Auburn University Rush--Fall 2007
 

Hello...My daughter is rushing this week at Auburn University. I don’t have enough details to give you a full rush story, but I did get enough details from her to start a new thread.

I know that there are several GCer’s with friends/relatives rushing at Auburn this fall, so I figured if we all worked together, we could give you all enough details to keep you interested and tide you over until you get a real rush story (or at a minimal we can chat amongst ourselves while we wait for our daughter’s/relatives results)!

Ice Water Teas-Yesterday and Today

My daughter (we’ll call her Kate) went to 9 different parties. They started at 11am (after convocation) and finished at 6pm. Kate had a good time, but she did mention that it was a pretty quick pace. I had talked to her Monday night (before the first day of Ice Water Teas) and she and her roommate/suitemate were nervous and excited. I think day one worked out for all of them and they enjoyed themselves. The biggest challenge seemed to be making sure you kept good notes as you moved from sorority to sorority. The Pi Chi’s did a good job in explaining what was going to happen and when it was going to happen. Kate likes her Pi Chi!

Today is day two of Ice Water Teas. They were going to be busy attending 7 teas from 8am to noon (quite a pace!). They have already been told that they will have to be prepared to put together some sort of list this afternoon. I believe the girls are supposed to be ranking the sororities in the order that they would like to return to them and that their list will then be cross-referenced against the sororities list to prepare the invite lists for the second round of parties. (Feel free to correct me if I got this wrong!)

I’ll update tonight after I hear from Kate………

YaY for a current rush story!!!! Woohooo!! I'm excited!! :D:D

(and bored at work....heh)

auburnmom,

thank you so much for this rush thread. i wish your daughter,her suitemate and all the rest of the auburn pnms the very best of luck!!

Lots of luck to your daughter and her roommate!

Woohoo! An Auburn rush thread, WARRRRRR EAgle! HEY!!!!

Good luck to your daughter!

Good luck to Kate! :)

An update….. Kate just called! They have finished the ice water teas. After the ice water teas were over, each group met with their Pi Chi’s and ranked the 16 sororities, indicating which of the 12 they wished to return to for the second round parties (second round is Philanthropy Parties and they can attend up to 12 parties). They were told to rank the 12 they would like to return to as number one and then they were told to rank the remaining 4 sororities as numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5. These lists are then cross referenced with the Sorority’s lists and invitations for the next round parties come from this. Invitations for the next round parties are given out tomorrow morning right before the parties start. She said that it was tough to decide on all of the rankings as she was making decisions based on only 20 minutes worth of conversation and she enjoyed herself at the majority of the sororities. I can definitely see where it could be tough.

I am proud of Kate as she has stayed true to herself and she is making her choices based on where she truly feels at home (even at this early stage) and not by what she is hearing from the other girls. She gave me the detail of her visits to the sororities and as soon as I can think of some snappy nicknames (like I am ever going to beat the girl who used the Care Bears for the sororities—I just loved that one!), I’ll update with that information....

Let’s keep our fingers crossed for her……

Yeah! Thank you for keeping all of us who wish we were there in the loop. I hope that your daughter has a wonderful recruitment and ends up in the sorority of her choice.

Thanks for letting us know!
Good Luck to your daughter!!

ZTA72:)

Given the fact that the Care Bears had already been used…..
 

I decided to use European countries to represent the 16 sororities at Auburn University. So, in random order, here are the sororities that the girls visited over the last two days of Ice Water Teas:

Spain
France
Norway
Sweden
Finland
Switzerland
Luxembourg
Ireland
Netherlands
Belgium
Germany
Monaco
Scotland
Austria
Italy
England

Kate seemed to enjoy her visit to most of the sororities, but she did mention that she really enjoyed her time in Ireland, Austria, and Sweden and felt most at home there. She also enjoyed her time at Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, and France.

Kate’s roommate enjoyed England the best (even though I am sure there were others she also enjoyed) and I haven’t heard yet about Kate’s suitemate.

Tomorrow morning the girls find out to which sororities they will be invited back to visit for the Philanthropy parties. I think they are all stressing a little over the number of parties that they are going to be invited back to and which ones. Most of the girls went out to dinner tonight with their Pi Chi’s and the Pi Chi’s spent a good amount of time emphasizing that very few girls get invited back to 12 parties and that the average is usually lower. The girls find out in the morning where they are going and then immediately head out to the first party. I am guessing I won’t get an update until the end of the day.

