An Indiana University Rush Story 2008-09
 

Hello fellow GC-ers! I've been on GC for several months now...basically learning and absorbing as much knowledge about greek life and the recruitment process. Thank you all for the helpful threads and comments...I have learned so much already (but have plenty left to learn.)

So, last night was the greek oppurtunities for women informational meeting at IU...basically kicking off the recruitment period! The president and vice president of PHC talked about the many greek oppurtunities and we also got a chance to talk with active members from each of the 19 sororities. There was a HUGE turnout which was definitely intimidating but still very exciting. PHC is anticipating 1800-2000 women to rush this year...so it is definitely competitive. I'm really excited to get the process started!

Here is the breakdown for recruitment 2008-09:

19 Party Dec. 6-7 2008
First Invite (12) Jan. 8 2009
Second Invite(6) Jan. 9 2009
Pref Round(3) Jan. 10 2009
BID DAY Jan. 11 2009

and the 19 sororities:

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

And that's all for now! I'm sorry it will be a little while until the formal parties start but I was just so excited I wanted to start a thread now! I will keep you all posted on whatever happens between now and then. :)Any additional advice or want to know anymore details let me know! Thanks for reading and updates will be coming!

It's always fun to see a Big Ten story. Looking forward to it! :)

Best wishes and looking forward to your story! :)

Good luck....with the wait! :D Look forward to hearing your story when the time comes!

I would love to see a winter rush when it's cold. At Texas, it is always sooo hot that you melt. My mom used to talk about rush back in the 1940s when students came to school with all their clothes to last them until Thanksgiving, and sometimes had to go through rush in hot fall clothes.

I can't wait to hear your rush story next year! I have 2 friends who are Greek at IU, and I know you'll have a great time

It's really not that much fun.......

When it was still "frills" it was definitely NO fun standing outside in the (usually just rain) cold January weather in a short jumper with a short sleeve tshirt for "Wizard of OZ" themed day.

I hate to say that I actually laughed..:o..so very sorry for that! But I miss home (Kentucky) so I would gladly stand outside in the cold rain just to be there.

Yay for an IU rush story! (I'm an IU alum!)

I'm excited to hear how it goes for you!

And PS Sister Havana, one of my friends just joined your chapter of APO!

Just a quick post. Thank you all for your supportive comments and I can't wait to continue my story. Well....I have a little update. I was invited to a shin-dig at Smacks(yes this is one of my code names...the rest below) and I am super excited. Just a pre-rush get-to-know you sort of thing. Details to come!

Code names I've decided on [in no particular order :) ]
Lucky Charms
Smacks
Golden Grahams
Kix
Special K
Honeycomb
Fruity Pebbles
Raisin Bran
Cheerios
Cocca Puffs
Alpha-Bits
Corn Flakes
Captain Crunch
Chex
Apple Jacks
Cinnimon Toast Crunch
Frosted Wheats
Trix
Cookie Crisp

So. That's all for now I think! Once again, thanks for all the support!

Fun code names! However, now I have running through my head "You can't have cookies for breakfast, but you can have cookie crisp" from one of their old TV ads!

Darn. Hoping she had a Fruit Loop in there.

I love cheerios.... yum yum oaty o's.

I had a dream once that my dog ate all my cheerios - I yelled at him in my dream. And I think in real life. Because he gave me the "why you yell lady" look.

Apparently my dog makes a lot of faces.

Love the code names! I don't know how I'll choose who to root for, because I like so many of them! :D

Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs? Haha yes!

oh darn! i totally forgot fruit loops and they are one of my favorites! lol i think i was on a cereal kick the day i made the code names up. :)

I'll go for Apple Jacks (b/c they are sOOOO good and so underrated, as a cereal that is) and also, Golden Grahams, because I like the name :D

Keep us updated on what happens at the "shindig at Smacks!!"

Slight hijack... speaking of Fruit Loops, I am in a foreign country and their Fruit Loops are weird colors. Like not bright and fun colors at all... More like washed out/ugly pastel/mix all the paint colors together drab and faded. Like grayish purple, faded pea soup green, an ugly harvest gold yellow--they all look kinda grey?? Oh, and they also don't taste like Fruit Loops. They are like Corn Pops, as in "Gotta have my Pops..."

Anyway, sorry for the tangent, I am excited for you and I can't wait for the "official" story to start in December!

Good luck! IU's recruitment is REALLY competitive, but also really fun! Just be yourself and try not to listen to everyone else's notions of the different chapters. One thing I learned is that no matter where you get a bid you are VERY lucky because 2000 girls go through and maybe 800 get placed.

Very cute code names! I'm rooting for Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch :)

Well since theres no Rice Crispies, I will have to root for Lucky Charms, my SECOND favorite cereal. There is nothing quite like Rice Crispies and sliced bananna, however.

Hey Everyone!! I just decided to rush at IU few weeks ago and have been looking around this site A LOT!! You all have the best advice and have been so reassuring!!

So I'm about to go through rush too soon at Indiana University, and I'm REALLY nervous! It's so competitive and I don't want to get my heart broken.

But, I'm still really excited and I didn't want to jinx myself by posting a thread about my experience, but in the other ones everyone has been so supportive, and I think that's just what I need.

So, I signed up to rush and it will be starting on December 6 with the 19 Party, and I cannot wait. I think that it is going to be a great experience no matter what happens. I can't wait to see all the houses and finally meet the girls. I didn't do any of the informal things, I don't really know any of the girls in sororities here, so that was expected. But the positive side is that I get to go in without prejudice.

I'll keep everyone updated every step of the way, right now I'm just waiting to see when we got to meet our Rho Gammas, my first substantial IU contact with Greek Life!!! I cannot wait to get started, the anticipation is eating me up!!!!!

