Hello, I'm the Doctor! A Fall '12 Recruitment Story
 

So I am ADDICTED to recruitment stories, and finally made an account here because I wanted to write mine from this past semester too! If the title didn't give it away, I'm using Doctor Who codes. :)

I really have no idea what made me want to join a sorority. I had never really thought myself the type, I can even remember reading a book when I was in highschool that talked about all the awful things sororities allegedly did. Right out of high school, I went to a satellite campus of a big school, so there was no greek life to speak of. After my freshman year, I took a year off due to being broke, and then transferred to my new school. I was only there for one semester before having to take spring semester off again because of financial reasons (more like crazy financial aid mix ups.) So this fall, not only was I rushing as a sophmore (a sophmore and a half really) I was an OLD sophmore, 21! But I thought, what the heck, I want to try this, and after I went to the Meet the Sororities Ice Cream Social I knew this was something my life had been missing. Now, there are no houses on my campuses, so all the parties took place in different rooms in the student center. The eight chapters on my campus shall henceforth be known as:

Donna
Martha
Rose
Amy
Rory
River
Craig
Mickey

Just from my cursory knowledge, I already had this strange feeling that Rory was the place for me. I loved their philanthropy, their colors, and the girls I had met at info sessions, but I was heading into recruitment with an open mind. Our recruitment takes place over 4 days

Thursday: Philanthropy Night (All 8 Parties)
Friday: Theme Night (Max 5 Parties)
Saturday: Pref Night (Max 2 Parties)
Sunday: Bid Day!

So, Philanthropy Night comes...

first up was RIVER, and they were in the tiniest room, so there were 35 sisters (the max allowed for recruitment) and about the same number of PNMs. Yikes! They were all very happy and enthusiastic, but I could barely even hear what the sister I was paired with was saying. She introduced me to one or two other sisters, and then we watched a video about their sorority. I really didn't feel anything about them when we left. They had a very stereotypical sorority girl "look", and while they had been nice, I knew they weren't for me.

next was MARTHA. I had been interested in Martha too, but boy was I put off quickly. I was at the front of the line for my group of PNMs, so I was often paired with a sister and another PNM. Well, it turned out the sister and the other PNM were from the same area, so they talked to each other and completely ignored me. I was really mad, and had no interest in Martha at all after that.

then my group went to MICKEY. Mickey is one of those chapters with a certain kind of reputation. Lets just say they had to put a lot of stickers on their pictures, and those stickers weren't over the faces of Pi Chis, they were over the girl's hands, if you catch my drift. But, the sister I was paired to was nice, and she was whispering to me little facts about Mickey while their video was playing. I left Mickey somewhat ambivalent, I didn't even know what their philanthropy was.

after Mickey was AMY. Amy is probably the closest to sorority royalty on my campus. They are known for having the prettiest and "best" girls. Again, the girls were nice, but the sister I talked to went on and on about herself, and neither myself nor the other PNM got to actually talk much. (Spoiler, I don't go back to Amy, but I've actually really enjoyed hanging out with Amy girls at socials, so nice!)

then came DONNA. Donna was a little weird. They didn't seem that enthusiastic, and strangely, I was paired with TWO sisters and no other PNMs. It was kind of nice after a whole night of always being with one sister and another PNM. I left the room interested in Donna, but I didn't think I had made much of an impression on them.

after that was ROSE. Rose was... wow. The whole night I hadn't felt that much of a connection to any chapter, and suddenly... bang! I spent the whole time talking to the sister I was paired with, there was never a pause, forced conversation, or an awkward moment. I left the room feeling in love with Rose.

after Rose came CRAIG. There was really nothing much that interested me about Craig. I felt like the sister didn't want to talk to me that much, and I was glad to walk out of there because that meant it was time for...

RORY! I had been looking forward to Rory all night, and it completely lived up to my expectations. I loved the sister that I was talking to, I loved the video about their philanthropy, I loved everything! I said yep, Rory is definitely for me!

So at the end of the night I filled out my pref card as follows:

1. Rory
1. Rose
1. Donna
1. Mickey
1. Amy

2. River
3. Craig
4. Martha

Theme night to come ;)

Love your theme! Team Rory. (Though I just took the companion personality quiz and it said I was most like Rose...no thank you.)

Team Rose!

And after having some more time to write, here is the rest of my recruitment story! :D

The next day, I my Pi Chi gave me my invites for theme night and I had

Rory
Rose
Donna

I was so happy to see Rory and Rose, and intrigued by Donna. I wasn't sad too Mickey and Amy go, and I wondered if I had been paired with a different sister at Martha if things would have been different. Some of the girls in my Pi Chi group were not so happy with their cuts, and two from my group dropped out at the point, and I know that happened all across the pi chi groups.

First up that night was my party with DONNA, and it was like being with a whole different chapter then the weirdly quiet girls I had talked to the other night. I talked to a ton of different sisters and found myself clicking with everyone that I talked to. We laughed and joked around, and I hardly wanted to leave when the party was over.

Next was my party with ROSE, and I was really excited to go back. I was hoping to see the sister I had the previous night, but I didn't see her there. We did a lot of activities that had to do with Rose's philanthropy, and at the end everyone got in a big circle and they asked PNMs to step forward and say what they thought sisterhood would mean to them. I wanted to be remembered, and volunteered to go first, and talked about body image and how I thought sisterhood would help with that, a couple sisters came up to me after and said they were impressed with me. I felt so good about Rose when I left!

