Originally Posted by gatorgeneration
My recruitment story, though it ended rather quickly.
As a sophomore, I knew recruitment at a very competitive, very large SEC school would be difficult, but I didn’t expect to be dropped so early on in the recruitment process. As my username suggests, I’m at the University of Florida, where about 15% of our campus is Greek, which is a pretty large chunk.
I’ll start out by saying I didn’t rush freshman fall for two reasons: recruitment began early at our school, and as a first generation with almost no connections to Greek Alum, I had now idea how to begin. Second, I wasn’t actually accepted into UF until the spring term, so I wasn’t actually a student at the time.
Because of the latter, I chose to register for the less formal spring recruitment. At UF, about 500 girls probably participated, and 95 girls were extended bids, making my chances rather slim. I didn’t know anything about recs, and since I was just starting school, I did not know any greek women. I honestly wasn’t expecting a bid, and treated spring rush as training for fall recruitment six months later.
During those six months, I spent my semester getting used to college life, raising my GPA to a modest 3.4, and joining a club specific to my major. Nothing spectacular, but I’m not the most outgoing girl on campus and I tried my best to meet new people. My life still felt like it was missing something, and the more I heard girls in my classes and saw my friends from other universities having the time of their lives as sorority women, I knew that was what I wanted.
I registered for fall recruitment early, sent in a nice modest photo, got recs for five houses after sending emails to local alum for every chapter on campus, cleaned up my social networking sites, and bought trendy yet classy outfits for all four rounds. I spoke to my friends at other universities about proper etiquette, what to talk about, what to avoid, and the like. I’m well spoken, tall, thin, with long hair and tan skin and don't seem too terribly awkward. I thought I’d at least make it to pref night.
The first round finally came, and I was very excited and not too nervous, to my surprise. I visited all 16 chapter houses in one day. After 18 hours and spending 20 minutes in each house, I was exhausted but thought I presented myself well and was excited to see my schedule for round two. We went back to Norman Hall to preference, which was simply ranking our bottom five houses and listing the other eleven in no specific order, not actually cutting any house. The process took a while (did I mention there were over 1400 girls going through recruitment this year?) but I finally went back home and felt hopeful for the next day.
As I was getting dressed to meet my group for round two, I got a phone call from my Pi Chi. She told me I only had one house that day (the max would have been eight) and would not need to come until the last round of the night. At first I was pretty surprised, then very nervous, but I took the news as well as I could and held my head high that night at the one house, which was rumored to be a top-tier house. I spoke to three girls, all of which had similar interests and career paths as I and I felt pretty good about the house. I even felt like I somehow belonged there.
The next day concluded round two, and I received my schedule from my Pi Chi in person. She handed my a small slip of paper, and the look on her face was one of empathy with a forced smile. I had two houses to visit, which means only three houses out of sixteen gave me an invitation to round two. I was somewhat shocked at first, but the three houses were chapters I greatly admired and could see myself as a sister. I should also mention out of the five houses that I had recs for, only one had called me back for round two. The first house I went to was the house I had the rec for, and I felt comfortable, but didn’t really feel a connection and could sense that neither did the three sisters I spoke to, so I could understand if they dropped me. I went to my last house soon after and felt the same as I did the at the first house of the previous night. I had great conversations with three sisters, one of which rushed as a sophomore as well, and felt hopeful. I left the house with a real smile, and went back to my Pi Chis to preference before going home for the day. Preferencing was similar to round one: we were to rank our bottom three houses and list our favorite four in no order. Since I only had three houses, I simply listed them as my top three and left for the day.
Round three was to start at 9am, and at 7am, just as I was about to take a shower, I received a phone call from my Pi Chi. I was dropped from recruitment. I had no emotion for the next few minutes while on the phone with her. I simply thanked her for her help over the past few days and wished her a great year. She seemed shocked I took the news so well and told me I could give her a call if I needed to talk. After I hung up I just sat in bed for a few minutes, then I suddenly began to cry and sob to myself. Was I not pretty enough? Was I socially awkward? Did someone from my high school in the chapter hate my guts? Was it because I’m a sophomore? Or because I’m just not interesting to talk to? I lay in bed for a while wondering what went wrong. I know, and am trying to accept, I’ll never know why or how the process goes on behind the closed doors of the chapter rooms of each house.
I contacted my Pi Chis, the Recruitment Chair, and Greek affairs about snap bidding and COB, though I have not heard back. I’m hoping maybe one of the houses will reconsider me after bid day (which is tomorrow) if their quota is not met, but I’m not really expecting much. I ran the numbers in my head: 1400 PNMs, with 16 chapters accepting a pledge class of about 60 ladies is 960 bids. About 400 other girls are in the same position as me. I’ve been told to try spring recruitment in January (again), but as a sophomore, I’m wondering if it’s even worth bothering.
Here’s my question to you ladies of GC, what should I do next? I really want to go Greek, but it seems they don't want me.
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