My Rush
 

Hello! I just completed my first rounds of formal rush! It has been a long weekend, but SO completely worth it. I met SO many wondreful women over the past 2 days, and am so glad that I went through recruitment.

Saturday:
House 1: Very nice ladies led me through the house and discussed many topics. I felt very welcome there. Some girls even knew some people I went to high school with.

House 2: The girl that led me through the house was on the executive board, so she was very knowledgeable about the sorority and had a lot of helpful info. Talked to about 5 or so women. But even before walking out of the house, decided that it wasn't the place for me.

House 3: I have heard not so good things about this house and some of its members from other people previously, but went in with an open mind. I LOVED it! Talked to some very nice women, learned a lot and had a great time.

House 4: The girl who showed me the house was very quiet..almost seemed uninterested, or maybe just shy. It was hard to tell. Then another girl took over and she had a lot of information to offer, which was nice. Another girl from our recruitment group came with me, considering the sorority only has an upwards of 40 members so I hear. My recruitment group member asked about someone that she works with who is in that sorority. The quiet girl had no idea who she was. NOt even after looking at pictures of her. WHich, also didn't give me a good vibe.

House 5: Again, I got the quiet girl, which isn't always a bad thing, considering half the time you can't shut me up. :D Ultimately the conversation got better, but by then it was time to go.

House 6: WHen I walked in the house, the first girl that greeted me was one that looked familiar. We had volunteered together a year previously, so it was nice to talk to her about her own chapter. Lots of very nice girls at this house as well.

House 7: Talked the whole time, didn't have any time to go over the boards or look at the rooms. Very interesting guide..she had a lot of great things to say about her group.

House 8: FUN group of women! Our Rho Gammas had us doing cheers left and right, and these women were just loving it! I met quite a few nice women in this house, and could easily see myself a part of it.

House 9: Again, not for me. My guide and I didn't click at all, didn't have much to talk about but the dues, housing, grades, and school. Probably the most expensive house that I went through that day. I left knowing that I didn't belong there.

Sunday:

House 10: I really liked this group. I felt very comfortable here. Talked to about 5 women about lots and lots of different subjects. My main guide asked me what my last name was as I was leaving the house and said that she hoped to see me again.

House 11: Wow. If I could join any group now, this would be it. First impression was wonderful, completely jumping, singing, and cheering loudly to the Talking Heads. Lots of energy. It got my recruitment group and Rho Gammas all riled up. :) I completely clicked with everyone I talked to. As I passsed women, they would smile and say hello. I wish the 30 minutes wouldn't have gone by as fast as they did.

House 12: Another great house. Met many great girls. Very involved as far as philantropy goes, which is great to see.

House 13: Another great house. I really connected with the woman who showed me around. Lots of conversation, and also ran out of time, as we could have talked longer.

House 14: I didn't feel at home here at all. Maybe it was the women that I talked to, but this one just wasn't for me. They too were very quiet, and I had to initiate a lot of conversation, which again, is fine..i like to talk :) But unfortutnately it was almost as if I had to force the info out of them as far as housing, dues etc.


After seeing our final houses today, we ranked them 1-14, and our top 8 would be matched with those that wanted to see us back. We find out Thursday where we were asked back for second round. Wish me luck...and let it be known that I will post again! :)

browneyed- where do you go to school or what are the Sororities on your campus?

Hey browneyedgirl!! where do you go to school and what are the sororities you have to choose from?? (you dont have to tell them in the right order). Good luck with it all!!!! Keep us posted!

Fall Recruitment
 

I see from your other post that you are going through fall recruitment at Bowling Green State University. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about your school!

I can hardly wait until Thursday to see where you will be going back to! Be sure to keep us posted.

I am attending Bowling Green State University and the sororities that are on campus are as follows:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Alpha Xi Delta
Chi Omega
Delta Gamma
Delta Zeta
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Phi Mu
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Kappa

Sounds like it was busy and exciting for you, browneyedgirl! Thanks for posting, can't wait to hear about your next round of parties on Thursday.

