So You Wanna Tell Your Recruitment Story...
 

Pointers, as to not annoy the GC rush thread junkies:

1. Don't ask if we want to read it. Those that do will, and those that don't will ignore your thread. If you need that kind of reinforcement and hand holding, GC is not the place for you.
2. If it's a retro story, go ahead and type it all out in a word doc FIRST. It's ok to posts separate days in separate posts, but just post it all at once. We don't need to relive it in real time. Give us the DVR version.
3. If you refuse to follow #2, don't START a story if you don't have time in your busy social life to update it. It makes you look like a drama queen.
4. Use easy to read colors for your codes. Do it.
5. Honestly, if you're a newbie, we barely care about your story - we don't need to hear about your roomate's rush, your hallmate's rush, your new bestest4ever friend in your Gamma Chi group's rush, or your friend from back home's sister's cousin's dog groomer's half sister's rush unless they are relevant to your story.
6. This is not a fanfic site, so leave your sequin pink tights and "that thing" stories for other sites. We've gotten pretty dang good at spotting the fakes.

What did I miss?

Also, there's a good chance a thread like this exists. I may have even started it. I didn't search. I didn't feel like it. Deal with it. :p

This is where GC needs either a "like it" or "love it" button!

hearted.

Hint: Don't include how you felt as though you would not be accepted because you were the only curly-afro-redhead-with-a-lime-green-Jesus-bracelet going through recruitment for 2011.

/lane swerve :(

Yep. It's usually the HUGE recruitment schools that are the easiest to figure out, so if you feel you must change the amount of chapters, leave off the one that you half don't remember because you'd already been to 57865 parties that day and you never went back again after Round 1 anyway.

Don't say stuff like "This house all has women of a certain type, and I am not that type" or other stuff that is obviously code for "the Jewish house". You can say that, it's okay.

Don't get angry if your thread gets hijacked (see: discussion of unique pets**). It happens, and it probably means you should just post the next installment.

Don't ask us if we want to hear more, or to guess where you ended up, or any other stuff like that. I don't come to GC to play "choose your own adventure".

Don't expect us to ooze sympathy if you your story didn't work out because you refused to accept a bid from the least popular chapter.

**Not that the poster got angry, just that the rest of us hijacked for several pages.

I seem to recall a poster who started her recruitment story with the 2nd or 3rd round. She knew people might be able to figure out her school – or at least narrow it down - based on the number of chapters in the open house round.

I thought that was an excellent way to "hide" which school she attended. And it made her story a lot shorter too.

It really doesn't matter that much if you conceal your school in this manner. If it is retro, nobody really cares that much, and if it's live, we all know what school it is based on the dates, and often many of the chapters are obvious, too. As long as you aren't saying ridiculous sh*t, nobody cares. It's best not to name the school so that the thread doesn't come up when someone googles "Illinois sorority rush" or something, but unless you are being a terrible person in your descriptions, we've seen it all around here.

I like it when the thread title has some sort of memorable reference. That way, if your story does wind up good and beneficial for future PNMs to read then it is easy for us to search for and find. Those that are titled "My awesome recruitment story" rarely live up to such billing.

Yep I agree, however my most favourite of Recruitment Stories was Chuck Norris's Recruitment

Except yellow. That just looks like a blur.

Yellow is not easy to read. Do not use yellow.

So much TRUTH - we need it stickied.

It is.;)

Huzzah!

Thanks for this! I am going through recruitment in the fall and while I feel like I know most of these things I never know how I might come across if I happen to get caught up in the excitement of everything when I am actually going through the process!

I almost hate editing down DBB's post, but this is so true. I don't want to pick option A or option B, I just like reading the stories!

aephi alum likes this thread.

And I second DeltaBetaBaby's comment on "This house all has women of a certain type, and I am not that type" = "This is the Jewish house and I'm not Jewish". We can see right through comments like that.

Love this thread.

Recently wrote a story. Here are my thoughts:

1. Make your theme interesting! I read so many stories with similar themes, but the ones I really remember had unique themes. I'd love to see something new and fresh, rather than another flower recruitment.

2. Also, stick to your theme wholeheartedly! Make it a fun story, too.

3. Don't disrespect anyone in your story. Never, EVER suggest that you're better than a chapter/person/whatever. It doesn't help people who are reading your story.

4. Remember that the readers want to be entertained. Try to keep hysterics to a minimum, and try to avoid too much stream-of-consciousness. I highly recommend waiting at least a day after each round before you post to sort through your emotions.

