You are too funny! I was laughing out loud at "cookie shrapnel" for 5 minutes straight!:D

I don't know what I would do if I were the active talking to the PNM! I was the total opposite. My first party of the first round, two actives were transitioning me and I was a little too dense to understand what was going on.

Somehow...I'm not surprised. Sometimes, when you portray an activity in a negative light (e.g. "dress funny", make yourself sound strange), organizations that encourage 'fitting in', like sororities, can be turned off a little. Good for you for being involved in a lot, though!

I have two! First, my not-so-fun one. I was invited back to Sigma Delta Tau's pref night. I was so, SO nervous; I remember standing with my group, waiting for my RoCo in the student center (not all the chapters have houses, we have recruitment in rooms in the student center), trying to stop my hands from shaking so the sisters wouldn't think I was on drugs or something. As it turned out, I blew it before they got a chance to notice I was twitching like a boiling lobster, because the very first thing I said to the sister who greeted me was, "I am so happy to be back at STD -- STD -- SDT!" I started apologizing immediately, I was so mortified. The sister was a sweetheart about it and just smiled at my spaz attack, but I pretty much knew from there I was done. I swear, for the rest of that semester I could not see a girl in SDT letters without blushing.

This one's a happier story. My roommate freshman year swears she was cut because of this. Her family's from southern Cyprus, and her then-boyfriend's is from Greece. They dated all through high school, and the summer after graduating, got each other's initials tattooed in Greek. His are ALP, and she got it on her neck. Usually, she wears her hair up, and she does have really thick, dark hair, so she figured leaving her hair down would cover it. But one of our RoCos got a glimpse of part of it and freaked out, thinking it was an ADPi tattoo. We covered it with makeup after that, but ADPi cut her before pref night, and at our school you can only go to 2 pref parties max. As it turned out, she was invited back to DG's pref party and got a bid from them, I KNOW she loves her sorority, and it's really cute how much she loves to tell the story of how, in a way, a tattoo of her ex-bf's initials led her to DG!

A little off subject, but your post about Greeks and Cypriots reminds me:

I've said before that a huge rush without pictures or reccs is challenging, and sometimes we have trouble remembering people. My roomate Helen, who was ethnically Greek, was frustrated that people didn't seem to remember her friend Ellen, who was rushing.
Helen: "She's Greek,"
Someone else: "What do you mean, she went through rush before?"
Helen: "No, she's Creten"
Me: "I thought she seemed very bright."
Helen, smacking her head "No! No! No! She's Creten from the Isle of Crete. Which is part of Greece. Which means she's Greek like I am, which is how I know her. But you - you're a cretin"

The Creten Ellen ended up getting a bid and being a great ASA. My boyfriend at the time had a class with her, and asked her "what do you think of this professor?", indicating with his eyes that he didnt' think much of the guy. Ellen is such a nice person that rather than let him go on and embarrass himself, she said "Before you go any further, I should probably mention that he's my Dad."

Hahahah that's really funny! Thanks for starting my day off with a laugh. :D

Oh man... I read through all of these and feel slightly better about mine, though I still cringe when I think of it.

My school has delayed rush, so we come back a week early. Most other girls aren't doing anything else this week, but I was working on a show in the performing arts department, which, as most people know, is a huge part of my life. So quite literally for that week, when I wasn't at parties, I was at rehearsal, and when I wasn't at rehearsal, I was asleep.

I had the evening party slots, so I was at rehearsal all morning. In rehearsal, we spent a good hour and a half learning how to make shadow puppets - bunnies, turtles, fish, and then camels and elephants too. But I wasn't a character who needed to do these, so I was mainly watching, and my friend showed me the bunny, which is one of the more complex ones. I got it, and was really really excited about it. Can you tell where this is going?

Sure enough, at the first party, I mentioned it to the girl I was with, and she and I laughed as I tried to show her. Conversation moved on. However, at party two, at the requisite, "So what'd you do today" question I said I had made shadow puppets and showed. But this girl wouldn't let it go. And to make matters worse, not only did we have nothing else to talk about, this sorority only had you talk to one person the entire time! I was dying of embarrassment by the end. I'm so sure that I was cut that day as 'the weird one who kept talking about shadow puppets'.

I rushed my sophomore year so a lot of the houses that cut me did so because I was a sophomore (I know this because I had girls in a couple houses literally STOP talking to me after I said I was a sophomore). I also noticed that houses I thought I had a good conversation with cut me while ones were I asked a dozen or more questions just to keep the conversation going invited me back.

One of my weirdest rush experiences was this one though.
I think I got cut at one of the houses because I didn't talk, not for lack of trying though. The girl rushing me didn't even ask me the usual generic questions. She went straight into a story about her and friends going to a local club and scaring freshmen by wearing masks. She also used the word "silly" a couple dozen times ("we were being so silly. isn't that silly? we're just so silly sometimes!"). I must have had the most confused and weirded out expression on my face. The worst part of all was that we were by ourselves and there was no rotation of sisters so I was stuck with one girl for 30 minutes who wouldn't let me talk. After that experience, I'm not exactly sad that I got cut.

I was cut from three houses.

One of them I'm not sure why....

The second house, I made a comment about how I could never be an accountant... and the girl rushing me was an accounting major.

I have an inkling why I may have been cut from the third.... It was first rounds and we were sitting on the ground. It was near the end and my leg was cramping (sitting on the floor in a skirt is difficult!) so I stretched it out..... just in time for a sister carrying a tray of waters to trip over it.

