Mid-Atlantic Recruitment Story
 

I"m fairly new to GC but I've def. been a long time lurker. Recruitment is underway at my school and I'm awfully excited. The threads on recruitment stories and tips for PNM's have been extremely helpful. A little about me, I"m new to the school I'm rushing at, I'm fairly outgoing however one thing (which might end up working against me during rush) is that I tend to match my mannerisms/ personality with the people around me. For example, if I'm around a group of outgoing girls naturally I'd follow suit however if I"m around a person who is more reserved or conservative I tend to hold back a bit moreso out of fear or being considered over-bearing.

My school has an amazing set of sororities that are participating in rush this semester but I"m only considering several of the houses. This recruitment story WILL NOT be live. I love rock/ heavy metal so I assigned the following code names:

Foo Fighters
Fall Out Boy
Stone Temple Pilots
Green Day
SlipKnot
Three Doors Down
Hoobastank

***I'm trying to be as discreet as possible by not using dates or revealing anything more about my school's geographic location so if you are able to guess which school I attend please keep it to yourself-there won't be any cookies given away for your detective work- and another thing I plan on posting my story regardless of the outcome so try to bear with me as far as not posting daily updates and try to refrain from posts such as "any news/ did you get a bid"****

quick question.. although I am trying to be discreet would you guys like mini-feeds to know how recruitment is going so far or be completely in the dark until it's over?

I'd like an in progress, at least that is my 2 cents!

Since you are "mid-Atlantic" I hope that Hanna doesn't interfere with your recruitment. Good luck!

ACTUALLY, this might HELP you! There have been psychology experiments demonstrating that if you match your mannerisms/posture/body language with another person you are speaking with/interviewing, that person will actually rate their liking of you higher (even if they don't consciously realize you are doing it)! It's called "mirroring." :)

...and your username is PearlsNPolos... love it!

Good luck with recruitment and YES PLEASE to "mini feeds" (oh, facebook)!!

Good luck with that.

^^^ agreed

Can't you hear the end of this story already?

"Why didn't I get a bid? I did everything right! I took all of your advice!"

Whoa, totally missed that line of the post. So are there more sororities that are on campus but not even assigned code names???

^^^ that was the impression I got?

At any rate, I just wanted to direct the "long time lurker" OP to this thread

FWIW, could be informal.

I thought of both those things as I'm familiar w/ partially structured (what I had when I joined). I wish that was the case, however I don't think it is.

And even if it is informal or partially structured and you don't HAVE to - I still think a rushee should check out ALL the chapters at least once.

Do we have to chase away another story teller?

Why don't we give it a try where we let the person proceed and then not tell them- all the dumb mistakes they made - and/or - congratulations on their wonderful recruitments until after the process is over.

I miss a good (and complete) recruitment story :)

DITTO!

There are stickies and warnings everywhere to PNMs to be discreet. There is tons of advice everywhere on GC telling PNMs to "keep an open mind" or to check out all the orgs on their campus. If they don't heed the advice, then thats there own decision. Lots of posters on GC state over and over again that PNMs are adults, if they disregard advice, they should have to deal with the consequences.

PearlsnPolos - I hope you have a good recruitment experience!

Well, it would help if she would come back to explain what she means. If pointing out that her choice of words is extremely ambiguous chases her away, c'est la vie.

lol no one chased me away. it would def. take more than that to chase me away anyway.. i respect all of your opinions. For the record.. it's not that I'm not considering all the houses because "i don't like them" or other variations of that... i'm not considering all the houses because in the time frame for recruitment it's physically impossible to attend all of the parties being thrown. Like I would love to meet the girl that is going to attend all the parties so that I could shake her hand and ask her how she does it because there's no way for it to be done (at least not to my knowledge). I knew all of this going into recruitment which is why I was sure to thoroughly research all of the chapters and make my decision based on that. If i am unable to get a bid I plan to rush again another semester when I'm able to attend all of the houses.

***and now for the mini feed***

today was definately a reality check.. to say the least:D....i'm in love with a few places and a few rubbed me the wrong way however i'm not going to drop any houses because i don't want to wonder "what if" and i've read too many threads about how girls end up where they least expected.

Are you going through formal or informal recruitment?

From what it sounds like you are going through formal recruitment, and if that's the case, then why aren't you going to every event? Girls do it all the time at school with a large number of sororities.

i'm doing informal recruitment

love the names you have chosen for the sororities-my guitarist son would approve!