And then finally, last again was RORY. I was so eager to go back! My first impression was... not as good as it had been. Their outfits were super FRUMPY, which, idk just turned me off. Then the chanting stopped and I turned to the sister who was rushing me and... nothing. She had nothing to say to me AT ALL. She wouldn't even look at me. It was so uncomfortable. Finally we were sat down to watch a skit, and while it was cute, but I wanted to be getting to know the sisters, not missing out on inside jokes and learning general sorority facts. I left Rory with my thoughts turned on their head. All of a sudden my favorite sorority had become my least favorite! :(

So I filled out my card that night

1. Donna
1. Rose
2. Rory

I was SO SURE I would get invited back to Donna and Rose for pref night I wasn't even thinking about Rory anymore, until...

Pref night came, my Pi Chi handed me my parties list and all I saw was RORY.

I blinked at the little slip of paper, sure I had been handed the wrong one. But no, Donna and Rose had cut me, and suddenly I wanted to drop out. My hand shot up to talk to my pi chi, and I joined the small stream of girls leaving the auditorium because they were also unhappy about their pref night parties. When my pi chi couldn't get through to me, she brought over one of the panhellenic women (we'll call her the Doctor) to talk to me-- she made me commit to going to Rory's party, and then I would call her right after and she would come talk to me. We went to the bathroom to dry my eyes and touch up my makeup, and I joined the line for Rory's party.

Rory's party was very ritual-like, and the girl who pref'd me was the girl I had talked to on Philanthropy night, the girl who had helped me fall in love with Rory in the first place. But I didn't care. I was trying the whole time not to just burst into tears again and storm out. I sat through their beautiful ceremony like a toddler having a temper tantrum. When I left the party, I didn't know how to feel. I called the Doctor and we met to talk. I was still tearing up a little, but she caught me smiling a little too. The Doctor called me out on my smiling (in a friendly, teasing way) and that made me smile more. She asked me if I really wanted the sorority experience, or if I only wanted to experience a certain sorority. I thought back to how I had felt after meeting all the sororities and agreed to go sign my bid agreement. I walked away feeling awful still, cried some more when I got back to my dorm, and ate greasy food with my friends.

Bid Day came, and everyone was excited-- except me. What was their to be excited about? I hadn't gotten a call from my Pi Chi, which meant I had a bid, and of course I knew who it was from. Our Pi Chi handed us our envelopes, we watched a short video (which was actually very moving) and then everyone tore open their bids. I opened mine slowly and stared at it, and it was what I knew it was going to be-- Rory. Two other girls in my group got bids to Rory, one was happy and the other girl was like me. One of the girls I had befriended got a bid to Rose, I was jealous.

We went to the gym to meet our new sisters, and I walked with my two new sisters, suddenly trying to console the upset girl, telling her all the things that the Doctor had told me. I found my spirits beginning to lift as we got closer to all the cheering girls lined up around the entrance to the gym. I found my gaze not forlornly going to Rose or Donna, but going to the excited Rory girls with a bit of hope.

One at a entire pledge classes were called down, then it was announced what chapter they were going home to, and all the girls from that chapter would rush forward screaming and hugging. When it happened for us, I hugged the girls from my floor who were going to be Rorys too... and they were HAPPY TEARS. The bid day party was great, I sat with great girls, and suddenly I was so, so glad I hadn't dropped out of the process.

Fast forward to now, the semester over, and I am now a fully initiated sister of RORY, or should I say...









































PHI MU. <33333


Phi Mu has changed my life, for the BEST, and I have never been happier. All along, Phi Mu was the place for me, and I had become momentarily blinded by it by one off experience. And for extra kicks, "Rose" the place I thought I had fallen in love with? Got in trouble this semester for hazing. Go figure. :P

Congratulations on Phi Mu! Thank you for posting........I loved your theme!

Congrats and welcome! I feel like this is the year we are finally getting a bunch of Phi Mu endings :-)

Yay for a Phi Mu ending!

Welcome, sister!

Yay! This recruitment story just made my day! Congratulations on Phi Mu!!

They don't tell you who invited you to pref until right before the parties begin? Yipes. That's kind of crazy inconsiderate.

But at any rate, congrats on Phi Mu!!

I have heard of this more and more every year. It seems like they must be doing it to encourage the girls to go to the parties whether or not they like their results--"hey, you're already dressed, why not go to the parties anyway?"

But it's getting awfully close to forced prefs, which I loathe.

[pref hijack] I kind of see why though. The chapter has worked hard at recruitment and just as a PNM's spirits can be brought down by not getting invited back to the chapters they wanted...the chapters spirit, as a whole, can be brought down when PNM's decide to "ditch" their parties or drop entirely. Plus we have read and heard so many stories of PNM's just falling in love with their 2nd, 3rd or dead last choice during pref [/end hijack]

Congratulations to Phi Mu!

I obviously understand you not wanting to tell which house Rose is as they got in trouble for hazing, but what house was Donna?

Yeah, I think we do things a lot differently at my school, especially based on what I've read from other recruitment threads. I kind of wish I had known the night before or something, I would have been upset, but I think by actual pref party time I would have felt a lot better about it, and maybe would have felt better on bid day too. Oh well, it still worked out for me.

I suppose it's alright to reveal that Donna was Phi Sig. :)

I've seen worse heartbreak when pref parties have all these girls who make it obvious that they'd rather walk on nails than be there! Or worse yet, not give much of a hint that they don't want to be there and then on Bid Day, no one at all shows up at their house.

Ahh, so close to a Phi Sig ending! Do we even have any of these?! (not counting a certain one...)