My Live Fall 09 Recruitment Story
 

I had decided well into my junior year of high school that I planned on rushing a sorority once I had started college. Well, last year due to some personal issues I had been unable to go through formal recruitment and also missed out on all the informal stuff. Although I knew it was going to be harder for me to get a bid, I was fairly certain my school isn’t that competitive and knew that as much as I wanted it I’d never be happy with myself unless I went through rush this fall.

My school has 8 chapters and in order to nickname them I randomly pulled makeup items from my makeup bag and am using the names of my favorite brands to code them. I loooove my makeup bag, so I had a wide selection of brands to pull out. Hahaha.

In alphabetical order by brand name (meaning no order with the actual chapters) we have:

Covergirl
OPI
Revlon
Rimmel
Tarte
TooFaced
Urban Decay
Wet N Wild

Since I’ve been at this school for a year, I already have formed some opinions of the different chapters on my campus. But, I know things aren’t always what they seem at first sight. So, although I have two or three that I’m really hoping for, I’m definitely keeping my mind open, hoping that the others can change my opinions of them.

Our events haven't started yet, but I just thought I'd get a head start on this thread because I love reading all the stories posted on here.

I can't wait until the events start though!

good luck to you. looking forward to reading about your experience.

A great attitude to go in with, particularly the part I bolded. Instead of being set in your opinions or perceptions of chapters, you appear open to forming new ones. All the best to you!

Good Luck. I hope it works out for you.

yaaaaaay for the makeup theme, and double triple yaaaaaaaay for keeping an open mind. You are going to have a blast!!

Best of luck to you..cute names!

Good luck

Good luck. Yay for Sephora <333

Thank you all for all the good luck messages!

Omg these code names are so cute! I LOVE makeup. lol.
Good Luck at recruitment!!!!

What, no MAC? :)

Haha. No, unfortunately none of my MAC products ended up getting pulled out of my massive makeup bag.

Just got back from my informational. I definitely felt a little out of place being one of the few sophomores rushing. But, I quickly started talking to a few girls next to me while we waited for everyone to come in. Apparently the two freshman girls I started talking to were way into TooFaced and Wet N Wild. They had a friend from a nearby college who was in TooFaced and had also wanted Wet N Wild and assumed because she was for them that all chapters were the same and they would be good for them too. And what’s worse is that they kept messing up the names of these chapters. Which I understand how it can be confusing but they seriously believed they were experts. They wouldn’t hear any of my attempts of telling them to keep an open mind. They were dead set that TooFaced was the best chapter on campus.

In reality I wanted to disagree with them. Neither chapter is that great in my eyes. I was always set off by how… shallow a lot of the TooFaced girls seemed in classes that I had with a group of them. And Wet N Wild is pretty much all parties (well at least that was the reason why a hall mate of mine said she joined them last year). Which yeah might be great for these girls, but I had my eye on some of the more well rounded chapters on campus. Namely Covergirl and Revlon. But, I didn’t want to correct them (Which yeah I know what right for me won’t be right for them. But I just felt really compelled to say my views were right. Thank goodness I didn’t.) and join in on their tent talk. So, I focused on talking to one who was in my computer class about an upcoming assignment until the presentation started.

As it ends up most of my Gamma Chi group seem to be fellow sophomores and a lot of transfer students. So, I was relieved that I wasn’t one of three upperclassmen, I was one of twenty. So, my chances of getting into any sorority seemed a bit better. I haven’t really gotten a chance to really meet the girls in my Gamma Chi group since everything was really fast paced. But, I plan on arriving to check in a little early before the first rounds of parties to actually talk to some of them.

Ha ha....it seems like so far the random makeup names are meshing quite nicely with your impressions of the groups. If you get rushed by a British girl at Rimmel I will LOL. ;)

Haha. Yeah I didn't even think about it for TooFaced but I did laugh when I pull Wet N Wild for that chapter.

Oh I hope not or else I'll feel as if whatever comes up in this thread is like dictating fate. LMAO.

Along those same lines ... I wonder what the "tarte" girls are like. :D

First round of parties!

Our campus doesn’t have any houses so all the parties were in different big empty rooms around campus. This meant sometimes we had like two rooms over to get to before the next party and others we had to rush to get to the next chapter. Also we had a huge gamma chi group, so we were paired 2 or 3 PNM to every 1 active. I kept getting paired up with another sophomore, “Katie” and by the 6th party we were joking about how we should just answer the other’s questions for them.

