MaggieXi's Retro Elon Recruitment Story
 

Since I have been so enthralled by everyone's stories, I wanted to post my own. I will wait until JessSigKap is finished with hers first. But here is my introduction:

Elon has deffered recruitment and I knew nothing about sororities except that they got to wear letters and live in reallly nice houses and have parties. I also had heard about the stereotypes of each house (which of course were dramatically incorrect as I would soon find out). My roomate and suitemate who were very southern convinced me that I had to go through recruitment and be in a sorority. I was from the north and they took me shopping with them in Charlotte to get clothes for recruitment, to get my eyebrows waxed, nails done and a haircut. They also made me read "Why Princess Margaret Will Never Be a Kappa Kappa Gamma" and would do mock questions with me.

Basically my entire hall was going through recruitment. Some were clueless -- kinda like me and some were all gung-ho -- like my roomate and suitemate. However, my best friend on my hall was not going through recruitment because she had been diagnosed with Lymes disease and was going home for a few weeks.

At this point, there were 6 sororities on campus:
(in no particular order and I am using yoga stuff for my names)

Half Moon
Shanti
Down Dog
Warrior
Om
Lotus

Let me know if when you want me to continue....

Of course!! It's so fun to have a new thread start as others finish up "rush week"!:D

We didn't do journals when I went through rush. What a great idea!

More fun recruitment stories!


(And perhaps, aside from entertaining the rest of us, the upcoming PNMs can learn some lessons from our experiences!)

Rest assured- the PNM's are learning lots of lessons :D

Yeah! ANOTHER retro-recruitment thread! :D

This will be really interesting for me... I have always wondered what Elon's rush was like! :)

I have a feeling your roommate and suitemate are going to be my favorite rush thread characters ever!

I have always wanted to read an Elon thread! So 6 groups, Elon has 8 now. I know this is pre-Tri Delt, is this also pre AChiO or pre-Sig Kap?

Pre Alpha Chi. We came to campus in 2001. Sigma Kappa came in 97, I believe.

I'm interested to hear your thoughts. A lot has changed even since I graduated in 2004.

Yay!!! Keep them coming! I love these stories!!! :)

hooray for another retro thread!! i love them!

Sidebar: Sig Kap colonized the fall of my soph year, so I was already in a sorority at that time. It turns out that my friend from my hall who had Lymes disease ended up being a chapter founder of Sigma Kappa the following year.

Also, this is pre AChiO and Tri-Delt. Also, one of the chapters on my list as a PNM closed in 2000ish.

And I promise my suitemate and roomate will make you laugh at some point!!! They really made the whole experience humorous!

Xylochick-- I would love to hear your Elon recruitment story!!!!

As a PNM:

So I was contacted by my Rho Chi her name was Heather and she was super sweet and bubbly and we immediately clicked. All the girls in my group and my roomate and suitemate think she is a Half Moon or a Lotus. Since I don't know what they are talking about, I just agreed. Why is it important to know what sorority my Rho Chi is in? My Rho Chi gave us little welcome bags on our first day with some things to know about greek life and mostly just information about the different sororities. Just from the pictures, I like a few of them more than others.

My roomate and my suitemate have told me the best houses to be in are Half Moon, Down Dog and Om. Those are the houses they are planning to be in. Especially my roomate Traci, she is obsessed with Half Moon because its the "southern sorority". But Courtney, my suitemate thinks that Down Dog and Om are classier and that Half Moon is more for the "regular girls".

We start rush (yes, that is what it was still called in 1997!) on Monday and I am so excited!

I'm excited to read a retro thread with a Sigma chapter! I wonder if I'll be able to figure out who they are when you get into your story since I know nothing really about the Elon chapter.

I have to say that I think I'm going to be entertained by your roommate and suitemate...it sounds as if they are quite the pair! I can just see these two Southern belles dragging you shopping and for a mani/pedi and helping you get prepped for rush...complete with required reading!

Kind of important before I forget...

My mom called me and we talked about going through recruitment. She didn't belong to a sorority when she was in college, but she told me that my dad was in a fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, and I never knew that before! Also, she told me that two of my aunts were in sororites too and told me that I should email them and ask them any questions that I might have because they would be able to help me.

