My (Semi) Retro Recruitment Story

GreysObsessed · #1 03-21-2011, 12:19 AM

Hey all! I have been reading Greek Chat pretty much nonstop for about... oh two weeks now. And I finally decided I wanted to share my wonderful story of recruitment with everyone!

My story starts my freshman year... I will not go into a lot of details for safety's sake but I will say that I had a VERY terrible experience with a chapter a few weeks before moving in my freshman year. This incident completely turned me off to Greek Life because it essentially proved every single one of the stereotypes to be true. And that was terrible to me.

At the insistence of one of my best friends I decided to participate in the Fall 2010 Recruitment with two other best friends of mine, one of whom was an upcoming freshman and the other being a sophomore rushee like myself.

My school isn't very small but Greek Life is not a huge part of campus so we only have four sororities participating in Recruitment. They will be identified using Grey's Anatomy characters, considering it is my favorite show

Meredith
Izzie
Christina
Olivia

Can't wait to share my story with everyone

APhi4Ever · #2 03-21-2011, 01:09 PM

I'm rooting for Christina!

GreysObsessed · #3 03-21-2011, 02:26 PM

To give a bit more background, I am the first person in my family to ever Go Greek and will be the only one to graduate college. Things have not been easy for me. I moved to the state I live now from a state, literally, across the country when I was thirteen and have never quite fit in. At the beginning of my sophomore year I figured a sorority was the best option for me to get out of the funk I had been in since I was thirteen. My parents were supportive, not so much the boy friend though! I figured that I wouldn't actually join because of the financial worries considering I would be paying out of pocket, that was the only part of Greek Life my parents weren't supportive of.

For my school recruitment started with an introduction to the various sororities. They were all chanting and having a great time together it seemed like so much fun! I especially looked out for the Izzie's because that was the sorority one of my best friends was in and one of my top favorites going into recruitment. But I was keeping an open mind because all of the sororities on campus were great! I also looked for Olivia's because the person I used to call my best friend was in that chapter. It interested me that the video that Panhellic showed was full of Christina's& Meredith's because, number wise, they were the weakest on campus. Especially Meredith's because they were the newest chapter to the school.

I left my schools auditorium with my other friend, who I will call Sophomore Rushee and we discussed how much it sucked not to talk to our sorority friends and how we couldn't wait to be rushing. She wasn't very discrete about what she wanted... For her it was Izzie's nothing. Not long after that conversation my other friend, Freshman Rushee called to tell me how she absolutely couldn't wait to be a Olivia. The converstation got more interesting as it went on though because something in her voice sounded like she was beginning to like Meredith. This was odd to me as a sophomore because I knew of Meredith's reputation versus Olivia's and it was night and day different. She knew this too because my Ex BFF had told her the difference in the chapter dynamics on campus. Like a good friend I told her to follow her heart and to trust the system because she will go where ever she will be meant to go... Boy did that advice backfire!

TriDeltaSallie · #4 03-21-2011, 06:39 PM

Woo hoo! Off-season recruitment story!

GreysObsessed · #5 04-13-2011, 09:19 PM

Okay sorry it has been so long! Greek Life, school, and work have completely taken over my life these past couple weeks! It is now time for the beginning of rush. Philanthropy Round! Going in I wasn't too nervous, I had fixed my hair in my boyfriends dorm (I was a commuter), gotten dressed, grabbed some grub and was ready to go! I had met all of the girls in my Rho Chi group and they were all very nice and pretty. I pretty much pegged them all as to which sorority they would join. (low and behold I was correct!). One girl and I got pretty close over the week because she was also a friend of Sophomore Rushee. We all went to the same parties at the same time since it was the first night of rush.

Christina: I went into the room not knowing at all what to expect. All i could tell outside of the door that it was LOUD in the room. Unbelievable loud. When we walked in the girls were standing all around chanting. I had never experienced something like that before! It was so intense but fun at the same time. I started talking to a sweet girl about their philanthropy and it was one I felt passionately about. So passionately, that in their philanthropy video I even shed a tear. I could tell these girls were fantastic and cared a lot about their sisterhood! Loved them!

Izzies: This was my friends chapter and I hoped I would have gotten to speak with her, but knew it was better in the long run if I didn't. I, once again, talked to some lovely ladies about their philanthropy work. The philanthropy didn't "wow" me, it wasn't something I particularly loved working with, but I did love some of the things that was started by them nationally. I was also impressed by their bible study one of the girls talked to me a lot about.

Olivia: I was dreading this party. I hadn't spoken to the girl I knew in it since she had stabbed me in the back. Going in I saw her and she shot me the brightest smile ever. She had tried to get into my good graces all summer but I hoped and prayed she would let it go tonight. It seemed that my prayers were working because I talked to several other girls and we all seemed to get along very well! They were sweet and nice. They were all very pretty. I was thinking maybe my viewpoints on them were all wrong due to the issue I had with my old friend. Right in the middle of the party she came over and started talking to me.. I immediately clammed up and couldn't hold a conversation with any other active after that point.

