Computer Glitches
 

One year at Auburn I remember on the first day of Philanthropy Day the sororities' party lists did not match the PNMs'. I believe it took several hours to sort it all out. The PNMs had the right sororities but just at the wrong times.

panhellenic tries to give every pnm a full schedule(and make sure that all sorority parties are full). so, if your daughter ranked 7 houses as #1 and then the other 5 after that in descending order, and 2 or her top ranked 7 did not ask her back, choices 2 and 3 would be moved up to #1's, if they invited her back. if that didn't work, the computer goes to the next listed and tries to match that and on and on until the pnm has a full schedule or all her possibilities have been exhausted.

another look at a house on a different day has changed many a pnms mind.

Ooh...that's not a good idea. She doesn't want to be seen with an open party slot. People always assume they cut her rather than the other way around. Not fair but factual.

My daughter's pinning ceremony was a few weeks after she got her bid - maybe a month? I don't remember specifically but it wasn't too awful long after. Different sororities may do it differently but hers was only the current members and the other new pledges.

It will vary according to sorority but all of them will have the ceremony fairly soon. If your daughter does end up pledging the same sorority as you, you are generally welcome at all events as long as you notify the chapter President that you wish to attend. Having said that, I think that giving your daughter a little room at first wouldn't be a bad idea. This is the time she is starting to bond with her new sisters and getting her feet wet at school. I do encourage you to think about being present during initiation instead should she pledge your sorority. But lets not put the cart before the horse, she has a long way to go before you even need to think about that!

I DO encourage you to be present on Bid Day. Auburn welcomes family members to Bid Day and many attend. You won't be able to sit with your daughter but you will be able to be there for her after she gets her bid and be able to congratulate/console her. After she gets her bid she will be expected to go to her new sorority for refreshments and pictures and to get her 'Bid Day Bag' full of lot's of lettered goodies! Families are welcome to have refreshments as well and meet the officers and advisor. Every year I see parents who are instrumental in getting their devastated daughters to go and give their 2nd/3rd choice sorority a chance. With a little encouragement from Mom, most girls are able to recover their emotions and put on a happy face. It isn't long before almost all of the girls are glad they did go and didn't blow off their bid on Bid Day! Also, if your daughter does not get a bid to your sorority this may be the only chance you get to really celebrate with her in real time!

I don't have anything to contribute- I just think it's neat reading this thread from the moms' perspectives instead of the PNMs'.

Is this generally an extremely busy day for current members? My daughter has only called me once today when they had a lunch break and she hasn't answered my texts for the last few hours...that's very unlike her and I'm curious as to what's going on at this step in the process.

I feel pretty comfortable answering this question, though I went to a west coast school: your daughter is probably EXTREMELY busy. Even after the madness of the parties are over (which likely would keep her away from her phone for many hours straight), there will be a lot of paperwork to organize (she has to sort out all the girls she met today!), a light dinner to grab (maybe) and then voting, then preparing for tomorrow's event. I remember many a night where the actives were up until midnight just voting, let alone preparing for the next day. Especially if there are many, many women coming through, all of the prep work for each round's voting will take a long time. Especially if the recruitment is even somewhat frilly, there will be lots of things to set up for tomorrow.

ETA: She may have been instructed to turn her phone off or leave it on silent in her room during parties (so it doesn't ring somewhere in the house in the middle of a round). At my school, we'd only get 10-15 minutes between parties, which was barely enough time to write up notes on who we met and get organized for the next round, let alone check a phone or text.

Between this party and the next set will come the massive cuts mandated by Panhellenic, where some sororities have to cut the majority of PNMs. They're probably deeply involved in membership selection sessions now and I'm really glad I'm not an active nowadays.

You have to watch out for this because she's only met them for one party. If she were to be dropped by the groups she really likes, would she prefer not to have any options?

I certainly don't mean that I want that for your daughter, but girls need to be careful. If they get cut by their favs in the next couple rounds, oftentimes they'd be happy to have some chapters to fall back on.

Only if your daughter knows that she'd rather not be greek than go back at XYZ should she be thinking in those terms with the first batch of invites, IMO.

It never hurts to have groups wanting you.

OK... now that makes sense as opposed to an ICS issue. This type of problem still has no effect on the placement of PNMs or how chapter party lists look.

I have to second UGAalum's post. Each PNM has only met a few girls in each chapter so far which is hardly enough to base a judgement to rule them out on. Not all girls are good at rushing, some are just horrible at it! They don't talk and are quiet or look bored.This can give a bad impression of the sorority when there is only 15-20 minutes available. Tell your daughter that if she should be invited back to some of these houses she deems less of a fit for her, to give them a second chance. Sometimes all it takes is just the right girl rushing her and she could completely change her mind. There was one story 3 years ago of a girl who hated XYZ after round 1 because the were too prissy and into designer clothes etc, etc. She put this sorority at the bottom of her list but the next day had an invite back. She grudgingly went back with a bit of a chip on her shoulder. She was rushed by a girl with a completely different personality than what she expected. The rusher was an athlete just like the pnm, and as the conversation went on she found out that there were several athletes in this sorority after all! She ended up pledging this sorority and went on to participate in many intramurals with her more athletic sisters and having an amazing time.

