A Fashion Recruitment Story
 

Okay, so recruitment is starting up at my school and I looooove reading recruitment stories here. In fact, these stories (and the replies to them) helped me decide to go for recruitment myself.

So, I'm pretty sure this has been done but my story will have a fashion theme. I'm going to use Fashion Capitals as names for the sororities. At my school we have 5 sororities. I'll call them:

Paris
London
Milan
Barcelona
New York

So last Friday we had Meet the Greeks. They were basically house tours and the board members for each sorority were there. This isn't part of recruitment but I did have some first impressions that I thought I should share since I'm sure they'll be a factor in my decisions.

Paris - I originally thought I would love these girls. Love their colors! Love their philanthropy! I must admit I'd been stalking their FB and I was in looove. However, when I met them, they seemed a bit... dry. They seemed to be forcing it when talking to us and seemed a bit too eager for us to move to the next house. Whereas other sororities were gushing about their sisterhood, these girls barely mentioned it. Ok, they didn't at all. They talked more about achievements. However, maybe they were just nervous and wanted to impress us. I'm not sure I can see myself here but I'm not counting them out. Stories on here have proven that's a bad idea.

London - I loooooved these girls. I had heard bad things about them. Mostly that their last pledge class was a bit awkward. However, that's not something important to me. The girls I did meet were so funny and silly and I loved that. They were also very pretty and I must admit I looooved their outfits. Their house was very cute and comfy. I can see myself here.

Milan - I had met a few of these girls before. Won't give more details how, because that might make it obvious who I am. Anyway, I knew I'd love them because I had got on well with them before. I loved their house and was happy when one of the girls noticed me and said hi right when I walked in. (hoping that's a good sign)

Barcelona - These girls were really sweet and I must admit I loved them. However, I know that they aren't very social with the other greeks and don't do mixers. It may sound trivial but that's one thing about greek life that excites me. I think the recruitment process will decide this one. If I make a connection with them, I will def join. (also, question for other greeks: if your sorority doesn't go to socials, but you have a friend in another sorority who does, is it ok to go with your other friend or do they go with their sorority only?)

New York - This sorority was just okay for me. They didn't make a good or bad impression. I'll wait for recruitment to make a judgement call here.

Anyway, recruitment starts Friday, so I will probably post then or Saturday. Sorry to keep you waiting but I was just soooo excited and wanted to post something. lol

Silly me.. I should have posted this in the Recruitment Stories section. Is there any way to move it?

QFP

I'm begging you, please, please, pretty please let there be at least one chapter with sequined hosiery!!

Can't decide if you're being sarcastic. lol... Hope I'm not coming off superficial or anything :(

No :-) There is a past infamous recruitment story that your user name reminded me of and obviously, at least, one other GCer.

And yes, most of us had friends in and socialized with other sororities on campus. We often party hopped depending on who had the best band/DJ/etc that night. :-)

You're doing great. Good luck!

It's good - there was an absolutely obnoxious Recruitment Thread a few years back, involving super beautiful twins with that special thing, pink sequined hose, cheerleaders, and a mother who had been a Miss America contestant. It's a darn shame that nobody save it - the whole story was a riot!

Oh that's good to know. I've seen other PNMs unintentionally come off superficial and was scared of doing that. I'll have to look that thread up. Sounds interesting.

That's good to know! Makes me rethink Barcelona. I liked them a LOT but the thought of not being social kinda scared me. I don't want to miss out on any experiences.

Where are you getting your information on Barcelona? Is this just rumor that they don't do mixers? That seems a bit strange and, at least to me, doesn't sound entirely true.

As for joining a friend from another sorority when they do mixers, that would be a NO. When a sorority is invited to a mixer only members of that sorority should be in attendance.

Not to worry, pinkglitter. Your name simply invokes a funny story posted here on Greekchat from years gone by. Honeychile would never mean you any harm.

Good luck with Recruitment and keep us posted!

Really? We didn't do this. Perhaps it's different depending on the campus?

@honeychile Is this it? http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums...ad.php?t=88442

This isn't always true. At campuses I am familiar with sorority girls can almost always bring a female friend or two to a party/mixer as long as it is not a date party or off site. At midnight. most parties open to anyone on the guest list.

