PNM Mom's "Places where I want to Travel" recruitment story
 

My daughter has been going through sorority recruitment at FSU this week. According to her this year has the largest rush group ever with around 1580 PNM’s split up into 83 Rho Gamma groups. I was in the Greek system in college as an AOII (obviously) and was so excited that she wanted to go Greek as well. Even though my sorority is not at FSU (yet) I will be thrilled when she finally connects with a sisterhood for life that is right for her.

Since my kids are almost out of the house and my husband and I are already dreaming of the trips we would like to take I’m going to do a “Places where I want to Travel” recruitment story. Enjoy my travel dreams combined with my daughter’s FSU Sorority Recruitment story!

There are 16 chapters at FSU:
Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Gamma Delta, Alpha Phi, Chi Omega,
Delta Delta Delta, Delta Gamma, Delta Zeta, Gamma Phi Beta, Kappa Alpha Theta,
Kappa Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Pi Beta Phi, Phi Mu, Sigma Delta Tau and
Zeta Tau Alpha

I have named them in random order: London, Prague, Vancouver, Curacao, Napa Valley, Cabo, Paris, Vienna, Hawaii, Cairo, Tokyo, Toronto, Aspen, Fiji, Barcelona and Athens.

Round 1 (Scholarship)
My daughter is not one for details so I won’t get into her impressions of each and every house at this point except for the few she told me about. She ended this round with a solid top 4 and only 2 in her bottom. She didn’t feel like she was able to make a strong determination of the rest because 20 minutes just was not a long enough time for her.
Her top 4 were:
Napa Valley – Her impression of this sorority was that all the women were beautiful, smart and sweet. She loved the house and enjoyed her time talking with her rusher.
Aspen – Out of the gate, this house was her favorite. She loved how stylish and athletic the girls were. The only disappointment came when she found out she was supposed to have been paired up with a friend from high school but the count was off at the last minute. I told her this was actually a good thing as this gave her a chance to get to know someone else new.
Fiji – She felt extremely confident about her experience at this house. She spent time with an officer and had some great conversation. She definitely felt like they liked her!
Athens – She loved this one, I think, because her rusher was extremely funny. She appreciates great humor and this made a great house even better in her eyes.
Her bottom 2 were:
Vancouver – She simply said something here just didn’t fit right with her. She had nothing bad at all to say about them except that she didn’t feel at home.
Vienna – The only thing she mentioned here is that her rusher was a bit aloof and didn’t seem really interested in her at all. I’m not sure what that meant exactly but she left without feeling a connection. She stated that was the only house she would likely not be interested in. I advised her that there are plenty of other girls in this group so not to form too strong of an opinion just yet.

She had no details about the other 10 but said they all were interesting enough that she wouldn’t mind coming back to any of them.

Hope she has been having a wonderful week - thanks for sharing!!

Round 2 (Service)
After the first round the maximum number of parties would be 12 over a 2 day period. My daughter texted me the morning of the second round with photos of her invites and was excited that she had a full schedule! She was slightly disappointed that only 1 of her top 3 had invited her back (Aspen) but was thrilled at having the opportunity to spend more time at the ones who wanted her back. She felt very blessed and I must give credit to a great Rho Gamma for her extremely positive attitude.

After the end of this 2 day series of parties (7 the first day and 5 the next) my daughter called me with the “required” update. I say “required” because I had to advise that even though I know she is busy with recruitment and the excitement of friends and other students moving in, it did not mean that a 5-10 minute phone call to her mother was out of the question. Fortunately, after this reminder, she made me a priority (at least for 5 minutes). Now I can rest for the night!

I must say, I was very happy to hear that she had a very long list of what she considered interesting possibilities this time. She felt like she clicked well this time around with 8 different houses (including Vienna!). She was glad to have a second chance with them. When I asked what she liked about her top picks she just said the girls were all nice, she had great conversations with them and their houses were gorgeous. Good enough for me! I know she loved hearing about their philanthropies and is looking forward to showing her “charitable” side as she has a real passion for volunteering and missions.