Do you think that impacted their decision at all? :)

Its hilarious looking back on it now, but I was MORTIFIED at the time. Especially because I loved that house. The room went silent (except for the girls who had had water dumped on them... they were shrieking). The girl rushing me just stared at the scenario with her mouth hanging open slightly. I don't really remember what happened after that. Someone brought paper towels and then it was time to go....

Oh well! It all worked out for the best!

See.. reasons like this make me really wonder..are the sisters in that house really that ridiculous that they would cut a PNM based on their own OPINION of something? Even though it happens and its not unheard of, it just seems outrageous to cut someone for that kind of thing...

Stories about cutting and being cut...

First day of rush, I got invited back everywhere, so I had to make three cuts for my next party list. There were two houses on campus that were just not "together" at all...so I cut them, and for the third cut I picked a house that just hadn't made much of an impression on me at all. My rush counselor kept asking, "Are you sure about that?" Clueless me just kept nodding yes. Turns out she was in that house, and it was one of the top houses on campus...she must have been mortified that I cut her house along with two houses that weren't doing so well. Worse than that, we were in a class together for the whole semester! She never spoke to me again.

At one particular house, I was asked, "Where do you vacation in the summers?" I knew exactly what they were asking...how much money does your family have? Fortunately, I had just been to France on a class trip the summer before, so when I said "France", their eyes lit up. I got an invite back. The next day, however, I wore a pair of shoes that I should have road tested first...flats with a little strap on the back to hold them around your heels/ankles. I could NOT keep that strap on my heel, so I ended up shuffling around all day in those flats, walking on the straps...it looked AWFUL, kind of like I just couldn't bother to get fully dressed. I will never know if that's why I got cut from the "where do you vacation" house after that day, but I later found out that this house got in trouble for secretly videotaping PNMs walking up their walk so they could review the tapes later!

When I was on the sisters' side of rush, I made sure three particular girls got cut:

1) I asked a sophomore what campus activities she was involved with...she said, "Boys, drinking, and parties." And she didn't then laugh and then list her actual activities...she just left it at that.
2) A freshman asked me, "What frat houses is it safe to pass out in?"
3) I was sitting on our porch talking to a PNM when she saw someone she knew walking up the street, waved at her, and proceeded to have a 5-minute conversation with the girl, completely ignoring me until she had finished talking to her. When she was finished, she looked at me and said, "I haven't seen her in a really long time." All I could figure is that she really didn't want to be at our house and didn't mind getting cut.

:eek: Creeeepppyyyy!!!!!!

what were they looking for in the tapes? Like recording them to hear what the PNMs said or like "she walks funny lets cut her!" ? haha

Rumor has it that when it came to making some tough cuts, they reviewed the tapes to check out the outfits PNMs selected for house tours (sundresses, sandals, nice jewelry)...I actually had something of a hard time believing this. These were not insecure women, and individually all of them were very nice and down to earth...as a group, however, they were sort of monstrous at times, so maybe the rumor was true.

Am I the only one who thinks this could be helpful if you're meeting hundreds of women a day?

Creepy, yes, but so are most things in recruitment. (bump groups, distress signals and target rushing, anyone?)

[quote=LAblondeGPhi;1695616] I can't see it being helpful if they're judging cuts on someone's outfit. Seems like a rather shallow way to cut.

Helpful if you were using it to put names, faces, and conversations together...AND if PNMs knew that they were being taped. They didn't know, however, and honestly I don't think anyone except the sisters in that particular house will ever know whether they were using the tapes to remember great girls or to critique outfits. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say they were using it to remember girls...I mean, we certainly had a photo wall, but the photos on it had been sent in by alumnae recommending PNMs, so presumably the PNMs knew we might have seen their photos. That's very different from being videotaped by a hidden camera. In any case, I don't think they do that anymore...don't need to, if girls make their Facebook profiles public!

When I went through Rush I was initially really glad that my roommate would be rushing too. Even though I did not know her, I thought it would be something we could bond over. I was so wrong! She took several shots of vodka right before the first round of parties and was upset when I wouldn't join her in "relaxing" before rush. The morning after the first round of parties there was a knock on our dorm room door and it was her Gamma Chi who had come to tell her she had been dropped from every single house. She was really upset and kept on asking me why I thought she had been cut. Um hello? You were plastered!

On that note, we use facebook as a tool when discuassing bids. If we do not remember somebodies name we bring up his face book account and pass it around the room.

I have not only a reason why I was cut from a fraternity's invite but
A reason why I cut a fraternity...

I was at unsaid fraternity's station that I DID NOT want to be at but we were supposed to visit all of them... when I walked up the first words out of their mouths were "Soooooo... How much money did your parents make in the last fiscal year?" I don't know if this was the question they asked people they didn't want to talk to but, I had known their reputation on campus from my previous year and knew some of the guys from there and knew they probably weren't kidding.

[I am not a nice person in my everyday life, on the contrary I am a very REAL person. And to top that off, I am much better with words than most guys are because, both of my parents were public speakers by profession growing up.]

I leaned in and quietly ripped them up one side and down the other using some very choice words.
It was the equivalent of a mother pulling her son off the playground by the ear.

It was a mutual cut.

Lol WOW...that's such a smart thing to do before an important event...DUH! Oh and thank you for not "relaxing" with her. :)