Paige's recruitment story!
 

Hey everyone!
So I've been lurking around these boards for some time now and finally decided that I would post my rush story for everyone. Yay! That is, if anyone wants to read it lol. :D
-Paige

Absolutely, Paige

:) So I come from a family where all the women in the family belong to the same sorority. Literally everyone! My mom, grandma, aunts, counsins, second aunts, second cousins, you name it all belong to this one sorority. So needless to say I was a little disappointed when I realized my school didn't have it..

I rushed a year ago at a school where rush isn't super competitive. I only had one rec, and I don't think it really would have mattered if I didn't have any at all. So I'll make this realistic and write it one day at a time, as if it were going on right now. Now I just need to come up with some cool names...;)

Oh, this is going to be good. I want to hear the family's reaction!


Paula M.
Sigma Delta Tau
ΣΔTPatriae Multi Spes Una One Hope of Many People

So in light of the holiday season I decided to name the sororities with a holiday theme!

Christmas Tree
Wrapping Paper
Stocking
Lights
Snow
Presents
Santa
North Pole
Gingerbread
Candy Canes

Schedule:
Round one: split between 2 days, 5 houses each day
Round two: maximum of 7 houses
Round three: max of 5 houses
Pref night: 3
Then BID DAY!!

So how about if today is "round one?":p

The good news is that you don't have to worry about "the legacy thing".
The bad new is you don't have your legacy on this campus.

Can't wait to hear what happens.

I'm curious. Did all of your female relatives go to the same school or did they just happen to go to schools with the legacy chapter?

I know the subject of Legacy policies are a big topic for each sorority. Still, if a girl came through recruitment that was a legacy x10 or 15 for one sorority, can you imagine the intense pressure? I can't imagine that she would get a fair recruitment from the other sororities if that chapter was on campus.

Anyway, it is just a thought. I am glad you found your own home that makes YOU happy!

My mom and all of her sisters went to the same big southern school, as well as some of her cousins. I'm actually not sure about the other ones to tell you the truth lol. I'm kinda glad that my school doesn't have this sorority. I think there would be so much pressure on me to join that one sorority, being such a legacy to it. And I feel like all of the other sororities would cut me, simply because they think I will join my legacy sorority.

Ok so going back to my story... (this from memory/what I wrote down)
Tonight we had a convocation. All of the rho gammas did their little dance thing and we were assigned to our rush group. We did a lot of those "get to know each other" games. The girls in my group seemed cool. My rho gammas were really nice and helpful. Tomorrow I go to 5 houses..but I won't find out which ones until first thing tomorrow morning. I remember that part being frustrating.. I wanted to know where I was going the next day!

Ok so on day 1 we went to five sororities. I went to gingerbread, stocking, lights, christmas tree and presents.

Gingerbread: This was my first house of the day, and even though the rho gammas warned us it would be loud, I wasn't thinking it would be THIS loud! WOW these girls had a lot of energy. They were jumping up and down so much that a picture fell off of their wall haha. So the first girl I was paired with was okay, the first thing she said was "tell me about yourself", so I did..hopefully I didn't talk too much. Then she asked me if my mom had been in a sorority, and so I told her she was in xyz sorority, and since we don't have it on our campus, she got really confused and asked if it was a real sorority :confused: umm duh...Sorry but that gave me a bad taste in my mouth. If I'm invited back hopefully I'll meet some other girls.

Lights: The girl I was paired with was really sweet. She was super easy to talk to and we got along great. However, when it came time to do the cheers, they weren't loud at all. This made me feel like they weren't excited about their sorority or us being there. In my book I made the comment "Girls were nice individually but as a whole they lacked enthusiam".. if that makes any sense.

Stocking: I came in with some "prior knowledge" about this house. They were small and the girl I was paired with was hard to talk to. I actually wrote in my book that "she had something stuck between her 2 front teeth.." I know.. I'm horrible and superficial.. but I always notice things like that. It was hard for me to concentrate on what she was saying because of it. Nice girls, but not for me.

