ufdale's Fall 2006 Rush at UF
 

Here starts my rush journal! Rush at the University of Florida starts on August 18th so I have about two weeks to go!!!! I had really been hoping that my boyfriend would rush, but there’s no way that I could convince him (and it’s totally unfair that he actually is double legacy!).
I have two best friends at U Miami and UCF who are totally rooting for me! Each of them wants me to rush their particular sorority, which I would love to do! I know a lot of people go into rush having favorites, but I really don’t. While I have friends in my school’s sororities, I don’t have a best friend in them that I’m dying to join. Lol I’m looking for a great sorority that knows how to party, but also still has a great reputation. I’m planning on going to grad school, so I would like a big national sorority that will (hopefully) be at whatever grad school I choose!
I’m a junior and I really want to rush mainly to have a close knit group of friends again, like I had in high school. (Don’t get me wrong- I love my UF friends, but it’s just different). Unfortunately UF holds its rush before school starts, which has really hindered me from joining. I wish they did delayed recruitment in maybe September so that everyone is adjusted and knows more about campus culture and all. Lol I’ve talked to northerners on campus who didn't even own a pair of flip flops when they came to UF!

In my rush preparations, I’ve been searching and searching for recs (for several months). I’m not legacy to anything, so it’s been a little hard. Some of the sororities at my school told me that current members at the school I’m rushing can’t write recs, so that too has been a problem. Eek I don’t want to get cut early just because I don’t have a rec! All in all though I'm really excited!

Yay, welcome to GC and all that jazz and I love recruitment stories!

Think up good "code names" for the chapters as that seems to be the going thing and is of course how I'm going to choose who I root for ;)

from a junior pnm to another, GOOD LUCK! We need some luck compared to these freshman! I hope you get the chapter you want!

Good luck and have fun!

Added you to the who is rushing roll call :)

Good luck! It's really good that you are going into with preferences but take it as it comes, not many do that but you truly give yourself a chance to really see which sorority is best for you to join.

I think though when you go to grad school, they are not any graduate chapters but just alumnae chapters based on geographical locations and cities. Although, some please correct me on that if I am wrong but that was the gist I heard.

Just keep in mind though that sororities are more than partying, there is more to it than that. I rushed when I was a junior and it was a good time even though things never worked out, but you honestly have nothing to lose but it's very difficult to pull off (i.e. get a bid). Just have a good time while you are there, get to know the girls in different sororities and just have fun (I really cannot finish my thoughts today lol)

It's better that it's before school b/c if the worst happens, not everyone will be in our business about it the next day after rush ends so there is that advantage. Also, you do not have to worry about school work so really it's a blessing in disguise, but I can understand how that would be difficult.

Keep us updated, I would love to hear how things turn out! :)

do yourself a favor.....please do not go into the houses saying,"so, do you girls like to par-tay?!?!" even if they do, it might put them off. you will come across as too wild.you CAN ask about their socials, in the normal course of conversation. also do not ask which fraternities they hang with-you don't want them to think that you want to join a sorority just to hang with fraternity guys.

most chapters have an interesting mix of girls-the studious ones, the partiers, the girls most interested in philanthrophy work, etc. you will find a group within whatever chapter you pledge that you can relate to.

zta does not have graduate chapters-they do have alumnae chapters and welcome recent college graduates. zta also has scholarships that members can apply for who are attending graduate, medical or law school, as do most of the other npc sororities.

best of luck with recruitment. put your best foot forward and give all the chapters a chance.

Good Luck!!! :cool:

A fellow gator! Good luck, and I'll be rooting for you from the sidelines!

Good Luck tomorrow!!:D

ok, it's 11pm on the first day of recruitment... where is my update??!!
Haha, we alumnae really live for these threads!
I hope everything went great for you today, and ENJOY the whole process.

ALUMNI? I'm a transfer waiting to re-affiliate this fall and I'm going through Greek withdrawl, hahaha.

Actually, the first day of Round One begins Saturday.
Friday was just a mandatory orientation.

Good luck with recuitment! hope you have a wonderful time!

c'mon update!!

oooh your rush has been underway. I hope it's going really well :) Please update if you choose but completely understand if you choose not too. Good luck!

Hi everyone!! Sorry for not updating sooner- my internet is not up where I live! Eek! I'm using another friends internet right now.
I'm having THE BEST TIME! I've met really great rushers and there are also really great girls rushing with me. Most of the sororities I've been to have had girls rush me who rushed when they were sophomores and juniors, so as to have more in common with me. I've only had one bad party. The girl that rushed me was very nervous and not at all into rushing. She didn't even like football (or even the school spirit that comes with it!)! I gave it my all, though and had amazing questions to ask all the girls when the conversation slowed. I felt like (even though I was a junior) I was very unbiased in my opinions of the sororities. I do have a favorite right now (really 11 of them!!) because my conversation at this house was amazing and my rusher even told me it was the first real conversation she’d had all week!!!!
All day one it poured! Our Pi Chis were so soaked from holding the umbrellas for us to run underneath. It was terrible and we kept having rain delays. Day 2 was much much nicer, albeit the heat.
I would love to tell everyone in detail about all about my outfits (lol I took pictures), but I don't want to hurt my chances. I don't think our rush is that formal. Most of the girls wore jean skirts or khaki shorts with Polo or Lacoste shirts and Lily shoes. (So I wore something along those lines ;) )
I had thought that after round one we would have to rank every sorority. Instead we wrote out our top 11 (in no specific order) and then ranked the bottom 5. It made it much easier to decide (but still hard to choose a bottom five!).
Right now I’m leaving to get my first schedule and then go to those sororities!! I hope everything is ok and I’m not cut bad because of my age!
:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)

good luck ufdale!! juniors PNM's unite!! :p

I love UF rush threads..I want to know more!!! ;)

Yeah, ufdale! I've been thinking about you all weekend. It sounds like you're off to a wonderful start! Keep it going! Can't wait to hear more.. and I hope the weather improves for you.