I talked to my daughter a while ago and she had a great day. She had good things to say about most of the chapters she visited today and said if tomorrow's are that good, she is going to have a really hard time ranking them. So hopefully even if there are big cuts she will still end up with chapters that she really likes. Seems like these current Auburn members are really working hard!

Which is why deferred or delayed recruitments on this scale blow my mind.

Yeah, it's pretty bad. Our recruitment was spread out for the first three weeks of school, under the guise of giving us more time to study and accounting for religious holidays. Ha! It was a nightmare and we spent much of the semester catching up.

Agreed. I wish we could just get it done before classes begin, either during summer or winter break... but alas, no. At least ours is only a week long, not three!

We're not allowed to leave or speak to anyone between the end of the last party and MSS, and no one leaves until voting is done... a dinner break would have been fantastic! :p

Try 6AM. :eek:

Thanks to those who answered me about what today was like (carnation, violet, and blonde) ... she has been so busy! And I thought rush as a PNM last year was busy! Every day I keep thinking maybe it will be less busy than the day before but so far that has not been the case. Starting classes on Monday will seem like leisure time compared to all this. <smile>

I did hear from her not long after I posted, she was tired but upbeat about the day and dreading tomorrow because of having to make deeper cuts. They had 9 parties today with, I think she said, 4 more to go tomorrow.

I wish some PNM's would post in here, would love to hear how its going for them!

Weather for tomorrow:
Wednesday
8/12/2009

http://deskwx.weatherbug.com/images/...ns/cond006.gif
Hi: 88°

Thunderstorms likely. Highs in the mid 80s. Northwest winds 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70 percent.

http://deskwx.weatherbug.com/images/...ns/cond018.gif
Lo: 69°

Mostly cloudy. Chance of thunderstorms in the evening...decreasing in coverage after midnight. Lows in the upper 60s. West winds around 5 mph in the evening then becoming light. Chance of rain 40 percent.

So far it has been beastly hot and humid but the rain has passed north of Auburn. There have been no computer glitches so far this year and everything is running very smoothly. Today was a good day for most of the PNM's, not too much emotional stress for the Pi Chi's to deal with just yet. Tomorrow is a short day so everyone will have an opportunity to recharge their batteries!

I saw that forecast this morning - they've been lucky to dodge the rain thus far, I don't see how they'll dodge it today by the looks of radar. Luckily it is a short day for the PNMs.

GPhiBLtColonel - you need to clear your message box so we can fill it up again. War Eagle!

The campus webcams show it overcast but not raining - and people are not running from building to building - too bad there is not a webcam of the village!

WebCam
 

I think a webcam of the dorms during recruitment would be so COOL! (But I'm sure there are those who would think it was CREEEEPY.)

They just finished last party and headed to the computers to "RANK" their lowest 5.
My daughter is pleased to have some down time this afternoon. Don't know about the rain. I think they missed it at least this morning.

It would be cool to see some candid pictures of groups going through recruitment in the Plainsman or something.

It's probably a good thing they don't have one though, since many nervous moms, aunts, friends, etc. would be stalking the pnms all day!

My daughter said that the rain threatened all day, but held off during the parties. Her feet are killing her! Thank goodness there's only two more days.

Does anyone know what time they get their schedules for tomorrow?

I could be mistaken but I believe schedules will be given out between between 9 and 10 am. Don't quote me on this, some of the PNM mom's will know better than me.

awkward1 - everyone gets their schedules sometime between 7-7:30am when we go meet our pi chi's. ^^

I've been told that one PNM said something extremely rude to another one regarding the number of parties she went to today. I'm still steaming. I hope that the rude one gets the crap cut out of herself today.

I think they give them the day of when the girls are all ready to go to the parties. I think the idea is that if you are invited back, you are much more likely to go rather than if you got them the night before, had a chance to dwell about who cut you, and had time to withdraw. If you are dressed and ready, you might just keep going to the parties.

Thank you! I don't know what I was thinking!!!! Actually I do know what I was thinking....I was thinking about a meeting tomorrow at 10 and I got my thoughts confused. That is what I lovingly call a 'senior moment' and they happen all too frequently lately!

You are correct, the get them first thing in the morning when they meet with their Pi Chi group. I don't know if that's the reason but that sounds like a good reason!

Good luck to all...its getting down to the nitty gritty.

BTW, Flip Flop Foto has been making pics this week, I don't know when they'll have them up but you Auburn moms and PNMs and those who like rush pics might want to keep an eye on that site. :)

I'm so anxious for a report from the Mom's!!! How are your daughters doing today?