Retro Recruitment
 

I'm bored sitting around the house and I figured I'd use this time to start my retro-recruitment thread. I hope jessicasigkap won't think I'm stealing her thunder... I just actually have time to type things up! :) I went through formal recruitment at UGA in Fall 2001, so since it was so recent I will be making some changes to my notes when I type them (since it'd be pretty easy to tell who it was if I mentioned dress color, as most houses still wear the same colors for round one).

A little about me prior to recruitment: I turned 18 the first day of recruitment and was going through as a first-semester freshman, but I didn't realize it might be bad to mention that I was planning to graduate in only three years. Despite having several Greeks in my family, I did not have any idea what to expect from an SEC recruitment and neither did they. I had recs for some of the houses, but certainly not all. I didn't have very many Greek friends on campus, but most of the girls on my hall in the dorm were very well-prepared for recruitment by their moms/sisters/friends, so it was interesting to hear what they had to say since they had already heard a lot about the houses.

Since I am a theatre girl, I'm naming the 18 houses after Broadway musical characters. No, the names don't mean anything (i.e. Marian Paroo is not uptight and Roxie Hart is not a killer, etc.)

Marian Paroo
Roxie Hart
Margo Channing
Reno Sweeney
Lois Lane
Annie Oakley
Janet Weiss
Babe Williams
Dolly Levi
Julie Jordan
Carrie Pipperidge
Eva Peron
Charity Hope Valentine
Anne Egerman
Eliza Doolittle
Kate Monster
Cora Hooper
Magnolia Hawkins

Love the ladies of Broadway theme! I can't wait to see where you go! ;)

I love the names!

Go Annie Oakley! ;)

Here's the first of ye olde journal entries. My mom suggested that I carry a small notebook in my purse to jot down notes and then write out more detailed notes in my journal when I got home. I'm taking a cue from susan 314 and making some comments in italics. I tried to take out any characteristics that might give the houses away before the big reveal. :)

ROUND ONE, DAY ONE:
It is my 18th birthday! I am very excited to rush! I will see 12 houses today and 6 houses tomorrow. Last night I met my rho chi, Caroline. We will get our schedules this morning and then go to our houses. I am excited to meet everyone but I am nervous because everyone on my hall keeps talking about how "competitive" it is.

MARIAN PAROO: When they opened the doors, there was no one in the foyer, but once we walked in it seemed like THOUSANDS of girls started pounding on the walls and screaming at us! Then a girl came and got me and started talking to me. I felt like I kept being passed from one girl to another. (Remember, no one prepared me so I thought this was all so crazy!!) Everyone asked me the same questions. They all had Southern accents. I didn't feel in place here.

ROXIE HART: The house is really pretty! I guess the screaming and being passed back and forth is normal? The first girl asked me what my dad did, which I thought was kind of strange, but the next girl was nice and asked all kinds of questions about my intended major and extracurriculars. At the end it seemed like the last girl didn't know what to talk about so she just stood with me at the sidewalk waiting for it to be over.

MARGO CHANNING: Their cheers were a little less frightening/screamy, which was very welcome. They were all dressed in the same dress and looked like flight attendants. They all seemed really nice and friendly but it was kind of hard to get a good view of the house from where I was standing and talking to people. They seem pretty laid back, which is so refreshing! This is the first house where the girls seem more like me.

RENO SWEENEY: Before they opened the doors they started screaming "[insert sorority name here]!" very loudly. It was very different from the last one! Every girl who rushed me was very skinny and peppy. I wonder if a lot of them are cheerleaders? They were nice and all, but I just felt out of place.

LOIS LANE: These girls kind of creeped me out at first because I felt like some of them were looking me up and down and sizing me up. But once I talked to some girls it was okay. They seemed really, really laid back, with some of them almost like they didn't even care about it.

