A West Coast Recruitment!
 

Since the Arizona heat is so intense and rush isn’t as strict at Arizona, DD3, the youngest of my children and the love of my life, decided on wearing clothes that showed more skin. We ended up ordering from stores online. She’s 5’10 and so the first disaster was when everything arrived and had to be tailored on the spot by grandma as the car was being packed up.

Both sets of grandparents, 4 sets of aunts and uncles, and her godparents all assisted in getting her dorm styled and, due to all the wonderful tips I found on here from you all, everything went smoothly.

The houses:

Saguaro
Route 66
Turquoise
Wild Wild West
Mountain View
Wildflowers
Sunrise
Sunset
Scorpion
Roadrunner
Palm Trees
Desert Breeze

Set One:

Route 66:
Her first house. She liked Route 66 and the majority of the girls were religious and although DD3 liked the vibes, she felt like she wouldn’t fit in. An active said “think of us as your practice house! This is my first time rushing someone and your first time going through rush. We’ll get through it together!” and she gave DD3 the confidence that she needed.

Saguaro:
The newest chapter on campus, DD3 felt that she didn’t belong at first but became comfortable and that the conversations didn’t flow easily but were well thought out. She did, however, think that the girls were some of the nicest people that she’d ever met and they had a charm to them. She thought that the girls gave off very positive vibes and it was easy to relax.

Turquoise:
The Instagram famous house, they’d had their eye on DD3 all summer, liking and commenting on her Instagram photos. DD3 thought that every sister that she looked too much like her (white and thin) and that while the conversations flowed naturally, the girls knew enough about DD3 to make her feel almost uncomfortable.

Wild Wild West:
DD3 had a wild time at WWW. She met great girls and had great conversations. She also liked that their philanthropy involves exercise and since her goal is to achieve 50 hours of community service per semester, she was focused on that.

Mountain View:
She loved the girls and the house, had great convos, and, for some reason, had a display of seated tap dancing from a sister. She also has personal experience with their philanthropy. She mentioned that she didn’t feel a personal click but acknowledged that since she had just met the house, she couldn’t be sure.

Wildflowers:
The sisters of Wildflowers followed DD3 on instagram as soon as she had put “Zona ‘22” in her bio. The house of the Wildflowers happens to be huge and the girls that DD3 met were all beautiful inside and out. She had long in-depth conversations with girls she really loved, She has experience with their philanthropy and loves everything about the sisterhood that she can know about.

Desert Breeze:
The ladies of desert breeze were a hit with DD3. She had a series of great conversations with a lot of great girls and liked the theme of the house and all of the special elements of the sorority that were in every part of the area of the house that she saw.

Scorpion:
“Mom! I stepped and I heard a crunch and I looked down and it was a scorpion!!!” was the first thing she told me. The ladies of scorpion pulled some of the same things that the ladies of turquoise did, but they’d messaged her privately for months (messages that she showed me that she’d never responded to so she could make sure that Rush was fair for everyone). The ladies of Scorpion did everything short of offering DD3 a pin right on the spot (they did say that she had better buy a pledge pin). She wasn’t a fan of the Scorpions at all and thought that they were really aggressive with their rush tactics.

Roadrunner:
She liked roadrunner but she felt like she was botching conversations. She felt like she kind of fit in but not completely and that the roadrunners were trying their hardest but since it was the end of the day, she was on her last burst of energy.

Palm trees:
She liked the girls and thought that they were welcoming and beautiful, she thought she had great conversations, and she loved the way that they held themselves. She also liked that they had a system in place so she met a lot of people and shook a lot of hands.

Sunrise:
She said that sunrise kind of blended in with all of the other houses and that they were not as memorable. They didn’t exactly stick out to her in any special ways but she said that the girls were very nice and very kind.

Sunset:
The final house she visited for set one. She had a dang good time and loved being around them. They made her feel at ease and like she was part of the sisterhood already. She really really really liked them.

Before rush had begun, Grandma had sent her three questions that she had to answer about each sorority before she ranked them.

1: Is their philanthropy a philanthropy that you could support for your entire life?

2: Are these girls good people? Are they the type of people who will protect you and cherish you? Do they make you feel safe?

3: Do you see yourself achieving the long term and short term goals that you’ve set for yourself if you join this sisterhood? Do you see yourself making positive steps forwards with the help of these sisters?

Set one ended and set two began.