Christin

FYI: No we did not go through them alphabetically...so its not like...house 1= alpha chi o; house 2=agd...etc etc. we went through them how they are arranged on campus. :)

YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm an alum/transfer alum from BGSU!!!!! i'm so excited to be hearing something 'bout the school. you'll have to keep us informed. if you can, stick with the numbering thing, but each time you narrow it down, can you tell us who's still on your list? if ya want. thanks!

marissa

We basically had to list our top 8--and from there we are paired with the sororities that want us back. So if 6 of the 8 you picked want you back, you only go to those 6..etc.
My top 8 were as follows...in no particular order.

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Phi
Alpha Xi Delta
Chi Omega
Delta Zeta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Kappa

Yay, another rush thread with a Pi Phi chapter!

Browneyed,

Best of luck to you!

XOXO,
Annie.

Are you sure about this??? I have never heard of rush being done this way before, and it seems pretty contrary to Green Book recommendations.

That's the way rush worked at UGA when I was there. I think we went from 18 down to 12, though, on the first cut. :)

Good luck to you. I am from UT, so we are just 20 minutes away. Hope it goes well for you

Whoo hoo! A-Phi!!

DeltaBetaBaby,
We too did it this way at my school, Western Michigan University. I think if you knew which houses invited you back and you got to pick from those, it might cloud your judgement. At least I think that's the thought process behind it.

BrownEyedGirl,
Good luck to you at Bowling Green! I'm so excited to see all these Mid-Western rush threads!!!

Thats how it was explained to me...We listed our rankings actually 1-14...but they would only pair/match up our top 8

xo_kathy,

thanks!! I had such an amazing time at rush this weekend...i just cannot WAIT for next weekend! AND I hear its 10x better :D

Thanks!! Its good to see locals on the boards :)

Have a fabulous time! My aunt was a Kappa at BGSU!

I am pretty sure that this is the way my school started doing it a few years ago too. Basically, you would rank your top eight all as "#1" and then your ninth choice would be "#2" and so on, until all 14 were ranked. Then, you would go back to the eight that invited you back, which ever ones they were. If only six of your top eight invited you back and then two that weren't in your top eight, you would still go to eight, just not all your "#1s."

Is this how it is working, BrowneyedGirl?

Re: My Rush
 

Browneyedgirl41,

Good luck with Rush! I can't wait to hear about your next round of parties! :D :D :D I'm biased of course, but I'm so happy to hear that Delta Zeta is on your list. ;)

Like Cluey said, that's how they do it at UGA. :)

No, its a little bit different. You rank them all 1-14. And the top 8 being the ones that count. Then our Rho Gammas match us up. So..if 6 that were in my top 8 ask me back and 4 that were NOT in my top 8 ask me back..i would only go to the 6 that matched up with my top 8. Basically the top 8 slots are reserved for the ones that you would like to go back to. and then the other 6 slots (#'s 9-14) are reserved for the ones that you knew you didn't want to go back to for second rounds.

Best of luck to you. I'm also from UT and work with people from BG so I get to hear just how exciting it is there from them too!

>>>Originally posted by browneyedgirl41
No, its a little bit different. You rank them all 1-14. And the top 8 being the ones that count. Then our Rho Gammas match us up. So..if 6 that were in my top 8 ask me back and 4 that were NOT in my top 8 ask me back..i would only go to the 6 that matched up with my top 8. Basically the top 8 slots are reserved for the ones that you would like to go back to. and then the other 6 slots (#'s 9-14) are reserved for the ones that you knew you didn't want to go back to for second rounds.<<<


First of all, GOOD LUCK Browneyedgirl - I know it will turn out great!!
Second, I wanted the opinion of those who know more about this than I, but doesn't this way of ranking houses make for a lot more PNM's dropping out of (or being dropped from) recruitment? The campus that I know the most about shows the PNM's the list of who asked them back and they pick from that, rather than being matched up to who they picked. Seems like this might give the PNM's more to choose from and give the groups they might have cut a second chance as well. Just a thought...

In my time here, we have used both SORUSH and PRUSH. The first is where you pick from the list of houses that invited you back, the latter is where you rank and you go to the top ten that invited you back OF ALL YOUR RANKINGS. Neither one is ideal, for reasons I won't go into here, but dropping houses before you even know who invited you seems like a really, really bad idea.

So if noone ranks XYZ in their top 8, XYZ can have noone returning to the second round? With PRUSH, they would get girls who had ranked them #9, but hadn't gotten invitations to their top 8.