She also had 2 other sororities that she liked enough to want to come back and 2 that she really didn’t feel a connection with. Here are the results:

No question that these are the top 2: Aspen, Curacao
Also Enjoyed: London, Prague, Cabo, Vienna, Cairo, Toronto
Still Interesting 2:Tokyo, Barcelona
Bottom 2:Vancouver, Paris

Round 3 (Leadership)
My daughter texted me this morning bright and early after she had her invites and was so excited to tell me that she was invited back to 8 houses. She was really happy to not only have a full schedule but also to see her top 2 on the list - Aspen and Curacao. She has loved Aspen from the start and was especially excited to see that they keep asking her back.
Here were her invites:
Aspen, Curacao, London, Cabo, Paris, Cairo, Tokyo, Barcelona

Not bad! This meant she would be busy from morning until night. 5 parties in she let me know that she was “sooooo tired”. I really wasn’t that sympathetic as I sat at my desk reading contracts and crunching numbers on excel spreadsheets, but, I gave her some encouraging words anyway (not that she really was needing them). Later that day she texted me her top 2: Aspen and Curacao, again. She said she would call me tomorrow night after the final round of parties was complete. I wasn’t sure at this point if I was going to let her hold me off until then but I kept my mouth shut because she had already had a full day and was off to the FSU Luau on the Union Green. I was suspecting she was looking forward to a nice long sleep in her bed after a long day and didn’t really want to wake up any earlier than necessary to have more sorority talk.

All I have kept hearing in my ear are the advisors during Orientation telling us parents, “Do not text your kids all the time!” Well, maybe they weren’t thinking of sorority recruitment and how important it is to get daily updates so we can post our story on Greek Chat! That’s what I kept telling myself anyway.

Round 4 (Preference/Sisterhood)

I woke up this morning wondering how soon I would hear from my daughter about who her final 3 were (if she was so fortunate to get 3!). I know she would be very unhappy to lose Aspen and Curacao so I prayed (not really) that she would at least get these two. I had told her to make sure that as she went through the houses and found ones that she definitely wanted, to let them know it..

Finally at around 11:15 she texted me her invites for the day: Curacao, London and Tokyo. Since this was a text, I had no idea how she was feeling about this except probably disappointment at losing Aspen but happiness at keeping Curacao.

Here’s where it gets sticky, she has her heart set on Curacao and only Curacao. She liked the others but didn’t feel in her heart that she belonged with them. I encouraged her to consider them in a new light today and not to focus only on Curacao. I have a feeling that she is surrounded by disappointed friends today of which, she said, many have dropped out after getting their final 3. My daughter even mentioned that she may very well put only Curacao down on her bid list tonight. I’m really not sure what more to advise to her because she knows if she lists others and does not accept a bid she loses any options for a year. All I could say was to meet as many girls from the sororities today, have an open mind and feel blessed that she is still in the running because this is a very competitive year. She does have in the back of her mind that AOII is colonizing at FSU next year and has a special place in her heart for them since she is a legacy.

On a side note, I know for a fact that no matter what happens she has enjoyed the recruitment experience and loved making new friends.

I’ll be talking to her later to find out more. Fingers crossed!!!

That's an unusual position to be in, with the prospect of her legacy sorority colonizing next year. I hope that she has a wonderful time at prefs and makes the decision that is right for her!

No kidding. Wow, if I had that situation, I might go with Curacao or nothing. If I got it, great. If not, AOPi next year.

I am on pins and needles. Hope it all works out for her.

I spoke with my daughter very briefly this evening. She has decided to only put Curacao on her bid sheet. She seemed very confident about her decision no matter which way it goes and never expressed doubt that it was the right thing for her to do. Like some of you mentioned earlier she knows that her options are to pursue an AOII colonization spot next year if things don't work out this year. However, she really wants Curacao and is ready to embrace them as her sisters tomorrow. I'll be waiting to see what happens tomorrow and update as I find out!