5. Have fun with it. Really, this is just for entertainment. The best way to remember even a terrible recruitment as something not so bad is to have an enjoyable story that you wrote to commemorate the experience.

I look forward to this fall's stories and I'm sorry I don't have anyone going through anywhere to write about!

And I think we've gone a little overboard with the anonymity thing. If you went through rush at IU (or Bama, FSU, really just about anywhere) had a positive outcome and didn't bash anyone, there's no reason to not admit you're an Alpha Xi Delta from Iowa. I wouldn't do it if it's a LIVE thread (as in you're posting before you have an actual bid), but unless you have something to hide or be ashamed of, I don't think admitting your school is the end of the world.
Jewish is not a bad word. You can go ahead and use it, and it is a common issue for a girl to be torn about whether "the Jewish house" is right for her. The AEPhis and SDTs know this. You're not going to offend them.
If you have issues (justified or not) about the fill in blank chapter on campus, be honest with yourself first and with us 2nd. We can read through the BS and if you say I really liked the girls but I just don't know if I could handle the pressure of being in the small house (or the one with X reputation), you will get more respect than if you say I really liked this house, and then ranked them 12 of 12. There are up-sides and down-sides of being in the smaller chapter and admitting your concerns will go a long way toward getting helpful advice, if that's what you're after.

Eek! I recently finished my recruitment story and was definitely guilty of some of the don'ts on this thread - in particular, not putting it out in a timely manner, using a bad font color, and talking about my roommate's/hallmate's/Pi Chi groupmate's recruitments. :( I wish I could have another chance to do it again and this time avoid all these mistakes. I'm sincerely sorry for any annoyance I caused to those of you GCers who gobble up rush threads like cake. Hopefully the tips on this thread will help future recruitment storytellers to avoid some of the mistakes I made, because you only get to tell your story once. Again....I'm sorry. :(

Don't worry, yours was fabulous! And with a gazillion chapters, you can't really avoid the "wrong" colors.

A lot of people don't finish their story, drag it out for over a week and keep asking is we want to read more, that annoys me beyond belief.

Don't be sorry in the least. These "rules" are completely arbitrary.

As others have said, don't be sorry. We're just being a bunch of assholes in this thread. We like all stories, we just also get very demanding, here.

And "timely" is all relative. We understand people have lives. The only ones that really annoy me are the ones who are like "do you want more? tell me if you want more! I'm only going to post more if you leave me elevetybillion comments saying you want more".

You apologize too much. Haters gonna hate!

(I personally love hearing about roommates/hallmates/cousins/imaginary friends/etc. It's like getting more recruitment story for your money.)

^This.....that's what I did.

If you can't tell us what sorority you ended up in, why are you posting your sorority recruitment story.

Y'all telling me you didn't love this thread? Craziness.

Never saw it before today, but I still think she could have told us what her chapter was. (I think I know who this was, what school she went to and what chapter she is in anyway.:D It's like playing Clue. I think it's Miss Scarlett in the Study with the
Candlesticks!)

When that thread was posted, many of the regular GCers could identify who the poster was, primarily by the writing style and secondarily by the clues in the story. I actually loved her thread, because the "brutally honest" part of it was being brutally honest about her self and not as a free pass to bash other chapters.

That poster did post a lot under a different name at a time when there weren't many regular posters from her organization. She was pretty frank about some struggles that her chapter was having and it would have been pretty easy to connect some dots for the more causal GC reader.

I am fully annoyed at people who don't post the group they join, because what is the point then? HOwever, I wasn't at all bothered by 20-something keeping that personal. Her story was much more about a personal journey and much less about recruitment. It wasn't necessary to reveal.

I concur.

Although I like the idea for those who aren't too familiar with the theme they may get lost.

Oh, totally! My favorite/most inspiring (for me) rush story was TweedleDee199's, and I loved that she named the "characters" instead of just giving everyone a random name. That's more what I meant. :D

I never read the Chuck Norris story before...that is a riot!

I'm probably late to the party on this, but aside from private speculation about 20-something's other GC identity, I think that Chuck Norris and 20-something are one and the same.

They're not. ;)

Maybe on the first post we should list examples of good rush stories.

After reading these tips and many recruitment stories I absolutely cannot wait to post my own! I would start posting it today if I didn't think the GCers would kill me for starting a recruitment story almost 2 months before the start of rush!