Also, if none of my top 8 invite me back, I am dropped from recruitment, even if the other six want me?

This system is totally ridiculous in my opinion.

I can imagine that it would make for a lot more women dropping out of Recruitment. The only thing it seems to prevent is a woman's being forced to go back to a house that she knows she doesn't want. However, I've read tons of threads from PNMs who were cut heavily and just didn't "feel it" at a house to which they were returning until Pref. Maybe a house doesn't do so well at talking about their sisterhood, but at Pref, when they can show their sisterhood, it clicks. So I'm all for a woman's returning to the maximum number of parties possible for her, just to keep retention up.

The method I described is P-Rush, as DeltaBetaBaby mentioned. It has been found to help retention on many campuses because girls do not have to go back and see who invited them and then have the day to decide not to go because they aren't pleased with their invites. Instead, they do their general ranking right after first round and show up the next day ready for their rounds. They are already dressed and ready with their Rho Chi group when they find out who invited them and they go straight to their parties.

It also helps to eliminate talk about the chapters because girls fill out their rankings right after first round, before they get to go back to the dorms and see their friends, etc...

DBB,
I stand corrected! At my school, we did in fact go back to houses we had NOT ranked in our top spots if we did not get all of our top choices. But we didn't get to see who invited us back before we picked. It was how sororitygirl2 described.

Can anyone suggest what to wear for Second Rounds? I'm kind of unsure what would be appropriate/not appropriate. Thanks!!:)

Yeah, there are definite benefits to PRUSH, but there are also benefits to SORUSH. However, what browneyedgirl is describing is NOT PRUSH.

How did most people dress for the first round? Knowing that might make it easier for us to answer. Also, what are you thinking of wearing?

No, what she is describing is definitely NOT P-Rush... I have never heard of what they are doing and to me it seems very unfair to some girls and chapters. But, anyway...

BrownEyedGirl -- GOOD LUCK! As for clothes, it definitely depends on what school, how many rounds, what other girls are wearing, etc... However, I think a safe bet for second rounds at most schools would be a cute dress or a skirt and shirt with nice sandals... at some schools, capris would even be okay.

at bgsu - the second round outfits are kinda up in the air. when i was there last year, we had some girls show up in nice shorts and shirts, some show up in club clothes (spikey shoes and all), and some who looked way formal or just t-shirt and jeans.

i guess what i'm saying is look at the chapters that you were interested in. do they seem formal? laidback? club clothes girls? go by that.

you really can't go wrong with a skirt and nice shirt or a nice pair of shorts/khakis and nice shirt. basically anything that you would get from the Gap, abercrombie, or express.

remember that second rounds are philanthopy and some sororities there do some arts and crafts that could get you dirty.

as for pref rounds - cocktail dresses are big. for pnm's and current members. most sororities end up wearing something black and knee length.


hope this helps some.

marissa

Something to consider also is that while it may still be a little toasty in your area of the country is that it is mid-September. Try to choose outfits that have more of a "fall look" to them rather than a really summery sundress and strappy sandals. Don't break out the wool by any means but going with a more seasonal or year-round look will look much better than showing up in a dress that is mainly white or just has that summery look to it!
Good luck on the next round!

i think one of the new courderoy skirts would be ideal... if ya have one.

And i do! :) First Round we all wore the same tshirts--the front said Why Make a WIsh... and on the back... When You Can Live A Dream and the back had two little girls laying on their backs looking up at the sky and among the stars were the letters of teh 14 sororities on campus. VERY CUTE. All girls going through recruitment wore the grey ones, all Rho Gammas wore bright blue ones, and each sorority on campus also wore a different color. I really liked how they did that. And then we could wear jeans, skirts, capris, floods, and then sandals, tennis shoes, whatever made you comfy!:)

i went thru rush my frosh. year and altho it didnt work out this is what i wore:

1st day/round: tank/sweater and shorts

2nd day/round: khaki pants and a black t

3rd day/round: mid length skirt with top and duster

4th day/pref: a purple sundress that i picked up at nordstroms earlier that year...

altho i have discovered from the ladies here that it seems to be more appropriate to wear a black dress for pref.

Thanks a lot! This gives me some good ideas! :)