A California Recruitment Story!
 

Hello! As you can probably tell from my thread title and username, I'll be rushing at a California university this fall. From the small amount of information that I've been able to gather about my school's recruitment, it seems as if it is relatively noncompetitive, with few girls having recommendations. Hopefully this will somewhat work in my favor, but I still intend to secure recs for most, if not all of the houses (I'm still debating whether to get recs for the houses that I know I have a snowball's chance in H*ll of getting into, but I figure it won't hurt). Recruitment doesn't start for another 6 weeks, so I'm getting extremely anxious to begin, but at least it will give me time to get everything together and choose attractive outfits and mentally prepare!

A little about me:
I'm not the first in my family to go to college, but I'm definitely the first to consider going Greek. There was a time when joining a sorority was "everything I was against" (typical teen angst :rolleyes: ), but the more I grew up, the more Greek life seemed to interest me and seem like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I'm coming into my school as a junior transfer, which apparently is less of a disadvantage here than at other schools (I believe I heard somewhere that last year quota was 45 and 10-15 of the girls some sororities took were juniors), but I still realize that it could potentially count against me. The good thing, however, is that I'll be the same age as most of the freshman PNMs, so at least it'll help me relate more with my pledge class (if I get a bid, of course!)

I spent a good week scouring GreekRank and other equally disreputable sites before realizing it was all negative, depressing, trash talk and that little to none of it is accurate. I believe I'm going in with an open mind, and am actually following a "I'll be lucky if I'm good enough to get a bid at all" philosophy. Hopefully this mindset won't make me reek of desperation, but rather will help me stay open-minded to all of the wonderful groups on campus!

Anyway, enough with my novel. I have a couple of questions about potential outfits for each round (I haven't bought ANYTHING yet!), but I'll save those until later so that this doesn't become a 2-page post.

I was going to do an LA-themed recruitment, but after reading a disastrous thread with a similar them, I decided against it. So instead, I chose to use car brands to represent each group (Sadly, I don't own any of these, or even drive for that matter! :) )

The 12 groups on campus are:
BMW
Lexus
Honda
Infiniti
Mazda
Audi
Bentley
Nissan
Lincoln
Toyota
Ford
Buick

It's probably painfully easy to figure out where I go to school, so I'll most likely reveal it at the end, and delay my posts by a day. I'm not planning to say anything mean or negative, so it shouldn't be a problem! :)

good luck (:

Are you coming in as a junior because you have AP/IB transfer credits from HS or because you entered college/a community college early?

Good Luck!!

best of luck :)

Girl, get you some shoes and get them broken in - NOW!

and good luck, love SoCal stories.

Definitely a Toyota ending.

I am attending school in the Southwest area myself! I didn't get into a particularly prestigious college out here that I had my heart set on, so I'm going to try to find my home at the school I DID get into instead. Your story/situation sounds really interesting! I'm excited to read it. :)

I'm coming in as a junior because I went to community college early. :)



Yeah, I'm probably going to do a good amount of shopping around mid-August, so hopefully that will give me plenty of time to break in any heels I buy!

Thanks everyone for the support!

Getting recs is smart, even if few girls have them. And even though you think you have a snowball's chance at certain houses, you may be exactly the kind of sister they want, so get recs for those houses too!

Good luck and have fun! I'm excited to read a California story.

Thank you, that's a good point. Maybe it will be worth it to get recs for those houses as well, just to see what happens!

Welcome SoCalVeg! I'm also looking forward to reading your California recruitment thread. Best wishes for a successful conclusion!


.....Kelly :)

Thank you, navane! [:

Good Luck and GO BMW!

So I actually have a couple of questions about what to wear, and I was wondering if anyone could help me!

The first problem is, my school's recruitment website tells us to wear something along the lines of "an evening sundress" for one of the rounds. I'm sorry if I'm missing something, but what exactly would be an evening sundress? Can anyone please explain this to me?

My second issue is actually the opposite: Our pref round is early in the day (before 2 pm), yet it tells us to wear a cocktail dress. So will I look strange wearing iike, a dark or strapless cocktail dress with heels in the middle of the day? I mean, I know the other PNMs will be wearing almost the same things, but is there away to pull the cocktail dress look off during the day?

Thanks to anyone who can help me answer these questions!

I love the oxymoron of evening sundress. I can't actually answer that one, but my guess would be a sundress that's at the fancier end of the spectrum.

I believe the guideline to use for a day preference party is the same as you'd wear to a day wedding, maybe fancy but in a lighter/brighter color.

Best of luck. I'm just sorry my sorority isn't represented on your campus.

So, I'm assuming that this is a UC campus. I can tell you from three of my daughter's friends who rushed at different UC campuses their recruitment guides are like limburger cheese...they stink. One friend wore cutoffs and flipflops to the first round because the book said they could/should. Don't. During the day wear something weather appropriate, sundress etc. Pref advice ^^^ excellent. Nice outfit, with heels, that you might wear to an afternoon wedding. Leave the glitz at home and bring (and I know you will) the class with you.

Good luck!

I agree with the afternoon wedding idea. Not something too serious but still nice. Maybe a bright-colored dress?

^^^absolutely many have recruitment. Cal States and the UCs take the huge majority of cc transfers however. So, that is why I assumed that the OP is talking about a state school. I don't think LMU has that many sororities, but I certainly could be wrong.

Yeah, I edited it and removed what I said about her school. I know which school it is now but won't say anything. ;)

Teeheehee me too! Secrets are fun :D

It seems as if it's even easier than I thought to figure out my school! I'm not planning to say anything even remotely negative about any of the groups, so I'm not too worried about it, but I'll still make sure to be discreet. Thanks for all the clothing suggestions so far!

