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^^^One of the reasons I love reading recruitment stories and reading threads from moms whose daughters are going through recruitment is just knowing she wasn't the only one and neither was I!!!
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Again, I don’t remember the order of the groups she visited (well I do remember who was first). I know she saw eight groups over two days and heard a presentation from a new colony.
As I mentioned, Brooke had done a lot of growing up in her year with us. Because of that, the things she was looking for in a sorority had changed radically. All she wanted this time was to find a chapter where she could make friends with people she thought she would like and whom she felt liked her.
Here were her impressions in ranking order
Root Beer Floats – LOVED! She thought the girls she spoke to were funny with sarcastic senses of humor. Always a winner for her. They seemed like straight shooters and she liked the fact that there didn’t seem to be one type of girl in the house. She had great conversations with all the girls she spoke to – it just felt like home right away. She was also impressed that they made sure their outfits were all coordinated. It seems like a silly thing – but to her it said they were putting a lot of effort into this.
Raspberry Parfaits – She loved this group as well largely because they seemed very similar to Root Beer Floats in that they had similar senses of humor and again, the girls seemed diverse – not all the same type. It also helped that she had such a good impression of them at Party State even though this chapter’s personality was different (still good though). They came in slightly behind Root Beer Floats.
Apple Pies – She enjoyed her conversation here, but she only spoke to one girl. She wasn’t sure if that was a good or a bad thing. It wasn’t love like it was with the first two but she liked them fine and she did want to go back.
Candied Apples – the group she expected to love here and….she liked them. They were very nice, but she and her first rusher spent 10 minutes discussing toothpaste. No, she wasn’t that interested in toothpaste. She had no idea how they got on the topic, and she couldn’t get her rusher off of it. When she left, they all said goodbye to her by name which was sweet. They seemed young. She would be happy to go back, but not going back wouldn’t hurt her.
Chocolate Cake – She liked them fine. The conversation with the first girl she spoke to was a bit awkward but the second conversation went well. They seemed like the “very involved in student leadership and academics” types. Totally different than the chapter at Party State. She didn’t think their personality fit her, but she also thought they might be good for her.
Donuts – She had walked herself over to the Greek life office during summer orientation to ask some questions and the Donut president happened to be there, so she talked to her for a minute or two. She thought she was gorgeous and seemed to know her stuff, so she had a good impression of this house to start with. She liked them and thought they were nice girls who seemed to have a close sisterhood. They struck her as the type of girls who would love to curl up on couches together on a Friday night and watch movies. She would like that once in a while but not all the time. She wanted to go back though.
The Sorbets – This was the new colony. Initially Brooke was resistant to the colony idea. She felt she would be missing out on some important elements of the sorority experience that she really wanted, but this group wowed her. They brought up a group of girls who clearly knew what they were doing. They had an incredible presentation, a good plan, and they were freakin’ adorable. She stared thinking this might be something to consider.
The Brownies – the Brownies were the closest thing her campus had to a struggling house (she had figured out that much), but they weren’t on death’s door by any means. She thought the girls were nice, and she did keep an open mind. They weren’t like the Lemon Bars at Party State who interests were just odd to her. Instead she would have described them as genuinely nice girls who were introverted, but close to each other – kind of a more extreme, not quite as put together, version of the Donuts. She didn’t think it was her, and as with Donuts, she thought she wanted a group that was more outwardly social (that word has come up at least 15 times in this story. It was a big part of Brooke’s personality and important to her), but she would be happy to go back.
Ice Cream – This is where who is rushing you comes into play. Her roommate was also rushing. She and roommate had immediately clicked because they had so much in common, BUT they had completely different reactions to this chapter. Roommate LOVED it. Brooke had a bad vibe the minute she walked in the door that she never shook. Didn’t like it at all and really would have preferred not to go back.
I asked her much later why she thinks she got such a bad vibe. As it turned out – this was the first house she visited. She had barely gotten there on time. She was already exhausted from practice. There had been some miscommunication between Greek life and her Rho Gam’s, so they had reported her absent to the house and they had to correct that when she got there. It was just stressful, so she thinks that affected her outlook somewhat. In addition, while she thought the house was beautiful on the outside, the inside was very dark and modern looking which she didn’t like and didn’t seem to match the outside. It was really crowded which bothered her, and she says that to this day, she cannot remember one thing she talked about with her rushers.
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