Meredith: This party was rather awkward. They didn't chant like the other sororities, instead they sang a redone version of a popular song that was pretty popular this summer... It was a rather... promiscuous song. Was not good at all. I only talked to one girl at this party and all she did was brag about the famous alumnae their sorority claimed. I was kind of glad when the party was over.

At the end of the night I placed my rankings. I ranked them as such (in no particular order).
Izzie's
Christina's
Olivia's

Which meant I was knocking Meredith off my list.

I called my friends going through and their opinions still hadn't changed. Sophomore Rushee knocked Olivia off her list. She didn't care what order they were knocked off or even if all of the other chapters cut her the next, as long as Izzie was on her bid card...Freshman Rushee decided that Olivia was the group for her. There was no changing her mind and that she was sure she was guaranteed a bid. She was so cocky she even texted (!!!) during the other parties.

APhi4Ever · #6 04-13-2011, 09:25 PM

Still rootin' for Christina!

GreysObsessed · #7 04-14-2011, 02:24 PM

Dayyyyyy two! Theme night! I was really excited all day about recruitment that night. I had stayed up all night talking to my mom about how unexpectedly excited I was to keep going in the process. I also voiced my financial concerns to her because at this point, the money issues were the only thing standing in my way of being a sorority woman.

I get to my groups designated meeting spot and am the first one there so I start chatting with my rho chi's. They tell me all about the length of the parties and how late the night will be. One of the girls then tells me I'm pretty unlucky cause my party was the late one at 10... I'm not sure if it was the way she worded the sentence or what... but all i heard was "party" as in one. Only one. I suddenly got very very nervous and asked, "Oh, will I only be going to one party tonight?" and all they said was "Well lets wait for the other girls to show up before we tell you that." I was absolutely mortified... The only sorority I knew that kept girls that all the others dropped was Meredith I almost didn't even want to stay for the parties. I could barely have made it through the first party with them.

The other girls in my group came while I was fighting back tears. I kept thinking to myself, I'm not bad looking, I'm kinda cute, I can have a conversation, and I can even be funny sometimes... WHATS WRONG WITH ME??? It seemed to take forever for the rho chis to pass out the invitation cards and of course, I was the last one to recieve mine. A couple of the girls before me had only been invited back to Meredith and a lot were cut from Olivia & Izzie especially. I knew I was done for... The girls finally passed me mine and I looked on the card...

All that worrying for nothing!!! I had a full party list with only getting dropped by Olivia but Meredith invited me back! I was sooooo relieved! I did feel badly for the other girls but I was still on Cloud 9! Until I got the dreaded text message from Sophomore Rushee

"I just want to drop out right now"

I immediately went looking for her since all my parties were scheduled for the last three time slots. Low and behold, Izzie had dropped her... We were both so confused and she was so upset! We had to go to the bathroom so she could cry with out the other girls seeing but in the bathroom there were tonsssssss of other girls basically crying buckets over Izzie & Olivia cutting them. It was a tad ridiculous truth be told. In the bathroom, but thankfully not crying, was Freshman Rushee. She got invited back to her top two choices Meredith and Olivia. However, she was pretty offended that Izzie had cut her because she thought she was the bee's knee's. I kinda thought that she had it coming to her for TEXTING during the parties though!

Okay time for the parties!
Izzie: Their theme night was so much fun! The song and dance was so cute and you could tell the girls were having an absolute blast with each other. The girls I talked to were talking about all the great bonding times they have had and how wonderful being in this sorority was. They did not sound fake at all about it, they were genuinely ecstatic to be Izzie's which I thought was fantastic. I also talked to a girl about the bad experiences I had been having with friends for the past two years and turns out she had almost the same experiences! She said that joining this group really helped her connect. We bonded for sure and I was really hoping to get to see the Izzie girls at pref the next day.

Christina: I was sooooo excited to be going back to this group of girls. They were so fun and so much like me that I was anxious for more! They def did not disappoint! The sisterhood in this chapter is amazing and it showed in their skit, and it was still very informative about what their chapter holds near and dear to their hearts. I talked to fantastic girls once again and felt so welcome there it was unbelievable.

Meredith: The party I was least looking forward to... It was at 10 o'clock at night for Pete's Sake! I honestly do not remember much about this party at all except that the skit took up the entire party slot, so there was not much talking... I was very thankful for that.

At the end of the night I knew for sure I was going to be a Christina so I ranked them and Izzie. I was hoping to get invited back to both but I thought for sure I knew where I was going after that night. I only hoped my friends could be as lucky as I was.

ladybug12 · #8 04-22-2011, 08:12 PM

It has been over a week since the last post. Please update!

Recruitment stories get pretty sparce this time of year!