ANNIE OAKLEY: This house was kind of stereotypical, at least based on what I've been told to expect from the houses. They asked me all the same questions. (Do I mean as the other houses? Or as each other? I don't know what I meant by that.) I didn't really feel anything particular about this house in either direction. Maybe if I come back for round two I will have a better idea of this house.

JANET WEISS: These girls seemed laid back on the level of the Margo Channings than like the Lois Lanes. They were nice and a lot of them were from out of the south, which made me feel a lot more comfortable (I didn't grow up in Georgia so the houses that were filled with southern belles made me a little uncomfortable.). One of them was in a lot of plays in high school and another girl introduced me to her.

BABE WILLIAMS: This chapter is very diverse, which I love! I got to talk to a couple of drama minors and everyone was really nice and friendly.

DOLLY LEVI: The house is so pretty! A couple of the girls I talked to even wished me a happy birthday! (Of course I was too naive to think of the fact that they might have noticed that little tidbit on my recruitment form...) I felt really welcome at this house but all the other girls in my rush group have told me a lot of rumors about this group. I feel like the things they are saying can't be true because the girls seem so nice. I'm not sure how much attention I should pay to the rumors.

JULIE JORDAN: They wore really cute dresses in one of their colors. They were nice and really friendly, but I'm so tired!

CARRIE PIPPERIDGE: OMG I love this sorority! They have really catchy cheers and their house is so cool and different from the others. This is my favorite so far!

EVA PERON: This house was really similar to Annie Oakley. But their nametags were cuter. (lol, I can't believe I wrote that. You can definitely see how tired I was at the end of the first day!)

Rush is a lot crazier than I expected! My favorites from day one are definitely Carrie Pipperidge and Janet Weiss. I also really liked Julie Jordan, Dolly Levi, Babe Williams, and Margo Channing. Some of the girls in my dorm keep telling me that certain chapters are "better" than others, but I don't think there can be such thing as a "popular" house on a campus with this many people! My next door neighbor in the dorm (who is a legacy at Marian Paroo and Eliza Doolittle) says that the most important thing is for me to be happy and she said not to listen to the other girls.

Tomorrow, I will visit the next six houses:
Charity Hope Valentine
Anne Egerman
Eliza Doolittle
Kate Monster
Cora Hooper
Magnolia Hawkins

I really love this one! It's going to be fun to see if I can guess who is who! I'll keep them too myself, of course, at least until the end.

I'm so loving these retro threads! They definitely provide a "fix" until recruitment starts in full swing late this summer! :D

Another retro thread! It will be fun to be the spectator this time around. :) And I'm always fascinated by SEC recruitment stories.

Can we get a list of the chapters that existed at UGA when you went through? (I know I could pull up a current list, but I wasn't sure if there had been any changes since then? :confused: Besides, its nice to have them in the thread for easy reference. :))

I'm trying to see if I can do this from memory:
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Chi Omega
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Zeta
Delta Phi Epsilon
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Kappa Delta
Pi Beta Phi
Phi Mu
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
Zeta Tau Alpha

I think the last group to add was in the 1980s, so they are the same as the ones on campus today.
There was a GC rumor that one group left, but the rush guide for this fall still indicates 18 groups.

There is no Alpha Omega Pi in the NPC. Alpha Omicron Pi. Thanks.

Sorry! I knew that and was actually surprised that I made that mistake. I was simply thinking AOPi, and I didn't pay enough attention to what I typed. I fixed it in the list. Again, sorry.

ROUND ONE, DAY TWO:
CHARITY HOPE VALENTINE: This house seems similar to Annie Oakley and Eva Peron. There was a girl from my high school in the house and she knew my name and remembered seeing me in a play.

ANNE EGERMAN: This house is very similar to Annie Oakley, Charity Hope Valentine, and Eva Peron. Overall, the girls were nice and friendly, but the last girl I spoke to asked me some questions about partying and I didn't know how to respond.

ELIZA DOOLITTLE: They wore dresses in one of their colors and sang instead of screaming. That was cool... it was so very different from what I saw at the other houses. They were all so gorgeous and nice, and I know a lot of girls in my group want to pledge there. But I felt out of place, like they were all models!