First up was Wet N Wild. I was really nervous to be going to this sorority. I had heard so much about how they were partiers and whatnot. I didn’t want to be with people who did nothing but party, as fun as it can be. Imagine my surprise when my rusher was in one of the hardest majors on our campus. So my previous view of these girls was dashed a bit. Otherwise, I really don’t remember too much about this chapter. They were pretty laid back. But, just looking around I was pretty certain that I didn’t entirely fit in with this chapter.

Rimmel’s party was next and it was in the hottest room on campus. It was only the second party and the poor active members were already all broken out in a horrible sweat. The rusher me and Katie were paired with talked about a mile a minute. Neither of us got a chance to really ask much about the sorority and what not. She kept talking and talking. But, as peeved as I was that I couldn’t ask anything I found my rusher really sweet. Her high energy was for some odd reason making me feel more relaxed. My biggest issue with this chapter was the fact that they were kind of known as the “loser” sorority. I know it shouldn’t make that big of a difference to me because they could easily be my home. But, I cared a bit too much about what other people thought to really try for them.

Walking into OPI’s party was like walking into a sea of blonde hair extensions and fake tans. I hadn’t really been able to observe many members of OPI before but they seemed really preppy and fake and rich daddy’s girls from what I had seen before. The rusher just pretty much reinforced that view point. She paid pretty much no attention to me and focused almost entirely on Katie. They had both been involved in sports and similar jobs and I was like dying for another active to replace her, but it didn’t happen. This had to be the longest party I went to.

By now I thought I was starting to get the whole party thing down. I already knew what questions they were going to ask, I knew which questions I could ask that led to good conversation. So, while waiting outside Tarte’s party room I was feeling a little blasé about going in there, particularly because I was starting to second guess my decision to go through rush after OPI’s party. But when those doors opened for Tarte, I can’t explain it, but I got chills while walking in listening to their chant. They were definitely the best executed chant we had seen so far, but I felt an automatic sense of relief looking at all the girls and the wide variety in looks that they had.
Katie and I were paired with two actives at Tarte. One was pretty high energy but so amazingly adorable and sweet. The other one was really laid back. As we were talking and going through all the typical questions I started to feel a really close connection with these two girls. I hadn’t ever really considered Tarte too much before, I knew that there we a few in some of my chem labs last year. But now I was wishing I had spent more time talking to these girls because I was totally falling in love with their sorority. I didn’t want to leave these girls despite the fact that we still had yet to visit the two sororities that I had focused most on my energy on trying to get into. Oh, and I found out that they had a sister with my same major, which is extremely rare. So, I at least really wanted to get invited back to get a chance to talk to someone else with my major since I had only met like two other people with it.

We had a quick break before heading off to the last four parties for the round. First up of our second round was TooFaced. Many of the freshmen girls were really excited because they are one of the biggest chapters on our campus, and so in their eyes the one they just haaaave to get into. But, walking in felt really reminiscent of walking into OPI to me. All the girls looked pretty much like clones to me and although my rusher was sweet and (seemingly) showed a real interest in us, I just didn’t click with her. The only other thing I remember about TooFaced is that while we were walked out the door with all the chapters, it felt more like we were being shoved out at the end of their party.

I was really excited to go to the next one, Covergirl. They had just seemed like the perfect group to me from afar. They had a wide variety of girls, they were sweet, they were active on the campus community, just everything I wanted. Not to mention my aunt was a member of this very chapter and she definitely wanted me to really look into them. I was really disappointed though when I met my rusher. We were getting near to the end of the night and everyone was tired and it showed with her. Her energy was really down and it brought like a dead weight to our conversation. It only lightened up a little whenever someone I or Katie knew would stop by and say hi to one of us.
While leaving this party I couldn’t help but feel a little defeated. I had all these secret dreams of wearing Covergirl’s letters and now it felt like there was no chance of me getting invited back because convo was so slow. I definitely wasn’t so sure this was the chapter for me anymore, but I wanted to be invited back to be sure it was the girl I was paired with and not Covergirl as a whole that made me feel as such.

Next was Revlon, the other chapter I was really excited to meet. This one lived up to my expectations and then some. I had known them as a more academically focused sorority, but I ended up with two rushers, one in love with sports and very brash (which would normally scare me off) and the other really involved and in love with all their philanthropy work. I had such a good time laughing and having all our conversations with these two girls. I knew I could easily feel right at home with these girls.

