thinking about rushing
 

Hi! I'm new to the boards and I have sort of a question:

I am thinking about rushing a sorority soon, and I have a pretty good idea of 2 or 3 that I am interested it. I know the reputation they have at my school, but I was wondering if anyone knows what their image or stereotype is at other schools or in general.
The two I am considering are ZTA, DZ, and AGD. If anyone could help that would be great!

Thanks!

Loreli-

That is a legitimate question, however, you should NOT choose a sorority based on stereotypes or what other people say/think about them. Use your own judgement in choosing the place that is right for you as opposed to becoming partial to any one of them because a friend or aqquaintance likes them.

Are you thinking of rushing in the Spring or Fall? What type of recruitment does your school hold during the season you intend to go through? Rules vary depending on whether the rush is Formal or Informal. Formal recruitment rules are very strict, and if you go through this type of recruitment, you will most likely have to visit all of the houses at least once.

Keep an open mind & don't listen to rumors. Even different chapters of the same National sorority vary in the personalities and interests of their members depending on the school. For example: just because a sorority's chapter in one state is known for being athletic doesn't mean all the others are great at athletics also.

Visit the National and/or local websites of the sororities on your campus & read about each sorority's philanthropy (a special cause they donate time & money to such as cancer, aids, abused children, etc.), each sorority's mission statement/ideals, and things such as what sisterhood means to them. These are the most important factors in choosing a sorority.

A good starting point is http://www.npcwomen.org
This is the website of the National Panhellenic Conference, of which all three of the sororities you mentioned are members.
Also, talk to someone in your school's Greek Life office to get the details on when recruitment is, etc.

Congratulations on deciding to rush. Going greek is the best decision that I ever made, and it has made my college experience thus far unforgettable. Sorority recruitment is a long and exciting process. However, don't base your decision on reputations. Some people get represented falsely, and you may have mixed opinions around your campus. Take this time during recruitment to get to know the sororities for their sisterhood, members, philanthropy, and what they stand for. That's what will help make your decision. Reputation only says so much, and is often misleading. Some of the most amazing people I know have been in the orgainzations that often get overlooked.

As far as national reputation goes, each chapter is different. They represent and stand for the values of the national orgainzation...from the colors and motto, to the creed and masot. Don't worry about a chapter's national reputation..."well they're the pretty girls everywhere" "that organization is the preppy girls" "this one is the sporty girls". Each organization has amazing things to offer and is very, very strong, reputable, and dignified with the National Panhellenic Council.

Make your decision on where you feel most at home, most comfortable, and most like yourself. These girls will be your sisters, confidants, and best friends for the next four years. Good luck on your decisoin and keep us posted on your recruitment process. My rho chi gave me the best advice when I was going through "the best way to figure out who you are is to go where you don't have to be anyone else"

Greek Love,
~Adrienne

ZetaLuvBunny~you read my mind, we must have posted at the same time! I didn't mean to repeat what was said:D

ZetaLuvBunny gives good advice.

Are those the only 3 sororities at your school, or are there others? If there are other sororities recruiting, keep your options open - you may fall in love with a different group during rush.

Good luck :)

Thanks!

It is formal rush. I have checked out all the info you suggested (thats how I narrowed my preferences down to three, for what I know now).

I was just curious. I've heard different things about each of them from people at different schools, and you're right there do seem to be differences in the reputations that the different chapters have. I was just wondering if anyone could give me some insight into what their experiences are with them.

recruitment
 

>>>I was just wondering if anyone could give me some insight into what their experiences are with them>>>

Loreli,
I don't think that anyone on these boards would do this, even if they could, and it would be difficult. As several posters have said, groups vary from campus to campus to much that it is impossible to say "all Alpha Alpha Alpha's are beautiful" or "all Beta Beta Beta's have 4.0 GPA's".
Keep an open mind when you go through recruitment. It is fine to have your favorites, but that could change. Please keep us posted and GOOD LUCK!

Hehe. That's funny! :D It's alright you added your own wording even if it was similar. :)

Thanks Aephialum!

Loreli-
When getting to know members of each sorority during rush, think back to best friends you have/have had. Think about how your friends were there for you at your moments of weakness and made you laugh through your tears, and think about laughing so hard with a friend that you start to cry These are the moments you will share with your sisters for years to come, maybe even a lifetime, if you choose a sorority for the right reasons. Okay, now I'm getting cheesy & starting to tear up thinking about it hehe. ;)

Ooh I just noticed you're in Pittsburgh! I grew up near there (Morgantown, WV). All of my family went to WVU, but we moved down here my soph. year in high school, and I wanted to stay somewhat close to home.

I will be blunt...
 

Loreli,

Reputation doesn't mean squat. If you join a group based only on what others think of or say about them, you will have a very miserable Greek experience.

Also, narrowing your choices before you even begin rush is very premature, since rush is a mutual selection process and those chapters may all cut you after the first round.

It's OK to have groups you may be partial to - it's hard not to if you have been on campus a semester - but saying it out loud or on a message board can be extremely damaging to your rush chances. It is a very small world - I already have an idea, just by your location and the groups you have named, of what school you are at.