Yes, we party hopped. I had friends in AOII and Tri Sigma and we often put each other on the guest list for our own events and decided which party to go to depending on who had a band we wanted to see. Also, I was social chair and if I heard a fraternity had a good band, I just called their social and he's put us on the list, me + 3 usually.

It's partially from rumors and a bit of looking on FB and their page showed no mention of mixers or socials. However, I should have mentioned that this is something I plan on asking them at recruitment. I've heard that most rumors aren't true. I just can't help myself from speculating because I'm so excited.

No problem, pinkglitter. Speculating is perfectly normal at this point. Just make sure you get the facts before you make any decisions during Recruitment.

IndianaSigKap and I have very different experiences with mixers so I'd recommend finding out what's the norm for your own campus.

And finally...yes! That's the link to the story. It's well worth a read.

Leslie Anne part of the differences in our experience might be semantics, too. :-) We didn't call anything mixers. We had date parties, parties, and socials. Socials were strictly just our chapter and one fraternity, but they still opened at midnight, when we bothered to have them. Not a lot of chapters had socials because it was seen as kind of snobby/elitist. The sororities who insisted on them were often the butt of jokes of the fraternities. Parties were paired events (or 4 ways or 6 ways) with guest lists. We usually had one or two official ones a month. Fraternities had open parties every weekend with guest lists. Even when you were paired with a certain fraternity for an event, it wasn't uncommon to go to other fraternities one night during the weekend.

Some campuses are very different, so yes the OP should check it out! But I did want to point out there are campuses out there that don't mind guests as long as they are friends with one group or the other.

We actually didn't use the term "mixer" either. We called parties with just one fraternity and one sorority a "dessert." They were the most common type of parties on my campus and members of another sorority showing up would not have been looked well upon.

And all this time I thought that the way we did it was the way it was done everywhere. Nope! Different campuses, different traditions. I'm always learning new things on GC. :D

We used the term "mixer". The only people welcome at the mixer were members of the hosting fraternity and members of the invited sorority. But mixers usually took place preceding a party hosted by the fraternity. So the mixer might start at, say, 8pm, and at 10pm the fraternity would bust out the booze and start the actual party. At that point, anyone with a college ID could get in. (This was back in the Stone Age, when fraternities actually had open parties. :p )

So ... if you join sorority X, and you have a friend in sorority Y, and sorority Y is having a mixer with fraternity Z ... you wouldn't be able to tag along to the mixer, but if there's a party following the mixer, your friend in sorority Y could potentially get you on the invite list. Or, if you have a friend in fraternity Z, he could put you on the invite list.

One of the things spending 5 minutes on this site teaches you is everything you know about sorority life means about jack squat where it applies to everyone else. There are nearly as many ways to have a vibrant and successful Greek system as there ARE Greek systems.

Indiana and Iowa are pretty similar in the demographics, student population, etc. (of course, Indiana is a bit larger), but the way they handle their social calendar is COMPLETELY different than the experience I had. Ours better? Theirs better? I guess it depends on how much priority you put on parties. At Iowa there were seldom open parties and you would have been VERY odd to show up at an exchange (a social as Indiana SigKap defined it). And the multi-chapter parties weren't unheard of, but was uncommon. Like Monmouth Duo was a big one every year, but it's pretty clear who was invited to that! Ok, and their dates. The one variation there is the parties that happened in conjunction with philanthropies. The parties at the end of Derby Days or the Beta softball tournament were open parties, but I don't recall any open parties that weren't also part of a philanthropy. One result, I think, is less mixing between the sororities, and the fraternities who didn't make it onto your exchange calendar. So there's a real benefit to the system she describes. Presuming you can handle your alcohol that is ;)

I am learning a lot tonight. I just assumed that everyone had big parties (4-ways and 6 ways). Usually 6-ways were around Little 500 and you were bussed to an outside venue and you had to have 6 chapters to pay for the band and rental space. Thursday night was low key like a house party or room parties. Friday was a usually an in house DJ and Saturdays were paired parties with a band or themed with a DJ.

If we wanted to have a "social" with a fraternity, we usually had a dinner exchange. We invited 10 or so guys over for dinner, then they hosted dessert, by dessert I mean adult beverages.

