suzieQ's Fall 2006 Rush @ UW!
 

While formal fall recruitment at the University of Washington is from September 10-16th, "Greek Weekend" was this past weekend! Greek Weekend is where girls stay for a day and a night at a sorority house, and also visit four other houses.

There are 16 sororities at the UW! Sooo many names to keep track of.

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

I have decided to use the names of flowers to be discrete.

Carnation
Daffodil
Daisy
Forget-Me-Not
Holly
Iris
Lavender
Lilac
Lily
Orchid
Peony
Primrose
Rose
Sunflower
Tulip
Violet

This weekend I stayed with the Peonies. Almost everyone this weekend at all of the houses was a freshman. The other years had vacated the houses for the weekend. I really really liked the Peonies. Not only do they have a huge, beautiful house, but they have really great girls. I also like how all 90+ girls stay in the house together (no one lives out or in an annex). Three Peonies hosted me and another Greek Weekender. They seemed sweet and fun and smart, and this was probably my favorite house. After we had lunch and saw part of an off-season football game (Huskies vs. Huskies, purple vs. gold) we went on house tours.

We started out at the Sunflower house, who I believe have had one of the highest GPAs for the last year or something. It turns out I went with elementary school with the Sunflower who gave me the house tour! And, she let me know that one of my best friends from elementary school was there and after the party I saw her walking down the street and said hi! Anyway, that was cool. The Sunflowers also had a beautiful house. It wasn't as elegant and classic-looking as the Peony house, but it had just been remodeled and it looked great. They had huge closets, so that was a plus! ;) This party was much like recruitment would be, after the tour we sat down and talked, and then a few more girls rotated in and talked to me. Very structured, but the girls seemed nice. All in all, I really liked this house.

Then I went to the Primrose house. We had a house tour and then had apetizers and talked. The house was not as nice as the others I saw. The are about to start a remodel so I'm not quite sure I would like to be in this house during college. (I hate construction! My high school is undergoing like a 40 million dollar remodel and it looks horrible right now). Also, only about 40 girls lived in the house. And the juniors and seniors live in an annex. I'm not too crazy about that. I'll keep an open mind though, because I had a great conversation with the girls I ate with. It was super laid back... not organized like interview after interview. It's sad but at the UW some of the members of the chapters look alike. Many chapters have no overweight members, while the Primrose house was more diverse.

Next I went to dinner at the Lavender house! Oooh it was soo pretty and it was one of the houses that didn't have a website so I was glad to finally see them. They were really nice and the girl I was with even let me stay and have seconds instead of going on a house tour! :cool: I was told that they have a beautiful house. I only got to talk to one girl, but from what little I know about the house I like it.

Finally I had dinner at the Daffodil house. I was greeted by a girl whom I didn't like in middle school, which kind of ruinned it. I really didn't feel like I would fit in with the girls here at all. Desert was good and they had a cute fashion show about what to wear and not wear during recruitment week. They also had such a big and beautiful house. I was freezing though... I think they had their windows open after it got cold. Anyway, I'll keep an open mind but this was my least favorite house so far.

After the weekend, I would rank them:

Peonies
Sunflowers/Lavender tie
Primroses
Daffodils

Sorry to remind you, but there won't be another update on rush until Septmember! I just knew I would forget all of this if I waited that long. :D I can't wait for the real recruitment to begin!

You still have a LOT of the houses to see and most of the houses there have annexes due to the size of the houses and the fact that most members have to live in.

I'd be careful what you say too. There are a number of women on here who are pretty familiar with the UW Greek system. I have no idea what house is being remodeled but it would be real easy for me to find out...........

Glad to see a soon to be recruitment story from U Dub! Representin' the Pacific NW :D
(waving from Whatcom County, WA)

But I gotta agree with SmartBlonde here...be careful about what ya say! It is still pretty early to make snap judgements



Best of luck

ooohh, it's UW not WSU. Major rivals LOL.