TriDDDeltgirl, as one who was a member of a chapter at Arizona, this is really, really fun to read...great descriptions of each house and I love the names as well. And so kind of the active at the first house she visited to tell her "think of us as your practice house" - I think that would put any PNM at ease.

And fabulous questions that Grandma sent your daughter to ask.

Ready to read the next installment!

Sounds like your daughter has a great head on her shoulders and a strong family support system. The "scorpion" bit seems like a strong omen!

:D I'm NOT an Arizona Theta! I just live in Arizona, and I'm a Theta from CA (Go Gauchos!!!!). Hoping I can cool my jets and let you tell your daughter's story; so far it's just incredible. I agree with my Panhell sister (above) about the questions given by Wise Grandmother. Maybe we can share those in future threads with other PNMs. In case it isn't clear, I'm just as excited to read it as NYCMS and a host of other AZ NPC members who are here but don't post much or at all. My Facebook PMs have been active this morning!

I want to say that I personally am very sad that Tri Delta suspended their chapter at Arizona. We (in the local Panhell community) all are. I do understand the reasons and I support Tri Delta wholeheartedly. Have an extremely close friend (my baseball buddy) who is an AZ Tri Delta alumna, and have several other great DDD friends here in town. The alumnae chapter support is very strong locally. I have confidence they will return and be a strong chapter.

OK I promise to sit on my fingers and not say another word until you finish. One last remark: this year the heat was especially BRUTAL. The planet is definitely a lot hotter, folks.

Grandma is spot on with her advice! Please keep us updated on her recruitment. :)

The houses:

Set Two

Scorpion
Turquoise
Sunset
Desert Breeze
Palm Trees
Wild Wild West
Route 66
Wildflowers
Roadrunner


DD3 finally brought up the things that had been said to her to her Rho Chi and the PX brushed her off almost completely by saying “Zona is a very laid back school when it comes to rush so the PNMs are really the ones choosing the chapters! Don’t worry! It’s so good that some of the top houses like you! Some girls would kill to be in your place!”. Then the PX made sure to keep DD3 always in the loop of the sororities.

Scorpion:
DD3 didn’t feel a huge connection with their philanthropy but kept listening and started to really feel uncomfortable around them. The ladies of scorpion CONTINUED to make bid promises to DD3 and kept telling her that they’d see her during set 3 AND to choose a badge and pledge pin and choose a room in the house. DD3 thought that they obviously didn’t care about fines and wanted certain girls only.

Turquoise:
DD3 was told all about one of their famous sisters but wasn’t told anything about any of the sisters who didn’t become famous but are out succeeding in their various fields. DD3 was furious “I cancelled the tv subscription because I’m sick of seeing this woman everywhere! It’s ridiculous, I’m trying to learn about their philanthropy and I don’t care about this particular alumna at all.”

Sunset:
DD3 loved their philanthropy and loved her conversations with them. She also enjoyed how their philanthropy is slightly similar to the Wildflowers and how they seemed like a group of girls who look out for each other and protect the younger sunsets. Her PX said that the sunset girls had a reputation of being innocent and that they “didn’t go out much because they’re good girls.”

Wildflowers:
“Their philanthropy means the entire world to me.” was DD3’s response to my questions. The Wildflowers had done it again and had managed to capture DD3’s heart and soul. She did say that the Wildflowers are a close knit group and that they do tend to stick to themselves and she really liked that every older Wildflower looked out for the younger Wildflowers. The Wildflowers were a lot like Sunset and she also liked that they’re close on a historical and national standpoint.

Route 66:
DD3 liked them but she decided that she couldn’t see herself ever becoming a sister of Route 66. Their philanthropy interested her and she liked the religious vibes but she didn’t see herself ever really fitting into their sisterhood and she left feeling tired.

Palm Trees:
Loved them and thought that they were amazing but she didn’t feel as much of a deep connection with them. She again emphasised that it was a “her” thing and that the girls were great people.

Wild Wild West:
The same feelings that she had for Palm Trees arose and she didn’t see herself as a Wild Wild West sister. While the ladies of Wild Wild West were trying their darnedest and putting on a great rush, DD3 only had 2 houses on her mind and she took down the names of girls to make friends with after rush ended.

Desert Breeze:
Loved them but she had some reservations because she’d heard of a few (confirmed) incidents that had happened involving the new members of the 2017 member class, DD3 put away her judgment book and had open minded conversations with the sisters that she talked to.

Roadrunner:
DD3 didn’t like this house for some reason, she liked the girls and the sorority’s values but she wasn’t feeling those “this is it” vibes. DD3 did say that she took down the names of the girls to make friends later once she’d finished up with rush.


