After reading the "What NOT to do" thread, I had a question.
 

On I think the 3rd or 4th page, some people were discussing some topics you shouldn't discuss at recruitment. One of the people said, "So basically you should stick to small talk and stay away from anything that gets to know the person?" Or something along those lines.

Which got me thinking. I was actually enrolled in the college of my choice last year but ended up withdrawing because of a personal problem that I had no control over. If somehow this gets brought up, will I be judged badly because I dropped out, or will I be commended for returning?

Thoughts?

Well maybe they asked about past? I don't know.

I was honestly just wondering what everyones thoughts on sharing your back-story during recruitment.

Alright. I just wanted an opinion.

Thanks!

Realize that everything you say should be calculated to make you look your best. Diarrhea of the mouth will get you in trouble. Your whole life story can be reserved for when you are a sister. Think about how you would react if a random girl walked up to you, said "Hi, I dropped out of school last year because I freaked out over a personal issue. Wanna be friends?" You'd probably find a way to extricate yourself very quickly. It's quite another thing when you meet said girl and find out about that incident when you know her and understand what she was going through at the time. Get it?

most often early conversations will cover: where you are from, where you are living on campus, what your major is, what year you are, what h.s. you attended, what activities you did in h.s., did you travel over the summer and if so, where?, what movies you recently saw, etc. superficial things. there is not a lot of time to get into indepth conversations, and you never should feel that you have to share deeply intimate information about yourself.

take the sorority angle out of the equation and think about what you would talk about if you were meeting a new person in one of your classes, or your roommate, for the first time. that is what you would talk about at an early recruitment party.

Yeah, I understand where you are coming from. I guess I was just curious as my life story tends to be brought up at the worst times and is quite complicated.. Ha ha. Thanks for your input though. :]

That is a really awesome way to put it. Thank you very much. I am still quite new to the Sorority thing/Greek life as none of my friends are either in college or wanted to rush/pledge.

But once again, that will help me a lot. Thank you. :]

I do think you need to be prepared with an answer about where you were last year though so you don't get flustered if someone asks, especially in later rounds. If someone notices or it comes up in conversation that you graduated high school a year ago and asks what you did for a year since you're now a freshman, you don't want to look like you're hiding something awful that's much worse than what really happened and you don't want to unload your personal problems either. Be ready with an easy simple answer that isn't a lie but doesn't go into graphic details.

good point! ^^

Do you have any advice on how to give a good answer without spilling my guts, Barbie's_Rush? Like, everything I come up with sounds dumb or like I'm telling my whole life story..

Something like: "I decided I wanted a break before diving into college, so I decided to take a year off to work/travel/whatever." Then you can talk about what you did that year that didn't have anything to do with the personal problem.

Oh. That's very helpful. :] And the problem I experienced was somewhat close to what you said anyway.

Thank you!