Hello fellow Iowa rush junkies! I walked over to the other building and did a massive shake down on my friend. I forced her to give me some small shred of info so that we might all enjoy a quick....really quick recruitment story at Iowa!

And.....
We're off and running... since this is a quick one I thought I'd give it a racing theme...horse racing that is! Ah just take a look at that beautiful track, the sun is shining, and the jockeys are warming up in the paddock..

DA DDD DDD DDD DAAAAA!

And the horses are entering the gate:
Seabiscuit is showing a bit of attitude! Those jockeys best get her in line!
War Horse is at a happy trot.
Flicka is a friend
Black Beauty is making an impressive showing
Alaydar and the jockey really look a lot alike!
Man-O-War what an entrance! Go Go Go! Looks like he may take the lead!
Spectacular Bid doing a bit of a fancy dance!
Zenyatta looking really cool and fun coming into this race! contender?
Affirmed a surprise entry!
Native Dancer and does he ever like to dance, whopee! maybe too much?
War Admiral showing restraint as we enter the race
Secretariat prancing up to the gate, may be a contender!
Genuine Risk lots of movement here!

All the horses are in ........ There's the bell..... WE'RE OFF .... to round two...

pic.twitter.com/gEvVia2VBA

http://pic.twitter.com/gEvVia2VBA
Just thought this picture on Iowa FSL Twitter was the ultimate picture of "rush" riding the "struggle bus" lol

You can follow Iowa Recruitment on Twitter at #UIFFR13. Just saw a tweet from a pregnant chapter advisor from Tri-Delt who said how proud she was of her girls and a photo of her with them. I wonder if that was the pregnant person in the rumor? She looks young. I also wonder if they didn't put that out there because some of the PNMs were confused when they saw a pregnant lady at rush events?

The recruitment advisor for my chapter at Iowa State was Extremely pregnant during recruitment this year -- as in her due date was the day before preference round -- but she was still at the house all week doing her duties. However, all alumnae helping had name tags that said "Alumni" (which bothered me to no end that it was -i and not -ae) so the PNMs knew she wasn't an active. I think she tried to stay behind the scenes as much as possible (and sit as much as possible) so I'm not sure how much PNMs would have seen her anyway. I can definitely see where it could cause confusion.

That makes complete sense !!!!

Haha, yes she is 30+ weeks pregnant and is a young looking 30 years old. I believe the Rho Gammas started reminding PNMs that she was the advisor!

My rec girl made it through Sisterhood round. It's been interesting hearing her Mom relay daughter's thoughts. When she started, she wasn't sure about going Greek and really only liked her legacy chapter. She didn't have great returns after round one. Mom thinks it's because daughter is a little blunt and didn't hide well when she didn't like someone. And she was probably pretty overwhelmed by the whole process. I was overwhelmed and I even had a Greek sister!

But as she discussed it with me more over the next day or so, a 2nd favorite was mentioned. OK, so that's 2 out of 14. Then after the 2nd round her favorite was still her favorite but had a new #2. The chapter was a surprise to me, but I'm trying to remember that reputations can change WILDLY in 35 years, for my sorority maybe more than any of the others! So one of the chapters that was kind of a dud that many years ago is a favorite of hers now.

Then, after round 3 (Sisterhood), she has 2 clear favorites and she would be ok with either one. One is her legacy chapter, so fingers crossed that she gets invited to preference! But the other has a lot to say for itself so I guess I would grudgingly be happy for her :p

My contact on the inside thinks that fewer girls have dropped out this year in favor of finding A sorority home instead of a particular sorority home. I'm so glad to hear that and hope it's true. She thought they'd hear about an estimated quota tonight, but I haven't heard from her in awhile.

And on that note, I noticed on the Uiowafsl website an interesting survey:
https://uiowa.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_3z0jl5YGqC4p9MF so it looks like they're trying to gather data on why girls are dropping. Which winds me back to Iowa being a petri dish for rush process and procedure.

Preference is tomorrow and Bid day is Monday. Can someone share when specifically the pref parties are happening?

Back to the races! After a quick start our race has gone into the first turn! A great deal of the pack has fallen out of this race! But 5 horses are still in the running!

Man-O-War: this turn looking like it might be a winner!
Zenyatta: Nice, run moving slowly... may not finish
Affirmed: Moves at a quick pace, maybe too frisky!
Secretariat: A good favorite, out in front!
Genuine Risk: The name says it all a risky runner!

Going into the third turn... traumatic events unfurl! Secretariat is running solo! With only one front runner we'll have to see if she makes it to the Preference round! All bets are on this one!

:eek:
Everyone please cross your fingers for her! She'd love, love, love this house! I'm praying she doesn't get "THE CALL" tomorrow!

The Iowa FSL website shows the pref parties from 12-5 today. Good luck to everyone!

:(
And.... Secretariat stumbles, falls and is out of the race....

Sad to say my friends DD was released this morning...

Just got news from my rec girl. She got cut from her legacy chapter and is DEVASTATED. She has 2 parties for preference, but really only wants one of them. I'm working on Mom to list both sororities. Iowa is getting VERY close to parity between the chapters and I think she'd be happy anywhere.

She's in parties now, so we'll see! Hopefully chapter #2 will warm up to her so that she's comfortable listing both.

Her Mom is completely bummed and confused about how her daughter could be cut from her chapter. I am suddenly one of those women who wants to call the chapter and ask WTF? And she's thinking she has to go through this again in 3 years and is already stressed out over that.

/eta And dare I mention colonization? I guess we'll have to see what the numbers look like tomorrow.

Awww...sorry to hear she was released from her legacy. :-( At least she has two pref invitations and likes one of them going in. Hopefully she will rank both.

So any discussion about Iowa not being competitive can be put to rest now. EVERY chapter had to make tough cuts.

Cuts were extremely tough for my girl after the first round. Panhellenic letter and multiple letters of rec to each house but 3.08 GPA not going to make it there at Iowa (not saying she was a perfect fit for each of the houses anyway). Good news is that she has really liked each of the houses in the next rounds. 5 of 8 and 4 of 6. Two chapters remaining today that she likes. One I know she liked all the way through but I don't get the feel from what she says that they have communicated a mutual like. Second she is a legacy through my mother in law but didn't have a warm fuzzy feeling about until the previous round but they seem to continually express interest.

Just got a text from her after pref parties and she is terribly torn. Had a great party at #1 but didn't think they expressed interest. Party #2 Was a terrific party where they expressed interest so she is terribly torn.

What kind of "interest" are you/she looking for the chapter to "express"? The members of the chapter have to be careful not to say anything that could be viewed as a promise of a bid. In my opinion, the fact that the chapter invited your girl to their preference party IS expressing an interest.

In the case of the other chapter, depending on that organization's legacy policy, the fact that she was invited to the preference party may come along with a "guarantee" that she'll be on that group's first bid list. In that case, a chapter might feel they can be more direct about the fact that they'd like your daughter to join their sisterhood.