I’ll keep you all posted……….

I can't even imagine getting all dressed and ready, and then finding out which houses you're invited back to!!

Best of luck to your "Kate" and her friends!

Bless your heart! I assume most mothers are on pins and needles during their daughters' recruitments (I know my own was) and here you are thinking of us needy GCers!
Best of luck to your daughter!

If she is disappointed with the number of invites, remind her that she can only join ONE sorority anyway... that may help soften it up a little.

I think being dressed up and ready to go probably keeps some girls who are disappointed at first with their results in rush longer. And since the groups who they go to may win them over, it really might make a big difference over all.

If you got your results, and then went back to the dorm and compared with everyone else and heard more tent talk, you might be more likely just to call the whole thing off.

Auburnmom, thanks for posting this thread, and I hope your daughter has a great recruitment!

YAY FOR RUSH!!! That's really all I have to say. Can't wait to hear all about your daughter and her friends!!!

Woo hoo! A current rush thread! I added you to the list

Thank you so much for sharing your daughther's story with us, AuburnMom. Best of luck to your daughter and her friends :D

Go France!

Can't wait for an undate; good luck to your daughter!:D

I had 16 sororities to visit when I rushed, so I know how hard it is to keep them all straight, and how tough on the feet it is to tromp around to all of them in hot weather (and in cute shoes).

Also glad to hear that she's going with her gut rather than the group gossip.

Best of luck to she and her friends, and thanks for posting her story.

Go Ireland! Good luck to Kate and her friends :)

a mini update...
 

Kate will attend 12 parties in this round! She's so excited. I don't know yet which 12 she is attending and I don't have any information on her room mate/suite mate yet. Apparently she received her list and had a few seconds to send me a text message before she headed out to her first party. She told me she'd call me at lunch and let me know which 12 and I'll update more at that time.

Thank you all for your kind words of support and ufpiphi, you are correct, I am on "pins and needles" this week!

More information later in the day......

Oooooooo!!! Sounds good! We're on "pins & needles" right there with you.

Congrats to your daughter!!!!!!!!!! YaY for a full schedule!!!!!!!!!

Wow, a full schedule! Looks like Kate's recruitment is going well and I wish her and her friends luck for the rest of recruitment.

AU
 

This is my favorite time of the year! .... very exciting times! I am leaving shortly for a chapter visit this week-end! YAY!

Best wishes for a successful recruitment to all GC PNMs and their anxious
moms!!

hooray for auburndaughter! hope she has a great day today.

Day One of Philanthropy Parties is over!
 

As mentioned above, Kate was invited back to 12 parties for this round. She will go back to (over the next two days):

France
Norway
Finland
Luxembourg
Ireland
Netherlands
Belgium
Germany
Monaco
Austria
Italy
England

Kate was excited about attending 12 parties for this round and seems to be enjoying her day. Other then the record heat wave that Auburn is enjoying (heat indices of 110 today); it seems to be a good day. I haven’t talked to Kate since lunch so I only got information on the first four parties. I’ll update her preferences once I talk to her tonight. She won’t finish Philanthropy Parties until tomorrow.

Kate’s roommate will be attending 8 parties this round and Kate’s suitemate will be attending 11 parties this round.

More later…….. :)

Thanks for sharing your daughter's story. I never had the opportunity to go to college and participate in Greek Life, (one of my greatest regrets) it's so much fun to live vicariously through y'all. I have a ton of friends in Junior Auxiliary who were in sororities but this kind of conversation is not what you would generally talk about! haha;) Good Luck to her and I hope she gets a bid from her favorite!

While we wait for an update from Kate; here's a little background on her.....
 

Since I've already revealed where she's rushing, I have been purposely vague (or non existent) about any details about her. I will continue to be cautious as I don't want to compromise her rush at all, but I think a few general details may be helpful to her story….

Kate is from the North. She is one of the few from our area that chose to attend a southern University. Most of her friends went to other “northern” schools that are close to where we live and even though a good amount of them are rushing, very few are going through the type of rush that Auburn has. Luckily, having heard about traditional rushes at Southern schools, we started doing research about Auburn rush and we worked hard to ensure that Kate was prepared and had the recommendations (and the rush wardrobe!) that she needed.

(More about obtaining recommendations later as that is an amusing story in itself!)