Just a quick update, I finally registered tonight online, which makes it seem a little more "official" to me, so I'm really excited! Sorry if this is a dumb question, but what happens now? Do we get a more in-depth recruitment guide in the mail, or do we not do anything else until Orientation when school starts?

SoCalVeg- you might want to check in with the recruitment office or contact the Membership VP for Panhellenic. Most schools now have a FB page that gives some additional information.

Best wishes, I look forward to hearing your story!

M

whoo another California thread! Best of luck to you! :)

I rushed as a Junior transfer as well so I'm excited to follow this thread!


Best of luck!

Edit: It is an odd feeling wearing a cocktail dress (for pref) so early during the day but you'll be able to laugh about it with girls in your rush group!

Thank you everyone for the help! I guess I won't be alone in wearing the cocktail dress during the day, so I'll try not to stress out too much!

Orientation is on September 20, which is less than 3 weeks away, so i'm insanely excited and eager to get started!

Ohhh.. I'm excited for your story!

Good luck in recruitment, keep a positive attitude, and be careful about what you say here: it's easy to google info, but most people on GreekChat were able to narrow down your school to within 2 campuses from the first post :) You might want to delay your update posts by a day or two.

As for dress, you could almost wear a sundress for the first 3 rounds of recruitment, just try to get progressively more formal, if you can. For this campus, as long as you look well put-together and feel great, that's what counts. Comfy shoes are a MUST.

For preference, go for a dress in darker or more vibrant colors (except for black) in cotton or another daytime fabric; avoid any shiny materials, satin, lycra, rhinestone embellishments, etc. If you feel really awesome in your outfit, then you're probably good to go.

xoxo,
lablondegphi

LAblondeGPhi: Thanks for the advice! I've definitely decided to delay a day or two, because I made it way too simple to figure out my school. I'm still kind of iffy on the pref dress (I have no clue why that's confusing me so much), but I'll figure it out!

This time next week, the recruitment process will have begun, and I'm insanely excited! I'm finishing my shopping hopefully on Friday (I've been having MAJOR issues finding appropriate clothing for each round that looks good on me), so everything's going smoothly!

I do have one question however, that no one will probably have a direct answer to unless they've gone to my school, but I still thought I'd throw it out there: It was mentioned somewhere that my school has two "official sorority events" per week, such as date parties, formals, socials, etc. My question is, does "official" equate to "mandatory?" Obviously I do want to attend some, if not most of the formals, but I will also be participating in 2-3 other extracurricular activities, working (and I'll almost definitely work on Fridays and/or Saturdays some weeks), and I wish to stay on top of school work and current relationships as well. So yeah, I'm just wondering if it seems like the "official" means necessary to attend, or if it's "official" in the sense of "the sorority as a whole is encouraged to go." Sorry if this is a stupid question, but thanks for any insight!

I assume that "official" means officially sponsored and funded by the sorority, rather than a party at someone's satellite house. "Official" may or may not be mandatory. Just ask.

I cant speak directly for your school, but as far as I know, a sorority cant make social events (ones involving alcohol at least) mandatory- this includes date parties, formals, and socials. These are obviously the most fun events to go to and therefore I'm sure you'll want to go to as many as possible, but it's more likely that they're highly encouraged (for various reasons) versus actually mandatory (in the sense that there'll be retributions for not attending)

Hey SoCal!
I plan on working, volunteering, maintaining relationships, and kicking butt at school this year too :) Haha I think we can juggle it all.

Good luck again and hopefully we both find our homes!

Ooh! I go to a SoCal school too, a junior, and a veg (if you mean as in vegetarian)! :D

My orientation is on September 22, I wish you good luck! :D

CaliTransfer: Awesome! It's awesome to know I'm not alone! I'm sure we can do it! Good luck!!

fluffcakes: Haha yes, I meant it as in vegetarian. =D
Good luck to you too, I hope you have a ton of fun!

So I just got back from orientation! It was really interesting, and a met a few nice girls while I was waiting for it to start. My Rho Gamma and my group all seem really nice, so I'm happy! I'm super excited for recruitment to start on Wednesday!

I just got back from the first day of round 1, and it was amazing! Exhausting, but amazing! I'll be posting a day or two delayed a. So as not to identify who I am since most people know my school and b. Because they actually keep our PNM booklets! Tomorrow is the second day of round 1, and I'm really excited!

THey keep your booklets?!

I thought that seemed weird too. Why would they not want you to read over your comments later?

Maybe they are worried about confidentiality of the PNMs' impressions? It's a weird way to go about it, but...
________

The PNM's school isn't the first one that I've read about on GC that does this. Personally, I think it has merits. In my opinion, it "encourages" the PNMs to pay attention and focus immediately after each party and write down their thoughts/impressions.

And I also think that it probably reduces the amount of comparing ("tent talk?") that is inevitable during recruitment. For example, if I don't have my booklet with me, then I'm not writing down what other PNMs think or say after the fact. I write down what happened to me and how I felt/thought/reacted to each chapter I visited.

That's my take on it.

It doesn't reduce tent talk any. I remember outside of one house I visited they just kept on talking about both the house we were about to go in, and how much nearly everyone hated the previous house. And no one was being quiet.

It got so bad a few girls were nearly sent to the office 'cause they wouldn't stop.

This happened a few times during ranking as well.

Also, the whole keeping the booklet thing was very easy to get around. I saw a few other girls doing it as well, but I know that I just brought another booklet and wrote my thoughts down twice..