Final party. I was tired, I knew every other girl was tired. But, we all mustered up the energy to get through this last one, Urban Decay. I really had no interest in them since I never really saw them around campus. But, my rusher was really sweet, bubbly, and addressed all my fears about academic stuff. She really made an effort to get to know me and Katie, taking the time to redirect any conversation that wasn’t about the sorority to asking about us. Although I still had a few doubts about their involvement on campus, I left the party smiling.

For ranking we had to prioritize the top six we wanted back to as 1, then the other two as 2 and 3. This made it very easy to rank since I knew for a fact which two I definitely didn’t have a good time with and where I just knew I’d be a horrible fit.

My rankings went as follows:
1. Tarte
1. Revlon
1. Urban Decay
1. Rimmel
1. Covergirl
1. Wet N Wild
2. TooFaced (Only because my rusher did seem fairly sweet and cause out of them and OPI, I’d rather give TooFaced a second chance.)
3. OPI

bump?

If the bump is to see if anyone is reading, I'm sure they are. I know I am -I just don't tend to post much until the end.

Ha ok. It's just a little nervous thing of mine. None of my friends are really too supportive of me going through rush so this was like the only place for me to really talk about my experiences with it. And haha idk I just wanted to be sure.

I am reading :)

ETA: your story has over 1,000 views!

Im reading!! :D

Ditto!

me too-and good luck to you!

I was so excited after the parties; it took forever to fall asleep. I just knew that Tarte was so perfect for me and couldn’t wait to be invited back. And I thought I made enough connections with the others that I’d have a full schedule the next day.

I had gotten to check in super early in the hopes that we got our schedules for the day as soon as we checked in, only to find out that we got them like five minutes before our first party. The anxiety of having to wait patiently while everyone else checked in was absolutely killer. I knew I hadn’t been cut entirely since I hadn’t gotten a phone call but all the other worse case scenarios started to play through my head.

Schedule time! I opened up my slip of paper to be met with
Revlon
Wet N Wild
Rimmel

I thought my heart was going to fall out of my chest. What about Tarte? And Urban Decay? I had gotten along so well with the girls there. Even so far as the girl from Urban Decay talking about how cute and sweet I was to me. Why didn’t I get invited back? I had a feeling I wouldn’t get asked back to Covergirl since my rusher and I hit a dead end. But, now I feel as if I’ll never know if it was because the chapter wasn’t right for me or if I just got stuck with a bad girl for me to talk to. Not to mention I didn’t really want to have to call my aunt and tell her that I got cut from her sorority when I had wanted so long to wear her letters.

Next thing I know we are being rushed off to our first parties. My head is still spinning but Revlon is close to where we were so I very distractedly made my way over. I felt bad cause I kept getting so distracted the first half of the party. They kept bombarding me with information about their philanthropy and all I could think about is how I wanted to just cry that I got dropped from the ones I got dropped from. Luckily, during the part where they showed us the video for their philanthropy I managed to pull myself together. I mean Revlon was still number two on my list last night and they actually wanted me back. Once I managed to get myself over my little pity party, I managed to have great conversations with the girls I kept getting paired with. I knew these girls were smart which was important to me; they liked to get involved with intramurals which I loved despite not being very athletic, and just were so sweet. I knew I could be happy wearing their letters.

Wet N Wild was next. I was surprised that I got invited back to them since I didn’t think I really clicked with any of the girls the night before. My conversations here were very awkward. They seemed to be avoiding talking about anything but their philanthropy, making me worry that their reputation of being partiers was very true. I did enjoy their laid back style and the fact that there was such a wide range of girls in their chapter but I wasn’t so sure I could see myself being with them.

My last party was Rimmel and I decided while waiting to enter that I really shouldn’t be so worried of the reputation I had heard about them. I mean these girls wanted me and some friends of friends there had been the sweetest girls I had ever met. Conversation there was pretty good and their philanthropy was something really close to my heart and interests. I really hoped to get asked back to them again because I could immediately get comfortable with these girls and would enjoy wearing their letters.

I didn’t really have much choice when it came to ranking:
1. Revlon
1. Rimmel
1. Wet N Wild

you sound very mature. good for you for continuing on with recruitment!

Ha I'm not really as mature as I sound. I just figure since I'm a sophomore in a 7 semester program rather than a typical 8 semester one, I really don't have any room to not try to be as mature as possible over it all.

Enjoying your story very much! Thanks for sharing it. :)

Keep plugging away. For someone who went through "rush" as a junior, sometimes not being a freshman is the only thing between you and your invitation. I remember clicking with one house in particular and voila -- not on my list. About one month later, I ran into one of the girls who rushed me and told me (and probably should not have) that everyone loved me but juniors were automatically cut.

