I got my first choice but what an idiotic way I got to it! I tell everyone this....I decided early on that I wanted a sorority whose badge was some "thing" not just their letters or a shield. Not a very good way to go about making choices but, hey, I was 17. So, I wanted a lyre, a key, a crescent, etc. Funny thing was, I had a cousin I couldn't stand in the Pi Phi house. I LOVED their badge - who wouldn't want an arrow? Well, she grabbed me at ice water teas and drug me around to everyone, oohing and aahing over me. She couldn't stand me! I dropped them like a hot potato...and got a nasty phone call from my mother about it. Cousin called her mother, her mother (my aunt) called my mother. You get the drift. Oh well...nut I really did like that arrow!

I would have been happy at my 2nd choice - Alpha Chi. Still have some friends there - 45 years later - and still have their silver lyre charm on my silver charm bracelet (we used to give favors at pref). It was in a little box and you were supposed to put it under your pillow that night and dream about angels and their lyres....and I did. But I wore my DG anchor around my neck too! (Was I ever hedging my bet here!) Got DG and love my anchor...so in spite of my stupid way of accepting invitations, I ended up with 2 great choices - either one of which would have made me happy...but I am very glad that I got my first choice - DG! "It's Delta Gamma down here at Bama, don't you want to be a DG too?"

We did the same thing, though I don't find it embarrassing, and wish more schools rushed like this. I rushed only DG of the five chapters on campus, and though I'm still friends with women in other chapters, didn't consider any of the other groups.

It's nice that it worked out well for you, but something like this usually doesn't always work out like that for everyone. Too often girls rush only one chapter, don't get a bid, and wind up anti-Greek - when they could have found their home if only they had looked at the other chapters.

I think it's the difference in the type of school, too. "Being in a sorority" was not a big deal for most women, and I don't know of a single woman who became anti-greek when she didn't get a bid. Not to say it didn't happen. There was so much else to do at school that others simply made different choices.

I think those of my generation, at least at private and independent schools, also were less concerned with what anyone else did than is generally true today. I don't like to make such great generalizations usually, but it was a different place and time. I don't even know if it would work at CMU today.