So I emailed my aunts Allison and Annie, both who were out of school for just a couple of years to tell them I was going through recruitment. Both we really excited for me. Allison told me she was going to write me a reccomendation because she was a part of Half Moon from her college. Annie's sorority, Alpha Delta Pi wasn't at my school so she couldn't write me a rec, but still said she would help me if I wanted to talk during the process.

I'm so glad to have all these retro threads to feed my recruitment stories addiction. Makes me wish I still had my notes from rush.

I have my book somewhere, with the big crayons on it! :D I don't think I took very good notes, though...

What's even better is I found my sister's from when she went through rush in 1993!

well feed the need isukappa. how about one from you and one from your sisters recruitment???

maggie, can't wait to get started reading yours!

Um, that's a negatory ghost rider. The books are packed away somewhere at our parents'. I didn't have the greatest rush, anyway, so mine wouldn't be a fun story.

Wasn't the Formal Rush theme something like Capture your True Colors?

So I call and tell my boyfriend Jon, who goes to another school in Indiana without greek life that I am going to go through sorority recruitment. He tells me that he really doesn't want me to and doesn't think that I would be happy in a sorority because I am not a sorority girl. So I tell him that just 'cuz I am going to go through recruitment, it doesn't mean I will end up being in a sorority. That its just a way to meet more people on my campus.

Sarah, Courtney's roomate, has already droppedout of recruitment because her boyfriend told her not to do it. He goes to a community college in Virginia. I can't believe she listened to him! Courtney yelled at her for it and told her that she wouldn't have any friends next year because everyone would be in a sorority and they would be too busy to hang out with her. Sarah got really upset and now they aren't speaking to each other. I tried to talk to Sarah about signing back up, because her Rho Chi said if she changed her mind she had until Monday. Sarah said she didn't know and she was really confused and ended up going home for the weekend.

On Saturday night, Karen -- a girl on my hall that I am sort of friends with invited a bunch of us to go to her (biological) sister's apartment. Her sister Katrina is a Om. So a bunch of went to her place in Oak Hill. Courtney said I wasn't dressed right even though I thought I looked cute. I was wearing my green j-crew v-neck sweater and jeans with my simple clogs. Courtney wore black pants and a button down -- I thought she was way too dressed up. Traci, in her usual fashion, wore too much make-up.

Anyway, we get to Katrina's and a bunch of Oms were there. We ended up going out to dinner and I sat with Traci and two Oms. I don't really remember their names. They kind of just kept talking to themselves. The one girl asked me a couple of questions like where I was from and if I was involved in anything on campus. I told her that I had tried out for 2 plays and was considering getting involved in that and that I had joined habitat. She and the other girl just kind of looked at each other. They asked Traci the same questions and Traci started acting weird and really kissing the girls butts. I don't know if the Oms knew she wasn't being herself, but they seemed to enjoy Traci's "act".

Later Traci told me that that was how recruitment was going to be and I was going to have to learn how to "fake it to make it" if I wanted to be in a sorority.

Yea, I'm not so sure about this now....

It's so much fun reading this! I almost want to pull out my journal from when I went through rush - I was in the last group of girls to do this at Auburn.

please do pinkrose. we love retro rush threads!!

maggie, was there no silence rules in effect at elon? it sounds like this "hanging out" at your dormmate's sisters apartment was designed specifically to check out the pnms. and it is definately a no-no on most campuses.

ps: you outfit sounded cute to me!!

I find it odd that the first round was 3 and 3. Seeing 6 in one day is nothing :p

I never understood the 4-1-4 system. Can you briefly explain that? Thanks!

Basically the 4-1-4 as I understand it is that first and second semester are 4 months. January -- the "1" month at Elon was called Winter Term and you would take a concentrated class, study abroad or do an internship for 3 weeks or so. Every Winter Term that I had was a blast! I took some really interesting classes and did volunteer work my senior year.

As for the silence thing, back then (and I KNOW its changed since then) you could "hang out" with sorority women up until the Monday morning that recruitment began. It was a very gray area at the time! Once Sigma Kappa colonized the following year, the whole process changed. By the time my senior year came around we had a new Greek Advisor and she was very very good and changed our whole recruitment!

BTW, because someone asked me, the sororites on Elon's campus at this time were:

Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Xi Delta
Phi Mu
Sigma Sigma Sigma
Zeta Tau Alpha

So Sunday night I go and meet Heather my Rho Chi and meet with another group. Torey from my dormand from a bunch of my classes is in the other group and I am really happy that I know someone to go through first round with.

