Retro Recruitment
 

I've been a lurker here for a while, and I love the retro threads. So here's mine. I went to a West Coast college that had a casual, but competitive rush. I came from a family where nobody had been in a sorority, other than my uncle's wife who was a Kappa at Penn. My mother was kind of a hippie in college, so she thought sororities were horrible.

My university had fall rush before school started. When I opened the door to my dorm room, there was sorority paraphernalia everywhere. I noticed that several other doors on the dorm hall had greek letters and symbols all over them too - keys and anchors and kites and arrows. Never having heard much about sororities, it all was alien to me. It soon became clear that most of the blonde, cheerleader types seemed to be in certain sororities and the debs seemed to be in certain sororities. (I am neither blonde or a deb).

Over the course of the year, I got to know a lot of girls in sororities because I had Pi Phis, Thetas, DGs, Kappas and ADpis on my hall. My roommate was in the Go-Gos and was always doing fun things. I thought it would be interesting to see what this whole sorority thing was about. I was sure I wouldn't actually join one, but wanted to go through rush - kind of like a research project. I had to promise my mother I would never join.

We had nine sororities:

Theta
Pi Phi
Alpha Chi Omega
Chi Omega
Kappa
Alpha Phi
AGD
DG
ADpi

I rushed in the 80s, so I'll use 80s bands for the sororities.

A Flock of Seagulls
Go-Gos
Wham!
Men At Work
Culture Club
Cyndi Lauper
The Clash
Devo
Frankie Goes Hollywood

LOVE the code names!

I'm pulling for Cyndi!

I love how she set the stage!!! More, please!

I <3 that!

I hate to admit it but I loved The Clash. So I hope you rocked the casbah and had a great rush!

i love the 80s!! this oughta be a good one!

Slightly hurt that Dexy's Midnight Runners didn't make the list.

I agree, they're one of my faves too, but look at your sig -- when I saw the list and saw Culture Club, my first thought was, "cuteASAbug's gonna love it!" ;)

I think I'm gonna "Relax" and go with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, tho...

Yes, I think it's no secret who I'm cheering on.

Beat me to it!

Yeah, I'll root for Flock of Seagulls just because of the hair! Woo!

I have loved Culture Club since I was very young (and I have NO idea why), so I'm rooting for them with cuteASAbug! :)

I have some free time at work, so I'll continue the story. Glad you like my code names!

Several of my friends were rushing also as sophomores, and they told me what types of clothes to wear each day. Being a compulsive shopper, it wasn't really a tough sell to get me to go buy a few new outfits. Then I headed down to school, where we would be staying in dorms for rush.

Although I had a casual attitude going into it, you can't sit through the orientation with 700 other girls and not get caught up in it. I remember the chapter presidents getting up and each saying something inspirational about sorority life. They all were so beautiful and poised.

It was very intimidating because all the girls rushing were so beautiful. I went to a Southern California university, and everyone looked like they stepped off an episode of "Laguna Beach," had the show been on the air back then.

We met our rush counselor, who was really sweet, and I really loved the other girls in my group. It was a real wide range. Many of us sophomores already had preconceived notions about some of the sororities. A lot of people wanted to be Go-Gos, Culture Clubs or Frankie Goes Hollywood. I still told myself I had no intentions of pledging.

I was starting to get a little nervous about this whole rush thing!

So the first day of rush came, and by this time, I was totally nervous. I changed clothes several times.

The first house we went to was:

Devo: I hadn't heard much about this house. None of the girls on my hall were in this sorority. I got my first taste of bursting, and was totally overwhelmed. They were very peppy. The way I would categorize this house was very sweet girls who seemed to really like each other.

Wham!: This was a house that had gotten a bad rap from some people. It seemed like a real diversity of girls, but I couldn't really get a feel for the personality of the house. The conversations were okay.

Culture Club: I'd heard a lot about this site, and I had two girls on my hall who were Culture Clubs. By this point, I was used to the bursting. This house seemed to be filled with beautiful girls. They seemed to really like each other too.

Cyndi Lauper: We walked next door to Cyndi Lauper. I feel bad saying this, but this was a house that a lot of people seemed to make fun of. It's so weird now because this is such a strong sorority nationwide, but at my school, it was definitely one of the weaker ones. The girls seemed to struggle to make conversation.

The Clash: This sorority had recently colonized on campus, and it was smaller than the others. One of the sisters had gone to my high school and was pretty and popular. But it was hard to get a feel for the house.

Flock of Seagulls: I was excited to go to this house because one of my dorm friends was in the house as well as a girl I'd known long ago when I lived in Colorado. It seemed to have a real diversity of girls. I could definitely see myself as a Wham. I was a little turned off by one sister I talked to who had transferred from a school in the Northwest, and said it had been a transition to get used to this chapter because it was so different than the other chapter. The unspoken assumption here was that the Seagulls at her old school were superior to these Seagulls. I got the feeling she was still adjusting.

Frankie Goes Hollywood: This house intimidated me the most. The girls in this house were all ridiculously beautiful, athletic and very, very blonde. And when they burst out of their door, it was a sea of blonde. I am anything but blonde. A girl on my hall was a Frankie, and I remember her polo shirts always matched her espadrilles which always matched the bow in her hair. I had some good conversations. The word was that the Frankies, Culture Clubs and Go-Gos tended to go after a lot of the same girls.

Men At Work: This was an up-and-coming sorority that had really gained momentum. It had a great diversity of girls, and I had really good conversations here. They weren't intimidating, but seemed to have it together.

Go-Gos: This was the house I knew the most about because my roommate was a Go-Go. She, like the other sisters in this house, seemed to have it all together. She was cute, smart and had a great personality. The house had cheerleader types and debs as well as athletes and student leaders. It was a little intimidating. It was at this house that I had the best conversation of the day. This sister was so funny and down to earth. We really clicked.

I left feeling a little confused. I was really starting to get sucked in. And I was so nervous that the houses I liked wouldn't ask me back. I still assured my mother that I had no intentions of pledging.

At this point, my top picks were:

Go-Gos
Culture Club
Frankie
Men At Work
Flock of Seagulls

Oh dear. That describes me as a college freshman. Did she wear grosgrain ribbon belts too? :o

Great thread!