Excited for Recruitment!

[zetatheta]

Hi! So I'm new to Greek Chat...and really excited for recruitment. (our formal recruitment is held in the Spring--and that is the first opportunity for first year students at my school to join a greek organization)
Reading all of these threads makes me want to share my story.

My School is small, and Greek Life is not very prominent... I'm sure that you'll be able to guess my school--but if you do guess anything please don't ruin the fun!

I was a sophomore when I decided to go greek. I never had any intentions of joining a sorority, and I'd never met anyone who decided to go greek. Actually one of my close friends was experiencing some difficult times and feeling the need to find a close knit group. She randomly decided that she wanted to go to recruitment---and dragged me with her!

So a little bit of background...I went through informal, fall recruitment, and at my school, for informal recruitment they have 4 nights of recruitment. The first night is a general overview of greek life, followed by two nights of open parties, you attend all four parties. The last night of recruitment is preference night and the pnms can attend all or just one party (no invitations necessary and there is no ranking) a pnm can receive multiple bids--which they get on the day after the preference party.

There are four sororities at my school (coded of course):

The Stars
The Stripes
The Circles
and The Triangles

Since I was a sophomore, I already knew a little bit about each sorority...pros, cons, and had already established outsider opinions about them....I think I will share those as well...
Julie's (my friend going through recruitment with me) roommate at the time was a Star, and actually lived on the sorority floor. The Stars are a very small and close-knit group of girls. They had won "Closest Sisterhood" for several years in a row. Julie was close with many of the girls, and liked them. I also knew, from hearing about Julie living with them, that they were not very nice to their "pledges." However, The Stars had a bad reputation on our campus. They were seen as the girls who did not receive bids to other sororities, "the left-over girls." They were also seen as having bad habits and girls who partied a little too hard. I would like to say that it is obvious that every sorority has stereotypes, and that not all of them are true. I personally, after meeting these girls over the course of the year did not think that they deserved such a mean stereotype, and although some of their reputation is true, these girls are much more than some people make them out to be.
One of my friends and Julie's best friends was a Triangle. I based a lot of my knowledge of the sorority on her and her experiences. While she had a very difficult pledging process, I also had heard from her that the sorority had recently had elections and had completely changed their new member process to make it completely free of hazing. The triangles had, for the last five years or so, been recognized as one of the best sororities on campus. It was almost always at or over total...Just about every pnm always wants to be a Triangle (they really know how to recruit) and very few are able to join because of how competitive it is. I was pretty confident that I would get along really well with all of the Triangles because I knew a lot of them. Also--the Stars and the Triangles do not get along, and Julie's roommate and her sisters did not like the Triangle organization--something about which I could only understand later.
I knew a couple of Stripes from classes and organizations on campus, and though they were nice to me, I knew that they were sometimes very caddy and tended to look down on people. The Stripes had a reputation on campus of being one of the best sororities on campus. They were also said to have loose morals---and I wasn't sure that I would fit in with them.
The last house on campus, the circles, I knew only from reputation. I had heard a couple things about this house--It was said that they were (like the Stars) a "left over" sorority, that they were not very pretty. I had personally heard from one of my close friends that the Circles were the only sorority on Campus that he respected.
....

So from the informational night, I learned the sorority's letters, symbols, and was introduced (in a group setting) to the presidents and the girls who were in charge of recruitment in each sorority. It was interesting to see who was going through recruitment. I knew a couple of girls (beside my best friend). Afterward, my best friend, who was close with a lot of Triangles, told me that she really liked the Circles because of a Greek Competition she had seen them in. I really liked the Triangles the best because I knew so many of them already. Julie and I were both really excited for the nights to follow....

[LucyKKG]

Can't wait to hear more!

[twinkle555]

more please!!

[AlphaFrog]

I really enjoy how honest you're being. We know that with deferred rush and/or rushing as a sophomore that you come in with preconcived notions. It's impossible NOT to. As much as we preach about keeping an open mind, it's human nature to judge on reputations. Of course, we often see that rushees minds are changed, even on Day 1.