Christmas tree: The first thing the girl I was paired with told me that they had a house dog. Not that I don't like dogs, but I'm allergic and don't like them living inside. So the whole time all we talked about was dogs. This girl was seirously obsessed with dogs lol. The next girl I was paired with was really sweet, and didn't talk about dogs, which was nice. These girls are nice, but looking at it now, there's no way I would fit in.

Presents: This was a house that I had heard nothing about. I'll be honest.. their entrance creeped me out a bit. But it was nice. The girl I was paired with kept telling me how real the girls are and how everyone is friends with everyone. She kept emphasizing that they were real girls and not fake. She must have said it 10 times.. ok already. She was sweet though. This house seemed cool, I would like to go back and meet some more girls.

Ok so thats the end of day 1..I'm not trying to be mean in these, just honest. I'm just putting what I wrote down in my booklet. Looking back on it now, some of the things I said were so mean and superficial...oh well.
-Paige

Ack, I hate hearing that (like from my roommate who went to undergrad in a different part of the country). Although I'm guessing by your description of XYZ, it's probably a pretty well known org overall.

Thanks so much for sharing your story...but does every day really have to be a different day of rush? I'm studying for finals now and could totally use a distraction??? :o

LOL!
This happened to me in a meeting this week and I felt the same way. I couldn't concentrate on what was said.

i laughed when i read that you became fixated with the thing stuck in the girls teeth. i would have done that too. i just can't understand how none of her sisters would have told her-this was not the first party and you would think they were interacting with each other between parties.

i'm ready for day 2!

People who have never heard of Alpha Xi or Theta Xi have asked me if the "Xi" is a real greek letter. Once I told them the alpha xi's made it up because we thought it sounded cool...and the chick actually believed me. :eek:

Ok so I guess I won't make this realistic and I'll post day 2 right now! lol
So for day 2 I went to Wrapping Paper, Snow, Santa, North Pole and Candy Canes.

Santa: I was paired with this super sweet girl at this house. She was amazing! I talked to her the entire time and felt like I had always known her. I was super comforable with her and she made me want to be a "Santa" too! They're slideshow/movie was super cute and creative. I really enjoyed this house! I wanted to be invited back sooo bad to meet some more people.

Wrapping Paper: The girls in this house all looked impecable (sp?). They seriously all looked perfect! Their entrance was slightly weird but nothing new. The girl I was paired with, coincidentally, had the same name as me. Go figure lol. But the whole time I was talking to her I felt as if she was looking around the room. I don't like when people don't look me in the eyes.. I just see it as being kind of rude. It was as if she wasn't interested in me at all. Then I talked to another girl who was more polite than the first but still I had this feeling that she didn't care what I had to say. If this house doesn't invite me back, I won't be too sad.

Candy Canes: I went into this house with preconcieved notions about the girls. I thought that I wouldn't get along with them at all. Well, I was totally wrong! I talked to 3 or 4 girls and loved all of them. They were all easy to talk to and super energetic and excited about their sorority. I wanted so badly to be invited back!

Snow: I had heard nothing about this house (positive or negative) before going into rush. I was paired with a girl who was a senior, and we got along great. She just asked me how my day was and if I was liking recruitment. Then I talked to 2 other girls who I really really liked! They were really sweet and actually seemed interested in what I had to say. They wanted to know all about me. This house was a nice change! I really want to be invited back to get to know more girls!

North Pole: Finally!! my last house for round one. I was totally exhausted..I don't really remember this house very well. Maybe I was just too tired to care anymore lol. In my booklet I wrote "I don't think I would mesh well with these girls." I'm not sure why I said that because I didn't put why...who knows. I knew some girls in this house, but none bothered to come and say hi. Maybe they just didn't realize I was there. Oh well..

