[LionTamer]

I'd be interested to know if this still goes on at Penn State, but I always thought it was kind of cruel.

On bid day, the sororities sent out a group of 5-6 girls to each dorm area with a list of the new members who lived there. PNMs knew to be in their rooms between certain hours (7-8:30 or whatever).

The groups would go to a PNM's door, and sing outside. When the PNM opened the door, she was handed her bid, and would join the group and move to the next name on the list. After everyone was collected, they headed down to the sorority for pictures, and then usually out to a fraternity for a informal welcome party. Sounds nice, right?

What was cruel is that they made a point of never delivering roommates' bids at the same time, so if Lisa and Rindy were both rushing, XYZ would come by with Lisa's bid and keep going, even if Rindy was on their pick-up list as well. Rindy didn't know if that meant another group would be coming for her, or if XYZ would be back. If there were 3 girls on the same floor, same deal. You'd see ABC sorority coming into your dorm (your third choice) and your heart would sink. Or you'd see your first choice, and they'd come for a neighbor and keep going. Very terrifying!

I did the ISP thing (yeah, I know) and hadn't received a "no bid" call, so I knew who was coming for me, but I was still incredibly nervous.

On the other hand, door-to-door can be very sweet - one girl had to drop from rush because of a family emergency. She told her rush counselor that she was devastated, because she had her heart set on joining ASA. We heard about it, and since we were one short of quota, we were able to snap bid her. We showed up at her door a few days after bid day, singing as if it were bid day. She opened the door, stunned, saying we had gotten it all wrong, that she had missed her chance and it was too late. We told her we heard what had happened and were happy as pie to have her on board, and then she and her roommate (who had gotten a bid at another sorority and had supported her through everything that had gone on) BOTH started crying.