**i'm way to impatient to wait until recruitment is over to post my story so I'm changing it to live*** (well more like semi-live since i' won't be posting the same day as the actual events)

Tropical Storm Hannah is here and brought ALOT of rain.. and several of the houses having events today postponed them until tomorrow but a few are still having events. The thing is I don't live on campus and between the flash flooding, the accidents, downed trees, high winds and lane closures on the highway there's no way I'm able to attend. My mother strictly forbode it since my car (which is a '92) and is not equipped to handle such inclement weather. I know you guys are probably thinking that I have more excuses than a pregnant lady but safety is my number one priority and there's no way i'm jeopardizing that. I have a friend that belongs the house I'm missing due to the weather and told her why and she told me there's another event tomorrow so I'll go to that and if me not going today ends up hurting me I'll have no one to blame but myself; and I"m willing to take to chance.

Since I said I'm changing my story to live I'll update you guys on my experience so far..

Foo Fighters- LOVED LOVED LOVED!!! did I say LOVED?!?!;) the girls were very nice and genuinely sincere. I loved the fact that they were diverse in the sense that they weren't trying to fit a mold. I could really see myself there. I talked to the same girl the whole time and the conversation went great we had soo much in common. The party ended waay too soon. I'm so anxious to go back. A few girls actually walked with me to my car!! I guess that means they like me too.

Fall Out Boy- This was actually the first house I went to. Overall the experience was okay. The conversation kind of lagged a bit...like there were a few minutes when we actually sat in silence :confused:. Outside of their socials and homecoming events not alot was said about the chapter. Their philanthropy wasn't even mentioned although I knew what it was it would have been nice to have her bring it up. Maybe when I go back and interact with a few more girls it'll go a bit smoother and i can find more ways to keep the conversation going.

Stone Temple Pilots- I really liked these girls too. We didn't get a house tour but from what I saw the house is beautiful. The girl I talked to was soo much fun we def. bonded over the random topics but that was pretty kool. She did a good job of bringing Stone Temple Pilots into the conversation when it belonged and didn't try to make random connections to make it tie into everything we talked about. The second girl I talked to was great too. It was a bit harder to hear because at this point it was very loud but we had a good conversation overall. I felt bad for having to leave so soon but I def can't wait to go back and meet more girls.

Green Day- I don't really have an opinion on these girls yet. The house is gorgeous and I liked that I was able to see things that let me know that they were pretty serious about their phlanthropy. The girl I talked to was okay our conversation wasn't that awesome but I did like how she made a point to mention that Green Day actually encourages its members to get involved in other aspects of campus life. There were points where our converstation stalled a bit but it was only for a few moments. However, I think she was waiting for me to leave just as I was because we truly ran out of things to talk about. I'm curious to meet a few other members of Green Day to get a better idea of the girls.

Three Doors Down- :(:confused: I didnt really have a good experience here. I think it was mainly because there were two PNM's assigned to a Three Doors Down but the PNM with me obviously has a history with Three Doors Down house so I was completely ignored. Like conversation between the two would go on for a few minutes and if it was a topic that I was able to speak about I joined in but alot of the time it wasn't so I just stood there looking around. And then it seemed like when she remembered I was there she asked me a question. I was wishing that someone would come up and talk to me but no one did. I had a few other events scheduled so I was able to leave without feeling too bad about it. At one point I was just like "why bother" and wanted to drop this house completely from my consideration but then I remembered that one girl isn't a direct representation of an entire chapter so I"m going to give it another chance. And if the same thing happens again I'll just make more of an effort to get involved in the conversation.

Hoobastank- I wasn't as fond of this place as I thought that I'd be. Partly because the girl assigned to talk to me it was her first time rushing. So she kept asking me what I wanted to talk about. For awhile I was able to bring up topics for us to talk about but eventually I ran out. So when she asked again I was like "i don't know what else to ask honestly" and she was like "well you're the one that wants to be here" :confused: I'm not going to lie it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I'm sure she meant well when she said it but I wish that Hoobastank as a whole made sure that all the girls who were newbies to rushing had an idea of ideal conversation. Then I got pushed off on another girl.. it happened to be her first time rushing too.. she made a big effort to keep the conversation flowing but there wasn't really a connection. I plan on going back though because i can't really blame the girls I talked to at Hoobastank for not having a good experience if it was their first time going through it on the other side. Hopefully next time I'll have a better experience.

sidenote: do houses practice rush? ie. go over the types of conversations to have, how to present on the organization, etc? even "naturals" need to practice that kind of stuff.