KATE MONSTER: The first girl I talked to asked some very invasive questions and it made me feel very uncomfortable.

CORA HOOPER: Everyone in my group complained about having to go here. They were very small and one girl had to talk to three of us at once and no one ever switched with her. It was like being at an interview.

MAGNOLIA HAWKINS: They wore one of their colors and had pretty nametags in the shape of their symbol! Every girl seemed cool and nice. I love the location of this house, in particular. They seemed the most genuine of all the chapters. I am so glad I got to see this house last because it was a great way to end round one.

After the six houses, we went back to Tate to do our rankings. We can be asked back to a maximum of twelve, so we are supposed to really think about the houses we want to go back to most. Caroline says girls rarely have a full party schedule, so we need to be willing to go back everywhere.
ROUND ONE RANKINGS:
1. Magnolia Hawkins
2. Carrie Pipperidge
3. Janet Weiss
4. Julie Jordan
5. Dolly Levi
6. Babe Williams
7. Margo Channing
8. Eva Peron
9. Charity Hope Valentine
10. Anne Egerman
11. Annie Oakley
12. Lois Lane
13. Eliza Doolittle
14. Reno Sweeney
15. Roxie Hart
16. Kate Monster
17. Cora Hooper
18. Marian Paroo

We will get our schedules for Round Two tomorrow! Round Two is two days long (This was the last year that skits were round two and not round three). The girls on my hall were all talking about where they made "connections" with girls and it seemed like they had all made a "connection" at the houses they really wanted prior to round one. I guess I made "connections" at my top 7 because those are the only ones I really really hope I get invited back to for round two... but I am willing to give everyone a second try!

I know!! And I too like to hear about Southern recruitment. This is awesome!! Thanks dgdramadawg!!

I have to root for Dolly Levi or Janet Weiss since you don't like Roxie Hart or Reno Sweeney! I actually started writing my thread and since I am a drama girl as well, my chapters are named after musicals. But don't worry, there's not too much overlap with your characters and my musicals.

i STILL find this weird that this is asked during rush. that is such a tacky way to find out if a PNM comes from money (which really isnt any org's business). and what if the PNM:

a. has an MIA father/in a house where the mom brings home the bread
b. is unemployed/does something "undesirable"
c. has 2 moms (hey who knows)

i mean, would my chances be lesser if i was like "well my father isn't in my house... and btw he's a construction worker. but my mom works for a bank?"

i jus think its really tacky to ask something like that. i would seriously have to ask the active "why is that important?" have any PNMs been embarassed by that or am i making a big deal for nothing? if so, i can swallow it and jus accept it as the NPC way.

I don't understand why the question is asked either - as you might remember, I declined an invitation to a house after Phase A for being asked the same question.

Generally being an optimist and wanting to believe the best in people...I'd like to think that such a question being asked is more a mistake by an inexperienced rusher than anything that a chapter would deliberately want asked. Perhaps she felt at a loss for conversation, was trying to make small talk, and happened to ask a "bad" question without any real malice intended?

I definitely don't think it is a commonplace amongst all organizations on all campuses...if anything, usually we're cautioned against discussing all the Bs (booze, boys, bank and/or bucks, etc.) I suppose there may be an individual chapter on an individual campus here or there that really does care, but on a national level I don't think its a generally accepted question to be asked? :confused:


P.S. One of my chapter sisters/roommates in the house had 2 moms. :) (Well, she had a mom and dad who were divorced, and 2 step-moms - one via her mom and one via her dad.)

i only bring this up cause ive seen this in many of recruitment and other threads in the GL forum, the whole "what does your dad do?" thing. i thought that reflected poorly on the organization that asked it.

im sure its not common on all campuses and all orgs, but i've seen it mentioned enough on GC to wonder WTF is up with that? I would just fall out of my chair if someone asked me that with a straight face during a rush.

