DBB's Retro Recruitment Thread
 

Okay, I am going to do mine, just because irishpipes got me all nostalgic. Sigh.

I rushed at Illinois in 1999. I will use code names, and reveal at the end. It has been 8 years, and, being a midwestern school, chapters have changed a lot. This is a campus where one good rush can put a struggling chapter back on the map, and I saw it happen while I was there. I also knew nothing about reputations, and later found out that some of the houses I didn't like were top chapters. Who knew? So take my opinions with a grain of salt.

So, the mix has changed a little bit from IP's rush. The chapters are as follows:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Chi Omega
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Zeta
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Phi Mu
Phi Sigma Sigma
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
-------------------

Okay, beforehand, I knew the following:

Big brother (IRL) was a senior when I was a freshman. Most of his female friends were Ice Pearls, including one I had hung out with a lot while visiting him. My mom had been a Heart's Desire, at this same campus, and she had taken me to their house a few times when visiting my brother. I knew a few other people in each of those chapters, because they both drew heavily from my, um, "social crowd" (and that will give them away for most of you).

Let's see...a close male friend in a fraternity had told me that the Aquatic Blisses were the best chapter on campus because they were sweet, down-to-earth, cute girls.

That's about it. I was rushing with three other girls on my floor, none of whom knew much about any of the houses either. None of them were in my rush group.

I don't remember much about Orientation, other than really wanting to get it over with and get to the chapters. Our schedule was:

Orientation (Wednesday)
Open houses: 13 chapters (Friday)
Open houses: 9 chapters (Saturday)
First Invitational: 7 chapters (Sunday)
First Invitational: 3 chapters (Tuesday)
Second Invitational: 5 chapters (Friday)
Preference: 3 chapters (Saturday)
Bid day (Sunday)

There were 22 chapters in the open house round because we had breaks from the NPC groups where we we sit in a classroom and the associate members of the CPH would come talk to us (and we visited the one with a house).

In later years, the Tuesday night was eliminated, and we did First Invitational all in one day.

Also, I have no rush book, so I am going totally off of memory, but I do have a lot of details in my brain.

So, first round...we started in Champaign, for everyone trying to guess, but we did NOT do Champaign one day, Urbana the other. Also, I don't remember where in there we went to the Union and heard from the associate members. I wore my CPH-issued rush t-shirt, some light-colored flared jeans, my hair in a pony tail, and no make-up, as it was 90 degrees out, we walk, and the houses don't turn on their air.

Provocateurs. They sang with so much energy that it was startling at first, but really cute. I was struck by the fact that a lot of them were medium-sized brunettes. Their house was really homey-looking, and right on the quad. The girl who rushed me was from my first high school, which was totally amazing, because not that many people from there end up at U of I (or college, for that matter). They were also in t-shirts and shorts, which I liked, because I felt comfortable. We talked about going out and stuff, she knew older brother, and I showed her my fake ID.

Water Bunnies. There were just so many of them! They were wearing capris, I think, and nice shirts. To be honest, it made me uncomfortable to sit in a chair in my jeans, while my rusher, in nicer clothing, sat on the floor. They were so peppy and cute, though, and I liked them.

Scarlet G's. I remember these girls rotated a lot, and every time, they would be like "Amy, I'd like you to meet Suzie. Suzie, Amy and I were just talking about the food in the dorms." so then Suzie would try to pick up the conversation, and I would end up having the same conversation I just had with the last rusher.

Ivory Jewels. I loved everything about this house. The girls were so nice and sweet, the house was gorgeous inside and out, and their skit was really funny.

Heart's Desires. I don't remember much here, except that there were a ton of Asian girls. I ran into a friend from high school, who I did not even know was at U of I (I later found out she had transferred in that year). I was surprised to see her, and she was not terribly friendly to me, so I was really put off by that. I was also afraid, deep down, of never knowing if a house wanted me, or had to take me as a legacy, so I walked out of here pretty confused.

