Mine is the traditional route also, but it wasn't the most pleasant experience - BTW Snowlady my mom is an AXO and I always read her Lyre and knew I wanted something like that.
Anyway, I always knew I wanted to be in a sorority. As I said I am/was a legacy to AXO, but there was no chapter at my school. So, I went through formal rush in the Fall of my freshman year. We had 7 sororities on campus. Before rush started my Mom and I drove down greek row talking about the different organizations. We kept hitting on AOII for some reason, and my Mom kept saying that she felt after ADII, AOII was the strongest nationally on my campus.
Well, the first day (Ice waters) of rush came around and we went to all the houses. I loved all but 3 houses. The next day (Slide show) I was invited back to 4 houses (we could go to 6) 2 were houses I did not like the other 2 were ones I loved - AOII and ZTA. The next day (skit day) we could go to 4 houses I was invited to 2, but it was the 2 that I loved. During this everytime I went to AOII the president and several other officers would come up and talk to me. I felt so special. Then came pref. I was only invited to AOII, and by this time being cut so heavily had really taken its toll on me. One of my roomate's friends (a ZTA) came over to see her (and me - I know not allowed, but...). She asked how everything was going and I just burst into tears. She promptly left. Later, after bid day I was told that the girl came by bc they wanted to give me a snap bid after rush. No idea why they cut me then, but oh well. Anyway, I went to pref and had a great time. I cried when the President got up and told about losing her little brother over the summer and how all the AOIIs showed up at the funeral. And used the advice from my Rho Chi to tell them how much I loved being there. When they gave me the rose petal and told me to make a wish it was for AOII. I went back and ranked AOII then ZTA even though I didn't attend pref - Rho Chi's advice, and asked my Rho Chi to please call if I didn't receive a bid to save my embarrassment. I didn't get the call, and when I picked up my bid it said "The sisters of Alpha Omicron Pi cordially invite you to pledge..." I ran out to my new sisters and never looked back
BTW, my Rho Chi ended up being a ZTA (which I guessed right off) and most of my best friends in college were AOII or ZTA.