Carlisle's BRUTALLY honest recruitment, Fall 2010
 

I just went through recruitment at a very competitive school, but because I’d like to be brutally honest in my telling of this story, everything will remain completely anonymous! (I’m sure many of you will be able to figure it out anyways, lol). I secured recs for all the sororities, and I’m in-state and have some connections with girls in a bunch of different sororities. So I’ll name the houses after my favorite book/movie: Alice in Wonderland!
The houses are:

Mad Hatter
Alice
Cheshire
Red Queen
White Queen
Stayne
Tweedledee
Blue Caterpillar
Dormouse
March Hare
Bayard
Jabberwocky
Dodo Bird
Frabjous Day
Pishsalver
Wonderland
Oraculum

I am a Tweedledee legacy, and my mother was really pushing for this house! Coincidentally, Tweedledee happens to be a really great chapter at my school and it was definitely one I hoped I’d click with before rush started.

The houses I really wanted were Blue Caterpillar, Tweedledee, Bayard, Pishsalver and Jabberwocky- all very much considered top tier and where I think I could fit in best!

The first round was such a blur, but a few stood out to me.

White Queen- This was my first house and I noticed the girls looked very friendly but a little frumpy. The girl who rushed me was unsettlingly perky and cheerful…to the point where I was creeped out. She didn’t once look away from me and I swear her mouth was stretched in a wide, toothy smile the entire time.

She kept complimenting me on my dress, saying that she “loooooved what the color did for my complexion.” At first it was flattering, but then a little bit later into our conversation she interrupts me to say, “I’m sorry, but I can’t stop looking at how perfectly your dress compliments your coloring.” It was a little off-putting and I felt more awkward than I already did. When she was supposed to bump me, she stayed on to tell the other sister to check out my dress, and kept bringing it up afterwards in creepier ways than the average compliment. I was a little overwhelmed and happy when the party was over.

Blue Caterpillar- I remember actually being nervous before going into this house, because it is one of the most competitive sororities, and all the PNMs were talking about how much they’d love to be a Blue Caterpillar. I remember that every single sister was drop dead STUNNING and very well put-together, which I felt a connection with because my mother always taught me to look your very best. The sisters that I spoke to complimented me on my dress (but not in a creepy way like at White Queen) and we instantly hit it off talking about fashion, shopping, and telling funny stories about our experience with the salespeople at a certain store. It felt so natural, like I was laughing with old friends, and I was even introduced to the President. I’m not sure if it meant anything, but I was so excited! I left the party absolutely in love with this house.

Mad Hatter- From start to finish, I was absolutely horrified. Compared to the other parties, this one seemed very low energy and none of the PNMs seemed especially excited to be there. The sisters were not put together the way Blue Caterpillar was, and it felt like they had a lack of effort, at least sartorially. (If you can’t already tell, I place a lot of importance on appearance. First impression is everything, especially in recruitment!!).

I put on my best face though and was super friendly to the girl who was rushing me. She seemed extremely bored with me though, and occasionally after I finished answering a question she would just sit there and nod. I felt obliged to force the conversation, and just kept pulling questions out of thin air to ask her. I don’t think she smiled at me more than once.
At one point, she abruptly said “Hang on, I need to grab someone.” :-o

I was absolutely shocked! I know that PNMs are never supposed to be left alone during parties. She did however come back within 30 seconds, with the girl that I guess was supposed to bump me. My original rusher then excused herself, gave me a curt smile and walked away. I don’t even remember my subsequent conversations, as I had this awful, unwanted feeling in the pit of my stomach that put me on the verge of tears.

Other houses that I loved almost as much as I loved Blue Caterpillar the first day were Tweedledee, Bayard, Pishsalver and Jabberwocky- as predicted, and I also really had a good time at Oraculum and Red Queen. However, I was nervous- because my entire list consisted of the sororities that every single PNM loved!

I really didn’t want to go back to White Queen, Mad Hatter, or Alice. The others I was very neutral about.

I'm reading -- keep going! Brutal honesty always makes for a better story IMHO.

:rolleyes:

Maybe their code-name should have been Cheshire then lol

Yes, and.......

Has anyone seen my pink sequined hose?

Maybe your twin who is really a man borrowed them.

http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/Dora-boo...-high-five.jpg

Oh dear!

Can't something be done to ban the overuse of "brutally honest?"

Such a tired phrase, especially when coupled with lack of acerbic wit....

The dry cleaners called. Hose, cat suit, and boa are ready for pickup.

However, they couldn't get the violet lava stains out of someone's dress; unfortunately, it's permanently ruined. Little strange shapes emerged in reaction to the chemicals (keys, kites, arrows, diamonds, daggers, pandas, dolphins, anchors, etc - the list went on and on).

Not to worry; the importance you place on appearance comes through loud and clear.

Alright so when I got my list back for round 2, I was psyched to see that I had 11 invites back, especially when a lot of girls in my group had suffered really heavy cuts. One girl only had 4 invites!
I had:
Oraculum
Bayard
March Hare
Red Queen
Blue Caterpillar
Tweedledee
Pishsalver
Wonderland
White Queen
Dormouse
Stayne

As sad as I was to lose Jabberwocky, I was still thrilled because my other 4 favorites were still on the list, including Blue Caterpillar! A lot of other girls had been cut from Blue Caterpillar and were really upset about it. I was kind of weirded out that White Queen was still there, though, and I really didn’t want to go back.
Soo for Round 2, I only made it to Blue Caterpillar, White Queen (bleh), and Oraculum…

Blue Caterpillar was amazing as ever. The girls were literally something out of Elle Magazine! And again we clicked so well. Looking around at their house at the other perfect girls, it was really somewhere I could see myself thriving.