Ravishes. They did an SNL skit that was so cute! I thought everyone looked so great, and I loved the fact that they all wore different stuff. They had the most energy, and this was my favorite house so far.

Vivid Dreams. Totally gorgeous house, inside and out. The girl who rushed me asked what my parents did for a living. Maybe it was just conversation, but I didn't think it was a polite question at all.

Glistens. This was a favorite of a lot of rushees. They did a big U of I skit, and were all dressed in orange and blue, but I felt like I got the dowdy rusher of the bunch. It seemed like everyone was having a great time all around me, and she and I weren't.

Jack Rabbits. I loved loved loved this house. They didn't do a skit, but took us on a house tour, and each area of the house had a different theme. These girls had mastered the art of walking backwards. I did notice that they were almost all blondes, though. I was near-certain that one of my Rho Chis was in this group.

Violet Glows. This house was really far from campus, and I think our Rho Chis even told us to ignore that. They did a saved by the bell skit, but at the end, so the girl rushing me was dressed weird, and I had no idea why.

Red Hots. I honestly don't remember a thing about this house, except that it was close to the quad.

So that's what I've got for you...more Open Houses in another post. Oh, and if you want to guess, go ahead, I will let you know if you are any good at it;)

I guess the U of I theme really worked since the Glistens were still doing it 12 years after I rushed!!! (Assuming Glistens = Waterford!)

You are correct.

more please!

Okay, the rest of open house:

Aquatic Blisses. Super-nice rushers, and a gorgeous house. I remember just being overwhelmed because there were so many girls. They had really cute shirts, and looked nice without being overdone.

Sensual Curves. These girls were really dressed up, I thought, considering that the PNM's were in t-shirts. They were in sundresses, and they were very formal. The house was pretty, but had the museum vibe, as in, I was afraid to touch anything. I actually recognized the rush chair (she had dated one of my brother's friends), but didn't want to say anything about it.

Petite Passions. This chapter was noticeably smaller than the others, and they had 2 actives for every 3 rushees. I thought I had to be sure I said enough that they would remember me. Their skit was pretty sloppy and unrehearsed, but I thought maybe it would be nice to be in a smaller chapter.

Ripplers. I don't remember much about this chapter, but the girls were really nice, and I got to talk to one person for a long time, which I liked.

Ice Pearls. This was probably the house I knew the most people in, but I didn't know the girl who rushed me. I remember that they were giving out awesome snacks, and they talked a lot about which fraternities they hung out with.

Marvels. This was another chapter with 2 actives for 3 rushees. They gave us a house tour, and I liked the fact that they didn't do a skit. The girls were showing me their photo album, and talking about the philanthropy, and they had a picture of my brother and his friends, whose team had won last year's tournament. They told me that they were close with his house, and the first social of the year was with them, so I thought that was cool, and they also had an exchange with the other house I had a lot of friends in.

Wicked Lights. Another house where I noticed that there were a lot of blondes. They were again really dressed up, and I didn't like it when I sat in a chair and my rusher sat on the floor in front of me. They were rotating too quickly to really talk, I think.

Love Silks. I don't remember much about this house, except that the skit was really really funny.

So that was the end of round 1. We used SORUSH at the time, so I decided I wasn't going to rank them in my mind until I saw what invites I got back. We had to meet our RC's at 7am to do the paperwork, then began the next round around noon.

I got invited back to:

Provocateurs
Scarlet Gs
Ivory Jewels
Hearts Desires
Jack Rabbits
Violet Glows
Red Hots
Petite Passions
Ripplers
Ice Pearls
Marvels
Love Silks

I decided not to return to Hearts Desires and Violet Glows. I was feeling pretty good about 12 invites, until I got back to the dorms, and my three friends had gotten invited back to 19, 19, and 18 chapters. That, actually, really sucked, even though a lot of my favorite chapters were still in the running.

