A recruitment story with a bittersweet ending.
 

Let me start off by saying that i come from a long line of greeks. My great-grandmother, 4 aunts, and my mother were KKGs. My grandfather was a FIJI, my grandmother a AXO, and my dad is SAE. It was always presumed that I would rush one going into college and I wanted to anyway. I was originally going to attend a large Southern school where the greek life is huge, but decided against it and chose the school where all my local friends would be, which was still 400 miles from home.

My school is medium sized, and the greek life is not very big. I should mention that the sororities that I would have been a legacy of, KKG and AXO are not at my school. There are 5 sororities at my school.. all are great nationally, but their reputations on campus all differ. Like other recruitment stories, I will be using code names for these houses.

Pink
Blue
Red
Green
Purple


Even before going to school I knew what house I wanted, Pink. They were known as the popular girls that all the frats wanted to hang out with. This is also the same sorority that all my friends wanted. I went into rush very confident. I had always been quite popular, and I was very accomplished academically and in my extra-curriculars.

Being over-confident and already making a judgement about what sorority I wanted even before rush was my first mistake.

Rush was held the second week of school.. the first night was house tours, then Philanthropy night, skit night, and pref night..dropping a house each night.

I'll update with more later.

yAY!!! I love these :)

Can't wait to hear it! I would root for pink, cause it's my favorite color, but by the way you're talking I have a feeling it doesn't end well with them...So go green!!!

Can't wait for this yay

The first night was house tours. We would visit all five houses and then at the end of the night, rank the houses and drop our least favorite.

Pink: My first party. I was picked up by a very nice girl at the door, who I had a lot in common with. I assume this was because this sorority is very big on matching girls to PNMs according to the info they filled out on the applications. I loved meeting all the girls and I kenw that this was the house for me. I left that first party irritated that I had to go to four more houses that night, because I already knew Pink was the one for me.

Purple: I felt uncomfortable at purple. They were a newer sorority on campus and I kept getting passed on to different actives while there at the first party, which resulted in me having to answer "what's your major" like four times. The house which they were in, which was the biggest and most beautiful had only been giving to them because another greek organization had to leave campus. It was their first formal recruitment in the house. I felt a lack of tradition there.

Green: Green was the smallest house on campus. The girls were nice and the theme they had for the first night was cute but I was unimpressed by the fact that they lacked a house mom and cook, which meant no chapter dinners and all meetings would be held in the living room for lack of space elsewhere. The girls seemed to agree with everything I said which was quite annoying. It was almost like they were trained to do so.
Red: I liked the girls at this house a lot. This was the first sorority on campus and had a lot of history at the school. It was also great nationally. I wanted to like this house but I still felt disconnected at Red. I felt like the conversation wasn't quite there. I could have tried harder at this house if I didn't have my mind set on Pink.

Blue: I was so tired by the time I got to blue that it was kind of a blur. The girl that picked me up at the door was very nice and peppy and easy to talk to. It wasn't the awkward conversation that I had experienced at other houses. I loved the house, and it was the most beautiful inside. She told me about the great traditions they have at Blue, and I was intrigued by that. I liked this house, but I had heard bad things about it from all the other PNMs that I was rushing with. They had told me that this house wasn't well liked and all they did was study. Studying was important to me but I wanted to join a sorority to make friends and be social, so maybe Blue wasnt the house for me.

At the end of the night I ranked them:

1.Pink
2.Red
3.Blue
4.Green
5.Purple

I dropped Purple that night, but in retrospect I wished I had dropped Green. I guess it didnt matter at that point though because I definitely knew I didnt want to be at either of those houses.

The next night was Philanthropy night..check back for more : )

Woooo sad about purple. they're my favorite color.

keep going....plllease

I have a feeling you won't wind up at Pink but I'm still rooting for them.

Philanthropy night:

I came back this night with an invite back to all of the houses, except for purple which I had dropped the night before. I felt really great about it because it must have meant that i made a good impression, especially when some girls only got one or two invites back, or none at all.

Green was first for the night. The craft was coloring and puffy-painting coloring sheets for little kids. I was uninterested in the house so I focused my attention on the craft. I was once again unimpressed by the conversation at this house.

Blue: I had high hopes for blue. The craft could have been more creative. The conversation was quite awkward because since there were so many of us in the room, the PNM sat in a chair doing the craft and the active had to kneel down behind the PNMs chair to try to talk to her. I just didnt click with this girl at all. I liked blue way less than I did the night before.

