A Stormy Recruitment: UCF Fall '08
 

So I have decided to share my recruitment story from Fall 2008 at UCF a.k.a the week Hurricane Fay hit! :eek:

A little background about myself, I’m freshman from a small beachy town in Florida. I went to a private school and a lot of my friends including myself deciding on rushing when we went to college. My parents really encouraged me to rush as well. My dad was an ATO when he was in college and my mom didn’t go to a 4-year school but she always said she would have rushed if she had the chance to go to a school with Greek life.

I chose to go to UCF because it was my favorite school in Florida. It was a hard decision to make at first; I visited many different schools in and out of state (UF, FSU, USF, Rollins, College of Charleston, South Carolina). Ultimately, it came down to FSU vs. UCF in state. FSU had many plusses for me, it was your typical “college town” and had an amazing Greek life. I felt its negatives for me outweighed the positives though Tallahassee seemed like sort of a dead town to me and I didn’t like how the campus was layed out at all. Not to mention it was a good 6 hour drive from home and is absolutely FREEZING in the winter (I’m from south Florida and anything below 70 degrees is cold for me!). I then received a very nice scholarship from South Carolina and I was now torn between South Carolina and UCF. After a few visits though, South Carolina’s negatives were beginning to match up with FSU’s so I chose UCF! It’s the perfect school for me, I absolutely love Orlando and everything it has to offer, the campus is new and so beautiful, and its only an hour and a half from home…I couldn’t be happier! :D

Over the summer I had attained recommendations for all the sororities at UCF with the help of my high school’s guidance counselor who was also Greek and has amazing connections! I heard about some of the sororities at UCF, some good things some bad things, but I was definitely going into rush with an open mind and I did not have any favorites to start off.

So I went off to college and left home in mid August, I couldn’t wait to start my new life as a college girl! For those of you who aren’t familiar with UCF recruitment, it takes place the week before school starts which I loved because it didn’t interfere with the first few weeks of school, which I knew were going to be hectic enough!

At UCF, rush kicks off on a Monday night with an informational meeting called “Greek Forum”. This is where we get to meet our Rho Gamma’s and the rest of the girls in our group. I remember stressing over my outfit even though I knew it didn’t matter at all. I decided on white shorts with a yellow top and my white wedges. I remember I was a few minutes late so I was running from my car to the building and it had begun to rain (the first signs of FAY!) and one of the girls (who I’m guessing was a Rho Gamma) was holding the door open for me and she flashed me the biggest smile and seemed so happy that I was there so that really began to calm my nerves down.

I walked into this gym and went up to the registration table to get my Rho Gamma’s “name”. There were SO many girls in the gym already sitting in their Rho Gamma groups so I had to walk through all of them to try and find mine, which I finally did. At first glance she seemed really nice and pretty and so were all the other girls in my group. We went through introductions and some of the girls I could tell were not into the whole recruitment process as the rest of us were, they were even asking our Rho Gamma how they would “drop out” because they already felt it wasn’t for them. The Greek Life President then got up to speak and she informed us that 1000 girls were going through rush which shocked me because I heard that UCF wasn’t as competitive as FSU or UF. Overall, Greek Forum was very informative and I couldn’t wait to get the week started! The next morning would be UCF Day, which was the most informal day of recruitment.

Wow so that was a lot longer then I had expected! I will post all about UCF day next time and the “names” I’ll be giving each sorority! I hope you guys like it so far…stay tuned! :)

omg I can't imagine going through rush during that bad of weather! can't wait to read your story! :)

I'm reading! :D

Me,too!

OMG FAAAY!! I remember that week! I was a Pi Chi and our recruitment was the week after UCFs but us Pi Chis had our retreat that week. I was sad that we had to cut it short :(

Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hurricane shall keep us from reading your recruitment story!

Oh you're one of THOSE....Try a winter in Chicago! ;)

This sounds like it's going to be a great story! Can't wait to hear the rest of it!!! :)

I'm one of those,too. LOVE Chicago, but not in the winter.:D

I cannot wait for more posts!! I love hearing Alma mater stories!!