Hey, a double rush at Indiana! This'll be fun to read. Best of luck to you both!!

My 4 yr old loves Lucky Charms, I am partial to Cocoa Puffs for a quick chocolate fix, and my 10 yr old says Captain Crunch! There are so many I like it's gonna be hard to pick just one!

So, just a quick update for everyone, this week I got to meet my Rho Gamma!! She is so nice and I think everything is going to be great!! She isn't the "typical" sorority girl, and I know that there really isn't a "typical" type, that many different types of girls are involved in the greek system, but it was just nice to have that fact reinforced again. I don't see myself as one of the stereotypical girls, so I enjoyed getting to talk to someone more like myself. There are about 20 girls in my group and about 15 are from my floor, with the other 5 coming from the floor below ours. She just answered our questions, and some of the girls were freaking out a little because she said that she thinks that the minimium GPA to rush went up to a 2.7. I don't know if that's true, some of you GCers probably know, but that's what she said. One of the first things she had us do was write down all the sterotypes that we had heard about the chapters and then she read them loud. After, she passed back the cards randomly and we tore them apart. I only had like two to write down, some people wrote down a lot, so I guess I'm going in pretty open-minded. Also, she said that there are 1800 girls signed up to rush this year and a "large portion" do get cut before 12 party becuase of their first semester GPA. That's all really, the 19 party is the weekend after Thanksgiving, and I'm so excited to get started!!!!

Hello everybody! Just like I<3Starbucks, I met my Rho Gamma this week too! We just talked about the basics...like what each round entails and the dress for each, etc. We will be having more meetings once it gets closer to 19 party. I'm really excited because four other girls from my floor are rushing and so we had about 23 in our group. I'm just really anxious... I think I'm going to go buy a pair of nice comfy flats for 19 party since dress is casual and I have hardly any cute flats. I cant wait to see our recruitment t-shirts!!! More updates to come...its getting so close!!

Hoosierxgirl I would STRONGLY URGE you to wear tennis shoes or Ugg (or something similar) boots...not for the "label" factor but because THEY ARE WARM. It is going to be probably in the 30's during 19 party and your feet will freeze in flats. None of the women in chapters are going to judge you for dressing warm, they have all been through it and will understand how cold it is.

And the recruitment tshirts are just black long-sleeved shirts that say "IU formal recruitment 2008-2009" small on the front and "19 reasons to go greek" on the back. the women in chapters will have the same shirts but in red with their letters on them.

DRESS WARM DRESS WARM DRESS WARM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, and the minimum GPA set by Panhellenic is 2.5 but most chapters have theirs higher. Basically you need a 2.9 or above to be golden. Some chapters might take you even if you don't make the grade if they really like you but since recruitment is so competitive almost every chapter can be really picky and not take grade risks since so they have so many women to choose from if that makes sense.

ETA- 2.9 if you are a freshmen but if you are a sophomore you REALLY need a 3.1 or better since it is more competitive for sophomores...

Yeah, I knew the dress warm part. Apparently we might get buses this year, but only to take people who have to go from third street to the very end of the North Jordan extension. I think that I'm going to get a pair of cute tennis shoes and then a cute scarf (because I actually need one) and then wear my peacoat. Our Rho Gamma said that she would come to our room and make sure our outfit was good if we wanted her to. And she said that we can bring a purse if we wanted, that people did. Is that true?

:)

to answer the hijack- I think the difference is color is because some of the artificial colors that are allowed in food here in the US are banned in some European countries. So they have to use other food coloring- hence the washed out colors. I have not idea why they would taste different though!

Back on track- GOOD LUCK!

Read them out loud... really?

Just on a general basis, or... calling out specific houses? :eek:

Yeah, she read out them out loud. Some were general like, sorority girls are fake, slutty, like in legally blonde, etc. But then others were the sayings/ rhymes, like DZs are easy, etc, I don't really remember the others. It wasn't really that bad, it was almost cathartic, like getting rid of all the bad stereotypes before going into a rush experience. Some where so crazy, they were funny.

Every chapter will have their own memership criteria and method of membership selection. Different chapters will have to cut different numbers of PNMs each round. These things will affect how much of a factor GPA plays.

What I can speculate, is that, across the board, a good GPA doesn't compensate for a bad personality/fit with the chapter. A good GPA can't hurt...but other things can. Some chapters might look at GPA as a threshold, considering PNMs equally based on other qualities after weeding out ones below a certain level. Others might consider higher better as one of many important factors when choosing members. It all depends.

Yeah. That's what I expected. I guess it's just an individual chapter basis but I wasn't sure how big a factor it was. Thanks for your response!

Good luck, Hoosierxgirl, and you, too, I<3Starbucks! I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to rush on a nineteen chapter campus. The thought is both thrilling and (forgive me) appalling, LOL! :D

Here are two ideas for keeping feet warm: (Battery) heated socks or thermal sock liners. Both are used by skiiers and mountaineers. Neither are very pretty, so you would have to have shoes that cover your socks. They work like a charm, though. I used to ski just wearing ultra-thin thermal sock liners.

Well my lovelies...Today is the day...19 party! I just wanted to make a quick update. I'm so excited and nervous! To top it off, they say it might snow...Very Cold!!! I'll keep you updated! Good luck I<3Starbucks and Hoosiergirl89 and to everyone else! This will be so much fun!

Good luck ladies!! Enjoy a lovely 19 party in the snow!! It is snowing hard here (hour away), so I know Bloomington is getting it too--Brrrr!

My mom lives about 45 minutes north of Bloomington and she said this morning that
it was snowing hard there (So. Indy) and that it was probably snowing in Bloomington as well.

Can't imagine standing around in the snow waiting to go into a house for a recruitment party..

keep warm and have fun!!