So, I would not be returning to:

Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Gamma Delta
Chi Omega
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Zeta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Sigma Delta Tau

I'm still SO loving this retro recruitment threads...it's fun for me to see a story with lots of chapters, since my campus only had three at the time I went through recruitment (they have since added a fourth chapter).

I think I'd have felt the same way as you about the invites...thinking that 12 was great but still feeling kind of like "what?" when my friends got so many more! So, was your mother upset that you had released your legacy house?

Yes, she was. She wasn't set on me joining it, but she was upset that I released it so early.

Hmmm...no responses, but a lot of page views, so I guess someone is reading.

First Invitational. I don't remember who I visited on which night (with one or two exceptions), so I will lump them all in together.

Provacateurs. I remember feeling like I fit well in this house, but at the same time, I didn't think it was a very strong chapter. I told the girl it was my birthday, and she was like "18 or 19?" and I told her 17, and she told me she wasn't even sure they could take someone so young. I was pretty sure she was incorrect though, so I ignored it.

Scarlet Gs. I remember they were all wearing black and white, and their skit was pretty boring. They kept us in a very small area of the house again, but the girls were really nice. Still didn't like their rotation system.

Ivory Jewels. I really liked this house again, but I remember saying something that sounded stupid, and then the girl was like "what?" and I was like "never mind" but I was sure they wouldn't invite me back after that.

Jack Rabbits. I had to walk all the way from Champaign to Urbana to get to this house, and I was a little late. I apologized and the RC brought me in, but the girl was like "oh, I didn't think I was going to have to talk to anyone this round". Their skit was really funny, and I got to see that they were a lot more diverse than I had first thought.

Red Hots. I spoke to someone who was an officer here (VP or something) and she seemed to know all about me. This was the first time that had happened, and I was a little surprised. Their skit was was too in-jokey, I thought.

Petite Passions. They were still rushing 2 on 3 here. We got a full house tour, and they almost all had singles, which seemed really great. They also told us about how they were allowed to have boys spend the night (also good!), and they just seemed very laid back.

Ice Pearls. I had another rusher that I didn't know, but she knew who I was. This seemed way less weird to me here than it had at Red Hots. They did a skit about putting aside the superficial and going where you really felt home, and I knew a lot of the other rushees here.

Marvels. This time I had a one-on-one conversation with a girl who was a junior, and she was an officer. She was really really nice, and one of the girls from open houses saw me and winked, so I really liked this chapter.

Ripplers. I again don't remember much about this house.

Love Silks. I really liked both girls I met here, and one of them knew I was so-and-so's little sister, which made me feel important. I got the impression this was a bit of a sportier house, which isn't really me, but they had high grades and such too.

Again, I didn't want to rank anyone in my head, but the next day I went to the union and saw:

Provocateurs
Scarlet Gs
Ivory Jewels
Red Hots
Petite Passions
Ripplers
Ice Pearls
Marvels
Love Silks

I was so excited! I chose to go back to:

Provocateurs
Ivory Jewels
Marvels
Love Silks
Ice Pearls

Sure enough, my dorm friends had been invited back to 9, 9, and 10, so we were all really excited and obtained some liquid refreshments to celebrate.

So the next day, my RC calls, and tells me there has been a computer error, and I have to meet her at the Union to talk about it.

I've been reading! And I'm on pins and needles about this computer error!

oh good grief, really? this is the third thread with errors happening! you are all evil evil people for leaving us hanging but please keep writing :D

Ut ohhh... that's never good... and this early in the thread? Oh dear.

darn computers!! my good feelings just came to a screeching halt!

please come tell us more.

The first year we used SORUSH we had a huge computer error, releasing girls from recruitment who weren't supposed to be released. It was a mess!!!!

Please continue! I'm enjoying every word of your story.:)

UIUC + Computers = :(

*gasp* not in the dorms! haha I giggled when I read that.

No more computer errors! I'm sure gald they had most of the problems figured out by the time I went through recruitment!

