Things that would never, ever, EVER happen at a Southern school
 

This is something I hadn't thought of in probably 25 years but a chapter sister and we were discussing rush today and she brought it up. Southern gals, clutch your pearls because you're not going to believe this!..... (I'm going to use real sorority names because it was so long ago I can't imagine anyone would care)

When I was an active, the Big Three were, alphabetically, Chi Omega, Delta Delta Delta and Delta Zeta.

There was a rushee named "Bridget" who was in the same Rho Chi group as my sister and me our freshman year and she was incredibly outspoken that the only house she would consider joining was TriDelta. After she was cut by them (can't remember which round), she dropped out of rush, presumably, never to be seen again.

Well, sophomore year rolled around and here I was on the other side of Rush. Guess who came back? Bridget! And she was still determined to be a TriDelt. She was breathtakingly rude to the sisters who tried to talk to her at our party and our Rho Chi contacts assured us that she was the same everywhere, except at Delta Delta Delta. We cut her after the first round, as did many other houses and TriDelt eventually cut her too. Again, she dropped out of rush, presumably, never to be seen again.

Ha! If you believe that one, then you don't know what rush is like at a big state school that is only about 11% greek.

Bridget showed up again during formal rush our junior year. Still determined to be a TriDelt. Still breathtakingly rude to the other houses. Still cut heavily. The difference this year? She got a bid from Delta Delta Delta! After three tries (DDD never participated in informal rush), she finally reached her Holy Grail.

To this day, no one who wasn't on TriDelt's Bid Committee that year knows how that happened. Not even the sisters who weren't part of the Bid Committee. (said one TriDelt to a friend of mine, "I don't know what happened. I looked up at Bid Night and there she came running across the Quad right at me".

Maybe someone felt sorry for her? Maybe someone was bribed? Maybe they thought she was someone else with the same first name? The world may never know. Not that it's our business anyway :)

So THAT, ladies, is an example something that would never, ever, EVER happen at a Southern school!

Yikes. Why was she so bent on Tri-Delt?

Whoa. I don't even think that would happen at MY college, which is the farthest you can get from a Southern school.

There was a three timer at my school too, but it was way more embarrassing for her, as she was in the same little sister org with many many members of the group she was trying to join. YIPES

Oh and KR, I am going to guess a Steeler or Penguin had something to do with it just because that is the way things roll here :-)

Wow. She must have had some major pull for the third try. Maybe a rec from the National President?


The world will never know...

There was a several timer in my day - she hit both the formal and informal rushes each year for three years. She finally found her home with a colony.

One school I went to had a three-timer who was set on only one sorority, a very difficult one to get into there. She got in the third year.

Before and after she went Greek, she was a campus leader but no one I knew, including her sisters, had any idea why she was set on that one.

We had a girl who was a triple legacy come through and tell everyone in her group that we "had to take her". By this time I was an alum and the Chapter Rush Advisor.

Trouble with that was that she was a "problem" and several of the actives knew of her because they were from her hometown and....well she was not going to be pledged, let's put it that way. One of our alums had been her fourth grade teacher (!) and called me during rush and said if so and so is pledged by the chapter I am turning in my pin. Wow.

So she gets cut. Who gets the angry calls at 6:30 AM? Why, the Rush Advisor of course. The girl dropped out, transferred to an SEC school and her grandmother ended up essentially funding a remodel of the chapter house at this school, where we actually have a very strong chapter. No one said a word to give this chapter a heads up.

I heard she graduated, came back home, and "grew up" and became a "PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY" LOL isn't that how it always happens?

I've posted the story on GC several times of the girl on my freshmen hall who was hell bent on also joining one specific sorority on our campus. Ten outstanding groups at our school, and she goes in just wanting one. To this day I am not sure why that one particular chapter found such favor in her, but it did.

She lasted 2 rounds with them, was cut, and so she the dropped out of rush.

Same story sophomore year, except I think she was cut after 1st round. She dropped out of rush again, transferred back home and went through rush at her commuter school. She even got a bid to the same sorority she was trying to join at our university.

But the story doesn't end there. She transfers *back* to our school and wants to affiliate. At this point the chapter members are well onto her scheme and actually vote against her affiliating.

She spent the next 2 years sporting those letters 24/7. I don't think one member of the chapter ever became a friend of hers.

As I have posted before I to this day wonder if it was worth it for her. She got the letters she so desperately wanted, but has no concept of sisterhood- at either the 1st school (only there one semester) or our school (rejected by them 3 times).

She was *not* a fit for the chapter that she wanted, but would have been a great member at over half of the chapters on our campus. Too bad she couldn't see that. I wonder how she views the whole thing now, 25 years later.

Can't believe this but I had to take a look at her LinkedIn profile. The single, solitary one and only activity she has listed at college is.....wait for it.....Delta Delta Delta!

At least I bet she's an involved alumna so that's a nice thing.

bump!

This was rather common way back in the day here in Alabama. Go to UAB, Jax State, Livingston and pledge. Then transfer to Alabama or Auburn, UAB's Alpha Gam chapter was thought of as a "feeder chapter" for Alabama.

I did hear stories of girls going to Delta State in Mississippi to pledge and then transferring to Ole Miss to try to affiliate.

Attempts to transfer into a stronger chapter have been made for years.

Q for KillarneyRose: was Pitt still at 11% when you were active? I guess I always think of the 80s as a big Greek life era, so I assumed the numbers would have been higher than that?

It happens among the fraternities as well.

I knew a guy who wanted to be a Sigma Chi at Arkansas. He didn't think he'd get a bid, so he went to another school (not mine :D), was initiated and transferred the next year.

Fraternities will normally take transfers as long as the initiated member left their other chapter in good standing and financially settled.

While I went to school out west, my entire family went to Ole Miss. Even back in the 70's it was super competitive. So competitive than many a girl would drop out if they didn't get the sorority of their and transfer elsewhere...this is why the administration moved rush to mid-October for years and years. Last year was the first time, I think, it was pre-classes and this year is the first time pre-classes in person.

Many a girl would pledge at less competitive schools, as mentioned by others and try to transfer in and affiliate. Did not always work.

The one thing that happens at Southern schools and everywhere is the girl so set, as written earlier, on one chapter and they don't budge. A girl went thought rush at my school - a double Gamma Phi legacy. She was released after the 3rd round, she dropped out. Then she went through her sophomore year, same story, same result. I met her that year through friends and she became almost angry when she learned I was a Gamma Phi and that I had no connections to the chapter or sorority - like "how did you get in when I had all the connections." She was a sour personality and while we had many wonderful chapters at my school, I'm not sure anyone would have wanted that type of person as a sister.

Yes very common in Texas, too, back 30 years ago when this happened.

It wasn't so much the 3x rush and being fixated on ONE chapter, but that she was denied 3x by the same chapter (2 in rush and 1 in affiliation) and still wore her letters and swag from head to toe 24/7 on that same campus.

And never had one friend in that chapter to show for all her efforts.

Tragic, really.

The advisor for the UAB chapter was a Bama alum. (Her daughter, another Bama alum, was my homeroom teacher in 10th grade.)

Yes, - as were several others over the years. It was the second group on campus...

Very common a few years ago for Texas girls (especially from Highland Park) to go out of state and pledge their legacy then transfer to UT-Austin and affiliate.