirmed my reason for joining.

I felt so-so about formal recruitment when I was going through. Looking back, I have a lot of fond memories, but I think that's more nostalgia than anything. It's hard here because you know practically everyone and if you get cut it's very easy to take it personally.

Now, I LOVE formal recruitment a lot. I really like being on the other side.

I grew up in DC and I found my home at Pi Phi!

Now that I think about it, I helped colonize a chapter that was at a rich school. As I remember it, at least 3-4 women told ME who their daddies were - and I'm talking President of Major Corporation in Australia, President of Major Soft Drink Company, etc! I was doing my best not to be intimidated!!

Each of these PNMs had been through Recruitment, which included the ones who do the "Dun & Bradstreet", though, so maybe they thought that was normal...

I can't even imagine houses asking "How much does your daddy make?" or anything along those lines. Here, one house asked a couple girls in my rush group what their parents did for a living (I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt; I think they were just nervous and ran out of questions) and everybody thought that was incredibly tacky. Wow.