You won't get any arguments from me on that one!

If nothing else, being asked that question gives the PNM something to consider about that chapter - does she think it was just a nervous question by an inexperienced rusher? Or does she feel like the answer to that question is important to that chapter? At least then, a PNM can use that info to her advantage when deciding how she feels about that house.

I think it reflects poorly on the rusher rather than the org. One of my friends from high school pledged Roxie Hart (she will actually come up later in the story) and she would NEVER ask this kind of question... it had nothing to do with that org and everything to do with the girl who asked the question. Some people might consider this a "getting to know you" type of question, but I was always taught never to ask the question because of the very problems that you indicated! There will always be girls who don't think through the questions they ask...

Oh, and sidenote on this: I know someone who pledged one of the most competitive chapters at UGA and told everyone who asked during recruitment that her dad was in waste management. So I would bet that the answer doesn't matter, going back to my guess that it's not the org that's asking, but the rusher.

I think it depends on how that comment fits into the picture of the chapter that you've already constructed. For example, if you hear a lot of tent talk that the chapter is very elitist/competitive/rich etc. then I would think it would reflect more on the chapter (but hopefully not on the national). But if it seemed inconsistent with other things you've heard, then I think it would just reflect on the active.

I just got back after getting my invites for round two. We can be invited to up to 12 chapters. During this round I will be going back to:
Magnolia Hawkins
Janet Weiss
Dolly Levi
Babe Williams
Margo Channing
Annie Oakley
Reno Sweeney
Kate Monster
Cora Hooper

I am a little bummed that I only got invited to 9 houses out of the possible 12, but on the plus side I am going back to five of the seven houses that I really liked during round one! I really don't like a couple of the houses I am going back to but I am willing to give everyone a second try... how well can I really know a house after 20 minutes in round one?!?

That's pretty good for UGA! And you still have Janet Weiss and Dolly Levi!

Maybe they were worried what her daddy would do if they didn't take his little Meadow Soprano! ;)

(Round two was actually two days long, but I didn't divide them in my notes into the two days and I certainly don't remember anymore, so I am going to go ahead and pretend both days of round two have passed.)

MARGO CHANNING: This was my first house of the day and I love it! I met two girls named Ellie and Nat and they were so awesome and talkative... really easy to talk to, like old friends. They did a Grease skit that was really cute and everyone seemed nice like they did in round one, really genuine. I definitely feel like I fit in with the girls I met today.

RENO SWEENEY: Truth be told, I didn't really want to come back here, but I am glad I did because they seemed a lot less intimidating today. Their skit had lots of inside jokes, but they all seemed in on it so it seemed like they had a cool sisterhood. I don't know that this house is one that I can "see" myself in, but I wouldn't mind going back to meet more people and get to know them better.

JANET WEISS: Their skit was kind of strange... it didn't make very much sense. Maybe if I end up here I can write them a script next year. :) I didn't see the girl I talked to yesterday and I didn't really "connect" with anyone I spoke with today. The girls on my hall say this is a "good house."

BABE WILLIAMS: They did a funny Alice in Wonderland skit and everyone seemed so sweet again! I really like them.

DOLLY LEVI: Their skit was outside and it was hard to hear, but they served great food, so that made up for it! I got to talk to one of the same girls from before. I don't feel quite as "at home" here as I do at Margo Channing or Babe Williams, but I like it.

KATE MONSTER: They did a pageant skit, which was cute. I just feel awkward here. One of my friends from high school has a sister who is in the chapter and it is her first choice. I can see why she likes it, but I just don't feel like I fit in.

CORA HOOPER: One girl talked to three of us again. Their skit was kind of funny, but the conversation was so awkward afterward. I don't think I could pledge here.

MAGNOLIA HAWKINS: This one was not as great as Margo Channing today but it is still a close second! They did a Grease skit, too... I wonder if it is a sign that my top two houses did Broadway skits?!? I didn't get to talk to the same girls, but the new ones were just as nice. I could see myself here.