DD3 mentioned that a girl in her group was cut released from rush due to saying horrible things about the houses. DD3 said “I think that it’s horrible to go into a home where unsuspecting women have welcomed you with open arms and come out and say horrible things about them. It says a lot about your character and only reflects badly on you. It’s a shameful thing to do to anybody.”

Later that day, DD3 got a message over snapchat of a signed bid card with HER name on it from the scorpions and the scorpion girls yelling “we love you, DD3!!!!!!!!!”

Questions from grandma for this set:

1: What do you think of this philanthropy? Are you completely at ease spending potentially hundreds of hours over a lifetime raising funds for them? Are you comfortable doing in person volunteer work for them?

2: You’ve had more in-depth conversations with the sisters and gotten to know them now, are they diverse? Do you see sisters of different colors? Do sisters have different majors? Are these the type of women who will keep you sheltered or help you to learn the ways of the world?

3: Are these the type of women that you feel at ease with? Obviously you’re going to be going out, mixing with fraternities, and drinking, are these the type of women that will make sure that you’re okay? Would you feel comfortable going to a fraternity party with a group of these sisters? How do the older girls interact with the younger girls?

GO GAUCHOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow! I was a bit enthusiastic but UCSB saved my life!
Thank you for your condolences on Tri Delta closing, I didn’t know much about the chapter at all but my heart went out to all of my fellow sisters who were members, when they decide to go back to campus, hopefully I’ll be able to help them recolonize. The heat was intense this year! Grandma was sent off by DD3 because DD1 decided to rush at Bama and she wanted Grandma to be more worried about her sister!

Thank you for the update and I love that your family is so supportive of your daughter. Grandma's questions continue to impress me.:)

Grandma is one sharp cookie! You daughter sounds like a dream. You have done well, Mom.

And we would love to learn about all the daughters!

Grandma's questions should be required reading by every PNM! Seriously great things to think about.

Loved this round as well, can't wait to read more!

1 set of twin daughters, 2 adopted daughters
5 boys and 2 adopted sons
and I had 6 stepsons in the house as well!

My adopted children were my sisters’ children!

My second husband had 6 sons by his deceased wife when I married him and since he was very fortunate, I decided to become Maria Von Trapp and raise all the kids.

DD3 was very sick when she was younger and so she’s always been my baby. She did most of high school in the hospital and so I’m happy to see her go and do her magnificent things!

Hey! when you come for 'rents weekend or moms' weekend (or whatever) let's meet up! We got a few years to do this thing. I will bring my Tri Delta friend. OK? I promise NOT to sing anything from The Sound of Music (if you knew my IRL name you would totally understand!)

So glad you love my alma mater as much as I do. I got the most incredible liberal arts education. I truly learned how to think critically when I was in undergraduate school, thanks to UCSB.

carnation, I think TriDDDeltgirl can give you a run for your $ in the offspring department.

I went to UCSB for 1 year! The most important year of my entire life! We have to meet up! I love to meet new people! I plan on visiting Tucson a lot more and exploring Arizona!

I love grandma! She rocks!!! I hope your DD realizes what a wonderful treasure she is.

Grandma needs to write a recruitment manual. For reals.

I'm horrified by Scorpion's dirty rushing. How little do they care about the rush process, the other PNMs, and their own sorority if they're promising bids and badges? This grosses me out.

It sounds like your daughter has a great outlook on the process and a level head on her shoulders. The excellent advice from you and Grandma is just icing on the cake! I'm appalled at Scorpion's behavior, but I am glad that your daughter recognized that it was inappropriate. I am looking forward to hearing how this process played out for her!

I really wonder who Turquoise is now because I know none of the Kardashians went to college ha ha.

As for Scorpions, the girls who really want them don’t care and the ones who don’t will cut them.

Actually, Kourtney did graduate from University of Arizona! There's a rumor that she was a member of the Alpha Phi chapter there, but IIRC Kourtney herself debunked that one.

Somebody please shoot me for knowing that. *lol*

Set 3

The houses:

Turquoise
Wildflowers
Sunset
Desert Breeze
Wild Wild West
Scorpion

Turquoise:
DD3 decided that not only did she not enjoy her time turquoise, she also thought that they were continuing to be unfair. She said that her time in the house could’ve been great but a sister mentioned how they were the “hot” house several times (“How is that supposed to help me, Mom? I’m going to age at some point and if being hot will suddenly get me into medical school, I’ll be shocked.”)
I tried to clarify whether they meant physically attractive or hot like the temperature (as it was 98 degrees and she was in a house packed full of girls) and I couldn’t figure out which one was meant.