[zetatheta]

Okay, I have some down time...so I think that I will write a little more.

Class on tuesday seemed to take forever! Julie and I hadn't really had a great time at the informational meeting, and Julie was thinking of not coming to the next night--but I convinced her to come (for the food at least!).
We were probably a little overdressed for the second night. I had heard that recruitment was dressy. My Triangle friend told me that some sisters looked down on girls who weren't dressed nicely, so I wanted to look perfect. I wore dress pants and a nice black top with a string of pearls. When Julie and I got to the meeting place, all of the other PNMs were wearing jeans and t-shirts. Remembering what my friend had said, I wasn't really uncomfortable, but Julie seemed nervous and kept commenting on it. The Panhel president spoke for a minute and gave us all forms to fill out. She wished us all good luck, and I remember thinking that she was really pretty. She had shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes. The sixty or seventy PNMs were all split up into four groups. Each group went to a different house and then was led by a girl in a Panhel t-shirt to the next house. I was, luckily, in the same party as Julie.

The first house that I went to visit was the Stripe house. I had only ever seen the regular dorms---and so did not know that the sororities were allowed to decorate their assigned floors as they saw fit. The floor was adorable, The walls were a pretty blue and the bathrooms had been decorated with glitter and feather boas. We waited in the hallway...I was first in line. I tried to make small talk with the Stripe Sister who was standing outside of a door that had been painted with the Stripe letters. The sister ignored me, barely acknowledging my comments with a small smile. In retrospect, she probably didn't know if she were allowed to speak with me before the start of the party. At exactly 9pm, the door behind the sister opened and the party began.

I barely had a chance to look around the room because I was immediately grabbed by the wrists and pulled over to a sofa. The sister who had pulled me inside was someone that I knew from some of my classes. She immediately complimented my pearls and then made some small talk about class. I am a very social person, and so while the room was filled with laughter and boisterous conversation, I was able to change the conversation from class to talking about vacation hot spots, travel, and foreign countries. It was a nice conversation, albeit I felt as though I were doing a little bit of acting. While I was talking with this sister, I was able to notice a few things about the lounge where we were all seated. It was really nice, the same blue color of the hallways, with composite pictures of different generations of sisters. I remember there was very warm lighting, and I liked the lounge a lot. The girls themselves all looked sort of similar. They were all wearing different colored letter t-shirts with skinny jeans and spike healed boots. Everyone wore their hair straightened with a small poof, although some girls sported pony tails and others wore their hair down. At one point, the conversation became a little forced and the girl from my class (lets call her Maggie) asked rather loudly if I would like a drink. Instantly another Stripe came over and handed me a cup of punch. She knelt down in front of my couch with Maggie and we proceeded to have the same conversation about travel, although Maggie also told her sister my major, class and all the general information. I left the Stripes thinking they seemed a little nicer than I imagined, although I felt as though I hadn't met enough of them to make a better judgment.

The next party that we were led to was held with the Circles. Their floor was also painted. It felt more like a greek floor because the colors were bolder--I know that that is silly, but that was how I felt. Composites hung in the hallways and The walls had what looked like names written on them. We waited outside in the hallway once more and Julie stood behind me. She was really excited because this is the house she wanted. I was very relaxed because as awful as it sounds, I felt like I didn't need to try to impress the Circles, probably because I had heard that the Circles were a sorority of "wanna be Triangles." The door to the lounge was in the same place as the Stripe's lounge. Outside the door there was a small table with a pretty candle beside a sign in book. We wrote down our names and gpa's and then at exactly 930pm The door opened and We were welcomed into a brightly lit lounge. The lounge was white with a tan carpet. Almost every inch of wall was decorated with various pictures and memorabilia. The sisters were sitting down on the couches in the lounge. As the group moved inside, sisters got up and we were rather loosely directed to sit where we pleased. I sat down on a comfortable L-shaped sofa in between two Circle sisters. The girls introduced themselves and we went over basics (major, year, etc). They both seemed nice enough--although the conversation was very forced and I was glad when we were interrupted by a pretty brunette. She introduced herself and gave us some details about the sorority and dues and things of that sort. I remember leaving feeling like the two girls that I met were nice, but quiet and shy.