Hope her gamble played off

Well, I don't know how she knows for sure but my daughter just texted me that she is getting a bid! I am guessing her Rho Gamma would have called her or told her right away if she was not getting one?!?! Maybe some of you know how this works....but since she only put one sorority on her preference card she knows who it is. I will post later today who it is. Only 3 more hours!

Congratulations to your daughter! I have enjoyed reading your story -- especially because you posted everything so quickly. : )

Yes, they ususally give the girls a time that they will have heard if they did not get a bid. If that time is past and she has not heard from her Rho Gamma then she is good.

I remember about six of us sitting in one room on the morning of bid day, all cradling our cordless phones (yes, this was the stone ages) and jumping to high heaven every time one of them rang.

Our phones had cords..and some of them were rotary dial!!!:eek:

Some lucky girls had those new-fangled push button phones....talk about your stone ages!!!!

So we had to sit in our dorm rooms tethered by the phone cords.

It's official now. My daughter is a new....








Pi Beta Phi!!!

YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

Terrific... glad it all worked out for her!

How wonderful!! Congratulations!!

Congratulations! We'll have a friend in Pi Phi when we colonize! :D

Congratulations to your daughter, aopi4evr! My neice is a member in that chapter and they are a wonderful group. They got four girls from our high school too, so I know some of your daughter's pledge sisters. Great gals, all of them!

Congratulations!

We are having a lot of different endings thus far (meaning PNMs ending up in lots of different chapters), and I like that! Congratulations to your daughter, very happy for her.

So glad to hear it! Another girl from my daughter's high school is a new pledge as well. They will have a wonderful time!

Thanks everyone for the well wishes! I have never heard my daughter so happy and absolutely loving sisterhood already! I have to say the whole experience was very emotional for me today when she texted me her first "hand sign" picture with one of her new sisters. I think about 20-30 people have added her on facebook already so she is encountering the excitement of all of the older girls at getting to know their new angels.

Congratulations!! Pi Phis at FSU are just the sweetest!! So happy your daughter is happy :)

I have to reveal something that I just discovered that is actually an incredible story. As you can tell from my screenname I was an AOII in college. I had several sisters that I was close to but there were 2 that I was especially close to. We lived together after college after we all snagged jobs in the same city. As things can happen we all ended up moving in different directions because of marriage, jobs, etc. One of these 3 stayed very close with me and I was a bridesmaid in her wedding. We each had 2 daughters both born within 3 weeks of each other (no, we did not plan that!). While our kids were very young we got together when we could. She ended up moving to another city due to her husband's job. We still kept in touch and saw each other when she would come back in town to visit. My younger sister even lived with her family for a year as a nanny! Eventually my family moved down to Florida when my kids were still young and a few years ago she moved to another part of Florida with her family. We kept telling each other "let's get together" but life was busy and we never seemed to find the time (we are still a few hours apart in Florida). It's been a couple of years since we have talked to each other. I had no idea where her oldest (the same age as my oldest) ended up going to college but last time we had talked she said her daughter's dream was to go somewhere out of state.

Here is where this gets interesting...
As I was clicking through Facebook (yes I was stalking) I noticed that some of my daughter's new friends in her sorority had added another girl with the same name as my friend's daughter. They have a very unusual name and my daughter noticed that they had several mutual friends...all Pi Phi! I looked at my daughter's bid day picture and noticed a familiar face RIGHT NEXT TO HER in the group picture. My daughter has been too busy to meet all of her pledge class and had no idea of who this girl was yet. But, I am absolutely positive this is my old friend's daughter...who was close with my daughter as a baby and toddler! My friend and her daughter have no idea. I am trying to reach her on the only number I have for her but I cannot wait to reveal to her that our daughters are sorority sisters just like we were!

That is really cool. It's a small world.

That gave me goosebumps :)

Me too. Very cool story! That's a magazine kind of story to send in. :)

Beautiful story. Just imagine Mom's Weekend with you two! amazing.