Is anyone else's rush experience like ....
 

I go to a commuter school, and there are no sorority houses. My school is in the North East. There was one day where all the greek sororites and frats were outside in our quad but thats been it, now they all have individual rush meetings and mixers etc. But they are all at the same time, like today there were 3 sororities rush meetings at the same time, so how am I suppose to get to know all the sororities if there events are all at the same time.

so I did find I fit in well with the sorority I choose to go to today but...

They are very informal which is ok with me, but after reading the boards here its not what I expected at all. We have national sororities, but the one I choose to go to is a Regional (only 6 schools). There were about maybe 8 girls there, out of the 26 that are active, and they were about 10 minutes late to the meeting spot on campus. They talked about guys and the frats and how its a good way to meet guys. They talked about drinking, they even asked if we drank ( by show of hands), and who is of age. I heard the words wasted, and a story of falling in a pool, etc. I heard two of the sisters swear one must have about 10 times in conversation.One girl thats a member dropped out of school but is still a member (How does that work?) Now from reading the boards I just thought that they would leave all that out, and was preparing myself to be all proper, which I was anyway. I really like the girls I was just a little surprised, but maybe its b/c its NYC so idk.
Has anyone else experienced this type of rush?

Can you go any other sororities party? I don't know, but for reading this would make me think twice about joining...For me I would try to look into the other groups before I made a seious choice about joining this group.
Good Luck!!!!!

Stick to a true national. There are benefits, guidelines etc with an NPC/NPHC group vs. a group that doesn't have a lot of alumnae support.

BB--
If it were me--I would run, fast. Ok--maybe that is hasty, but in the long run, I do not think a group that presents itself this way is going to attract women that will sustain the chapter. I would at least check out the other groups on campus to see if there is a better fit.

Good luck!!

I think I would stick NPC if thats how the locals are acting or that this was the best one. just my opinion take it as you wish!

Yep, slink away quietly...
 

If the group struck you as crude and ill-mannered, there's no reason to stick around. If this is the group at their best (and really, it should be, if they are trying to attract new member), and you weren't impressed, it's probably not going to get better.

Sounds like the opposite of what I was looking for in a sorority.

My advice? Go for sisterhood, not for a drinking club. The former lasts a lot longer than the latter.

At least they're being honest about what they are, I guess. But the fact that really says NO to me is that only 8 of the 26 actives show up. If they don't care about Rush, then they don't care about the sorority. I would stick with a national anyway at a commuter school. No offense to locals and regionals, but since it sounds like there won't be a ton of "together time" anyway, a national will be more helpful as it has a broader net and better resources.

Run, don't walk. I concur. If they talk like that, they probably include drinking in the new member program (I would venture a guess that they PLEDGE and hard). Sisterhood is so much more than what you saw and heard.

No, what you want to say is that you would guess they HAZE, and hard. Pledging is not hazing.

But I agree with AGDSquirrelGirl*, what would bug me most would not be the talking about drinking or guys or cussing or anything like that...it would be that only a third of the sorority gave enough of a rat's ass to show up for rush. Unless they had extenuating circumstances, like classes, there's no reason for everyone especially in a chapter that small not to show up for big events like this.


*who I am very impressed with the fact that as a brand spanking new GC member, already mastered the Greek letters in her screen name. :)

At my school, atlest during spring informal recruitment, most of the sororities had events that were going on at the same time. However they were usually 2 hours long and PNM's were encouraged to visit as many chapters as they could throughout the week. This meant in one night you could visit several chapters spending a little bit of time at whatever ones you wanted to go and visit. If it is allowed, I would highly encourage visiting more than one chapter or as many as you can.

You can also talk to members of these sororities in yoru classes too and tell them you are interested in their rush parties (so they know you are interested) if you are only allowed to attend one at a time.

Not only was this during a time that very few classes are given (non are supposed to be given but...it happens) this group does haze, hard. I know this from first hand expirence with this group.

The idea in bold would be great, but it is a big no-no, and if you leave in the middle of any of the rush parties (yes it's still called rush at this school, at least for the locals) to go see another group, or you show up late, chances of getting a bid are slim to none.