Listen to Jill 1228 and Smrtblnde though. WE are all from around here and I think I could figure out most of the houses from your descriptions in about 30 minutes. I didn't got to UW either!!!
Anyway, have fun at rush in September and BE DISCREET. It may seem like a big greek system but the girls will all know each other. Don't rank the sororities on how the houses themselves look, rank them on how the girls who are members are. The houses are just a place to sleep, the girls will be your sisters.

Anyway, WAVING HELLO FROM PIERCE COUNTY.

I'm over at Idaho and I already know some of the chapters you're speaking of without names. We're people who are open with our locations and affiliations, but this isn't a private board and anyone can read it. Keep that in mind and also realize that when it comes to recruitment, even though you've been to the houses and chapters, people leave, graduate, move out and join between now and then. The chapters may not be the same when you come back, so when you go into recruitment this fall keep that in mind.

As an aside our former greek advisor is now at UW she is an alum of WSU, talk about working for the rivalries.

I heard about her from a friend of mine.....my friend's comments were interesting.

good luck in the fall suzieq. it was nice of you to come on board and share your experience with us. while i loved all the information you shared, i agree with the other ladies, please be a little more discreet when you post in the fall. for instance, i could with a little digging, figure out which chapter has the highest gpa on campus, as well as find out which house or houses do not have annexes.and i live in florida!!

i know it can be hard to keep an open mind, when you have had such a great experience this past weekend, but do try to do so. there are a lot of chapters on your campus, and you would be doing yourself a disservice if you made your mind up right now. the peonies might just be the group for you, but you won't know for sure until you meet all the groups.

I attempted to PM you, but your mailbox was full.

Yah, I got the message that it was full. All clean now!

i'm rushing in august, and my sister said not to say a word until afterwards. i really hope it goes well (my rush).

You can still talk about recruitment, but what everyone is saying is to be as discreet as possible. The fun part for us is the mystery! Hehehe...

I know it's early to be ranking chapters, but I just want to be able to remember my initial impressions.

I would be surprised that my not liking the idea of being in a house that was going to have construction done would affect me negatively during recruitment. I'm just being honest. And honestly, I bet a lot of other people think the same thing. I'm disappointed to hear that chapters might cut you for saying something negative about the house even if they themselves share the opinion. Even my dad, after attending the partent Q&A told me I might want to consider that as a factor. I don't think it would be a major part of my desicion, I'm just telling you guys what was going through my mind.

Perhaps I shouldn't be talking so much about the houses, because I might give off the impression that I care about them as much as the women who live in them. But it's just hard not to say anything when you visit five mansions! And if you think that's an overstatement, it's not. I think all of the houses are beautiful, and it would definately be neat to live in any one of them.

Anyway, I'll try to be more discreet, but honestly, if a chapter wouldn't want me based on my honest opinions, I'm not sure how I feel about that. I don't think I said anything mean-spirited towards any of the houses.

ETA: Thank you for all the "hello"s people from the NW! And thank you everyone for the advice!

you are right!! you did not say anything out of line about any of the sororities, and what you did say was what you felt.

however, we have seen a time of two, a young womans recruitment come crashing down around her ears, because she shared too much information .for instance,"on the first day of recruitment i wore a lilly sundress with the blue crowns on it because i know that i want to pledge zeta tau alpha.all the fraternity guys say they are the best on campus. the girl i had at the abc house was nice, but they are known as the dogs on campus, so i am dropping them! the def's are the brains on campus, but they seem too caught up in their grades. i want to make good grades, but i also want to party."from this little diatribe, we know what the girl wore and the impressions she had of some of the houses. since she has told us her mind is settled on zta, we can assume some of the houses will not waste an invitation on her. they want girls coming back who want to be there. the abc's will drop her because she told us they are dogs, as will the def's because of the opinion she shared with us. all because of too much info!! she has set her sites on one sorority, and if for whatever reason she does not receive a bid from them, she has missed out on the fun and sisterhood (on many campuses for a whole year).

we gcers try our best to help the uninitiated (no pun intended) get thru their recruitment unscathed, and each end up in the house of their dreams. we share our knowledge, as collegians, alumnae , advisors and national officers with those who might be experiencing greek life for the first time.

best wishes to you.

