After Round 1, I was feeling pretty good. Although I knew little about Recruitment, I was under the impression that sororities didn't make very many cuts after Round 1. "Don't worry," I reassured a nervous friend, "I'm sure they only cut the girls they really hate."
Round 2 at my school is
Philanthropy Day. As I said before, you can go back to up to 7 chapters. I'm not sure if I expected to have a full schedule, but I was just hoping to get my favorites back. While some of my friends said things like "I can ONLY see myself at one of the top 4 sororities", I knew I would only be truly upset if I didn't get
Half Baked back. The other "top tier" sororities completely underwhelmed me.
I met my Rho Chis and they handed me my schedule. To my horror, I saw only
FOUR chapters:
Banana Split
Cake Batter
Phish Food
Peanut Butter Cup
I was devastated. Not only did I not get
Half Baked back, but
FIVE chapters dropped me...and the five "best" chapters at that. What did I do wrong? Why didn't they like me?
On my way to my party, I ran into my roommate. To make matters worse: she had been invited back to her top 7 chapters and managed to release
Phish Food and
Peanut Butter Cup, the bottom two on campus. Although I was upset, I tried to think positively. "Well," I thought, "at least
Banana Split,
Cake Batter, and
Phish Food all mix with my favorite fraternity."
My first party was
Peanut Butter Cup. I thought their philanthropy was meaningful, which I liked...although the video they showed was so sad it almost made me cry. I don't remember the first girl I talked to at all. The second girl was much more fun: we talked about our mutual love of pro basketball. I remember thinking she was someone I could definitely get along with, but I couldn't help but notice the rest of the chapter was overwhelmingly awkward.
My second party was
Phish Food--the chapter I ranked in my bottom two for first round. However, Round 2 was a complete turnaround! I LOVED their philanthropy. Two girls (a big and little) got up to talk about how personal and meaningful their philanthropy was, and I remember being obsessed with the big. She was so cute and bubbly, but not in an over-the-top way. As for the girls I talked to, I loved them just as much. They were BEAUTIFUL (which made me reconsider that whole "
Phish Food is the new ugly sorority" thing I had been reading on all the websites), interesting, and--most importantly--easy to talk to. I couldn't believe how much more I liked
Phish Food today compared to yesterday.
Next up was
Banana Split. I really liked them Round 1, so I was hoping to be equally excited today. The president got up to talk about the philanthropy. I remember thinking that I wasn't as interested in this philanthropy as the others--it didn't seem to have as big of a scope to me. On top of that, the president was annoyingly bubbly. Yes, she was very pretty and friendly, but when she talked it nearly made me cringe. The girl I was paired with was completely the opposite: boring and disinterested. I got all excited when I found out that we had both taken gap years before college, and I mentioned how it's sometimes weird that I'm older than my friends. She responded with a very bored "Oh, well I was young for my grade so I never get that". I wanted so badly to like
Banana Split because my friend's sister was so fun and had so many things in common with me. Unfortunately, they disappointed me during Round 2, but I was still hoping I'd be able to find that connection.
My final chapter of Round 2 was
Cake Batter. Their philanthropy was fine but I didn't really like the craft we were doing. I loved the first girl I talked to--she had been an Orientation Leader for my dorm--and felt like I made another good connection here. The second girl I talked to was really not my type. I was really happy, though, when the beautiful blonde from Round 1 (who was sitting across the table from us) looked at me and said "Hi, ShortAndSweet!". She remembered my name! I was really excited and still really liked
Cake Batter.
At the end of the parties, I went back to my Rho Chis to rank. Since you can go back to up to 5 chapters for Round 3 and I only had 4 chapters left, it didn't really matter what my rankings were. But this is how I wrote them down:
Phish Food
Cake Batter
Banana Split
Peanut Butter Cup
Stay tuned for Round 3 tomorrow!