So you were refreshed on liquids when you had to go to the Union? :D

Urbana-Champaign
 

How far apart are Urbana and Champaign? How many minutes are there between parties? Did you walk or were there buses taking PNMs back and forth? Did Panhellenic make the party schedules to minimize the back and forth for the PNMs or was it without regard to location? I am imagining this must be very tiring!

Urbana and Champaign are right next to each other. The quad separates the 2 so everything east of the quad is in Urbana and west is in Champaign. So, my dorm was in Champaign but the AOII house was in Urbana, but it only was a 5-10 minute walk.

So max 10 minutes between the farthest chapter houses? More or less? That's not too bad.

I wouldn't say that. If you lived in the 6-pac, which was the farthest dorm complex on the west side of the campus in Champaign, and you were a Kappa, AGD, or KD, which were on the east edge of the Urbana side, you would be looking at a 20 minute walk, more or less, more when there was snow on the ground. Same with girls who lived in the Lincoln Avenue Residence Halls (LAR) in Urbana (on the same street as KKG, AGD, KD) and pledged Phi Sig or SK which were way our west in Champaign. If you lived in Florida Avenue Halls ("FAR" - how appropriate) you had to walk 15 minutes to get to the closest house. We just got used to it though. Another note - when I went to Oklahoma State everybody had cars and drove. At U of I very few had cars. There was no where to park on campus so everybody really did walk.

Just re-read your question - so, if you went from a party in west Champaign (like PSS or SK) to one in east Urbana (KKG, KD, AGD), it would be at least a 20 minute walk.

When you went to Oklahoma State people who lived on campus drove to class? When I was there most everyone had cars, but the only people who drove to class were those who lived away from campus. My friends and I always walked to class.

Waiting to hear more...you can't just leave us hanging like this!;)

People in dorms walked but apartment dwellers drove, and everybody (except for me!) had a car - even if you lived in the dorms. No one drove at Illinois - no one. If you had a car, which most didn't, you had to park it off campus and just use it to drive home.

We got ten minutes between parties. The schedules are fully randomized, so they don't pay attention to which chapters are close to one another. The chapters know this, and it's *officially* not a big deal to be late because the Rho Chi walks you in, but if you are an active thinking you are getting a break, and then suddenly you have to rush, you could be pretty salty. Or, if the chapter always wants their best rushers rushing, coming in late means you get a girl from the so-so batch, who is more nervous that you are.

My first year as an active, we rushed in pairs the first round, so the PNM's watched a skit, and then moved to the corners of the room to be introduced to actives. So there were four lines of rush pairs, with 6 or 7 pairs in each line (~50 PNM's per party). The seniors were supposed to rotate in and out of the lines as the day wore on, so we could have breaks. Well, little did I know, they never rotated into the first spots. The rush chair officially told us it was because they would ruin the flow of getting to just the right place at the right time, which made sense, but in retrospect, I think she just wanted her eight best rushers meeting as many people as possible.

When all was said and done, I had met more than half the pledge class before bid night! The worse rushers, on the other hand, got relieved by the seniors quite often.

Back to the story...

I go down to the basement of the Union to meet my Rho Chi, and she hands me a new list:

Scarlet Gs
Petite Passions
Ripplers
Ice Pearls
Marvels

Not only did I lose three houses I thought I was going back to, but they didn't even have a new scantron for me. I literally had to erase the bubbles next to the houses I wanted and fill in others. I don't remember if I cried or not, but I suspect I did because my Rho Chi made me stay and talk to her.

She told me to forget about the other chapters, and look at this list. If these were the only five sororities on campus, is there one I would want to join? Honestly, I knew there was, and two of them were chapters I had planned to visit anyway. I knew deep down that I would stick it out and see what happened, but rejection stings no matter how you slice it.