I'm so glad the last word of that last sentence was beverages...;)

The chapter I advise, and my daughter's campus are polar opposites when it comes to parties, socials/mixers, etc.

It's like the 80s never ended at her campus (this is what our Director of Student Life told me when comparing the two!). Everyone accepts this as par for the course.

At our campus, the letter of the law is followed for all events...no alcohol at any mixers, and only 21+ students can drink at formals and date parties. Everyone accepts this as par for the course.

Anyway, good luck to you, Pinkglitter! Enjoy your recruitment! Pay no mind to us ADHD ladies for side-tracking your story! :o

You found it!

Pinkglitter, it may be that the sorority who doesn't do mixers has other parties instead of mixers.

Thank you guys for all your info. It's pretty interesting. And no worries on sidetracking the thread. I won't be posting on recruitment till Friday and enjoy reading you all's experiences in the meantime.

AFter reading around the forums, I've decided I won't be posting until after Bid Night (which is Sunday). My school's Greek Life is kind of small and I think I would have to leave out a LOT of important info to avoid revealing who I am. I hope you all don't mind, but I don't want to ruin my chances because of something I said on GC.

That is a good idea. Please come back and let us know how everything went. Good luck!

Completely understandable! Wishing you a successful recruitment...without that one thing. ;)

I do hope you got to read through some of the thread you found, it is quite legendary....Someone makes a reference to it at least a couple of times a year.

I think that mixer is a generic term. Ohio State calls them TGs: Themed Gatherings. They were called TGs when I was in school; 30 years later, they still are. Typically, TGs were held on Fridays, so most non-Greeks thought it meant TGIF.

Great idea!

I hope you enjoy recruitment.

Good idea and best of luck to you. PLEASE come back and update us when you are done.

FSUZeta- wow... just wow... I have spent the better part of the day combing through the treasure trove that you found and posted!!! my mind is completely blown!!! :-)

Don't know what is worse - the thread itself or that I read 21 pages of it. Is it wrong that I wished she had finished her thread so I knew what happened to sweet Callie even if she was make believe?

Omigosh! I was told that it had gone missing! May the catwalk of Recruitment be as good as your sleuthing skills!

Good luck to you Pinkglitter!! Read the thread in question, it is a GCClassic. We all were riveted. I just wish she had finished...

We called them "Functions". As in, "The Fijis have invited us to have a Function next month" and "Should we plan a Function with the Delts for homecoming?"

Functions were restricted to the chapters in question. No invite lists or crashing. We were old school. No need for a silly themes or Cosplay. It was a Function. It involved sorority women, fraternity men, music, some munchies, and in the days of 3.2 beer and 18 legal, a keg. Fun and done.

No it is not wrong, and I am still steaming that those meanies ragged her so that she flounced.

And OldOleMiss, I can't take credit for finding the thread-that was all pinkglitter.

After I read that thread I felt as if I finally understood what "catfished" meant.

Someone please sticky that thread! :-) We cannot lose it, it is endless source of amusement and a point of reference for all future trainwrecks.

This was the second time I tried to get through that thread, and gave up after the first few posts. Barf-o-rama! I do appreciate the fact that I now know the meaning of the sequined tights reference...I always thought it came from the "Weird Rush Stories" thread and that an active posted it about some random PNM's attire.

Also, I'm now feeling horribly self-conscious about that fact that I like to use a lot of...in my posts. :o

Pinkglitter the no social thing may just be a nasty rumor spread by someone who feels threatened by Barcelona. Do ask them, but do so but politely.

Thanks! lol. My mom calls me a "Google Genius". She and my bf will search something for hours then I walk in, type in a few words, and it pops right up as the #1 link. lol

Our mixers were called "socials" and our date parties were called "date functions." Formal was "formal," but for ADPis, we always called it "Black Diamond" because our formal is "Black Diamond Ball." Occasionally, there would be a 4-way "social" at a fraternity house. A 6-way sounds insane!

I have it bookmarked. It is so unforgettable that I couldn't bear for it to be lost forever. It was one of the first threads I ever read on GreekChat, and I was enthralled. I think I mentioned in one of my first posts that I almost required counseling when I discovered that it was never finished.