Sooo After visiting the North Pole it was off to rank our houses.. and I had sort of an idea of which houses I liked and those that I didn't.. So I ranked as follows..( I don't remember the exact order of the first 7 so I'll just rank them all one, and then my bottom three are in order)

1. Santa
1. Candy Canes
1. Presents
1. Snow
1. Christmas Tree
1. Lights
1. Gingerbread
2. Wrapping Paper
3. North Pole
4. Stocking

-Paige
Oh ya and my legacy sorority is pretty well known. I have lots of friends in it across the country, and obviosuly in my family lol. I'm not sure if I should say which sorority it is or not...

Yay! I hoped you would post again. For some reason I am totally hooked on this one. I just knew the Candy Canes were going to be super cute - I hope you go back there tomorrow! Go Candy Canes!!

If you're not planning to say anything bad about them, then I see no reason not to divulge the name of your legacy. It'd be funny to see which "pretty well known" group was not known to the girl at the first party you attended!

I agree, plus since it isn't on your campus, it wouldn't hurt to name your legacy chapter.

Ya that is true. I think its an amazing organization, partially because my entire family is in it, and I would never say anything negative about it. So I guess I'll let it be known which sorority I'm a legacy to and is not on my campus.....Zeta Tau Alpha! Yep, almost all of the women in my family are zetas and they are proud of it!

Before I met that one girl at my first party, I assumed ZTA was well known. Is it not?:confused:

I think generally ZTA is a well-known organization, but there are some members of orgs that are not familiar with sororities other than those at their school or in the area if that makes sense.

great recuitment story so far!

Was you recruitment before school started or was it deferred?

yeah. I only know the sororities that are at my school
so i totally know the ZTA's. I've hung out with a lot of them and I was even considering joining but at the time I was set on not joining a sorority so I told them I wasn't interested. .. And now I'm in AXD.. lol :D
but that's awesome :)

Zeta is a great organization and is very well known. I have many dear friends in ZTA.

ZTA was one of the first few sororities that I heard about. In fact, when I met a couple of Zetas (plus girls from a couple other chapters) in a class of mine, they made me want to go Greek. :)

I know that before I joined and shortly after my bid day I was unaware that there were more than 14 NPC organizations. During recruitment, I remember talking to a friend of mine from another school about "a chi o" (this was on AIM so when we talked about it it was lowercased). She said something about how the Make a Wish Foundation is their philanthropy, and I thought that sounded weird because the "a chi os" told me their philanthropy supports victims of domestic violence. I shrugged it off to a difference in local philanthropies. Turns out, she thought I was talking about Chi Omega instead of ALPHA Chi Omega. We don't have Chi O at Maryland (plus at my friend's school they got by Alpha Chi--probably to avoid confusion--and she probably missed the "a" since it was lowercase), and I was unaware that such a grand sorority existed. Also, I remember looking on websites while I was pledging and seeing shirts with Phi Mu or Pi Beta Phi letters and being confused, since we also do not have those orgs at Maryland. However, during my new member period, we learned about Sigma Kappa as a member of the NPC, and that there are 26 NPC sororities altogether. It was an aha moment.

I would be put off too if someone asked me if my sorority was a "real" sorority, particularly because it's NPC and that's what the question connotes. Even if you can't name all 26 NPC sororities and are only familiar with the ones on your campus, the comment would come off as both rude AND stupid/ignorant, because more importantly, both NPC and non-NPC sororities still "real" sororities.

ETA:You mention that your mom and a bunch of other women in your family joined ZTA at the same big southern school. Did you attend school in the South? If yes, I would be extra appalled that the girl at Gingerbread hadn't heard of ZTA, since I think it's big all over the country, but especially big in the South.

Zeta Tau Alpha is a fairly well known organization. I guess the woman at Gingerbread had no prior knowledge of sororities before joining and buried her head in the sand during her NM period when they learned the NPC groups! My aunt is a Zeta, but I've never talked to her about Greek life.

Zeta Tau Alpha was also one of the first sororities I recall from UF. I found out about it because one of my classmates was a Zeta Tau Alpha pledge during my first semester. She later became president of UF's ZTA chapter.

I did not find out the names of all 16 NPC sororities at UF till my second semester when I got an official list of them.