If it is a formal recruitment process or a formal atmosphere then I would see where leaving early or comign late would be a potential problem. If it is an informal atmosphere then I dont see why it's a big deal??? Or I guess I'm asking why is it a big deal?

I'm good at this forum stuff, and I had to learn the letters for Facebook.:cool: I wanted to be cool like everyone else and put ΑΓΔ in my profile instead of AGD.

I also had a similar experience when I was back at school. I was a transfer and wasn't aware of what were NPC sororities. I was at a commuter school and thought that you could only rush for one sorority. So I rushed for a regional one. I was quite disappointed the way how they were talking about going to clubs, drinking and such. I just couldn't see myself fitting into their sorority, except a few really great ladies told me to stick with it. Needless to say, I didn't get a bid, which was ok.

Then my senior year I got myself busy with other societies but it wasn't until my last semester when I learned about NPC sororities through my one friend. I asked her if graduate students (which I was planning to) could rush for this one sorority, and she said yes. But unfortunately something happened with my grad assistantship that made me defer my grad studies. It was quite disappointing, but I got over it.

I guess my whole point is, I wish my school's Greek Life office could have informed us more about these options and like a guide into Greek Life. I know for commuter schools it's hard, but maybe like a table at quad day, or something along the lines would help. They should also do more outreach if they wanted a stronger greek system. In that way, it could also help reinforce the positive aspects of greek life :)

We do have something like "Meet the Greeks" but it's always when people have classes :( The only time I get to see were during welcome week, and for some reason our school was full of latina sororities and they were all spread out among the campus during that day along with other GLOs. We have 3 NPC sororities on out campus and I barely remember seeing them :confused: (maybe I was distracted by the caramel apples they were giving out :D )

I could understand the need to re-vamp Greek life at commuter schools. One thing that we're lacking of is the sprit, and it's esp hard when you don't have houses to live in to strengthen sisterhood. I know our school, rumor has it, is trying to make sorority floors. But then more than half of the ladies are commuters, which makes it even harder.

So it's all about sprit and positive impact on others. As long as you love your sorority and show it to others, you will then influnce others about how amazing you ladies could be. That's how I felt when I saw this one group. They stood out among other sororities because you can tell how enthusiastic and how much they love their sorority. :)

Mines is a commuter school too. I think from what I've seen, there is only this one NPC and a few latina sororities that are really active at school. Besides that, it just seems dead :( *shrugs*

Are you planning to become a greek advisor in the future for your school?

how come this school does not send out a greek life booklet or something to all new freshman or transfers coming to the college/university? UK did when i first started there as a freshman (though i chose not to go greek there), and EKU sent one out when I transferred there. Do not all schools with greek life do this? I think it's a good way to let newbies know about greek life and what greek options they have on their campus.

Umm, lots of schools barely have the sororities and fraternities listed or mentioned on their webpage or student handbook, let alone send out a Greek life booklet. If they don't like having Greeks and don't want students to join, they're not going to publicize it.

I am sooo annoyed that I didn't notice this thread when was first posted. As it is a school in my area I would love to see how pledging is going for her too. If it's the group I suspect it to be they have a lot of girls drop during pledging.

< Note, not attacking Buttonz, she just happens to have the unfortunate quote >

I understand what you're saying, but I don't know if it would fix the problem to go national, wouldn't the local "traditions" (as dubious as they are:rolleyes: ) stick around, just with some poor NPC's letters attached?. Just changing the letters and putting in some programming doesn't fix deep ingrained internal problems. I think it would have to be the full disolution of the group, meaning let it be dormant and then colonize a new (local or NPC or whatever) many years later. Perhaps greater oversight by Greek Life/Student Affairs?