Our Rho Chis checked our name tags to make sure that they were ok looking. I think mine turned out really cute! It's kind of like a necklace and it has Maggie from the Simpsons on it since I am from Springfield too. Heather actually used mine as an example to the group because it was "memorable". We also got our schedules for Monday and Tuesday. I will be seeing: Down Dog, Shanti and Warrior on Monday and Tuesday I will be seeing: Om, Half Moon and Lotus.

When I got back to my room Traci was re-doing her name tag because she said that her Rho Chi told her it didn't say anything about her or make her stand out. Just to drive her nuts, I told her that my Rho Chi used mine as the example as what to do. She got a little mad at me, but maybe I know more about this rush stuff then she does! Elon was really big on name tags being about the PNM. Generally, it wasn't a good idea to make a nametag that was just your name.

Sarah came back tonight and she has definetly decided not to rush but she said that she would help me get ready and do my hair and stuff. Oh, and she is still not speaking to Courtney! But Courtney is really getting on my nerves too she keeps going to different girls rooms and telling them what she thinks about all the different sororities. This is what she says:

Om & Down Dog are the sororites to be in. They are for the really pretty and classy girls. Most of the girls in these sororites have lots of money too. So you have to be able to "aford" to be in their sororities. She is of course wants to be an Om or Down Dog.

Half Moon is third on her list already. They have a really good southern reputation and its generally they take only girls from the south so anyone from the north doesn't really have a chance with them. But generally, its more for the "regular" southern girls.

Lotus generally is full of party girls. The drink beer out of cans and through really good mixers with the fraternities, which, according to Courtney isn't a bad thing because that means frat guys want to hang out with the Lotus'. They also have a lot of girls who play sports.

Shanti is for really smart girls. They have the highest GPA and win everything. However, a lot of fraternity guys don't like to hang out with them because they are "know it alls" and "goody two shoes".

Warrior is absolutely the worst house to be in. Courtney said if you get a bid from them, you are better off declining it and re-rushing next spring.

It's amazing now to look back and see all the garbage girls like Courtney spout. They really make the whole process worse by putting all these thoughts in girls heads and make them doubt themselves!

I ran into Colleen from down the hall. She is a sophmore who didn't rush last year. She told me not to listen to Courtney's stereo-types and that she knows girls in each house and they aren't all like how Courtney has described them. Colleen is rushing this year and she told me that there are two sororities she would like to be in but won't tell me which ones because she said she doesn't want to jinx herself or listen to anything that other people have to say about it. I was so happy she told me that! Even though I wish she told me the two she likes the most!

I can't wait for tomorrow! Too bad I have to sit through classes all day first!

When I went through recruitment, my boyfriend was not thrilled about the idea, but he wasn't totally against it. He was younger than me, so therefore, still in high school, and he thought that I wouldn't have time to come home and be with him if I joined a sorority. He realized that denying me of a good time at college would just be selfish and he was ultimately supportive.

Boyfriends
 

It definitely helps. While I was in college, the bf, who had a huge family of Greeks, actually offered to pay for my rush fees if I decided to do it at a later time. My parents never had a clue about Greek life on campus.

Hooray for the young woman who encouraged having an open mind and not to listen to the naysayers!

Monday's parties were an absolute blur!!! I rushed back to my room after classes and got ready. The weather was really really bad outside. It was sleeting and its expected to snow tonight. My Rho Chi sent messages to all of us saying that recruitment was on until otherwise announced. So I had to change my outfit plan and I wore black pants, a blue/gray button down and black boots. Sarah did my hair and helped me with my make-up. Sarah is a hair stylist now!

Courtney and Traci were freaking out because the weather screwed up what they were going to wear and were frantically pulling things out of their closets to figure out what to wear.

So I got to Moseley to meet my Rho Chi group and then we trekked in the sleety-rain down to the greek courts. At this point, the greek courts (later known as the Loy Center) were under construction. Not all the organizations had houses yet but they were being built We got in line outside Down Dog in alphabetical order. The sorority girls were banging on the door and I could hear them singing inside and doing cheers. I couldn't help but laugh at the whole thing. The the doors bursted open and Heather took our coats and in we went.

