A very lovely sophomore recruitment!
 

Hey GCers! I've been lurking around the forums for a while and all the help you guys provided was amazing!! I've been reading everyone's recruitment stories and decided I would post mine. Recruitment starts at the end of September and is classified as being fairly non-competitive. :)

I go to a state school in the Midwest and I am not from the immediate area, so I had to make all new friends. I was a freshman last year, and I didn't have time to go through formal recruitment in the fall.I regretted it all semester, so I decided to go through informal in the winter semester. To make a long story short, I checked out two chapters and didn't click with either of them. I've been slowly getting more excited about the idea of going through formal, so I decided I would give it a shot! I met the recruitment chairs for two different sororities (that I haven't met yet) by chance and they told me all about it and that they would love to get together for coffee with me before recruitment begins. So I know this was a really long intro, so sorry and congrats if you made it this far!!

We have 9 sororities on our campus. For them, I will be using some of my favorite TV shows. The code is totally random and does not correspond to any particular house!

Firefly
America's Next Top Model
Stargate: SG-1
Glee
The Tudors
Greek
Scrubs
Pretty Little Liars
Pokemon

The schedule of days is spread out over about two weeks.
Day 1: Kickoff
Day 2 & 3: Chapter Rounds
Day 4 & 5: House Tours
Day 6: Preference
Day 7: BID DAY!!

I'll try to post it live, but no promises!!

Correct me if I am wrong, but the bold part screams RECRUITMENT INFRACTION! :confused:

Just sayin'

Good luck. =)
(Go Firefly!)

YAY MIDWEST!! YAY STATE SCHOOLS!! YAY RECRUITMENT :)

Since I feel somewhat guilty about watching ANTM for like 6 hours today (stupid marathons), I'll have to root for them, but I love Scrubs too.

I'm rooting for Glee and Greek! I put off watching Greek for a long time because I figured it was just perpetuating stereotypes. Plus, as a member of a small chapter, I don't think we had the drama of the bigger houses, so it's fun to bitterly imagine that the other houses on campus were living this kind of craziness and back stabbing.

Really? I wouldn't want to be a part of dirty rushing or whatever, but it's before recruitment...so... maybe?

Also another thing that is questionable: I have friends in a sorority that I went through informal with last semester, and they are telling me some secrets about recruitment... is this bad??

Both the scenarios you've outlined make me uncomfortable. BUT - I'm not a student at your school, nor a participant in your system.

People talk; I don't know "secrets" about recruitment, but I hope they are not discussing membership selection with you. THAT is verboten.

I'd be very discreet and careful about my behavior and my actions. I would not want to be the one that was made an example of, should someone decide to cry "foul."

In the meantime, I'm hoping for a great ending to your story.

It definitely seems weird to me, but I would check with your Greek Life office and/or your Rho Chi, if you have one yet. As you've probably figured out from reading these threads, different schools have different rules and practices.

As far as the secrets, it probably won't hurt you, but is not cool as a sister, depending on what you learned. If they discussed the finer points of member selection, they shouldn't have. If they talked about how grueling work week is, or the fact that they are doing Grease for their skit, that's not a big deal. In any case, it's not YOUR problem; it's theirs.

They may not have as stringent of dirty rush policies (i.e. the coffee thing) if she's a sophomore. Or they just don't have as stringent of policies in general.

As far as the sorority members she knows telling her "secrets" - well, it depends on what they are. "Acceptable" and "not acceptable" were covered in previous posts. Although (and I'm really jumping to conclusions here) it may be a misguided attempt on their part to make her feel "in" with them and woo her to their sorority. Keep in mind they have been sisters for only around 6 months.

Thank you for all the clarification on that one ladies. The last thing I would want to do is make a recruitment gaffe. I don't have a Rho Chi yet, but I have several friends that are going to be ones, so I can ask them about that stuff.

As for the secrets, a girl did mention to me a few things that were big no-nos and that would get you automatically cut from their chapter. It was definitely good to know, but I'm not sure it's fair game. The same girl also told me that they were specifically looking for a girl with certain... beliefs I guess you could say? Not in a snobby way, but a positive one. As for the coffee topic, I think they meant it as more of a friends thing just to catch up rather than talk about recruitment. I could be wrong, but like I said I'm going to ask my Rho Chi friends :)

I'm getting so excited... I can't wait, but I know the end of September will be here before I know it.

I'm sorry to double post, but I just wanted to let you know that I officially registered for recruitment today! They even gave me a little fridge magnet with all the dates, it's super cute.

so your friend gave you tips on how to behave during rush-at her house specifically. i would say that it isn't probably a bad thing, no more than if you were preparing for a job interview and a friend who worked where you were applying gave you some tips. just realize that even though your friend is probably going to be pulling for you, there is the possibility that you might not make it at that house through to bid day, or you may not want to. just be careful!

that being said, i would certainly check with your greek life office, or at least the panhellenic website to see if what is going on is against the rules. panhellenic websites often post the recruitment rules online-your concerns might be listed under "contacts."

and yay, you!!! for registering for recruitment.

Honestly, and this might just be me, it's probably not in your best interest to find out or report if you know someone is breaking the rules, not as a PNM. You can decide for yourself if you you think it crosses a line, and should you be one of the actives next year you can make sure your chapter doesn't do it, but I don't think you want to be in the position of turning someone in even accidentally.

Completely agree. File the fact that they did these things in your brain as something to weigh when you're looking at the chapters, especially if they made you feel uncomfortable, but unless people are straight up handing you envelopes of cash (or Bradley Cooper's house key) I would not report it or ask about it. (I don't think I would report that house key either, come to think of it. :) )

Thanks for the advice! These actions didn't necessarily make me feel uncomfortable, I just questioned the correctness of them. I did some research and found out that it's actually encouraged that PNMs meet with sorority members outside of recruitment. The Greek Life website said that a PNM should try to meet all or most of the members (not hard, since total is 60ish). I guess since they're not doing anything that's like... blatantly ridiculous (such as giving me Bradley Cooper's house key...I wish) I guess I'm fine with it. After all, it is a good way to get to know people so I can make a more informed choice. Plus, the last thing I would want to do is alienate a chapter or a person by reporting something like that so thanks for bringing that up, Drolefille.

I guess it's just different at every school what happens. I had a friend rush at a fairly big school just a few weeks ago, and they were really hardcore about not letting members mix with actives during recruitment. But here, apparently it's encouraged for some reason. Confuuuuusingggg!