I've been looking a lot through the old threads in this forum. Great tips! I'm really glad I came across this site because it's answered a lot of questions I had about what to do and what not to do as a rushee. And everyone here seems so wonderful and supportive! Up until now I thought that I was cut from those houses because the sisters didn't like me. Now I think it was probably because I was really clueless about what to do and didn't make nearly as good of an impression as I could have!
For one thing, I didn't know how important my appearance was. They told us to show up to round 1 in something comfortable, because we'd be walking around campus a lot. I wore jeans and a t-shirt 2 days out of the 3 for round 1! Usually I wear cuter clothes than that, but I was going for the whole comfort thing. Plus, on the first day we got caught in the rain walking between houses, so my hair was all puffy and my makeup ran a little. So I definitely wasn't as well-dressed and well-manicured as I should have been, and I'm sure that didn't help me any.
Also, I wasn't sure what to talk to the sisters about or what kinds of questions to ask them. I made small talk with the girls who rushed me, but when they asked if I had any questions I could never think of any. I didn't really even try because I didn't want to seem boring...I still don't quite know what my reasoning was behind that one!
But oh well. Now I know to show more interest in the different things that each chapter participates in, philanthropies, values, etc. Another thing that I think hurt me was that first round I didn't even know we had to be invited back to the houses. I thought we just picked which ones we wanted to go back to! So after I got cut from 4 houses (2 of which were at the top of my list at that point), I was incredibly nervous at round 2! There were 3 houses left that I really liked, and when I went to those parties I told the sisters rushing me how scared I was about not being invited back again. That couldn't have been a good idea! I was cut by 2 of those houses, which led me to drop out of rush.
I was still clueless this spring when I decided to rush one house again. This was one of the houses that had cut me after round 2 in the fall. I went the first day and it went well except for one thing. There was a girl in that house I'd known in high school. She was a year ahead of me and she'd never been nice to me, in fact I knew she didn't like me (not sure why). Everyone else I talked to was really sweet and fun, though, so I went back the second night (everyone was invited back). The second night didn't go as well. It was the same as round 3 (prefs) had been in the fall, but I hadn't been to that and I didn't know I was supposed to get dressed up! I'm sure nobody told me...I think the girl who rushed me the first night forgot. Nobody wore dresses that night, but everyone except me and 2 other girls out of maybe 25 were wearing nice, dressy pants and a nice top. My outfit wasn't bad...at least I didn't wear jeans!!...but it was definitely noticeable. I can see why I didn't get a bid from them.
Anyways, I'm sorry this post was so long! I am kind of embarassed to admit all these things because I feel really stupid about them. But at least now I can see things I did wrong before and I won't make those mistakes again!