A disadvantage for Kate is that she isn’t attending rush with a lot of high school friends, and she doesn’t have generations of family that have attended Auburn or been Greek. She mentioned to me today that the girls she has met are very, very friendly to her but that she doesn’t have her best friend’s older sister in a sorority like her suitemate or she isn’t a double legacy to a sorority like her roommate. A lot of the PNM’s actually know actives; unfortunately, since we are from so far away, Kate does not.

An advantage for her is because she’s not from the south, she came to rush with no preconceived notions about any of the sororities and is truly forming her own opinion as she goes.

I keep encouraging Kate to be friendly, out-going, and to keep an open mind. I am proud of her as she seems to be following that advice.

I think we were both thrilled when she was invited back to 12 parties for this round. We know that it is hard to rush at a competitive Southern school when you aren’t from the area. We realize that the later rounds are more competitive, but I am proud of what she’s accomplished thus far!

to answer a few questions that I have recieved....
 

I've recieved a few questions via PM and I thought I would answer them on the forum as they could be interesting to all...

1. How is the general overall mood of the PNM's? I can only speak for my daughter and to her experience, but she is having a good time and I believe most of the girl's in her group are at a minimal enjoying themselves. Everyone is nervous, but I think it is a good nervous energy and the sorority girls have been lovely!

2. How has the heat affected the girls? It is hot (hotter then normal) and it is making things probably a bit more cumbersome then usual but as a whole they seem to be holding up okay. Kate did tell me a story today about a girl in her Pi Chi group starting to feel faint and having to sit down, but she was very quickly helped by fellow rushee's and Pi Chi's and seems to be fine now.

3. What are the girls wearing? Sundresses for days 1 and 2. Today and tomorrow it is Panhellenic T-shirts and Shorts.

4. Have I heard anything about quotas? No

5. Is there much tent talk? I believe there is probably a fair amount of it. The Pi Chi's are encouraging the girls to form their own opinons, but the girls are talking amongst themselves, as is probably normal!

6. How far North are we? I better not answer that one! maybe after rush is over (I am sure you understand!)

One more comment, the Pi Chi's at Auburn seem to be doing an amazing job. Kate cannot say enough good things about hers. Kudos to Auburn Panhellenic and the Pi Chi's and the job they've done in putting rush together! :)

An update from Kate…..
 

She continues to have a good time. She attended 9 out of the 12 second round parties that she will visit for philanthropy round today and will attend the remaining 3 tomorrow.

An interesting thing that she told me is that with each round she likes new and different things about each sorority. After attending almost two rounds of parties, she is feeling a strong pull to Austria (she says it feels like home). She also has really enjoyed attending Germany today. She said that the girls in Finland are trying so hard to make everyone feel at home. Finland is a smaller sorority and she is impressed with how hard they are trying. Tomorrow she goes back to France, Norway, and Ireland—3 of her favorites from the first round!

Tomorrow afternoon she will have to rank the 12 sororities she attended in this round and the sororities will rank the PNM’s. They will have to reduce from 12 sororities to 6 sororities for Round 3—Skit Round. Skit round will take place on Saturday.

More updates when I have them!

My friend went through recruitment at Auburn last year. She did not know one person on campus. Her family was not "Greek". she did just fine!!!!
It is not true that if you are not a "legacy" at a competitive Southern school that you don't stand a chance. Good luck to your daughter!!!

my little sister is also going through rush at auburn this week. "kate" has definitely provided more info to you than i have received!!! i have been VERY pleased to hear my little sister's voice go from bordering on sheer panic the night before rush began, to actually sounding like she was having fun yesterday.

thanks for starting this thread!! you have done a great job keeping us updated, but i do have a few comments/observations to offer also if you don't mind. just as leesek just said, you do not have to be a legacy to get a bid and in a lot of cases it actually can hurt you.

for example, my sister's best friend is also going through rush, as is another one of their friends from high school. the best friend happens to have an older sister who just graduated from auburn and was in a sorority. i'm too tired to figure out a witty code, so i will call this sorority A. the best friend also happens to have a cousin who is active in another sorority on campus, B. my sister is fortunate to be a legacy to sorority C b/c of her big sis :). the other friend is not a legacy of any sorority (that i know of).