Down Dog was really nice. I was met by Beth, a girl from one of my classes who is a sophmore. She asked me a lot of questions like where I was from, where I lived on campus, what my major was, what my parents did, etc. Turns out she is from New Jersey and went to high school with my cousin Rob! Beth introduced me to a lot of other people and I have no idea who I met or if I was supposed to say something special. But all in all, I liked Down Dog. I guess you could could consider them "classy" or whatever like Courtney said, but I thought they were just normal people.

Shanti was next. They had a really pretty house too! I don't know who the first girl who was who took me around and she asked me a lot of the same questions that Beth did at Down Dog. She also took me around to some tables they had set up with pictures of all the sisters, awards, their philanthropy and activities. I kinda thought the girl was bragging though when she was telling me how much stuff that Shanti did. At the very end of the party I ran into April, my orientation leader. She gave me a big hug and told me that she was really excited that I was going through recruitment. I guess Shanti was ok but I think Courtney was right about them being "know it alls". But I was surprised that April was in that house because she just didn't ever seem that way to me.

Warrior was last. They do not have a house in the greek court yet. They have an old house on Haggard that we had to walk up a hill to in the snow. We were all cold and tired already! We got to warrior and I was immediately a little freaked out. They brought us into this room where they had all these antique dolls on the shelves. I hate antique dolls! I felt like they were looking at me! Warrior also showed us a video about their national sorority -- not their chapter which I thought was kind of pointless and made us sit on the floor to watch it which was kind of wet from all of our shoes. I was brought around by one first and she kept leaving me with other people. I didn't like it at all! I really don't want to be a Warrior!

I got back to my room and shared stories with Courtney, Traci and Karen. They all had good nights and visited some of the same houses and some of the houses I will see on tuesday. Traci told me later that at Om, the girls like scream at you when you get inside of the house and she totally got scared!

What a great start to your recruitment story...minus the sleet and snow, of course!

Oh, and I can't stand antique dolls, either...especially the ones with the big, blinkie eyes...they totally freak me out, too! It's kind of like my aversion to clowns.

I think I know who Om is. They still do the same thing.

On Tuesday I had to rush to get ready. Luckily, the weather got a little bit better. It is still raining, but we will be in Moseley to visit two of the sororities whose houses aren't done yet so we will only be outside to go see Om. I am glad I laid out my clothes before I left for class and Sarah was right there to do my hair. However, I was soo hungry 'cuz I didn't have time to stop at Harden to grab someting little to eat so my dinner is mostly gold fish! I met with my group in Moseley and we all walked down to go to Om. I walked with Torey and she told me that Down Dog was already her favorite.

I'm really glad that Traci told me that Om was kinda scary in the begining. We lined up and walked in. It was completely dark and silent. Not like yesterday's visits at Down Dog and Shanti. We all sat on the floor and all the Oms got in a circle around us and sang this song about their sorority that was practically silent and then all of a sudden they screamed out their letters! Even though I was waiting for it, it still made me jump a little bit. After the yelling, I got picked up by this girl Kristin. She was nice but kept me off in the corner and I didn't really get to meet anyone. Kristin asked me the usual questions and seemed really not interested in talking with me so I felt really awkward. I even tried to make conversation with her and she really didn't have much to say. I saw Katrina for a second and she said hi, but she looked really busy and stressed out. I was kind of glad to leave the party at Om. I just didn't see what the big fuss was over being an Om. They just seemed stuck up to me.

Next we all walked up Moseley to see Half Moon. They were all yelling and singing in their room before we went in. When the doors opened, I was linked arms with this girl Jen. She was sooo nice. She didn't just ask the regular questions, we just hit it off and talked about Philly. She was actually from one of the suburbs too so we mostly spoke about all the things we missed from home. Jen also introduced me to lots of people and left me for a little bit to talk to her roomate Michelle. Michelle was really nice too! I couldn't believe when the party ended. On a bunch of TVs in the room they had vidoes of pictures that they had collected set to music which I thought was a nice touch. It went by so fast and I really liked all the girls I met. Plus, I don't know what Courtney was talking about them being all "southern". I met girls from all over and they weren't at all what Courtney was making them out to be!

