[greeknewbie]

ROUND ONE:

Round one was split into two days, where we would go to four parties the first day and three the second day. My group was assigned to the morning slot, so we all showed up relatively early in our jeans and plain t-shirts, ready to go. I’m not going to lie, I’m from the northeast, and while I tend to identify as a girly-girl and, like I mentioned, I love fashion, I am extremely low-maintenance. I do my hair every day because I have to, but putting on make-up in the morning it not my top priority (that would be sleep, which I never seem to get enough of in college). But I managed to get myself up with enough time to put on some minimal make-up and enough to make me not look like the walking dead (zombies tend to not get bids, from what I’d gathered.

All the groups that were going to go were brought to a large room where we lined up in alphabetical order in front of the sign with what sorority we were going to be visiting. All the gamma chis who were not currently with their groups sang the rush cheer of each group as we filed out to head to the parties.

We were not warned what was going to happen at any of these parties. Which is why I nearly jumped out of my skin when we entered the lobby outside the first party and all of the sudden the doors looked like they were going to be pounded off their hinges and hundreds of girls were screaming their cheers at us and I was definitely freaked out. Greek life is not big at all where I come from, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. But at that point, it was obviously too late to back out of whatever insanity I was about to enter, so we all got into our nice little alphabetical line again and prepared for whatever was behind door number one.

Marie Claire was my first party, and I was taken by the arm (rather forcefully, to my surprise) and led to a small table to sit with another girl and her rusher. The room was beautifully and elegantly decorated, very much like I imagined a sorority would be decorated, and they even had napkins with their name on it was I thought was adorable. I was rushed by five girls in rotation, and I honestly had a great conversation with every single one. They were all funny and sweet and some of them shared my same interests while other girls were just very easy to talk to. All of our conversations were unique and funny and I wasn’t uncomfortable at all (though the fact that I just love talking to and meeting new people probably helped once I got over the initial nervousness). Their philanthropy hit close to home and really meant a lot to me, and their song (lyrics of a popular song changed to reflect their chapter) was really funny. I genuinely loved this house.

Vogue was my next party. Like I had said earlier, I knew a girl who was a Vogue legacy and I have my own reasons for intensely disliking her, so I was unsure about this house coming into it. Unfortunately, my fears were pretty much confirmed. While the girls I spoke to were fine, they definitely came off as being very fake (though not all were blonde). I also glanced around the room during their presentation on the chapter and spotted a girl who I spoken to just before the presentation talking to another girl on the side of the room and making what I think she thought was a subtle gesture in my direction and I just kind of got that feeling that they were already talking about me, which I found very off-putting. I left knowing I was going to rank this way at the bottom. I was only rushed by about three or four girls (my notes aren’t very clear, I think I only paid close attention to my rushers the first time because I was looking for a tangible thing to latch onto in the middle of all the madness!). Their philanthropy was nice, but didn’t hit home the same way the other’s did. And their theme and decorations were fine, but maybe a little overdone. Also, it involved food, and having just eaten breakfast, did not appeal to me at all.

After that was Nylon. At this point, I was much more used to the waiting outside the door routine, but these girls were insane. You could see the hinges straining and the glass on the door looked like it was about to pop out. I feel like they might have let us in a little quicker just because they were worried about what would have happened if they hadn’t. I had amazing conversations here, and they were all really quirky and weird and they definitely didn’t fit my preconceived notion of the “party girls”, which was really nice. I realized an upperclassman I knew from residential life was in the chapter, I mentioned her and it turns out a couple of others had mentioned knowing her in the same capacity. The video they showed was absolutely adorable and everyone seemed like they had an amazing time filming it and spending time with each other. Their philanthropy also was fine, but nothing extremely special to me. They didn’t have a theme though, or if they did I didn’t write it down and can’t remember it. I had a really good time here and left knowing it was going to be high on my rankings.

Glamour was my last party of the day and I was getting pretty tired at this point (though it was barely lunch time, which was weird). There is a certain stereotype associated with this chapter that I’m not going to say because it would likely reveal the actual sorority and I don’t want to bash anyone for things they can’t control. Turns out the girl I knew through family was not at recruitment because she was studying abroad, because I asked after her, but they were excited I knew her and she seemed to be genuinely well-liked among her sisters. However, I really didn’t feel any real connection with any of the girls, and during their video presentation one girl continually cat-called the sisters who showed up during it and was just being extremely loud and talkative when us PNMs were desperately trying to listen because we really wanted to hear what they were talking about. So it was really off-putting. While I liked it better than Vogue, I knew it would probably go closer to the bottom of my rankings.

At the end of that party, we were sent home to hang out and relax before the next day while the afternoon groups went to their three parties. Of course, some tent-talking happened. Among my friend group, it was universally acknowledged that Nylon and Harper’s Bazaar had been favorites, and while I had loved Marie Claire, some of my friends had gotten weird vibes there and it was sad to hear that, because I really had loved them. I honestly can’t remember what was said about the other houses at that point.

Day two and we were up bright and early again! I was a lot more comfortable going into the second day, My friends and I got dressed, swung by the dining hall to grab some breakfast, and then headed over to the meeting place. Things seemed to be going smoother today, as smooth as they could be anyways, and we were ushered to our first party.

InStyle was the first one I visited that day. They were extremely new to campus and had only been through a few years of recruitment. It turns out that someone I knew from one of my extracurriculars was a member of this sorority, though I did not know it at the time. It’s probably really bad, but my first thing I have written down is that their shirts were an odd color, like a really dark green I think, and it seemed kind of gloomy compared to the brighter or generally accepted “pretty” colors of all the other sororities I had seen before. They were all very sweet, though one was a little socially awkward for my tastes and I did not have a very good conversation with her. Their presentation emphasized their sisterhood despite being new, and also about winning at other GLOs events, which I thought was a little weird but I guess it was a point of pride. I liked them, but didn’t have any overwhelming feelings of “I could see myself here” as I did at other places.

After that we were shepherded to Harper’s Bazaar. I had a problem: I fell completely and overwhelmingly in love with this chapter. The three girls I spoke to where phenomenal: silly and funny and I felt like I was talking to my best friend’s from home. I was basically doubled over laughing the entire time I was in this party and I had seriously felt that I had found my home. All of my close friends from home had stayed on the east coast, so I was amazed that these girls were so similar to them in the best way possible. I had heard of their philanthropy, which was great, and their presentation as well was probably the funniest thing I had ever seen. They had a sort of mini-skit for it, and all of us were cracking up the entire time. A TA from one of my first-semester classes was in this sorority and stopped by to say hello and tell me she was happy to see me going through recruitment. It could not have possibly been any better. I knew that was going to be my number one.

I only had one sorority left to visit, and that was ELLE. I also really enjoyed this chapter. I spoke to a bunch of awesome girls, including one who shared my major (which is kind of unique) so we had a lot of fun talking about it and she was giving me advice for which classes to take for it. We also shared a really funny experience with some of the squirrels on campus (who are insane) and that was how she transitioned me to my next rusher, which left us both in hysterics. I knew a fair amount about their philanthropy, because it’s pretty well known around the country. At this point I was just so tired from everything and it was nice to finally be escorted out and head over to the original meeting room to do our rankings. We could attend up to five parties the next day so you had to rank two as your bottom. While the order of the ones you were ranking as #1 didn't really matter, I ranked mine in my order of preference.

My final rankings were:

1. Harper’s Bazaar
1. Nylon
1. Marie Claire
1. Elle
1. Instyle
2. Glamour
3. Vogue

And then it was back to my room to relax and wait for the next day of events to come.