since there are 3 of them and they are all in different pi chi groups, they really learned a LOT after just the first day and got to share their likes and dislikes with one another, which can be good and bad. my sister did not visit sorority A or C the first day, but did visit B. the best friend visited sorority A and C the first day, but not B. at the end of the day, the best friend says that she "hated" sorority A and "loved" sorority C. i could tell my sister was relieved by this report since she would be visiting C first thing the next morning. for whatever reason, i think they both were already leaning toward C. in the nicest and non-bossy way possible, i tried to impress upon them how important it was not to go into this process with any pre-conceived ideas about the groups or feeling any pressure to pledge a family member's sorority. this can only lead to disappointment and unhappiness b/c you are being unfair to yourself by possibly limiting your options to the point that you may end up with none and you may very well completely overlook the sorority that is actually the perfect fit for you.

anyway, my sister really liked sorority C the second day and said she was really made to feel comfortable there with several sisters introducing themselves to her, including the president, which obviously makes any rushee feel welcome. of course, i was pleased with this report, but i began to become concerned about best friend. i was VERY worried she would be dropped by several sororities based solely on her connections to sororities A & B.

my concern was on several different levels - i really like best friend and know what a wonderful asset she would be to any group, so i was dreading see her get cut by a group based on absolutely NO fault of her own (she has a 4.0, 32 ACT, leader/athlete in hs, cute, etc). my other huge concern was the fact that, prior to rush starting, my sister was pretty hesitant about the whole process and i wouldn't have been surprised if she called and said she decided not to do it. side note - this would have been fine with me, although i think anyone can benefit through participating in rush, whether you pledge any sorority or not. anyway, since she was so hesitant to begin with, my concern was that best friend would get cut by C and my sister would not, which would possibly make my sister lose interest or just the excitement of possibly joining the same group as your best friend. this shouldn't have any effect on my sister's ultimate decisions, but i have to keep reminding myself that they are fresh out of mom and dad's house and losing your "comfort blanket" the first day does not make the rush process any easier.

well, i get the call this morning - i must have a crystal ball b/c best friend has been dropped by C, but not my sister. i could hear the disappointment in her voice and i was personally disappointed b/c i know what an asset she could have been to C, but also the ONLY reason she was dropped was b/c of her connections with A & B. btw, the "other friend" i mentioned earlier was not enjoying rush as of the last update i received and actually told my sister that sorority C was breaking some sort of rule by mentioning they had heard great things about her. :rolleyes: i reminded my sister about recommendations and how the point of those are to inform the sorority of "great things" about you. there is some obvious jealousy going on there and my sister told me that the "other friend's" pi chi group was "just like that" and "really weird" about sharing their experiences at the different sororities with each other. so, there is apparently at least one pi chi group that probably isn't the most fun group to be in right now!!!

ok, i just realized i wrote a novel just to say - not only do you not have to be a legacy to get a bid, but a lot of times it hurts you. i didnt get a call tonight and i'm hoping this is b/c my sister was just so tired she went straight to bed and not b/c she had a bad day. i also hope she can continue to have a good week and keep an open mind when best friend may not pledge the same sorority, if either of them pledge at all. sorry for getting carried away with those details. i think i must have had a lot of energy that needed to be released. LOL

elaine, so glad to hear that you sister is enjoying herself. how about starting a rush thread for her that includes her two friends? the more the merrier!!

War Eagle :D

Elaine,
I am also glad to hear that your sister is enjoying herself. Thank you for the update on her!

I can definitely see where being a legacy can be a double-edged sword. Obviously you get a "leg up" in your legacy sorority, but it could hurt you in the rest of the sororities.

I haven't heard anything from Kate today and will update when I do. The next round of party invites go out tomorrow morning and then the girls will go directly to the 3rd round (Skit Day) parties.

Here's keeping our fingers crossed for your sister, my daughter, and all of the rest of Auburn's PNM's!

Cuts
 

Cutting from twelve houses to six.........

Saturday could be a trying day for many pnms.

is that a subtle hint to take my longwindedness elsewhere??? LOL

i won't be writing anymore novels, trust me. i just needed to get the background out.....i guess. honestly, i wish i had the time to start another thread, but i'm pushing it to even be reading these threads, much less taking up halp a webpage with one post!!!

i still haven't heard anything from my sister either. i'm beginning to get a little nervous, but i have done all i can do and the rest is up to her. the ONLY thing that i'm concerned about is that she will make a "heat of the moment" decision based on her best friend's status, whatever that may be, and later realize that they are still going to be best friends no matter what happens during rush and what sororities they do or do not pledge. i know there are many things i look back on now that i did at that age and realize how silly my reasoning (or lack thereof) was, but that's just a part of life that we all go through to become an adult.......at least i think it is for most people.

Amen sister! I was right there with you.....