I don't blame you! I love this place, but I admit that for the first time this winter I asked myself, "WHY do I live here?!"

Alright, so now for the fun part!

There are 10 sororities at UCF:

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

The nicknames I will be giving them will be different islands around the world! So in no specific order…

Bermuda
Maui
Barbados
St. Lucia
Sicily
Bali
Oahu
Kiawah
Capri
Nantucket

Now to continue on with the story!

I woke up the next morning so excited to get the day started. I couldn’t wait to see what rush was all about. Since UCF day is the least casual of all the days, I decided on a pink top with a jean skirt and black flip-flops. So I finished getting ready and I went and picked up my friend, I’ll call her Courtney, who was also rushing. Courtney and I had met through Facebook over the summer and she was the only other girl I knew that was rushing so I was happy to know at least one person already.

My Rho Gamma told us that we would be meeting at the tent out front Barbados to get the day started. So I arrived there, checked in with my Rho Gamma, and went and sat down. After everyone arrived at the tent we took we took roll call and then learned the “chant” for Barbados. Soon enough the Rho Gammas told us to all line up out front of the house, which was GORGEOUS might I add! I had heard some rumors about Barbados, about how the girls are “easy” and “slutty” but I was so excited to go into my first house and to hopefully see that the rumors were wrong.

The Rho Gammas then told us to start the chant which would “let us in” to the house. I figured we would just say the chant once and then the doors would open, but NO! After we said it once it came SCREAMING back at us from inside the house! I was totally NOT expecting it and it scared me for a second! So after we exchanged the chant a few times the doors opened and music started playing and the girls started singing, I was SO overwhelmed! This was not what I was expecting at all! I figured we would quietly be led into the house and everything would be very prim and proper, was I ever wrong!

It had started to sprinkle a little bit outside when we were waiting so I was happy to get into the house. One of the Barbados girls then led me over to a different room and started talking to me. The conversation went really well we just discussed different activities we were into, what TV shows we watched, and different things to do in Orlando. I talked to a couple other girls after her as well and both the conversations went well too. All the girls seemed really nice and pretty and I definitely had a good feeling about Barbados by the time we had to leave.

The next house we went to was Kiawah! We sat down again and learned the chant and this time when we were at the door I knew what to expect! So we walked into Kiawah and I started talking to a girl. Our conversation went well enough but I wasn’t really getting good vibes from her. She seemed sort of “fake” and so did a couple of the other girls I talked to. I felt like looks wise though the girls looked more like me, tall and brunette! But this wasn’t an audition for a fashion show I wanted nice, sincere sisters!

The next house was Sicily! I hadn’t heard anything about this sorority before so I was eager to see what they were all about. I had a lot in common with the first girl I started talking to and it was definitely one of my best rush conversations so far, but all the other girls I talked to just seemed so awkward and weird! It really turned me off, so I was eager to get to my next house.

The next house was Capri and one of the girls I went to high school with who was 3 years older then me was in this sorority. I was Facebook friends with her so I had already seen some of her albums with Capri and they all seemed like really cute and fun girls so I was eager to meet them. We walked into the house and the first girl I talked to was SO hilarious! She was so entertaining and funny I couldn’t stop laughing! The next girl I talked to was equally as funny and I felt really good about this sorority by the end. Not to mention that it seemed like quite a diverse sorority. Everyone had a different look to them which I liked.

The next house was Bali! I had only heard good things about this sorority so I was excited to meet them. When we walked in they had such a cute opening song, I’ll definitely never forget it! The first girl I talked to was absolutely WONDERFUL! She was so sweet and the conversation never stopped once. The other girls I talked to were equally as welcoming. They were definitely going to be my top house by the end of the day.

Ok so I decided I’m going to split my UCF day post up into 2 posts since its going to be so long! So stay tuned for the rest of the sororities!

staying tuned!

*taps radio tuner to see if it's working*

Seems like we're all very excited to hear!
Oh and Go Knights!

*whistles while she waits* ;)