OK so my friend was supposed to hit submit when the internet came back on, but she didn’t so that’s why the last post is late!
I have an amazing update to do! I’m so excited and proud to tell you all this because I couldn’t tell anyone else that I was rushing with! Anyways this morning we got our schedules back to the houses. Out of eleven possible houses to go back to…I got asked back to ELEVEN!!!!!!! I only got dropped from one house, but I’d heard that they only took freshman anyways! So not only did I get a full schedule, I got 10/11 of the houses that I ranked first! I couldn’t believe it!!! I kept telling myself that if I had five I would be happy because I’m a junior and all. Yay so I get to brag anonymously here! OK so as an update to those fabulous GCers that wrote me recommendations- I am back to every house that I got a recommendation to! I’ve been very open to all the sororities and I’m very upset that some girls that I’m rushing with will trash talk some sororities behind their backs. Even if the sorority is not popular I think they deserve respect because those girls really do love their house even if you don’t. That’s just something that has been bothering me.
I’m having the time of my life and I have GC to thank because I knew what questions to ask, what to wear, recs, EVERYTHING!! Something that I felt really helped the conversations move along was to ask questions about their sororities because each really loved and was enthusiastic about it. I’m off to day two/ round two tomorrow! Honestly this is the best experience that I don’t want to have again. I swear if my entire life was like this I would have terrible ulcers from exhaustion/ nervousness/ stress!!!

what great luck!! that is wonderful news ufdale!! have a fabulous day two and i cant wait to see ur update!

:) It sounds like you are having an awesome time! Enjoy tomorrow, and keep the updates coming!!

How exciting for you!! I rushed as a junior too, and got my first choice!!

What an fabulous way to start your day! Good luck the rest of this week!

hooray for ufdale!! best wishes that today is another great day for you.

YAY!!! I am so excited for you!!! I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Way to go, ufdale! Two thumbs up!

Continue having a great time!!!:)

I had a good recruitment today. This round was the craft round. They said in the UF "what to wear" that you shouldn't wear your favorite clothes because you might get something on them. lol The crafts weren't that in depth though and most girls definitely wore favorite dresses. Most wore summer dresses or nice skirts and shirts. All of the sorority girls wore the same, but with their letters embroidered on a shirt.
Ranking hasn't gone so well. Eek it takes well over an hour each time!

I'm very excited for the next round- video round on Thursday . I'm glad that I'll get more time to spend with each sorority and it will be less rushed. I'm worried about my next schedule- we find out on Thursday, so no updates until then! Is there anything any one wants to know? I'd love to talk more about rush, but don't know what to write about.

Well, I think it would it great if you could let us know which houses you went to during second round...?


And leave it at that!

:)

could you list some of the questions you have been asked(you don't have to give your answers)-not the standard ones like"where are you from, where are you living, what is your major, blah, blah, blah", but ones that you thought were more interesting and helped you shine?

I don't really want to list specific house names so as not to hurt anyone's feelings or id myself. ;)
One girl asked me what I was passionate about. One did ask what my parent's did for a living/ siblings. I got asked a lot about community service because round two was philanthropy. I figured that if the conversation kept flowing they wouldn't have to ask too many questions and that's what happened pretty much. Most questions that I got asked were specific to my major and what I wanted to do after college or why didn't I rush before.

wow-i think that the "what are you passionate about?" would have stumped me!! thanks for the insight.

Congrats on having a great week and keep us posted! I can't wait to hear how it turns out and I'm glad that you don't like trash talk in the pi chi groups, either. That kind of stuff gets on my nerves, too. Good luck!

Bump...we need an update!!

I'm suprised this was asked. My chapter was not allowed to ask PNM's this question or anything in the "Five B's we dont talk about during recruitment"

NO Talking about:
Boys (meaning fraternities)
Bank (what your parents do, wealth, etc)
Bible (religion of any kind)
Boose (partying)
"Boinking" (sex)

We didnt talk about politics either for obvious reasons.

OK well rush didn’t of course turn out as I’d planned. I know which house I’m going back to today!! For the video round I got asked back to 5/7 houses. I really liked these houses (except for one) and enjoyed the videos!
Well for prefs I got back to three houses. My boyfriend asked me whether I wanted to be in a sorority or not, because even if it’s not a top house, there will still be great girls. In the end, only one of them could I even see myself in. One of these houses is very popular, but every time that I was there I just couldn’t help thinking how fake these girls were. I think that they would have been a great sorority to join (they’re a top house at UF) but I just couldn’t help feeling like I didn’t fit in. They were gorgeous and very thin girls, but my conversations were never any fun. I also didn’t like the other girls going back to this house too much. I actually heard one mention “well I’m glad XYZ at least doesn’t just take everyone back, they’re very elitist.”
The other house I had a lot of fun in and had great conversations with all week. There was nothing wrong with these girls at all, and if I get them today (I ranked them 2nd) I wouldn’t be disappointed. This house was a little more quiet and conservative than the others though.
At my last house, I knew I was at my home. I loved the girl rushing me and I hope she’s my bid day buddy!
I already know where I’m going, but I’ll save it for later!! I don’t want to jinx anything!

Well have a fun day and best wishes that you have your number one house!