The last house was Lotus. According Courtney this is the "party" sorority. We lined up outside their room and they were singing a cheer and we were all led in and sat down in chairs. (None of the other sororities had chairs for us to sit on) We were shown a video show of pictures of all the sisters doing stuff over the last year from like greek week and homecoming and their formals and stuff. The sisters cheered at some pictures and called out people's names. They all seemed to be very close, and although they have probably seen this video now a bunch of times, they still seemed to enjoy it. None of their pictures were of them partying! Then the president welcomed us and then we were picked up by one of the girls in the room. The first girl I met was Ashley, she was this short little blonde who was just funny, and then I met her roomate Anne and a bunch of other girls. One of the girls, Hope I ended up talking to for a long time because she is a communications major and was the one who put the slide show together and since I was thinking of going into communications, I got a lot of feed back from her about it. This party was also over really quickly! I liked these girls a lot too.

When we were done with Lotus, my Rho Chi group went down stairs and Heather had us tell her about how we were feeling and that tomorrow our invitations to the second round would be ready at 12 and to meet her outside the Panhellenic office. She also told us to go home and write all this stuff down but to definetly keep our minds open about all the different sororities because each one had something to offer us.

When I got back to Staley, Courtney & Karen were ranking the sororities. I thought this was a little silly because I think it is probably more up to the sororities and less up to me. But Traci and I joined in.

My favorite is Half Moon, followed by Lotus & Down Dog who are tied, and then Shanti, Om and Warrior. Courtney and Traci told me that I was being stupid to put Lotus and Shanti ahead of Om. But I told them it was just a list for now. And I think I really offended Karen by putting Om second to last 'cuz it is her favorite and its her sister's sorority. But oh well!

The dolls remind me of that Seinfeld episode where Susan has a doll that looks like Georges' mother...yikes!

These are so fun to read....it makes me wish I could remember something! 1981 was a loooooong time ago! ;)

Ugh. I definitely don't like that attitude! A PNM needs to be herself during recruitment - "faking" anything is only going to hurt you in the long run. Sure, it might get you into the house you think you want, but then are you going to feel like you have to keep putting on your act for the rest of your college career? :(

Be yourself. Sure, be the best version of yourself - the self you present for job interviews, meeting new boyfriend's parents, etc. But don't outright pretend to be something that you're not!!!!

I was so nervous all morning to get my invites back! All the girls in my classes kept talking about recruitment and the different sororities, it totally put me on edge and gave me butterflies. The morning seemed to take FOREVER. Finally, I went to meet with Heather to get my invites and I was so nervous I had butterflies in my stomach!!!

So Heather comes and gets each one of us girls from our group one by one. It was so nerve racking! Some of the girls in my group were really happy when they came out of the meeting and some were really really upset! Finally, it was my turn. Heather brought me into this little room and handed me my invites. I had recieved 5 of the six: Shanti, Down Dog, Half Moon, Lotus and Warrior. I was so excited and I really didn't care that Om hadn't invited me back! So I had to pick 4 to go back to and I chose my top four from my list the night before: Shanti, Down Dog, Half Moon and Lotus!

Later when I got back to the suite Courtney was bugging everyone to see who they were invited to. I told her who I was going back to and she just smirked and was like "Oh, so your not going to Om???". I just told her that I wasn't but I really liked all the houses I was going back to. Courtney is really starting to get on my last nerve. I don't know why she is being sooo catty and petty about this!

Traci had been invited back to all six of the houses and decided to drop Shanti and Warrior. But she was really excited for all of her invites. One of the girls on my floor already has dropped out of recruitment, she was only invited back to Warrior and she is devestated. However, she has a really bad reputation of being kinda slutty and I know she hooked up with a Down Dog's boyfriend and there was a lot of drama about that!


As for boyfriends, Jon called me tonight and really pissed me off. He was trying to talk me out of rushing again saying that I wouldn't have time for him anymore if I was in a sorority. Also, he said he really wanted to come visit me for Valentine's day -- which was Saturday and Bid Day! I asked him if we could do it the following weekend and he got really mad at me and was like "see this sorority shit is already in our way!". I just don't understand why he can't get that this is something I want to try. I don't bitch about his activities while he is at school. I talked to my mom about it and she said that Jon is just upset and that I shouldn't let his negativity get in my head because if joining a sorority is what I want then he shouldn't get mad at me for it. She also reminded me to have a good time with it, enjoy meeting the different girls and be myself. I love my mom!!!!

Seriously, who plans bid day for Valentine's day? That's just asking for disgruntled significant others. I know it's not a major holiday, but come on! My boyfriend would probably have been annoyed too, and he was in a fraternity!

Glad to see you got invited back to the houses you liked!