Such great advice you ladies are giving!!!
Let me clarify a few things, (and not completely give my daughter away).
1. We are from out of state and she did not know any girls currently in any sorority. We did attend a Panhellenic event in our hometown where she met alumni advisors for three different chapters. These advisors arranged for her to stay with girls from their respective chapters. She took two seperate trips to Oxford last spring. The purpose of these trips was for her to have the ability to meet sorority girls.
2. Pretty much every weekend in the Spring, the fraternities hold huge "spring parties" (I didn't attend, but I got the impression that they were what we used to call "Keggers" back in the day). Anyway, my daughter and her hosts "facebooked" prior to her trips. All the girls she spoke to told her how much fun these parties were and how she needed to plan her trips on weekends when the best parties were taking place. I was under the impression from the alumni advisors that this was done all the time and kind of standard operating procedure.
Needless to say, my daughter had a great time, was picked up at the airport (80 miles away), treated to nice dinners, alcohol and fun parties. She had a blast sleeping in the dorms and met a ton of girls! This was where she was told that they expected her to drink, but it wouldn't be a good idea for her to get sloppy. She did exactly that. I hope and pray that she didn't ruin her chance to have a great rush because these advisors arranged these trips! She was wary of the fact that these girls could be testing her, and made sure she was on her best behavior!
As a mother, I absolutely do not condone under age drinking, but I am not naive enough to think it is not happening. Older daughter still thinks I am paronoid. (rolling my eyes here). When I tell my daughter that she will have to lay low and not be social for the first 6 weeks of her college freedom, she looks at me like my head is spinning around on my shoulders.
I SERIOUSLY WISH OLE MISS WOULD MOVE THEIR RECRUITMENT TO BEFORE CLASSES START LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!!! This way I stand a chance of not pulling ALL my hair out prior to recruitment. I still have no idea how a week of parties in October is going to help her GPA! Asking an 18 year old social butterfly to lay low is like asking a cat to stay off the furniture.
I'm going to sit her down and make her read all your comments! Now if only you ladies can come visit where we can all sit down and ya'll can advise me on all my problems! LOL