I know I sound harsh, but things like that have happened before - just trying to prevent you from heartbreak.

I love AGD's!!! They are great!

I know I shouldn't make a premature judgement and I hope I'm not. Thanks for all the advice!

33girl you're from Pittsburgh?
Thats where I am from too!
Actually, I'm at Penn State right now, but I miss home :(

lorle2,

From a guy stand point:

Check out National web sites to get an idea about them. Remember, we all put our best foot forward in print. Right?

If you are at Penn St. there are many great Soroitys there.

Now the main thing is, you are looking a Great Nationals, but the main thing is the Ladies at the U.

Yep each Chapter is different, and the ones you will be living with are the ones you will remember and be closest to.

When you become an Alum, the Name recognition will be imprtant, but you will always remember your Sisters from the Chapter that you were Initiated in.

You could not have come top a better site for help!

I am Almost the elder statesman, so have from me to someone like yourself who is just learning and will one day be talking to someone new who is looking also!!!!!!!!! :cool:

The very best of luck to you!:)

I just want to reiterate what Tom said about this being a great site....I too am a non-greek... I'm just thinking about it as a possibility....and GreekChat has really influenced my decision in breaking all the stereotypes and explaining alot about how the Greek System/Life works.

I wish you much luck!

May your experience with GC be as fruitful as mine was *will* be!

p.s.- don't forget to post your rush story in the rush section...most will agree that those are SO MUCH FUN to read!

-Sarah

My thoughts to you are be yourself and dont come in having any ideas of any of the chapters. Go in with a completely open mind. I know on my campus each chapter is so different and has something for everyone. As for any of the three chapters you listed, they arent on my campus so I cannot say anything about them. As for my own sorority I can say that on my campus we are the girls who generally never thought of joining a sorority for the lives of them...while in other areas it is very competitive to get into ADPi chapters. The big thing is to meet girls who you will want to be in your life forever...For me most recently is I find I want all my sisters to be bridesmaids in my wedding...But I think my family will think 50 is too many....

If you're at Penn State, then you REALLY need to be more open minded.

Penn State has a HUGE greek system, and a lot of sororities have VERY strong chapters there (my own included, KD).

The places that may have the best reputations and being cool or popular might be the very places that make you the MOST miserable. There are so many to choose from at Penn State (i think they have at least 20 different NPC sororities). I think their rush is fairly competitive as well, so if you narrow yourself so much from the beginning,you're going to shoot yourself in the foot and significantly lower your chances of getting a bid ANYWHERE!

Basically my advice, and I think a lot of people would agree, is to take everything you've heard from other people about this or that sorority and- THROW IT OUT THE WINDOW. The only information you should keep is what you've learned off the sororities websites, or from totally neutral places (like here! GC's pretty good with this stuff).

Go in and listen to every house like it's the first time you've ever heard anything about them. If it's formal rush- this is great b/c you HAVE to go to every house the first round.

Start forming your opinions and preferences then, not now.

BTW- YEAH PITTSBURGH! I'm a Pitt alumna, and now a Pitt Law student. Pittsburgh's cold as hell right now, but i'm sure PSU is too. And as a good Pitt fan, i just gotta say- Penn State Sucks :) In the nicest possible way. But their greek system rocks!

oops posted twice... sorry :(

Tom has made a great point (as usual hehe). However, most of us who go to other schools likely know very little about the individual chapters there. Even if people from Penn State are on here & know about the chapters, they probably won't and shouldn't tell you what the sororities there are "known for", because you never know how wrong labels can be. Chapters can also change dramatically within even a year.

Take my school for example: Some of the previously smaller chapters have doubled in size since last Fall, and the previously more desirable chapters have become less desirable. Factors in the sizes or reputations of may include graduation, marriage, money troubles, grades, sickness, personal conflicts, participation rates, and so on. Anyhow, just go with your instincts. Use your own judgement & impressions when you meet the girls. If you act fake at all (*not* assuming that you will), they will catch on to you. If they don't notice you are being fake, you could end up in a sorority where you can never be yourself.

Ask lots of questions of the girls about philanthropy, sisterhood activities, retreats, mascots/symbols, leadership positions (if you're interested in running for offices later on), intermurals, etc. DON't talk about fraternity guys *unless* you are reffering to mixers, formal, etc. Especially don't talk about partying, drinking, or other sororities.

I don't think there is an Alpha Gamma Delta chapter at Penn State....

I know the best advice is to disregard the reputations of each chapter and that's what you all are saying, but let me ask you something: Would you honestly want to join a group that had a bad reputation? I'm not saying I wouldn't join a certain house just because it wasn't the most popular, but I'm going to be honest here, I would not join a house with a reputation I didn't like.

That said, being open-minded is good. Sometimes the most popular sororities are not the right ones for you (that was the case with myself), and you really do need to go with the one YOU like best.

If you ask different people on one campus about sorority X, you will get totally different answers. One fraternity will say they are snobs; another will say they are so much fun. One sorority will say they always dirty rush; another will say they have a really strong sisterhood. One independent will say they are stereotypical sorority women, and another will say they are actually really great women. That's why asking what a chapter is like is risky - everyone has a different idea.