UGH! That would have rubbed me the wrong way too! I think a chapter would know who their best rushers are; and those who are not just need some practice! Regardless, that comment is rude whether she is a good rusher or conversationalist or not!

Also, it does sound like you are giving these houses a chance, and not writing them off right away, which is good. Good luck with the Hanna conditions!

Yeah, my school does a TON of practicing, especially for the first timers. I do go to school in the South, but it's a tiny school right down the road from UK (which is SEC) and I know that they do a lot of practicing, too. We have a lot of "trial runs" before Rush begins.


Good luck, PearlsNPolos! I can't wait to hear how things turn out for you! :)

Yeah, I'm way confused - how many sororities are there on campus total?

I mean the only place I could think of that would have 7 groups doing informal and a bunch more that aren't does formal rush in the fall.

I think she indicated before that she was doing informal. We had 14 chapters at my alma mater and ALL of them participated in informal in the fall when I was there.

Yes, I know she did. That's why I'm confused. She's rushing NOW, this isn't a story from last spring, and there's only one school I can think of where there would be the inordinatlely large number of parties to attend that she indicated. That school holds formal rush in the fall, not informal.

True story. My room mate's sister is going through informal at a mid-Atlantic school with many chapters participating.

If this is happening, it is exceptionally poor planning on the part of Panhellenic and will only further the issues that informal rush is meant to solve.

There's a difference between structured informal and complete free for all COB parties only. If a rushee finds it impossible to attend all the parties she wants to, Panhellenic needs to step in and apply more structure to prevent party overlap.

^^ agreed

While my school only has 3 chapters and COB year-round, each chapter is required to submit their recruitment dates and times to Panhellenic a semester prior to that recruitment period. Dates are submitted, reviewed by the Panhellenic VP of Recruitment, and scheduling conflicts are worked out at the following meeting. That way, there is no confusion when recruitment starts, PNMs are allowed to attend all of the chapters' parties, and they don't have to decide (before they even really know anything about the chapters) where they want to go.

Because as many of us know, there is only so much you can learn from a chapter's website. You have to meet the girls that you could be spending the next 4 years with before you rule them out completely.

This just doesn't seem fair, even in a large COB environment, to the PNMs attempting to make a major life decision.

I can't really say exactly how many sororities are on my campus because it would be a dead give away to the school I attend and I still want to keep that private but just know that it way more than 7 are there..and it really sucks that's all the parties overlap because I'm sure that I probably did miss out on meeting some great girls form other great chapters....so here's an update

Foo Fighters- i loved them just as much as I did the first time that I visited. I met two more girls and the conversations were very easy going and the girls were really laid back and I liked that I never met the same girl twice. By that I mean each one had a different personality and Foo Fighters ment different things to each of them and some were heavily involved while others weren't. I also didn't feel like I had to present myself a certain way around them, like I got the vibe that if I were to hang out with them without makeup and in my pj's I wouldn't be judged and I really like that. I really think I made a connection with Foo Fighters. Hopefully they felt the same..next round is invite only so time will tell

Fall Out Boy- Once again nothing really stood out to me about Fall Out Boy that made me say "this is it.. i can see myself here".. the conversation was very basic even though we tried to find things that we had in common.. it just wasn't flowing. I'm not too sure that I can see myself here.. the girls are great and I can tell that Fall Out Boy means alot to them but at the end of the day I really can't see myself here. I didn't get invited back so obviously they felt the same way.

Stone Temple Pilots- The conversation here was pretty nice, it wasn't as great as the last time I was there but thats understandable because I wasn't talking to the same person. From the girls I've interacted with it seems like partying is pretty big here.. like at one point I kind of felt like I was boring her since she kept asking me if I go to the frat parties and whether or not I tailgate. I thought that I could see myself here but I'm not too sure. I didn't get invited back here either so I guess they were sure lol.

SlipKnot- I actually missed the first event because of the weather but I was able to attend another one and the girl I talked to was pretty awesome. She was very sweet and we had alot of things in common. Time went by really fast talking to her but I can't see myself here either. Some parts of my personality would fit in here but I don't think I could fit in here 100%. Maybe not attending the first event did end up hurting me.. either way no invite here.

Three Doors Down- I'm happy I gave this place a second chance because I was able to see that this house isn't the right one for me. Like I know that when there's a group of women there are always going to be cliques but at the same time you would think that at recruitment it wouldn't be obvious. I was able to pick up on the weird looks some girls gave each other and it was really akward. Also, while on the house tour sisters would pass and not even speak.. that's a little weird.