I always go through the doomsday scenario of Otterbein's system going all-national. I say doomsday because I think that a LOT of women would be really, truly, seriously heartbroken to have their 70+ year old history wiped out and replaced by something else that they never pledged fidelity to, especially if it was simply mandated that we MUST be national by someone outside of our sorority. It would just hurt. I know that's not what you're getting at , but I can understand why people would fight to stay local. If it was of the general concensus of the campus sorority council and chapter members/alum, then ok, yeah, people will still be upset but eventually will suck it up, but if its administrators or just the NPC's on campus telling the locals/regionals to be national, there's gonna be some friction. The concept of "being local" is sort of isolating, and the defending of their existance is something that most local chapters (not looking for colonization) take very, very very seriously. Call it culture, I suppose.

That all being said, I'm absolutely, 100000% with everyone else saying, "RUN AWAY! RUN FAR FAR AWAY!". If they're admitting this in public, imagine what they'd do behind closed doors. Please remember that not all locals are hazers, not all nationals are angels, and vice versa of course.

So yes and no, people do have rush experiences like this. But they have rush experiences like this in almost every system, no matter what the type of sorority. It's part of the diaspora. You, fortunately, were smart enough to recognize that this org probably isn't *quite* up to snuff. Sooo, now that you know what you *don't* want, go get what you do :).

This particular group was founded with the intention of going national. I know they were specifically rejected by one group they originally had in mind. I am not sure if they pursued other groups. At this point I don't believe the organization could affiliate with a npc because too many of their members would not be eligible i.e. gpa's, not full time student etc.

And the fact that they DON'T participate in formal rush probably creates even more of a nationals/locals schism. There are schools where the nationals and locals do everything together as far as rush/panhel is concerned, and there are probably girls rushing who wouldn't know (or care) which was which because everything's pretty much seamless.

As far as I remember back in the day....they didn't pursue other groups and once they got rejected by the one that they pursued they were anti-going national and put down any groups there were any chance they got, and this came from both actives and alumnae.

If this school made them participate in FR, I doubt there would be as many problems with the Greek system as their is, but they are allowed to do whatever they want. That is something that is a fault of the school

At schools where locals are associate members of Panhell and participate in FR are the PNMs made fully aware of which is which? And, do the NPC agreements really truly apply to the locals too? I'm just thinking of what if a PNM knows that she absolutely has zero interest in joining a local (or vice versa); why should she be forced to go to their events?

Bloomsburg U in PA has half locals, half nationals. AFAIK the unanimous agreements on rushing completely apply to the locals, the locals hold officer positions in Panhel, etc. They are full members of Panhel, so why should rushees be EXEMPTED from their events? I'm sure there are also women going through rush who have zero interest in joining (example) groups that don't have chapters in California, so should they be allowed to skip ASA and AST's parties?

If joining a national and not a local is that important to a rushee, she needs to research and ask questions at rush.

Locals that are just associate members usually hold their rush apart from when NPCs do. That's a whole different animal.

Same story at Dartmouth.

My campus decided to switch from all-locals to all-nationals in one swoop. I've been told it was because of hazing and the school's displeasure with having no real oversight re: rules, standards, etc. They just thought having (inter)national organizations would keep local chapters accountable and that the national reputations of NPC/NIC would actually draw more students into Greek Life (which it did). Almost all of the NPC sororities now on campus were orginally locals, meaning members of the local were actually initiated into Gamma Phi Beta along with the first pledge class (my class). So, some were members of both the local and NPC sorority.

The transition appeared to go pretty smoothly. All of the organizations sent consultants who remained with the chapters for the first full academic year and helped us learn new rules, bylaws, election procedures, ritual, songs, and international traditions. Some of the older members (mostly juniors and seniors) were a little resistant to change, but even they mostly went along with everything.

That said, for the years I was on campus, I became familiar with many of our local's traditions. Gamma Phi actually encouraged us to adopt the local's colors and motto as our chapter colors/motto. Our chapter's candle-pass song was actually written by the soon-to-be-fiance of one of our local's members from years past, so we retained the song and the chapter still sings it...it's a song no other Gamma Phi chapter sings, and is therefore very special to the chapter. So, going national does not always mean abandoning your roots.

ETA: although hazing supposedly occurred in the local system on my campus, my chapter of Gamma Phi NEVER hazed. I don't know if the local did before, but if it did, that was one tradition that did not stick around.