My Small School Recruitment Story
 

Hello everyone!

So I've been a lurker on this forum for awhile and now that I am about to start recruitment I decided to register and write my recruitment story. I go to a small school in the Northeast. We have 4 sororities. Since I am far from creative I'll just use the 4 Disney Princesses as their code names.

They will be
Cinderella
Ariel
Belle
Jasmine.

At my school you are not allowed to go through recruitment until you are a sophomore. Unfortunately because of this rule, I know the general reputations and conceptions of these sororities. I am planning on going into recruitment with a blank slate and I am really excited to learn more about these awesome organizations. However, I will share the general reputations:
Jasmine- last resort, girls aren't exactly normal, completely different from national reputation
Cinderella- apparently girls here are party animals and are all exact look a likes, far from being the friendliest but a very popular group
Ariel- an acceptable group, has a wide array of girls, generally a positive group
Belle- the other popular group, very similar to their national reputation, girls are very nice in this group but again are carbon copies of each other.

Now that I have said those reputations outloud to all of you, I am planning on trying to forget about them and form my OWN opinions.

We have had an informational meeting already where everyone signed in and received a recruitment booklet. Outside the meeting there were booths with posterboards of pictures and information for each group. Each group also had a little guestbook where you put your name down to express interest. There were 4 representative for each sorority. I spoke to the Belles and had a great conversation with one of them. I even found out I live ridiculously close to her. I was a bit intimidated and shy though and feel as if I may have appeared awkward. I then went and spoke to the Cinderellas. Already I learned that perhaps their reputations were off. I tried to introduce myself before I signed into their guestbook and one of the girls was really friendly with me. Again I feel that I may have come off a little awkward. By this time I realllly had to go to the bathroom and only managed to sign Ariel's guestbook. I ran to the bathroom and when I came out the Jasmine's were packing up and I didn't catch them in time.

We have three nights of events and then bid day. However, since we are a small school we don't exactly have groups for house tours and the like. We can either tour the houses with the two Rho Chis OR go to the houses with a group of friends. To keep myself impartial I have decided to go with the Rho Chis rather than go with my friends and feel swayed by their judgments.

The events start up in a few days and until then, I'll just post my general feelings about things as well as anything related to recruitment.

I hope I did this right and it isn't too long haha!
-A

Looking forward to the rest!

I don't really get this. You're saying groups of friends will just go to the sorority houses and be like "I'd like a house tour, please!"

I go to a pretty small school. The amount of girls rushing is not a big number. It's somehow possible. There is a specified amount of time where you are able to go to the houses.

I am still a bit confused as well about the house tours work, but I'll find out next week.

It sounds like it isn't formal recruitment, it's another, less structured, style.

Well it is our schools version of Formal Recruitment. After this they have COB, and informal recruitment in the spring. It is actually structured. I go to a much smaller school than most of you so we do things perhaps a bit differently.

In our booklets it even says that it is a formal recruitment. Once I start going through the events and explain everything then maybe it will make more sense.

it will be interesting to see how recruitment works at your school. looking forward to it!

With the advent of minimually structured and partially structured recruitment styles, I'm seeing all kinds of creative ways to structure recruitment. One school I'm assisting (which I know isn't the one the poster is referring to because 1st semester freshman can go through recruitment here) has a really bizarre schedule: First two rounds, open houses. Between those two open houses, they have "coke dating/informal rounds" where they are allowed, over three days, to do COR type activities. The only invitational round is preference. Open houses allow the new members to rotate around to the different events at their leisure. So, they can spend 2 hours at one chapter and 15 minutes at the other 3 if that's what they want to do. Trying to figure out rotation for these open houses is very challenging because you could have 60 PNMs in your room at one time or 10... and they all come in at different times. Really messy.

Odd that this is such a small school but I think you're the third person that has come here in the last couple of days to talk about what appears to be the same school. :confused:

Really? That's interesting... It's a very small school and we have 3 nights of events. It'd be interesting to read the posts from other girls about the small school....

I don't want to delve too much into details about my school in case I give it away.

This one is one of them: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=115782

It was interesting to see that post. Maybe she goes to my school? I don't know.

Nothing really to update on since recruitment hasn't officially started. However I found out tonight at dinner that one of my friends who I thought was going to be going through this with me decided she changed her mind and didn't want to. It was a bummer to hear that. Then my other friend (not going through recruitment either) asked which house I wanted to rush. I just told them that I haven't picked a house yet since I want to go in with an open mind and see which one has the best fit. They looked at me with a weird look and then changed the conversation topic.

Tomorrow I am planning on going through my clothes and deciding what I am going to wear each night and if I can't figure something out then I will go to the mall and buy something. Luckily for me I had a great summer job that paid me very well so I won't be bothering my parents for the cash. My mom has been really supportive of the decision I've made to go greek. Her college didn't offer greek life so she doesn't know too much about it, but she's really excited that I am so excited. My dad also wasn't a part of a fraternity.

However, I have three cousins who are sisters who were all a part of one sorority at their respective colleges and their mom and dad were also involved in the GLOs at their colleges.

Alright, I'm off to study for tonight. Hope everyone is doing well!

also, don't feel that you have to share your opinions about the sororities with your friends or other pnms if you would rather keep it to yourself. sometimes it is better not to, so that your opinions don't get colored by theirs.

So, I am going to have to postpone my story until after Saturday. Everything is so distinctive that if I started telling it now, it would be very easy to tell what school I go to, what chapters we have, and which chapter is which.

I will however explain how the house tours work. You walk into the house and there are girls welcoming you in. They remind you to sign their book (since you have to visit all 4 houses or you're automatically cut from recruitment). Once you're signed in, one of the girls who was standing in the hall welcoming you will take you on your tour of the house. There are girls in various rooms around the house welcoming you and asking you questions.

I loved last night and had so much fun. I wish I could update more, but honestly I would give everything away!

I hope everyone is doing well!

tonight went very well. i think i've made up my mind! we'll see how tomorrow goes! im looking forward to telling you guys all about it. it's been so much fun and it's halfway over almost!