Originally Posted by EGAOPi
I agree with adpiucf's point when she said "clearly you have never been a teenager." Though moderately surprising, girls here (and everywhere, I assume) truly do base their opinions (when it comes to ranking and choosing a sorority) greatly on the clothing and other "frills" involved in recruitment.
I remember hearing girls in various Pi Chi groups saying, "Oh, XYZ sorority was the only sorority to wear all dresses on the first day. That was so classy of them! That really stood out to me."
On the contrary, I'd hear girls saying, "That sorority had really ugly shirts and nasty tasting drinks. Their house was really drab. They didn't wow me, so what would make me want to join their sorority?"
The conversation can be fabulous, but great clothes, decorations and fun songs really are memorable.
Especially with that dress thing, I've hear recruitment chairs talking a great deal about going with that idea to impress PNMs. While conversation is important and girls SHOULD base their opinions on character, apparent strength of the sisterhood, etc. as oppossed to who had the cutest outfit and most memorable song...it sadly isn't that way.
As we all know, a lot of girls rank based on physical appearance (whichever sorority has the prettiest sisters), so obviously clothing comes into play. After that, they take into consideration the beverages, decorations and songs. They notice a carefully planned recruitment and consider sororities that go all out to be the most desirable.
On my campus, we are not technically allowed to ALL have identical outfits...I believe half of the girls can have one item and the other half can have a similar looking but slightly different item. Some people change the clothes around by throwing on different color ribbons or tucking in straps on dresses. We are, however, allowed to have other things that may or may not be considered "frills" like all matching t-shirts on one day, door songs, and drinks like smoothies, pina colodas, root beer floats, etc. for every day but the first ice water day. However, we do not have a skit and as of this year, house tours are no longer allowed. Instead, on the day they used to be given, they were replaced with a sisterhood video and longer conversation.
I can definitely see how a "no frills" recruitment can be more peaceful and easier, esp. financially, but some frills are fun and I appreciate that we can still have them!
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