Hoobastank- The conversation was MUCH better here and I really liked it. Like I'm surprised myself but I could actually see myself here. The girls are soo laid back, and eay to talk to and just really nice. I was actually talking to 4 people at a time... at first I thought it would be intimidating but it was really kool and I really enjoyed it. I got an invite back. I really enjoyed that event too, I was finally able to see the house and it's beautiful and i'm not saying that it's beautiful because it's one of the largest houses.. to me it's beautiful because it has that cozy/ warm and inviting feel to it. Again I ended up talking to a large amount of girls.. I think the least amount I talked to at a time was 2 but I loved it and it totallly felt natural. Did i already mention that I could totally see myself here?!?!?! I got invited back again so i'm sooo excited.


It's amazing how I came into this thinking that I would have a hard time looking at 7 houses because i thought that I would love and want to join them all. But then I quickly realized that you GC'ers are soo right when you say that you know where fit.. and you end up where you belong. In the span of a few days I went from considering 7 houses to only 2. My fingers are crossed because I really think that I would fit in well with either Foo Fighters or Hoobastank. I have no idea where I'll end up or if I'll even end up anywhere but I'm sure that if I'm lucky enough to get a bid from either of the 2 it'll be gr8..

Exactly :)

I think you make a really good point here. It's not only the conversations PNMs have with sisters that matter, but they manner in which the sisters interact with each other! Good advice for PNMs AND actives alike.

Also, I only caught your post after your edit.... so the cat remains in the proverbial bag for me (although I do think I know the school. Of course I won't say).

Even though I got invited to all of the invite only parties by Hoobastank I never recieved anything telling me if I did or did not get a bid so my assumption is that I didn't get a bid; which kind of sucks..

Informal in the fall is supposed to be really laid back and all but it was still stressful (at least for me). I mention that because apparently formal rush is way more hectic and stessful...I haven't made up my mind as to whether or not I"ll rush again in the spring.. i mean if I wasn't able to grab a bid with no more than 300(not an exact number just a guesstimate since mostly sophmores and juniors do it in the fall) girls I'm pretty sure I won't do too well in the spring when hundreds of freshman are eligible for rush along with upperclassmen who like me weren't successful in the fall. But like I said I have no idea whether or not I'm going to rush (right now I'm saying I won't because I'm a little bummed) but most likely I will because I don't want to wonder "what if"...either way if I do decide to do formal I don't think I"ll share my story on GC.

Well, good luck with whatever you decide. I don't know your school, or could tell what you "let out of the bag."
One thing that I think would be a definite benefit of Formal Recruitment would be that you would visit ALL the organizations. As folks here will tell you, be prepared for tougher cuts as an upperclassman, etc. And still keep an open mind, since like you said, at any house, you might click more with different sisters than ones you had this (informal) time around.
So I'm sorry it didn't work out as you'd hoped. Good luck with whatever you decide. I personally joined via partially structured/informal recruitment, and there are times when I wish I'd gotten to experience the huge production that is Formal Recruitment as a PNM.

Ok, Im pretty sure I DEFINITELY know where you go to school, so I think I can answer your questions for you.

Informal recruitment is TOUGH. The chapters can ONLY take as many members as they need to fill total. From my understanding, many if not MOST of the chapters at this school are VERY close, so competition is pretty fierce in the fall. In the spring, there will be more spots open per chapter. They base the number of women a chapter can take during formal on the number of potential new members going through As far as being an upperclassmen, if you're only a sophomore, it shouldnt hurt you too much. Not saying that it wont hurt you at all, but sophomores have successful recruitments at this school all the time. I would also say, you probably have a better shot in the spring because at least then you will be able to see ALL the chapters. There are at least HALF that you havent even seen yet, who knows one of the ones you didnt get to see might be a perfect fit!

If you really want the greek experience, I say go for it in the spring.

^^^thanks...

i did alot of thinking about whether or not I'm going to go for it in the spring and I think I will since I don't have anything to lose. Luckily, since the semester just began I can use this time to try to get more involved on campus and to make sure my grades are in good standing(they already are but theres always room for improvement in that department). ZetaGril I think you're soo right when you say I'd probably have a better shot because I would be able to see ALL the chapters...even if I'm unsuccessful in the spring I'd feel better at least knowing that I explored all my options. So that puts me back at square one, which is being excited for recruitment to start in the spring.. lol

Good for you! I'm glad you're giving it another try!

Let us know how it goes!