what did you not like about rushing?
 

When you were going through rush, was there anything that a house did that turned you off? I don't mean obvious things like the girls were bitches or anything like that but subtle things like being bumped too soon or not being introduced to enough (or too many) sisters. Just ideas of things you didn't like that sisters can avoid doing in the up coming rush season.

hmmm, I only went through informal recruitment, so my experience may be diff from others. All I know is I would've liked to know where all the info parties were. It was Phi Sig girls who told me to check the other soror. out too, unfortunately i didn't find the room they were in (although i now know i wasn't too far away lol).

So, for informal recruitment - be explicit in directions [eg rose room in lower Vanier hall - southeast campus (near res)]

I remember being at a GLO that I knew I wouldn't fit in with, but I was still trying to get to know. I was sitting at a table with a couple of sisters and a couple of rushees doing some kind of arts and crafts...the girl that picked me up wasn't very talkative and one of the other sisters was ignoring her rush guest in order to double up on a girl they obviously liked. If I didn't like them before, I would have dropped them for how they treated other PNMs.

I remember talking to a sister at a house (i'll call it CD) and i told her that i enjoyed singing and performing in plays in high school, and that i was still involved in a community theater group back at home. Suddenly two other sisters materialized and all three of them started talking about how great i would be for airbands during Greek Week if i was into performing, and they pretty much forgot i was still in the room. it was a really uncomfortable feeling, and I was happy not to be asked back to CD for the next round of parties.

All groups have things out and they usually don't mind if you touch them or what not and I saw this scrapbook so I touched it or something and the sister was like nooooooo you can't look at that and was kinda ick about it, and I'm thinking why put out something if we're not "allowed" to look at it??

what is coffeehouse snapping? i've never heard of it before i came to GC.

coffee house snapping
 

If you've ever seen the movie "Heart of Dixie" they do it - they are having a sorority meeting and snap to show their approval. It is pretty obnoxious. You can also see it in the Laverne & Shirley episode where Shirley starts hanging out with the "beatnik" crowd.

She probably realized there were pictures of that chapter's Rho Chis in there and didn't want you to see them. Still, they should have worked that out before the party! That's rude.

I hated being put in a chair and having 4 or 5 sisters sitting in a circle at my feet. It made me feel like a Kindergarten teacher or something. I was ready to whip out a copy of "Goodnight Moon" and start reading to them!

HAHAHAH

Good night moon -- Jeez that's funny!

Of course, ye olde school librarian would think so!!

Lizz (PNAM tinydancer)

Turn-offs...
 

Feeling like cattle. I didn't know anything about rush going into it. The whole "rushing" aspect felt forced and false to me.

And this is individual to my experience: I didn't like looking around and not seeing any cultural diversity reflected among the chapters. Luckily, things have changed since I went through rush 15 years ago.

the whole one-on-one interview where they grilled me about my history
i was extremely uncomfortable and i knew what they were doing(asking me about my family)

so, i lied. . .made up this story about my dad being a neurosurgeon. i kept dropping 'oh, my car is still brand new so if we do road trips we can take mine' and 'my parents pay for everything' rountine

what's so funny is i got invited back to the party the next day
they kept asking me the same questions
however, i had dropped out of rush before pref night started
i had had enough of the grilling. . .
extremely big school sororities are sometimes superficial

My first rush party, the sorority did an MTV thing (only their letters instead of "M") and three of the sisters did a rap. It might have been cute if they had (a) not forgotten the words and (b) just ended up laughing through the whole thing. There were other things about them that were a turn-off, and the rest of the week they were flawless, but I got the feeling that they felt like "we already know everyone likes us so we don't have to try too hard tonight." Don't get me wrong, I didn't choose DZ b/c of their skits (although they were terrific), but that being the first night left a bad taste in my mouth for the rest of the week.

What really got on my nerves was at one house, I asked a girl to tell me more about study hours since I didn't really understand what they were, and her answer was something to the tune of, "Oh, yeah, like, we do study hours, and like, they help so much!" :rolleyes: All right.

I also didn't like the fakey-ness of some of the houses...they must've had to put Vaseline on their teeth to hold their smiles through the whole darn rush party, because I felt like I was in the middle of a beauty pageant. Everywhere I looked, I saw teeth. Now, smiles are great--who wants to be around people who look like they hate the world? But you could so tell that these girls just had their smiles plastered on and to me, that was a turn-off. I cut that house first.

I absolutely hated all of the screaming!! I mean, it's one thing to do a chant or two, but for like 2 minutes at the beginning of every first round party was too much. I also hated that groups didn't have stuff to drink...we're traipsing around campus going to parties, at least have some water for us! And yes, on our campus, you can have water at every party.

long list of peeves!
 

I hated feeling like just a number. Now I understand that rush is even longer for the sisters, but I hated feeling like 'just another PNM.' At one house, the girl kept having to look at my name tag... right as we were leaving the house... she said "Bye...(looked at tag)...Christy!" It was sooo OBVIOUS! At another house, the girl was holding back her yawns! :rolleyes:

And I hated the painful silences--but I think I would prefer the silence to the forced conversation sometimes. Or the one word answers from the girl rushing me. Again, these things happened at houses that I didn't really care too much about to begin with...where I didn't hit it off with the girls... BUT it was still annoying! And what I didn't understand is how I kept being invited back to these houses even though the entire 15 minutes was PAINFUL! :mad: (they finally cut me before prefs!)

Or how about when the girls all line up outside of the house before taking the PNM's in... and all the girls look the SAME! Now I don't mean wearing the same clothes... but physically! They all had the same "look." It was definitely INTIMIDATING! (being a brunette and all! :p )

And how can I forget... rushing in Florida... in mid-August is HORRIBLE!! By the last house, my hair was frizzy and gross... and how about trying to avoid sweating when walking from house to house in the HEAT?! It's nice that the houses offer cold water for the PNM's to drink... but then you'd have to use the gross porta-pottys planted in the middle of sorority row! (trust me... NOT fun!)

Alright... that's all I can think of for now... but I'm sure I'll think of something else b/c Rush was not fun for me!