That website is old. AGD (Alpha Gam) no longer has a chapter at Penn State, but is hoping to get it going again soon.

Hrm.... Thanks!

I was just getting ready to post that, upon further investigation, the page hadn't been updated since 1999. I wonder why PSU keeps the page on its list of Greek orgs? Maybe because they are trying to come back... makes you wonder about loreli and how she can be interested in AGD when they aren't there anymore.

Its like anything that has a website, especially schools. You're going to forget about lil pages that really dont matter to the school or org overall. After all until I did a page one year, my chapters site hadnt been updated since '96 and the girl who did it deactivated.

Lorelei, I want to add my voice to those asking you to keep open minded and give each sorority on your campus a fair chance.

I was so sure that I would go a certain sorority that its symbol is still on my bedroom wall at my parents' house! I checked out the books, the statistics, the composites, and just knew exactly which ones I'd rush and which ones I wouldn't.

Then I rushed. I knew from the start where I felt "at home" - and it wasn't the sorority I had planned! I kept trying to give everyone a fair shake, but when push came to shove, I still knew what was right for me. Interestingly, I didn't like the composites (too cutesy!), the write-up in the Panhellenic handbook (how bland!), the pin (too plain!), the symbols (how boring!) - absolutely nothing about the sorority I chose - other than knowing that it was the right choice.

Now that I know the background, I love my pin, the symbols, the colors, and my sorority.

You stand the chance of dissing the very sorority that is right for you, should you take your present stance. I urge you to give this matter some more thought.

AND, may you love the sorority you chose, and may you chose the sorority that you love!

honeychile

I didn't know that the AGD's weren't active at PSU. I'll be honest the only research I've done into them was online, and talking with people I know who went to PSU, thats how I came to have a few in mind. And I never said that I was ruling all others out. Geez... sorry. I DID plan on making a more informed decision after going through the whole process, I was just curious. I guess I came to the wrong place to ask that particular question.

Thank you to everyone who responded. If i decide to rush I intend on keeping an open mind, but thanks for the advice... especially to those who didn't make me feel like a shallow person :)
I was honestly just curious.

loreli2 - I'm new here as well, and I can allready tell you that you came to the right place for the advice that you needed. I wish you the best of luck with your recruitment process and if you have any questions, especially about ZTA, I'm more than happy to help you out! :) Good luck with everything and keep us posted on how it goes!

loreli -

I'm sorry if you feel like people jumped on you - it's just that a lot of Greeks have heard the same type questions so many times IRL and on here. Plus some of us have had people not join our groups just because of a "rep" and some who DO join because of it. Either way, it can be very hurtful. So it is a touchy subject on GC.

And as FuzzieAlum said, ask 10 people and you will get 10 opinions. Part of Greek unity is wanting every rushee to find what is best for them, not coloring their opinion or trying to "sell" them on a particular sorority.

Just go through rush and have a great time, and keep us updated, because we are rush story addicts!! :D

Loreli- please don't feel bad! :( We only want you to have the best experience possible with Greek Life. It's perfectly normal to decide you "have to be an ABC" to start with, and maybe you will be in one of the ones you like best, or perhaps when you meet them you'll go, "What was I thinking??"

Please don't stop asking questions here, because there are sooo many wonderful people on this forum who can offer different viewpoints on any Greek issue you can think of. If I hadn't found GC before I went through rush in 2001, who knows what would have happened? I might have become frustrated & dropped out, or I might have joined a different sorority for the wrong reasons.

Go with your heart! No matter where you end up, as long as you're happy there, we'll all be happy for you! :D

loreli, I hope we didn't scare you away :)

The way you worded your initial post may have given the wrong impression... it did sound a bit like you wanted one of those 3 sororities or nothing.

I have seen women, both here on GC and IRL, who go into rush with their hearts set on one or two groups and end up pledging a totally different group because that's where they felt most "at home". I have also seen women go into rush with their hearts set on one group, with no intention of giving the other sororities a fair chance, who end up disappointed when their favorite cuts them.

It's perfectly fine to go into rush with some favorites - as long as you keep an open mind about all your options. Meet the sisters and make up your own mind.

(Can you tell I was a rho chi? ;) )

Good luck, and please keep us posted (like 33girl said, we love rush stories :) )

stay with us Loreli
 

Please DONT feel bad about posting your questions. Everyone who replied to you meant well and no one wanted to make you feel bad. Because we want the best for ALL potential new members we want you to have the benefit of our experience. Keep us posted as recruitment goes on. We are all wishing you the best!

Now I'm embarrassed! :blush:

I didn't think of you as shallow, honestly. I just thought that you (like I was when I was a freshman) were uninformed. Relax, and enjoy the fun of rush. Make friends in as many sororities as possible, and enjoy those friendships throughout your campus years.

And remember, there is no such thing as a stupid question!

Good luck -
honeychile

lorelei-
I just caught up with this post, and these are my thoughts (if you still want them, because I think some people may have blasted you a bit too hard without knowing more of your situation)- Penn State is huge, everyone has their own favorites and no-so-much faves...keep your head up high, smile and have fun. you'll know where your home is without caring about national stats.

-Maggie