And I found out that there were others besides those 16 that summer when I went to see the FSU campus with my family. At the time, FSU had 3 sororities that were not at UF. Now one of those is at UF, plus FSU has another new one not present at UF.

I did not find out about Theta Phi Alpha till I joined Greek Chat last year...but boy did it call my name out loud and clear.

Hey Everyone! So I was super nervous going into round 2. I was nervous that the houses I wanted wouldn't invite me back..I was soo nervous! :eek: But I knew that I had been myself and if they didn't like me, then I wasn't meant to be their sister anyway. Hopefully some of the houses I liked would ask me back. When I got to my rho gamma meeting place she handed out invitations and I was slightly disappointed to see that I was only returning to 5 out of a possible 7 houses..oh well I got ones I really liked! On my invite list it said: Stocking, lights, snow, santa, and candy canes! I liked 4 of those 5! Not bad!

Santa This one was my definite front runner as of round 1. However, when I went back this day, I was sad to be paired with someone who I didn't click with. I was then talking to another girl in the house, and I didn't seem to have much in common with her either. It was slightly disappointing, just because I had loved this house so much the first day. Their philanthropy was cute, and definitly for a good cause. I'm not sure if I'll be invited back.. there were lots of awkward silences in the conversation..ouch.

Stocking Oh stocking..stocking, stocking. I wondered what these girls had seen in me the first day to invite me back. At least the girl I talked to today didn't have something stuck in her teeth like the girl on the first day...:p. Haha! These girls are trying really hard and I really respect them for it, but I just can not see myself in this house. Their philanthropy was nice, and I hope I made it clear to them that I didn't see myself as their sister, without being rude.

Lights I love this house's philanthropy! My mom wants me to be a "lights" because of their philanthropy haha! I'm not quite sure if I would fit in with these girls. They don't seem too excited about their sorority, and they aren't as peppy as some of the other groups. Their house wasn't very "homey" to me. It didn't make me feel like I could just sit down on the couch and watch some TV. Lots of girls had singles, which I didn't like. I prefer to have a roommate. I did talk to some nice girls today, so we'll see. Maybe I will get invited back and meet some others.

Candy Canes The girls in this house are full of enery! This house seems to be the complete opposite of "Lights". These girls love their sorority, and you can tell when they're doing all of their cheers. They almost make me want to get up and do the cheers with them! Their philanthropy project was really fun. It involved a lot of running, which was fun. Their house is nice and really big. There are lots of quad and triple rooms. I would really liked to be invited back here!

Snow This house suprised me today. I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. There's a certain bond that you can tell all of the sisters have between them. They seemed proud to be a "snow", and I liked that. Their philanthropy craft was really fun. I talked to 2 girls while making the philanthropy craft, as well as one of the girls from my rho gamma group. We all got along great. Their house is super nice from the inside, and most girls have doubles. The rooms were huge compared to some others I saw today! I really would like to go back to this house.

Ok well thats the end of round 2..we'll see who invites me back!

I don't want to reveal which school I go to and if I answer that then I think a lot of people will know where I go to school haha.. or maybe I just answered the question. I just don't want anyone's feelings to be hurt :) And no, I don't go to school in the south. Maybe the girl at gingerbread didn't realize more than 10 sororities exist besides the one on our campus.

Haha ok this might sound lame but I'm really excited to finish my story!! I'm going to be super busy this week so I'll do round 3...right now! Yay!

So I went to the rho gamma meeting place early in the morning to see which of the sororities invited me back. I remember not being all that nervous this day, which was nice. For this day, we could attend a maximum of 5 parties. I got my list and saw that I had only been invited to 3.. :( My list said stocking, lights, and snow. I was really really disappointed that Candy canes didn't invite me back. I had a feeling that Santa wouldn't invite me back, just because the day before was super awkward. I still had 2 houses that I liked, and still stocking...oh stocking. Round 3 was skit day..

