Sad recruitment story
 

I don't see any recruitment stories about rush not working out. Are they verbotten? This is a mom feeling really really bad for her wonderful daughter. :( I need to share.

Did she get into the theater program?

Not saying this to be mean, seriously, but make sure that you aren't projecting your unhappiness onto her. That's the last thing she needs right now.

Thank you Violet. My daughter could be the girl referenced in the link above. The total package, but from the north and going to a "sort of" southern school. Straight A's, very well dressed, articulate, very well liked in her dorm, outgoing, and I know for a fact she had great recs. I was Greek, so she was also a legacy at a top house.
She spent her winter break getting her wardrobe together, writing thank you's to the alums that wrote her recs...etc...

Round 1 15 houses - had fun, liked most

Round 2 cut by 2 houses, so she went to 8 of her top 10 and 2 from the bottom of her list. Pretty good so far.

Now it gets bad...round three, 6 possible houses... and she gets cut from 5 of her top 7, including her legacy house. That leaves 2 houses she loves, and three from the bottom of her list for a total of 5 parties.

Now it is the day to see where you are going for prefs. That morning, she finds out that she didn't make the cast in a campus production she had her heart set on, was totally invested in. It was a really really sad morning. At noon she gets her list. From the 5, the top 3 cut her. She was left with her bottom 2, they had been her bottom 2 all week.

All of her friends did fine. She decided not to go to prefs that night....so she dropped. Between not making the cast and getting cut from all but her bottom 2 houses this confident, beautfiul girl was too sad to make herself go. Who can blame her?

As her mother who is hours away, I am at a loss for what to do....and at a bigger loss to understand how this could have happened. I so want an explanation...was there a mistake of some kind? Who would not want this child?

They were not looking for your child -- they were looking for their sister. Unfortunately, because she didn't stick with it, two chapters lost out on somebody they wanted to see just one more time.

What you can do as a parent is send her loving care packages with lots of chocolate chip cookies. If she doesn't like chocolate cookies, I'll be glad to take them.

But no seriously.... yeah, this sucks, but all either of you can do now is be sad for a few more days, then move on and find something else to fill that free time with.




Wow, I sounded like so legitimate.

I understand that this is your daughter that we're talking about and you think she is great.

With that said, as a sorority alumna yourself, I am sure you understand that every sorority has it's own reasons for cutting or pledging someone.

As such, those decisions are private and theirs alone. It's likely that there was no mistake, but just the indivdual chapter's choices, which they are entitled to.

Also, please remember that you were not with her every step of the recruitment process, nor were you in the rooms to witness her interactions with sorority members. It's possible that she is great "on paper" but did not relate well to those chapters.

I understand that she is sad, and you are sad, but she indeed made a choice to drop out.

That is entirely different from going all the way through and not receiving a bid.

She has every right to care whether she's in one of her "top 3," but when you choose to forgo attending your pref parties, you miss out on potentially finding a home. It's part of the process.

I'm sorry she feels that way and that you're sad for her, but that's the way it goes.

It appears that both of these paths were not meant for her to take at this time. Please give her all of the support that she needs right now, but I am sure you realize she will grow from these experiences. She will mature and find her way this year. It does not mean there won't be sisterhood in her future because it still may hapen. It just won't be at this time.

Yes, I agree that it would have been better to go to the 2 parties she was invited back to, but between the disappointment on her invitation list and the huge disappointment earlier in the day she could just not get the tears to stop flowing.

I guess I am looking for someone to tell me she is not alone, this happens more then you know. I just have never really heard of this happening before. I never considered this to be a possibility and neither did she. Is this as rare as I think it is, or is it common, or is the reality somewhere in the middle?

Ok, I'll be the one to ask it...

By all of her friends "doing fine", do you mean they stuck it out and ended up in houses? Or did they make it into the "top tier" houses? Or did they make really great connections with houses that they truly loved for all of the right reasons?

Why did your daughter decide not to go to prefs? Was it because she felt she didn't have a connection with the girls of those chapters, or were the reasons more superficial?

I'm not saying that your daughter dropped out for all of the wrong reasons, or that all of her friends "lucked out", but it's not as though we haven't heard those types of stories before.

And as has been said, you don't know how your daughter communicated and connected with the sisters of the chapters. Maybe she was awkward/shy, and asked weird questions. Or maybe she did everything right, but somehow she just fell short. If this is really what she wants, you can encourage her to go through recrutiment again. But again, don't show her how emotional it is making you. It will only make things worse for her.

I went through formal recruitment this year and I can say that my sorority was not the top the whole week, in fact they were in the middle the whole time during formal recruitment and another sorority I preffed I ranked very last every day of the week. I was dropped from sororities I thought I made a great connection with and that I can see myself in, but when it came to pref day there was only 2 that wanted me, AOII and "XYZ". XYZ has always been the last on my ranking, but I went to their pref anyway and I had a change of heart. I ended up loving XYZ, but I felt at home with AOII.

Although my experience isn't the same as everyone that went through formal recruitment, I can say that feelings do change after pref day.

Maybe some sororities will end up doing informal recruitment and she can go through rush again when she does feel better.

I'm going to have to agree with ASTalumna06 on this one. It is unfortunate that she was cut from many of her top choices, but she chose not to give those houses (the 2 that invited her back) a chance. As KSUViolet said, there is a difference between going bidless and dropping out. It may be refreshing to see so many lovely women being nice to you regarding this, but I don't feel sorry for her, at all.

By saying you don't "feel a connection" really means that those chapters are "lower tier" in your book. The same girls that get upset about being discarded after only talking to a handful of sisters have no issues with dismissing a house based on a few sisters they've spoken with, as well.

I've said it before. I'll say it again. All of the 26 NPCs have SOMETHING of value to offer members. Each organization supports some national philanthropy and has their "good" chapters, as well as, their "bad" chapters. In the end, she chose to give up an incredible opportunity that many girls (the girls that actually go bidless) would kill to have.

Also, please keep in mind that just because Southern Chapter USA of XYZ sorority is #1 at Southern State University, doesn't mean it is #1 everywhere. When people tell me they are members of XYZ, I don't look at them and say, "Oh, they were very popular" or "Wow, they sucked" at my university. Instead, I embrace the fact that they are my panhellenic sisters.

Thank you so much for emphasizing this. When I went through formal recruitment, I can't tell you how many girls in my group was all determined to be an XYZ because they were "top tier." I'm sure if I went else where, as als463 said, that they may not be the "top". This is why the whole "tier" thing is full of crap.

Helllooooooo this was awesome! Need acknowledgment here! Ugh! lol

Hello. :p

You're right. When people apply for membership and employment, the members and bosses/employers aren't looking for someone's child. LOL. That is, unless we're talking about nepotism.