Back then, once you were in the Greek system at our school you pretty much knew what the "automatic cuts" were at houses, such as GPA and class rank. We knew what their GPA minimum was for both freshman and upper class, and we also knew what houses really cut at a higher GPA than was published.

Yeah, I think that might have been the reason for one of them because I was talking to a few more sophomores at our dinner break and none of the other ones had gotten invited back to it.

I love your story..... keep it going!!

I'm glad to see Rimmel moving up the list -- can't wait for the next installment.

Since tomorrow I'm going to be very busy I'll be posting up the next installment in just a little bit. Which means I'm wrecking any belatedness. Haha.

YEAH!!!! :D:D

Next night was skit night. I was so excited, at all the parties the night before the girls from the chapters would go on and on about how much fun skit night was and how it was their favorite night when they had gone through. My excitement increased as I saw girls from different chapters running around campus doing last minute things in their costumes.

Once again I couldn’t wait to receive my schedule. I was so sure that I’d be invited back everywhere today. I got my schedule and saw…
Wet N Wild
Rimmel

I couldn’t help it, I started crying. What had I done wrong at Revlon? They had been the only chapter that I had a real conversation with; one that wasn’t just solely about the sorority. There had to be a mistake. There was no reason at all why they should have cut me. At that point I was seriously contemplating just grabbing my stuff and leaving. What was the point of continuing when every time I thought I knew where my home was, they cut me? Was it even worth going to these parties that were never really my favorites and come to a conclusion that I could make one of them a home and risk having the trend continue? Why was I putting myself through this? All my friends from high school and last year kept trying to perpetuate all the stereotypes about sororities and I chose to ignore them because I really wanted to join one. But, my heart kept getting broken by these girls.

But from reading on here I knew that I’d be worse off to drop out than to wait and let them all cut me. So, I dried my tears and made my way to my first party of the night.

I really couldn’t figure out why Wet N Wild kept inviting me back. I had always found conversations just plain awkward with them, but I guess they must have seen something special in me. But, tonight I started to find them a little less awkward. Conversations with the girls was flowing smoothly and two of the girls I talked to found my job this summer really interesting (most people give me grossed out looks) and kept asking me questions about it, which was really important to me since I love medicine and all the weird little things that go along with it. I will admit I was a little disappointed with their skit. It felt forced and awkward and it looked like they didn’t practice it at all. I still wasn’t entirely sure about them though. I loved the fact that they were interested in talking to me about something so close to my heart but I didn’t want to go all the way through with them only to find out that they really were nothing but a group of party girls.

Conversation at Rimmel was more difficult than usual. I was really worn out trying to come up with questions and was thankful when a girl decided to talk my ear off rather than be like “Any questions?” However, I felt completely at ease with them. I wouldn’t say an at home kind of ease, but I didn’t feel as if I really had to impress anybody. Their skit was absolutely adorable! It was full of songs and energy and even if a girl made a mistake it wasn’t so awkwardly and obviously noticeable like any mistakes in Wet N Wild’s were. I did decide to test a few girls in the chapter though. Since I was so impressed at the about of interest I received over something that meant a lot to me at the last party, I decided to bring it up around a few of the girls here. I was very disappointed when it didn’t get past “that’s interesting”. I know it sounds weird and a little gross but I do love to talk about stuff like that. So, I started to second guess if they were really a good fit with me if I couldn’t be myself in that area.

Once again I didn’t have to worry about choosing which chapters to pass on to go to for Pref night. My rankings pretty much had to be…
1.Rimmel
1. Wet N Wild

Please do not forget to tell us what "that one thing" is that you like to talk about. Otherwise, there will be some ridiculous guessing games!!!

Haha. I was trying to be a little vague since people sometimes get squimish. I am like addictted to medical facts. I'm known by my friends to just randomly pop in with something new research has found. And my job over the summer was in a research lab working with rats, which just saying the word "rat" does in fact get some negative reactions. So, when people asked me about my summer job I kept it pretty vague saying I worked for a lab and with rats. But, the one chapter really wanted to know more about it which in turn got me excited. LOL.

I can see how that could get awkward to talk about during recruitment-but at least you are doing something in your field...in other news- I really need to know where you ended up now. Kthanks.

Thanks for sharing about the rats. It really does sound interesting. I thought maybe you worked in a morgue . . . so I was to relieved to hear it was only rats.

I thought morgue too- hasn't that happened in a recruitment thread before?