Yes, it has begun!
 

I spoke to TexasDaughter very briefly just after she completed touring the first six houses early this afternoon. She sounded really happy and was excited about all the groups. I'll wait to give you a synposis of all 12 after she visits the remaining houses this evening and calls me with her impressions. She said all the sisters have been very easy to talk to. I asked her if she had any favorites at this point, and she said at this point she couldn't rule any of them out.

The PNMs are split into 24 groups of 30-31 with two Rho Gammas per group. Two groups of PNMs visit each house at once, so in some houses there are two PNMs for each sister. TexasDaughter has been impressed with how she's met several sisters in each chapter. Everyone is answering her questions and making her feel welcome. The only negative is the temperature. It was over 100 today. She says she can literally feel her makeup melting away whenever they are outside.

One thing surprised me -- TexasDaughter said their Rho Gammas told them they won't get their invitations to the next round until tomorrow morning, right before they visit the houses. Is this standard, or does each school do this differently?

Thanks!

That sounds about right. After all, the sororities have to decide which of those women to invite back and they have to do that AFTER all the events for the day. 24 groups x 30 women per group is around 720 women for them to remember and decide on. As tiring as recruitment is for the PNMs, it's even more work for the sorority members! They also have to clean up, review what they are doing for the next rounds and set up for the next day.

When I went through recruitment, we got our invites on the "off" days in between rounds. This past formal recruitment, however, we switched to giving the PNMs their invites right before the parties. It's an initiative to help increase retention throughout recruitment. For example, let's say that a PNM gets released from her "favorite" chapter. If she finds out a day before, she is more likely to drop out of recruitment. If she finds out right before the parties, she is all dressed, ready to go, and more likely to go at least one more round.

Good luck to your daughter!

That's how it was when I rushed, you had a meeting in the morning at 8 or 9 and then usually had about an hour before your first party. so hectic!

At this recent Bama recruitment...they got their invites early the next morning. My daughter's time was 7:40 a.m.! They then had a few hours(depending on which day it was) to get ready before the next parties began.

Best of luck, texasmom! Just think, in mere days you will be chilling out like me after an exhausting week of melting make-up. Now I can enjoy watching and encouraging everyone out there. Yahoo, texasmom!

"I'll wait to give you a synposis of all 12 after she visits the remaining houses this evening and calls me with her impressions. "

well....??!!
Ha, ha. It's okay TexasMom. We're just so excited for an Aggie thread. Just please let us know where she went back to, once you hear tomorrow morning.

Sending Positive Panhellenic Thoughts your way!

Thanks for the support!
 

TexasDaughter called tonight and gave me her review. I've tried to post twice and screwed up both times. That's what I get for trying to type after midnight! Maybe this third time will be the charm!

After a long, long struggle, TexasDaughter ranked the houses in the following order. This was very difficult for her, as she felt each group had something to offer. She told me "Mom, I really would go back to my number 12 if that's the way it falls."

1. Kelly. A favorite. Everythng clicked here. She said she could literally see herself living here. She liked the girls, the house, and the philanthropy is her absolute favorite.

2. Taylor. Another favorite. Obviously, a lot of the PNMs feel the same way. -- this is one of the most popular houses at A&M and a lot of the PNMs ranked it highly.

3. Tamyra. A surprising favorite because TexasDaughter didn't know anything about this GLO and she adored her visit today. A lot of the girls made a point of asking her very specific questions and knew a lot about her.

4. Katherine. Another dark horse favorite which surprised TexasDaughter. She had no recs for this chapter but did love it. Again, these girls had done their homework and asked TexasDaughter pertinent questios about some of the things she'd done in high school.

5. Reuben. TexasDaughter liked this chapter because she said a lot of the girls were very friendly, not just to her, but to all the PNMs. They made a point of seeing that everyone was comfortable.

6. Chris. TexasDaughter remembered some of these girls from a pre-recruitment event held at A&M last spring and was pleased that they remembered her too! She liked the fact these girls were down to earth and laid back.

7. Ace. Although TexasDaughter did not know any of these girls, they had some friends in common. She would like to visit them again to talk more.

8. Clay. TexasDaughter lilked their interviewing style. They talked to the PNMs at small tables and the girls actually got to sit down!!

9. Fantasia. This was the last house of the night that TexasDaughter visited. She admired their style and even though everyone was tired, she still felt a connection with several of their girls.

10. Simon. TexasDaughter liked these girls and did not want to rank them in the bottom 3 She would willingly go back for a visit.

11. Randy. TexasDaughter ranked them here because she did not care for their style of rushing PNMs. There were two PNMs per rushee and she felt some of her questions didn't get answered.

12. Paula. Again, the reason they were ranked so low is because of the style of rushing. TexasDaughter spoke to only one rusher the entire time.
She would go back, though.

A long, long day -- and TexasDaughter (and texasmom) are tired. TexasDaughter really wrestled with the rankings tonight.

If TexasDaughter receives any invitations to the next round, they'll be given tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m. and then she'll plunge immediately into the next round of parties. I think they are allowed to attend up to 9 parties tomorrow if they have that many invites.

Thanks again to everyone for indulging a "newbie" on these Boards. . . your support has been invaluable.

Sounds like a good day! I love your daughter's open-minded attitude. Good luck!!

i was exhausted just reading about your daughters day. hope she has more invitations than she can accept!! good luck to her today.

When I went through rush we accepted invites the next morning. If I remember correctly we went according to our last names to the MSC.

Coffee filters are great to help blot/dry the face. I remember one of the sororities had tiki torches outside along the sidewalk-talk about miserable! We were lined up in front of the house for about 15 minutes in 100 degree heat and then had to deal with the heat from the torches.

Wishing your daughter good luck!

Hopefully I misinterpreted your statment. I agree not getting questions answered is not good, but I hope your daughter wasn't critical of there being 2 PMNs per active. Sure everyone would love to recruit one-on-one but sometimes the number of PMNs to actives simply doesn't allow it. Even harder when the Chapter wants to bump/rotate so that actives can meet more PMNs and vice versa.

Best of luck! I can't wait to read how the invites went.

I'm sorry if I misspoke -- I meant to convey that the reason she ranked the Randy house so low was because the one girl didn't really answer her questions, not because of the two-on-one style of rushing. I'm sure because of the numbers that it isn't always possible to have one-on-one PNM to sister, especially in the first round. Of course, I was typing that thread around one in the morning, whichs is not my best time of day. Hopefully, I'll be a bit more lucid in future posts!

It sounds like everything is going good for her. YAY!

ETA: I like that you named them after American Idol contestants. I guess I'll be rooting for Clay since he was my favorite AI of all. LOL!

I'm glad I was wrong. Don't worry as it's completely understandable. Just a few days ago I was replying to threads at 4am trying to unwind from my long days. The next day I re-read all my posts to make sure I was even coherent. :D