Sunset:
DD3 loved sunset. She loved the girls, the house, and the sorority as an international organization. She said that sunset was definitely in her top 2 for pref and that she felt a real love for them already.

Wildflowers:
She was in love with Wildflowers. Smitten. Head over heels. She had been given a taste of wildflowers and now she was obsessed. She was formerly a bit of a critic but now I was only hearing rave reviews about wildflowers. She wanted to be a wildflower but she also wanted to be a sunset. She did say that the Wildflowers made her feel like she was at home.

Desert Breeze:
She liked them and she liked the girls but she didn’t have the feelings like she did at Wildflowers or Sunset and she made sure to fully participate in conversations and activities but she didn’t feel like her heart was in it and she didn’t see herself ever becoming more than friends with the sisters of Desert Breeze.

Wild Wild West:
The same feelings that she had for Desert Breeze arose and so she participated in rush and had a great time but she didn’t think she would be a good fit for their sisterhood. She did decide to take down names

Scorpion:
DD3 simply said “I’m sure that they’re great people and it’s very unfortunate that I’ve had an experience that has poisoned my view of them but I’m not a fit for their house and I don’t feel comfortable with them. No matter what they say or do, this is my final view point on things and I’ll be sticking to my guns on this one.”

Now, there was a one day break during rush week and Scorpion invited DD3 to dinner and invited her to their home for a “private gathering” with only DD3 and some sisters. This wasn’t some secretive event, DD3 was messaged by numerous sisters. At this point, I wanted to have all the righteous anger of a mother but I also realized that I had to respect DD3’s decisions. She had attempted to report Scorpion to her PX but she’d been shot down and since she was the only girl that anyone knew of being targeted like this, she didn’t want to involve the panhellenic board and ruin her chances of getting a bid. I decided to let DD3’s integrity take charge and see what she would decide to do at the end of recruitment.

DD3 was also told that if she ordered her Scorpion new member pin from Herff-Jones NOW, it would arrive in 3 business days. I was mad before but this almost made me spit fire. I can take DD3 handling her own problems but I can’t take blatant lies about the quality of Herff-Jones service. Moses wandered in the desert for 40 years and STILL reached his destination before my pin that I ordered in December will reach me. If the ladies of Scorpion truly think that Herff-Jones will magically improve their customer service in a matter of days, they’ve got another storm coming.

Before she got her pref schedule back, she told me that if she had Turquoise and Scorpion, she planned on taking a bid from one of the chapters participating in COB or waiting until sophomore year to rush again. She was really distraught and she told me that the Scorpions were making her extremely uncomfortable and that she refused to go to anymore parties if they were on her list.

This is unbelievable. I've heard of various dirty rushing techniques, but the things I've heard sound downright amateur in comparison. I'm so sorry your daughter had to go through this, but she sounds very wise with how she handled things and her decision to COB or re-rush if needed. Lots of integrity in that.

I hope someone reported this chapter to Panhellenic. No PNM should have to experience that.

Please finish your story.

And PLEASE do not reveal the chapter names. You're going to be besieged with people here asking you. Trust me on that. And also trust me, this is being handled internally without any negative effects to ANY PNMs including your daughter!

OK? thanks!

My DDD buddy was so excited when I told her about you :-) I'll finish clearing out my PM box and then can pass along her contact info to you.

GO GAUCHOS!!!!!! indeed. That's the story I'm most interested in :-) Wait til you hear my UCSB story - it changed my life also. Of course it involves a man. Sigh.

I only plan on revealing the final house! DD3 is very happy where she is! And it isn’t scorpion!

It’s always a man, I left ucsb for USC and I left because of a man and I met my man. We’ve got another son about to rush and so we’re getting ready this weekend!

I laughed so hard at this that I startled the dog. You have a gift for language, TriDDDeltgirl! Truer words have NEVER been written about the train wreck that is Herff-Jones.

PS: Sounds like DD3 has the gift of seeing through the dazzle of recruitment. Good for her. Cannot wait to hear the end of her story.

A friend's daughter is a Kappa at Arizona. I really hope her chapter wasn't Scorpion. She's a very sweet girl who used to babysit our daughter.

I am continually surprised at Scorpion showing up. I would have thought this chapter would have been ranked LAST after the first round of parties? Scorpion is only being rewarded for their behavior. I guess the pull of a "top rated" chapter is stronger than a PNMs actual experience with that chapter.