ANNIE OAKLEY: A lot of girls in my rush group got cut here and they were really upset. The girls on my hall all thought it was so cool that I got asked back here, so I feel like I am supposed to love it here, but I just don't see anything that stands out about this group. They had inside jokes in the skit and the girl sitting with me kept having to explain them to me, but only some of the sisters laughed at them (unlike the jokes in the Reno Sweeney skit). I think I would have to change a lot about myself to be happy here.

At this point, I think I have three groups of houses: the ones I could definitely see myself pledging (Margo, Magnolia, and Babe), the ones I really want to get to know better (Dolly, Reno, and Janet), and the ones I definitely can't see myself in (Annie, Kate, and Cora). For round three I can attend up to six parties. I am very nervous about what my party schedule will look like for round three after all the cuts after round one.
ROUND TWO RANKINGS:
1. Margo Channing
2. Magnolia Hawkins
3. Babe Williams
4. Dolly Levi
5. Reno Sweeney
6. Janet Weiss
7. Annie Oakley
8. Kate Monster
9. Cora Hooper

I'm so glad someone else thought that, too, when they heard "waste management"!

I'm really enjoying the thread, and am so excited that it's a school with a Gamma Phi!:D

And I agree with JessSigKap, 9/12 at UGA sounds good to me!

Oh, and an interesting note I have to make for any UGA PNMs who may be reading my thread: I got asked back to 9 out of 18 houses (12 possible) for round two and that's not all that bad at all, especially since I still had most of my round one favorites. BUT I got cut by every house at which I had not secured a rec prior to recruitment. I went in clueless and had no idea, but for the millionth time that it's been posted on GC, you've got to have recs if you are going to UGA.

Did you rank after each round and get a schedule generated for you or did you get your invites in between rounds and then decide where you want to go if you were invited by more chapters than the number of parties for the next round?

At UGA, it's "mutual selection," meaning that the girls rank the chapters and the chapters make selections and the girls receive a schedule based on the results thereof. I don't remember whether we had to attend all of the parties on our schedules after round one (I did anyway; I thought it was just rude not to go). I think the idea is that if a girl gets invited to, for instance, 8 parties and can only attend 6, she will want to attend the houses she ranked highest that have invited her back. The best part of this system for me was that it eliminated time back at the dorm with girls telling me what I ought to do... since I didn't know a lot about rush I was very impressionable and they might have convinced me to make decisions differently than I did.

Can we know which chapters are out of the running?

The houses out of the running after round one cuts were:
Alpha Delta Pi (Marian Paroo)
Phi Mu (Roxie Hart)
Chi Omega (Lois Lane)
Sigma Kappa (Julie Jordan)
Kappa Delta (Carrie Pipperidge)
Zeta Tau Alpha (Eva Peron)
Pi Beta Phi (Charity Hope Valentine)
Delta Delta Delta (Anne Egerman)
Alpha Omicron Pi (Eliza Doolittle)

So AGD is still in the picture...yippee. :)

(Even though we know how the story ends, its still fun to root for your own house to make it far. ;))

We just got our invites for round three (house tours). I have only been invited to four out of the possible six:

Dolly Levi
Janet Weiss
Kate Monster
Cora Hooper

I'm back at the dorm right now because I don't have a party first thing this morning. I'm really surprised and upset that I was cut by my top three houses (Margo Channing, Magnolia Hawkins, and Babe Williams). It makes me really nervous about what my pref schedule will look like because I only have two houses left that I would consider pledging and I'm not even totally sure yet about them. Today I am going to be putting my best foot forward with Dolly Levi and Janet Weiss so I can really get a feel for whether I will be happy in either (or both) of those houses.

I wonder who is going back to Margo Channing and Magnolia Hawkins instead of me. I hope they are happy there. :(

Oh no! Well sometimes it's the chapters that you initially feel so-so about that you really end up liking in the end.;)

So which houses are out of the running at this point?

please......give us a break and post some more.