The third party was the Star party. Neither Julie nor I was very excited. I felt the same as I had at the Circle party, almost as though I were too good for these girls, as stupid and petty as that seems. The Star floor was painted very nicely. I remember thinking that it was my favorite so far. It was painted with bright red and off-white. My favorite part were pretty quotes that were written on the walls. The party started at exactly 10pm. We were half-led into the room by different Star sisters. I remember thinking that it was a nice enough party...The sisters went around the room and talked about what made their sorority unique. One sister spoke about how accepting the Stars are of one another...and how she liked that they didn't pressure her to party or drink. Another sister rebutted by saying that "when they did party, they partied pretty f***ing proud." I thought it was hysterical, although the sisters seemed a little embarrassed. At the end of the party I felt as though I had been able to actually meet the sisters, even if it was partly because of the slip up--they seemed more like real people than the Stripes.

The last party of the night was the Triangles. I was very excited. Their floor was cute, although I still liked the Star's floor better. It was painted with pictures and flowers and other nice things. We were led into the lounge at exactly 1030 and I remember being absolutely stunned. The lounge was gorgeous! It was draped in dramatic curtains and fabric, and had a chandelier. The girls were all dressed up and looking really classy. After a brief introduction, the girls left us to mingle, and that we did. I felt like I met every sister. Some of the girls showed me photos from their formal and others introduced me to their bigs and littles. Julie and I left glowing, as did all of the other girls in our party.

The night had been really exciting, and as Julie and I were talking, we told stories about our different encounters. Julie still really liked the Circles, although she said that she was falling in love with the Triangles. I told her about a Triangle family that I met, to whom I felt like I was specifically introduced. The girls smiled at me and then told me that their family was really cool because they all had the same exact shade of rare hair color and wasn't it such a coincidence that I had the same hair?
We both gushed and laughed and tried to decide what we wanted to wear for the next night---

[LucyKKG]

I think I like the Triangles, too. That's kind of weird about meeting the whole family.

[Thetagirl218]

Ooooo I like the Triangles a lot!!! But the Stars would be my next choice!

[violetpretty]

Of course I like Triangles and my SK family does have the most redheads...

[honeychile]

Originally Posted by violetpretty

Of course I like Triangles and my SK family does have the most redheads...

LOL - we always considered redheads who went through Recruitment "ours"! Fully a third of our chapter had red hair when I was a senior!

[SthrnZeta]

Good story so far My favorite shape is the Star (and my Zeta family is the Star Family - 5 points like our crown and we use star fabric for our family letters). So, go Stars!

[Deepher4Life]

Originally Posted by zetatheta

The girls smiled at me and then told me that their family was really cool because they all had the same exact shade of rare hair color and wasn't it such a coincidence that I had the same hair?
We both gushed and laughed and tried to decide what we wanted to wear for the next night---

i think someone wants you in their lineage!

[zetatheta]

how did you guys all guess my haircolor? I thought that I was being so discrete! lol

So...ready for the third night?

So Julie and I were really excited for the next round of parties, because tonight was theme night! Okay, so I had absolutely no idea what that entailed, but it sounded fun, and some of the different houses (the triangles, and the stars) had asked me if i was planing on continuing for the rest of the week....so they had been talking up theme night.
Tonight I dressed in a really pretty skirt and matching top. When we were finally at the meeting place, Julie and I were excitedly talking to my fellow RA and friend *Jacki*. She and her friend were talking about the houses they were most excited to visit. Jacki and I had been talking privately, and I told her that I really like the Triangles but that I'd also heard good things about the Circles. She told me that she didnt really care in which house she ended up, as long as she was able to go greek. She mentioned that it would be weird for her to be in a Circle because her old roommate was one. She told me that her roommate was a little crazy and that she didn't think they could ever be sisters--but that if she recieved a bid, she'd accept it. I thought that that was a little desparate...her friend was really nice, just really quiet. But I digress--- We were split into four groups again, and I was with Julie again.