I knew I couldn't go back to the dorm and face the perfect PNM trio, so I walked over to my brother's place. On the way, I ran into an older fraternity friend, and I know I burst into tears in front of him. He calmed me down, and reassured me there were still three great chapters on my list, and I should not worry about status and all that.

So I think I went over to my brother's place, cried a bit, and then got over it and moved on.

sometimes guys can be a bigger help than a girlfriend can-they seem to look at things from a different perspective than we do.

that is just awful that they had messed up your invitations and had you re-use your old scantron card.

At least we know it all works out. Which chapters are out of the running now?

I truly understand (as you now know) how much that must have sucked. Isn't it great to feel like out of a couple of thousand people you are the one that they managed to screw up? What are the odds?

There were two girls in my group when I was a Rho Gamma this spring who had computer errors in their schedules. Well not really computer errors, human errors entering the data into the computer (not my fault I'd like to add). This was bad news turned good though, instead of the other way around.

The year I went through, there was some major computer error (most likely human error, since computers don't really make errors on their own), and a ton of girls ended up being released from what ended up becoming my sorority for pref - myself included. I ended up accepting a snap bid from them, and while I was happy to be in the house and felt welcomed, I always had a nagging insecurity that they didn't really want me there since they had "cut" me. It wasn't until pref night my junior year, when the schedules got messed up yet again and a lot of girls ended up released from houses they had been invited back to or sent to the wrong parties, that I overheard one of the seniors complaining about what had happened two years earlier. That compelled me to finally ask about it - I had been way too ashamed to ask any of the older sisters about it before, and the mess that was their recruitment my freshman year was such a sore spot that it had never come up otherwise.

crimsonblue,
i think that the greeklife advisor should have taken responsibility and issued apologies to each pnm who was effected by the computer error. how awful that you felt like you were a "quick addition" for two years! i am glad that you found out the truth.

Yeah, but note that I was visiting FIVE sororities, and he told me that I still had THREE great chapters.

Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Delta
Pi Beta Phi

I'll make it easy, I was going back to

Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Phi Mu
Phi Sigma Sigma
Sigma Kappa

Getting ready for second invitation, I was pretty bummed out, because the girls from the dorm were all going back to the same houses, more or less, and none of them were going back to any on my list. I don't remember what I wore at all, but it was the first year that UIUC did a philanthropy round. So, nobody knew if we were supposed to be less dressed up than second round, and most of the chapters didn't know how to hold a philanthropy round.

Marvels: We did a craft that was really stupid, and the girl who rushed me barely said five words. I could tell it was just because she was shy/nervous, but I was worried. Then the girl who rushed me the previous round came over and sat down at our table, and talked up a storm, and told me she was really glad to see me back, so that was good.

Scarlet G's. Another silly craft, I thought, and we were seated at long tables with tons of women on either side, so it was a little too hectic, I thought, when all of the other chapters were getting more personal. I was rushed by two girls who were nice, but neither one struck me as someone I would really be friends with. The one talked the whole time, and the other one was kinda like her sidekick.

Petite Passions. I remember sitting in a girl's room looking through her photo album, and there were tons of pictures of her at her formal with a guy I know. I told her I knew her date, and she told me he wasn't her date, he was the DJ. I said something like "he sure is in a lot of your pictures" and then realized I probably shouldn't have said that, because I realized around that time she must not have had a date.

Ripplers. I don't know why I have such a memory block, but I still don't remember much about this house. I know they were nice girls but I don't remember any specifics.

Ice Pearls. I don't remember the craft here, either, but I remember seeing a lot of the house, and it was really nice. Again, I knew most of the other rushees visiting this house, and I wasn't sure I wanted to join a chapter with so many people I already knew.

So after this round, I wasn't so sure that I was going to be Greek. Rush had gone from being fun to being a chore. I was sick of it, and felt like I had no control in the process. I decided that I would go to prefs where I was invited and see if anything clicked, but if I didn't really feel it, I wouldn't sign a bid card.

I am looking forward to more of your story!!