SuzyQ, your honest opinions are your honest opinions, but it already appears like you have written off the chapter whose house is under renovation. That could mean they would write you off because you have indicated you're not interested... I would guarantee there are women from your school on this board who know who you are and can report back to their sororities what you have posted. It may not be fair, and while we all want honest members, we also want members who know when to be discreet.

In recruitment, it is so important to maximize every option available, because you may not get invitations to your favorites every day, and with each day of recruitment, a chapter that may have not been high on your list of interests may swoop in and capture your heart (making things like home repairs totally irrelevant).

Good luck with recruitment! This post is in no way meant to be unkind, but you may want to consider recording such intimate observations and preferences offline in a journal rather than posting them online for the world to see. As others have mentioned, it is not hard to figure out who a PNM is... and your comments on GC or other sites can affect your recruitment negatively. We don't want to see you come into your first day of recruitment with houses already having a bias against you!

I hope you'll consider deleting your thread or editing it so any bias is removed. We want you to have a productive and successful recruitment, and all the posters in this thread are only trying to help you achieve your goal! Good luck.

Are these "annexes" she speaks of attached to the main houses or are they in a different location altogether? Is living in the annex good (i.e. more low key than the main house) or is it someplace that people get "stuck" when they are low woman on the totem pole?

Ours is attached via a skybridge (over the alley behind the house) and is where the seniors live. It's basically just more bedrooms.

But then, we house 108 women. You can't exactly add on to the houses at the U just due to the location so the only hope of being able to house everyone (and everyone has to live in) is to buy another house. I know a fraternity bought the sorority house next door to them one year when the sorority shut down (this was a long time ago).

But I've also been told that recruitment numbers were much lower than normal last year so many of the houses (the buildings) aren't full. Total is under 100 currently which is low.

You didn't say anything wrong YET.

BUT, you gave us enough information to figure out who each of those houses are. So anything you say in the Fall, we will know what houses you are talking about.

adpiucf is right, suzieQ. Give all the houses a chance. You might change your mind about them. There's a difference between April and September.

Also, posting not-so-good comments will have you possibly cut severely from recruitment. So like what the others have said, BE DISCREET. You haven't said anything bad at all. But watch out.

I was not in a NPC but i can tell you what my opinion would be.

i do get the feeling that you are excited about joinin a sorority, but your honest comment could be taken as bad.

Such as:

about the house remodeling, well what if going through recruitment your first choice house (abc) hears/reads what you wrote about this other house (def). Well abc could be thinking hey we are going to remodel our house in two years, so if she does not like dealing with remodeling issues then will she quite when we remodel. This possible could get you droped from an invite list.

Now this might not be true, but someone could possible be thinking this and if they have to cut someone this is just a good a reason as anything.


Okay and lets take the example that someone else mentioned. Let us say that you said, I don't like XYZ because they seem to concerned about grades. Well, what if a sorority is trying to improve their grades or they could take this statement as oh, i don't really care about grades.

Where none of these statments might actually be things you would say, but i can tell you that someone could think them and one persons bad opinion of you, mistake or not, could mean the difference between getting an invite back to another party of getting a bid. I think everyone in life has meet at least one person who toke what they said incorrectly and i think that what the people on this board is trying to warn you against is positing to much info that could lead you to be identified and then bad things could happen.

Plus, good luck and hi from southwest washington.

While none of this advice is bad, I got the impression that suzieQ isn't making any strong judgements now and was only relating what she'd seen and felt at the time. While it's not outside the realm of possibility that someone would hold something on here against her, I don't feel like she said anything actually bad.

