My school actually had two formal recruitments, Fall and Spring. I bombed in the fall; the sorority I suicided didn't want me.
So I approached Spring Rush with understandable anxiety. Some of the sororities remembered me and were stand-offish, some treated me like they couldn't believe I was back.
My first choice in the fall was extraordinarily kind to me (It was a local.), as was AST.
Going into the first info session where representatives of all the sororities gave little presentations and then mingled with us, I was happy to see my fall choice be so kind to me, and it was great seeing my rush group happily settled.
Then, I talked with a former rushee who had gone to join AST how she was doing. A couple of her sisters drifted over and actually remembered me! More than that, though, they treated me nicely and genuinely, and at the end of the info session wished me good luck with rush no matter what happened.
Well, that boosted them right up there with my other first choice. The clincher came when, on Pref Night, my former first choice AGAIN (they made me do in the fall, too) made me fill out an application form so they had something to discuss. I liked the girls a lot, but it just felt...somewhat contrived.
When I went to AST's pref party, I was the only rushee there. We had a big dinner (no one else was serving food, from what I remember.
) and conversation flowed quite naturally. In fact, everyone was so comfortable with me there that at one point, when one end of the table was discussing their mother's boobs (I have no idea) and at the other end a NJ girl was telling dead baby jokes, I asked if it was always like this. They sheepishly said yeah, not making any effort to hide what they were really like.
Then, when it was time for me to leave, the girls wished me the best of luck, and promised me that no matter what happened, they wanted to watch Top Gun with me, since they were all in shock that I'd never seen it.
So. Guess where I wound up?
AST, baby!