White Queen started off a lot better today. I got a girl who was much more normal. Conversation flowed pretty easily and the girl was very friendly, and everything was fine and dandy until I noticed out of the corner of my eye the creepy rusher from the previous round was staring at me. She caught my eye and then came over to creep on me again, all perky and Cheshire-y and weird. The party went downhill and again I was freaked out majorly, and confident I would be cutting them ASAP.

Oraculum was fun! Like the previous day, it was fairly high-energy and the girls I talked to seemed super friendly and were really funny. I found myself laughing a lot here, and was having a good time even though I was starting to feel dizzy.

After Oraculum, I had a break in my schedule and felt really ill. I guess I had heat stroke or something because I had a pounding headache like never before, was sweating and even threw up! Gross, I know. I ended up spending the rest of the day at Health Services, missing all the rest of the days parties. Even though I was so nervous that I’d be cut from ALL the houses I missed, I felt a little relief that I had at least visited two houses that I liked.

Oy vey. I couldn't even read anything past this point.

Yeah...The Mad Hatter had some sense!

Anyone want to bet that she ends up a White Queen and the moral of the story is to give everyone a fair shot. Cue credits, which roll to the theme song We Are The World.


iDo.

Y'all are being a little rude! I won't spend my time writing up my experience if y'all are just gonna bash me. I said brutally honest for a reason, and honestly the same thoughts go through almost all the PNMs heads. That's why top tier houses are top tier...everyone wants to be in them!

But would a "brutally honest" thread be brutally honest if the readers couldn't also express their opinions? In other words, it works both ways. :)

Post if you would like. Just know that if you are going to make rude comments about chapter then people may respond in favor.

Just so we are clear, is this the official flounce, or is that coming later?

Even with the anonymity of the internet, the maxim of "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" is still a good idea. Your expressions of horror at some chapters sound trite and immature.

You have to remember that "You get what you give". If you want to be brutally honest, be prepared for others to be just as brutally honest when reading a seemingly superficial (albeit unintentionally comical) recruitment story.

Please do continue though. I am always interested in a good recruitment thread! :)

This is starting to sound like one of those free speech threads where the person freely speaking doesn't realize that others have the right to freely speak their mind as well.

I do want you to continue though, regardless of my personal opinion of the type of person you are presenting yourself to be (you said this is brutal honesty). I want to know if you get into Blue Caterpillar, or if you quit when Blue Caterpillar didn't have you on their list. (Excuse my NPC ignorance on the recruitment process, this is still new to me.)

You're doing just fine. Maybe she doesn't get invited one day! Oh teh horror!!!

Yes, keep going. It is what it is.

The brutal telling of the brutal thoughts behind a brutal recruitment story can be, well, brutal to hear. But we will survive. Carry on.

Please continue your story.... But remember that there may be some White Queen's reading this...

And if it took me 10 seconds to figure out which school this is, I'm sure that the White Queens and all of the other inhabitants of Wonderland can figure everything out with little problem.

Meanwhile, KSUViolet is a wise woman.

When appearances, being polished and having proper social Etiquette are so important, it kind of makes your choices that much easier.

Mustang, Burberry, Pink.

I was told by my greek life office that missing a party without prior notice would result in being dropped from recruitment. Is this rule not universal? Would something like heat stroke be considered 'emergency' enough that you could get excused? (I think it is probably a legitimate reason, I am just curious as to the types of things that would be considered reasonable excuses...)

Oh baby, we're going to bash you like it's our Donald Trump Apprentice job.

So don't spend your time writing any more.

Perfectly acceptable as far as Panhel is concerned, her Pi Chi would notify the chapters. It would then be up to the individual chapters whether or not to invite her to the next round.

How strange that you'd never really experienced heat stroke in your neck of the woods, Carlisle.

Is UGA rush over yet, or is this the other competitive school with 17 chapters?

I freaking love you. Can you drop out so I can sponsor you for AI and we can be sisters all over again?

Bahahahahah I freaking love you :D and I talked to panhellenic about the violet lava stains and fun shapes that showed up there and well they just decided to keep the dress and use it for pi chi ceremonies. So dont fear al is not lost.

What no quills??? ahhh I know our magic quill (only used during ritual) was used to write permanently all those strange shapes :D

I think Pref was yesterday at UGA.

"Brutally honest" is a code word for trainwreck.

Which is good for me surfing the new threads here, because then I know to pop in to see the flaming train cars.

Thanks a lot. Now I'll be hearing this song in my head all day:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DhgP8fydHQ

:D

I wrote my recruitment thread with the title, "A Brutally Honest...from long, long ago." I think (mea culpa) that I started the phrase. And If not, I am relieved that it wasn't me.

If this is true (and we don't have pearls at the dock) I hesitate to indict the young women. At eighteen lots of girls are totally clueless. But, it fries my cookies when I know how hard all the chapters are working to get ready for recruitment (or worked) and to be dismissed like an annoying flea.

One can be honest (the house wasn't for me) and classy at the same time. When I think about some of the girls who weren't placed and who tried so hard...my heart breaks for them.

On the other hand...yes, I can indict an eighteen year old for being a non caring b*****. Her mama (I'm talking like a southerner now) may have told her to always look her best. But her mama should have taught her about acting like a lady all the time.