Stocking It seemed like this party was never, ever going to end. It just kept going and going..mostly because that girl I talked to told me that she had trouble making small talk...hmm maybe she shouldn't have told me that. To be honest, that creeped me out a slight bit. I wouldn't say something like that to someone if I was trying to get her to like my sorority. Oh well everyone's different I guess. Then all of the pnm's sat on the floor and watched stocking's skit. It was interesting to say the least. I thought it was going to be funny, but it was more serious. I'm not a super serious person, and this gave me the impression that they are. I still don't think I will fit in. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Snow Snow's house was decorated soo cute! :) I was so happy to be there. Girls that I had talked to from the days before came and said hi. That was so nice and polite of them. I talked to one of the same girls from the day before and we got along great. We didn't just talk about my dorm and my major, but we actually had a conversation. Their skit was really funny and cute. These girls seem to have awesome personalities and I think I would mesh well with them. I am DYING to be invited to pref! Please!!

Lights I was suprised by the "lights" today. I talked to 2 girls who were both super cute and nice. And their skit was hillarious!! :D I was dying of laughter the entire time. It was sooo funny! These girls seem amazing. I got this feeling today that they do enjoy being "lights" and maybe those first few days were just off days for them. I really like these girls and see myself fitting in with them. I would love to be invited to their pref!

So since I only had 3 houses out of a possible 5, I had to rank all of them 1. But its ok.. I really want to be invited to snow and lights!! ahhh:D

And so its finally PREF night! It was hard having to wait until 6-ish to find out which invites I got (I knew I got at least one because my rho gamma didn't call). Today was probably the most nervous I had been during the entire process. I got all dressed up and did my hair, but tried not to look over done. I decided that if I was only invited to stocking that I would drop out. A significant amount of girls had dropped out by now, probably a little more than half of my group was left. This was definitly the sadest day by far. So we got our invites and I only saw 2 names..my heart sunk. But then I read it and saw "Snow" and "Lights"! YAY! But where was stocking? Did they actually cut me?? Girls began crying all around me and many dropped out right then and there. That was hard to see...:(

So on to pref night...

Lights The ceremony at lights was absolutely beautiful. I was in awe! I was paired with a girl that I had never talked to before, but she was nice. She talked about how much lights meant to her and how stronly of a bond she feels with her sisters. She told me stories about their sisterhoods and different activities they did. I want to say that I loved this house on pref, but I just didn't. I really, really liked it...but I didn't love it. I left feeling like they really wanted me to be a lights and would love to have me in their house. I think if they offered me a bid, I would accept.

Snow When I saw snow on my list I was thrilled! I actually thought they dropped me, as opposed to stocking (*because our invites are individual pieces of paper with the sorority name on them and what time. My first one said "free time" so I, being pessimistic, assumed it was snow...not that I actually got their names confused.. sorry for the confusion*) Their ceremony was amazing. These girls love being snow! And I can really tell. They had their seniors get up and talk about their time in snow and what it meant to them. They told amazing stories about their sisterhood. I knew right then and there that I wanted to be a snow. I wanted to live in this house with these girls and be their sister. I left that night feeling amazing. I would be heartbroken if I didn't get a bid from them.

So after the final party we went to rank our houses and I ranked as follows
1. Snow
2. Lights

Bid day was the next day and our rho gammas were supposed to call us if we didn't get bids. I didn't sleep well that night at all!

yay! can't wait to see where you went!

arrrrgh. i can't wait!

I cant wait either. I wonder where ?

Ok so its finally BID DAY!! woooohooo! :D I was so excited and nervous the entire day thinking about where I got a bid (or if I got a bid...) We were supposed to meet our rho ghammas at 7. The rho gammas did their revealing which was super cute... and then it was time!! ahhhh! :eek: They handed out the envelopes and had us sit on them until everyone had theirs. Then they said... ok go!! and everyone started opening their cards...I opened mine and it said....



















SNOW!!!!!!!!! :D

soooooo... who is it??!:D

And that is?

who is lucky to have you ?

SNOW is..........














....















ALPHA CHI OMEGA!! :D

I had so much fun writing my story...I kinda wish I could go through rush again. No wait..no I don't lol