Sorry to keep you in suspense... ;) I'm not going to reveal who is out of the running yet because there are so few chapters left. "Tomorrow" is prefs, though, so recruitment is almost over!

JANET WEISS: Their house is big and pretty, but the conversation was more and more awkward today. I just don't know that I am a fit here. The girls are nice and I could see myself being friends with a few of them, but I just don't feel like I fit in with the majority of the girls. I think I would have to change myself to be happy in this house and I don't think it is worth it just to be in a "popular" sorority. The girls on my hall and in my rho chi group insist that this is the "best" house I have left, but the more I see of it, the more I think it is just not for me.

DOLLY LEVI: The house was really, really pretty (definitely the prettiest I saw today!) and I really liked the girl who took me on the tour. I could be happy here... I don't feel a connection as strong as what I felt at Margo Channing or Magnolia Hawkins, but I feel like this is a place where I could be me. I also think I have met enough girls to know that if the rumors I heard during round one are true, they are indicative of a very small group of sisters.

KATE MONSTER: I just don't think I would be happy here. The whole tour, I just kept thinking that it seemed okay for other people but not for me. Two of my good friends from high school are 100% sure that this is the only house for them, but the girl who took me on the tour today mentioned the house's religious leanings multiple times and she didn't seem happy when I asked how it worked for sisters who were not part of that religion.

CORA HOOPER: One girl talked to three of us again and it is just so hard to get to know people like that. The house was smaller than the others, it seemed, but they also have less girls in the chapter than the other houses I visited today, so it makes sense not to have a giant house. It's just not right for me.

ROUND THREE RANKINGS:
1. Dolly Levi
2. Janet Weiss
3. Kate Monster
4. Cora Hooper

One of my friends dropped out today because Magnolia Hawkins cut her and I am starting to worry that I will get cut by everyone. All the houses seem so picky and girls who are so beautiful and nice in my rush group are dropping out because they are getting cut by houses they like and there is a rumor that a lot of girls have been cut by every single house at this point. The only girls I know of who had full schedules today are not interested in the same houses as me at ALL. My friend in the dorm tells me that it is not important to think about how many parties I have on my schedule as long as I have parties that I want on her schedule... but it's easy for her to say when she visited her six top choices today.

I'm glad we know in advance that you have a happy ending...otherwise, I'd be starting to get nervous for you!

Go Dolly Levi! :)

I can't wait to hear the rest of the story. You are doing a great job!

Well Hello, Dolly!

PLOT TWIST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did I mention that my Mom is a member of Dolly Levi? Well, she got "the call" that I'm sure every alum dreads last night... Dolly Levi called her to let her know that they were cutting me and that I would not be attending prefs with them. She called me as soon as she could to let me know because she knew that Dolly Levi was really the only house I was interested in that I had left.

I thought about it for a while and decided to call Caroline early this morning, before the rest of my rush group met her. I told her that I had decided to drop out of recruitment because Dolly Levi had cut me. She seemed very surprised and told me that she didn't see why I wanted to drop out when I had two pref parties on my schedule for today (Janet Weiss and Cora Hooper). I told her that I knew I was not going to fit in with either of the houses, so I didn't see the point in going to prefs. Caroline asked me if I wanted to COB and I told her I just didn't care anymore. I am so angry and upset that this did not work out for me because I feel like I did nothing wrong and was punished for it. (But of course I have to wonder if I would have found my "home" during formal if I had already dropped 20 lbs like I ended up doing my freshman year, not worn a homemade dress to round one, and gotten recs for every house. Hey, I was naive.)

While my dormmates, what's left of my rush group, and my friends from high school are enjoying bid day tomorrow, I will be going to an audition for my first mainstage university play. I am glad that I won't be missing auditions for bid day. I always thought I would go Greek, but I guess sorority life just isn't for me.

OK- you CAN'T leave us hanging on this one- you have to continue!

also did you get the part in the play?