Red: I didnt click with the girl at all. I felt like I was struggling to come up with something to talk about with this girl while doing my craft, which was coloring once again. The showed a film about their charity, and a lo of the other PNMs cried. It was quite moving and I did feel like maybe I could find my place in red, and I felt myself wishing I had a better conversation with the girl earlier in the party.

Pink: Pink was my top choice but I was least moved by their philanthropic efforts. The charity that they worked with was one that all of their chapters work with, but compared to the efforts of Red, I was unimpressed. I had great conversation here though. I talked to three different girls and the conversation was friendly and not forced.

I ranked them this way:

1. Pink
2. Red
3. Blue
4. Green

I wanted to drop green this night and I still knew Pink was my top choice.

I always seem to pick the ones that the PNM never likes, lol. Poor green :(

Go Pink! But have a feeling thats not where you'll end up going off your title. Can't wait for more!!

Skit night:

The next day I received a full schedule of invites back to the houses, but not necessarily the ones I wanted. I anticipated having Pink, Blue, and Red but after receiving my schedule I found out that Red had dropped me and Green added me back! I was a little upset about Red because I did like the house, but I wasn't completely surprised since I knew the last party didn't go as well as it could have but I was still upset because it was my first experience being dropped by a house.

My schedule was like this:

Green: The skit was funny, and the girl I was paired with wasn't so bad but I still wasn't clicking with the house. This night was better than past nights at Green but I still wasn't convinced this was the house for me.

Pink: Pink had their house and their girls decked out for skit night. The skit was hilarious and I had a great time here once again. The girl I was paired with even told me the activities they had planned for bid day.

Blue: I loved the theme and the skit idea at blue, and the outfits they had were so cute! The first girl I was paired with was great and we got along quite well, but then they switched and I got paired with another girl. This girl was not personable at all. I was sitting there trying to talk to her and she would just sit there with a blank stare never smiling or trying to contribute to the conversation. This irritated me.

Heres where I made another mistake:
I ranked them:

1.Pink
2.Green
3.Blue

I still don't know why I ranked Green above Blue..i consistently liked blue more than green every night but I guess I was just irritated by the last girl I talked to, especially since I had a great conversation at Pink right before I went to Blue.

Check back for pref night : )

Please continue : )

More please! :)

ah! i want to know who you got :)!

Pref night!

I received two invitations back for pref night, the most you can have. They were green... and pink!! i was ecstatic. I figured if I got an invite back to pref night then I definitely have a good chance of being in pink. As for green I was not so happy..I wished I hadn't gotten dropped by red, and maybe I should have even kept blue. Oh well I had pink and thats all that mattered!

Pink: My first for the night. I was picked up at the door by a girl I had never met before. She said she had heard so much about me and she had to fight with the other girls because they wanted to pref me too. I thought that was a little strange because I was told that we would be preffed by a girl we had clicked the most with during rush. I was the complete opposite of this girl..we didnt have a lot on common. She asked me if I had a boyfriend, which I did and still do, and she said "oh does that mean you would never hang out with us then?" Of course I said no, it wasnt like that at all. She was still nice but I had a weird feeling about it. If they had been matching me all along with girls who were exactly like me, why would they pair me with someone on pref night who I have nothing in common with? I tried to be positive about the situation but now I was very nervous. Pink was very nicely decorated for pref night, and I enjoyed the ceremonies and songs they had. I still knew Pink was the one for me..but was I the one for Pink?

Green: Their pref night activities were nothing compared to pinks, and other houses from what I hear. I really liked the girl I was paired with but once again it was someone I didnt know, with the same story of "I just heard so much about you and wanted to meet you." Can anyone tell me why both houses did this to me? Anyways, I really clicked with this girl, but I hadn't with any of the others during rush so that still swayed my opinion. I wasn't moved at all by the girls who told emotional stories about how much Green meant to them. I knew that was a sign that Green could never be for me.


Then walking back to the student union, I made a very hard decision. I decided to do the thing that all my Rho Chis told everyone not to do...I suicided. Instead of putting down my first choice as Pink, and my second as Green, I put down only Pink and prayed for the best. I thought about it this way, if something happened with Pink and I didnt get a bid, but got a bid from Green and declined it, I wouldnt be eligible for rush until the next fall. I figured if the worst case scenario happened and I didnt get a bid from Pink, then I would still be eligible for COB and formal rush the following year if I wanted.

I was nervous the whole night after that..I couldn't sleep. I was dreading the possibility of getting a call from our greek life advisor, telling me I didnt get a bid. I waited anxiously by the phone....