I suspect in the fall when she is presented with X number of houses that have annexes and QRS who's under contruction, etc. she'll find that the sisters and not the houses are more important.

And suzieQ i wish you all the luck!

(And I'm going to say goooo Violet, since I'm biased... though I'm sure that Violet is going to be one of the non-violet using sororities.... oh well.) :p

I can't understand why you all are so quick to jump on a PNM when she identifies sororities.

So what? IMO, the best rush thread we ever had identified all houses by name. (I'm about to bump that thread up, anyway..)

If there's someone reading from the house under construction, then great! they'll know that it's affecting PNMs' opinions of their house. What's wrong with some criticism from the PNM's point of view!? I mean, sorority members don't look all pretty for themselves - they want to impress the PNMs.

SuzieQ, thank you for sharing your true feelings. I hope you continue to post whatever you feel comfortable with. Just don't reveal ANY personal info about YOU! ;)

(BTW, I did not attend UW, & am currently not involved w/ the KD chapter there... :)

I'd never read that thread. Pretty awesome.




I'm kind of torn. To me it seems fine if you want to say "Oh I visited ADPi, Chi-O, Kappa & Theta, etc... today"

Listing who you visited and who dropped you (with no details) isn't really that big of a deal. At least to me. The details, whether positive or negative is what is a big deal.


But on the other hand, it wouldn't take me long to do what some of the other girls have mentioned (finding out which chapter had the highest GPA, which chapter has 90 girls living in the house, which house is under construction). Details like that, that are so incredibly specific, are never good in a rush thread. IMPO

KDOnline, I attribute it to a combination of poor judgement of what to post and the increasing number of GC members and readers who report back to their chapters.

Remember, curlygirly pledged 4 years ago. There's been an explosion of blogs, personal web sites and a lot more folks lurking around to find out about the PNMs at their campuses.

Even the most innocent comment "I'm liking XYZ a lot" could be damaging if the sorority were mentioned by name or too many party specifics are given.

I think it's just a different time. Curly used great discretion and judgement, but even some of her comments today could have been taken the wrong way and affect her recruitment in a way we wouldn't have considered in 2002.

If it helps the PNM keep her anonymnity, I'm for it. I like reading the threads and new posts, but I also want the PNM to get the bid she wants without our interference.

It's one thing for you or me to say that at our age, not actually going through it. It's another thing to read it when you are working on rush as a collegian and your head is ready to explode.

But I would say there's nothing wrong with identifying the sororities, as long as you reveal NOTHING about yourself. Don't post in the other threads, don't put a location or profile, don't use a name that is even remotely connected to yours.

I think it's sort of a choice:

Do you want to tell us all about your rush experience, including every detail (The M&M's were awesome today, but I don't think I like the Skittles much)? Fine, but then don't tell us the university, city, state, etc. that you're at, and don't give us any personal details - major, age, year, hometown, hair/eye color, what you wore, etc.

OR

Do you want to tell us that you are rushing at Eastern Illinois University and first round you visited Tri-Sigma and ASA, and tomorrow you are going to DZ (for example). Then try not to make ANY comments about which groups you liked and didn't like. And, to be on the safe side, I would say still don't give out any personal info.

adpiucf & 33girl: I agree w/ your comments. Curly was a very bright PNM, and already a seasoned journalist by the time she rushed. I know she carefully thought about each of her posts before she pressed that "POST" button. If only other PNMs would do the same. :)

But, in bringing this thread back to the OP (SuzieQ, you still out there?), I think that SuzieQ can do the same thing, if she's still interested. She's given us her location, and as long as she doesn't mention anything else about herself (including what she's wearing or even telling us about her Rho Chi/whatever-they're-called), she can still have a GC-interference-free recruitment.

...provided that no GCers try to stalk her, of course, by trying to find out her identity.

