Honestly, no, it's not a matter of teasing or forcing people to guess.
If you think rush is complex, try it from the alum side sometime. OY!!!!!
Because AI is not as widespread or standard a process as collegiate rush it's best to tread lightly. Some orgs are perfectly fine and understanding of the idea of meeting different groups for the best fit--just like rush. Others think that if you meet more than one group, then you're just going through the list to see who takes you--even if that's 100% false. Still others think: "What in the hell are you doing THAT for???"
Even within an organization, you can have all 3 of the above.
I started pursuing AI with a GLO back in November. It was not NEARLY as simple a process as I convinced myself it was.
I'm appreciating more and more the "mutual selection" and why it's necessary. The initiated sisters know their ritual and their group's secrets, so what *I* think may be a perfect fit, may not be after all. I have much more faith in the org that I'm pursuing and the people there because they have the inside scoop--they can see if I match the private side of their ideals, while I can only see the surface. That makes it somewhat easier not to take things personally if things don't work out the way I thought they would. The ritual was laid down over 100 years ago (hint) so it wasn't like, "Hey, we're going to design this so Adrienne won't fit in when she does AI after the year 2000." It was created by people of their time, and either I'm going to match or I wont'. At least there is some safeguard there so that I won't have secrets revealed to me that I have a serious problem with.
If it's any consolation--I'm dying to spill the beans too! And when I do, I'm telling the WHOLE story and all the ins and outs, which will hopefully help both future PNAMs and alumnae initiated in college with the whole AI process.
I'll drop ONE hint on my AI pursuit: after researching every org I could find (and there are MANY) I decided to pursue an NPC org. That's it, no more hints!
Adrienne (PNAM-2003)