Scorpion is not “top rated” and was ranked last everyday. DD3 had enough cuts for scorpion to always be on her schedule.

Thank you, AOIIAlum!
Maybe your compliment will hasten the delivery of my badge!
I’m assuming that for every delta in my sorority, Herff-Jones is taking an extra 4 months!

The badge comments are some of the truest statements ever said!!! I LOVE THIS!! Best of luck to your daughter :)

The daughter of Kyle Richards from Real Housewives of Beverly Hills is an Alpha Phi at Arizona, well at least she pledged there and was initiated. Kyle talked about it on RHOBH. I don't know if she's still in the chapter or not.

I just spit my coffee out, and my cat sleeping next to me did not appreciate the wake up call lol! My chapter continually had issues with getting badges an entire semester after a class was initiated. When I ordered my upgrade, it took 5 months to get. I definitely feel your pain.

Also, what kind of recruitment counselor/Rho Chi/Pi Chi/Rho Gamma doesn't encourage a PNM to report egregious dirty rushing? Either they are in that chapter, or they have a very skewed sense of how to be panhellenic during the recruitment process. I can't imagine how many PNMs were treated like this only to place all their eggs in Scorpion's basket and be disappointed on bid day.

^^^My sister is nicer than me. I was just going to say this Rho Chi is a flaming asshat.

ETA: on another scorpion note, who on earth buys a pledge pin, other than the chapter? Did they want her to just give them a check? Sketchy mono x infinity.

This thread is the best. The badge comments are literally making me laugh out loud!

Apparently very few! DD3 asked around and didn’t reveal anything about her situation but no one really liked scorpion that she knew of, of course, that doesn’t reflect on the entire chapter, just the juniors and the seniors. The sophomores didn’t have a clue.

I kinda wanna be a Scorpion

Pref:
Wildflowers
Sunset

The entire family breathed a collective sigh of relief when we heard her two houses.

Wildflowers:
She cried throughout the entire pref ceremony at wildflowers. She said that she felt transformed. She spoke with a sister who was less fire and brimstone than the more intense sisters she’d spoken with, she decided that she felt extremely comfortable, safe, and extra loved while in the presence of the Wildflowers.

Sunset:
DD3 also loved sunset. She loved their ceremony, cried, and had all of the same good conversations, and she had all of the same good feelings. She felt extremely torn up but she knew that she’d have to choose between the houses in the end.

Bid day:
DD3 woke up, she went to Starbucks in full makeup with her pajamas on and her hair in rollers, she returned to her dorm. Her rho chi called. DD3 had a moment. She freaked out. And then she womaned up and answered the call. “Hey love! You definitely have a bid but I needed to ask if you put scorpion first on your pref rankings! We really want you!” the rho chi said and DD3 smiled “I don’t want to jinx anything so no one knows my rankings but me and the sorority that I’ll become a new member of! Since you referred to scorpion as we, I’d assume that you’d see my name on your bid list if I’d ranked you all first! Thank you for checking up with me! You have a blessed day!” DD3 responded, ending the call right there.

DD3 went to open her bid later on with her friends, she received the white envelope, she ripped it open, the family sat by on FaceTime and watched her get so excited because she was now a new member of...

OK, your daughter is such an old, wise soul. I don't think I would have remotely known how to handle that call...and I'm still stunned at their "operations." What's so odd is this: wouldn't the Rho Chi already know that she didn't pref them? When I was a rush counselor I seem to recall knowing which houses my group of PNMs went to for pref. If she did know, then this sounds like mind games.

One thing I know from reading your posts is that your daughter is a grounded, mature and kind young woman...and can sure think on her feet too! Wonderful assets with which to build a rewarding life. Whichever house got her is darn lucky.

Thanks for such wonderful story-telling, it was a delight to read.

That’s what I said! I thought that it was strange that the rho chi would ask but DD3 says that she was trying to clarify a mistake with DD3, that DD3 was planning on going scorpion in the end. The rho chi was a bit off the entire week and I heard a lot of odd things about her. My mom and I came to the conclusion that it was a weird manipulation thing, “drop your houses and take a snap bid from scorpion” last ditch effort.

Thank you for the compliments on DD3, I’ll pass them along to her!

Sounds like that or something weird. Again, I'm so sorry she was subjected to such a rough time, I'm impressed that she hung in there - some girls might have given up. Now she can enjoy her just rewards of sisterhood!