Why, GCers would NEVER do that! :eek: ;)

None here in WA at least. We have enough going on in our own lives.

I'm still here :)

There's just not much more to say until September! Sooo far away

Good luck SuzyQ! I used to live in Renton (Fairhood represent!), so I have a lot of friends who ended up at the U and many of them are going to be recruitment counselors this year, so I'm sure it'll be a great time.

One of my best friends who isn't in a sorority there ended up living in a former sorority house (Eta Beta), so you'll hopefully be in the same Greek Row neighborhood! It's a beautiful area! I hope you have a wonderful time going through rush this fall. :)

As a SK at WSU, I have to cross my fingers for my sisters at Mu chapter!

I'm interested to see what UW rush is like - you guys are a frills campus, right?

Only sort of.......

I have been told they cut out door chants last year. But I've also been told that it was a battle to do that.....

They are probably frills compared to you but not compared to other campuses.

NO DOOR CHANTS?!

What's next, no...nothing? Man, I didn't know how frills-less you could get!

no door chants/cheers?
 

Wow! Even at my school, which is no-frills, we can do cheers (door chants). We were pouring out of every window, much to the neighbors' displeasure I'm sure...

I think we did away with door chants every day except the first and last day. I don't remember though.

I was more referring to skits, which we don't have. I can't decide if skits would be really fun or super stressful lol.

:( Sad... I was looking forward to door chants! Why did they cut them out?

Thank you for the support everyone!

This is incorrect. The UW is currently straying towards a "no frills" recruitment. It started last year with a reduction of door chants. Instead of a door chant every day it was reduced to only the first two days (round one). This year will be the same so don't worry, just enjoy it because you won't see them after the first round.

This year panhellenic was a lot more drastic with the progression towards no frills. There will no longer be first day entertainment, or skits durring the 3rd round. This is because they want recruitment to focus on the conversations and do not want distraction with things like songs or skits.

One of the biggest things changed is bulk ordering with clothing. This is the first year where we will not be able to order in bulk so everyone is given guidelines and must go buy their own clothing. The only exception to this is the first round where Panhellenic will order a standard Go Greek type of t-shirt with varying colors for each chapter. I believe the PNM's will also be given a choice of 2 or 3 different UW Husky shirts that they are to wear durring the first round.

I suppose this is no frills but it is also a HUGE change for the UW recruitment. Anyway, everyone has their own opinions on the changes. Yes there will be more time to focus on conversations, but skits and songs were a good way to take a little time to relax from the stressful situation that we all know recruitment is.

i agree achio86-skits and songs do relieve some of the tension, for both the sorority member and the pnm-you know that for 5 or 10 minutes, you can relax a little, enjoy some entertainment and not have to carry on a conversation. it is also fun!!

too bad npc seems to be steering us all toward "no frills"-some of the things everyone has fond memories of, seem to be on the way out.

good luck to all the uw chapters and the pnms.

As far as frills go, I can understand eliminating elaborate skits, expensive costumes, skads of matching clothes, tons of decorations- but door chants???????? Um, they're free, require NO props, clothing, or even much rehearsal. And they're FUN!!! Oh well. I wasn't in on the decision-making, all I can do is wish!!

Suzie-Q, have a lot of fun during Recruitment, and don't forget to keep us updated as much as you can. We're all addicts here, you know!! Don't leave us hanging!

In my house, we have an annex which is located directly next door with a courtyard so you can even walk through without shoes. The seniors can come and go from the main house because they still eat with us and hang out, but have the freedom to go to their own living room and make their own food in their kitchen if they please. They have nicer and larger rooms/facilities so it's really a nice place to live. They used to put all of the senior's composite shots on the walls of the annex, so it was like a badge of honor to be living there. I wouldn't let an annex discourage you, they can be really get for an upperclassmen woman making the transition into more freedom and responsibility. Also we have movie nights in their living room and can bake in their kitchen, so it's good for underclassmen too.