This time, our first stop was the Circle house. We waited as we did the day before, in the hallway. The same really pretty brunette was outside the lounge door. Tonight she was wearing a beautiful blue and green dress with a hawaiian print. She was also wearing a lay with really nice big flowers on it. I was first in line, and excited in general, so I decided to try to make small talk--even though it had failed with that first Stripe sister. I told her that I really liked her dress. The sister got really excited and said thank you, but that it belonged to one of her sisters. I think we made a little more small talk about her lay and what not, and she was really cute and excited. Inside, there was fun island music playing and all the girls had cute champagne glasses with some tropical punch. We were "layed" as we entered the lounge. The decorations were really cute. I ended up sitting next to the same girls as before, in high spirits, I was determined to be really social. The brunette gave a quick speach about how unique and special the sisterhood is because they all "Really know and love eachother" We then went around the room and each told something that we felt made us really unique. I said that I really liked that I was 100% french canadian, and that I grew up in a traditional french home. As I said it, a sister across the room caught my eye and smiled. After the game, the sister came over to talk to me. She introduced herself and said that she really liked how proud i was of my family...and that she was also a proud canadian. She was really perky and bubbly and I loved the differences that I noticed between her and the other two sisters I was talking to. We were all really comfortably talking, the shy girls opened right up once their other sister was there, and I actually felt like I was having a good time.

The next party was the Stripe party. I honestly do not remember the theme. I remember that it went well, although I felt as though it was just as "fake" The conversations I had with the sisters weren't really forced or awkward in any way, they were actually very nice...but I wasn't really acting like myself.

The next party was the Triangle party. I was really looking forward to it. The Triangle sister who was waiting for us outside the door smiled very polietly, but ignored me when I complimented her. I felt a little brushed off, but didnt really think very much of it. The Triangle theme was the old west. It was really very cute. The girls all wore matching letter shirts that were printed with a catchy slogan of the theme. Some of the girls sported hot "cowboy" boots and hats. A couple of fellow RAs started talking to me and one brought me over to their themed food--which was root beer floats and some kind of desert. Another Triangle then bonded with me over similar strange tastes in only certain brands of root beer. She showed me their trophey display case, which was filled to the brim. She pointed out some competition trophies from greek week and then said rather bitterly that they didnt have last years because another organization had stolen their win. The comment rubbed me the wrong way--because she was making out that the only reason that the Triangles didn't win was because there was a biased judge who docked them points due to a missing girl in one rehersal. She was talking about the competition that Julie had seen and that made her really love the Circles. I ignored the comment rather well and then proceeded to speak with the Triangle president and various other sisters at great length about my future ambitions and my involvement on campus. Over all the party went really well and I left feeling pretty confident.

The last party of the night was the Star party. I wasn't really looking forward to going, because even though I had liked the girls that I had met, I was still thinking about what i "knew" about them because of their reputation on campus. Julie's roommate was in charge of recruitment, and the Star theme was really nice as a result--a lot of the Stars are more "tom-boy" than "girly-girl" and so in the past their recruitment has not been strong and their numbers have suffered (i knew this just from knowing Julie's roommate before recruitment). The theme was "reach for the stars" which was really different than all of the other sororities, and I really liked it. All of the sisters were dressed nicely in dark jeans and different letters. During the party, I talked to Julie's roommate a little. She announced that the Stars had paper stars that we could color and on which we should write a wish. She said to leave the notes annonymous because they were going to decorate the lounge with the wishes for the rest of recruitment. No one really made any stars--and I noticed that a lot of the girls in my party were missing...like they had skipped the last party. I made a star because I felt badly that noone else was. The sisters also played a game where they gathered together and one Star would tell us the pledge name of one of her sisters---we then had to guess which sister had the name. I got four of them right...which was kind of fun. I also spoke with a Star who I knew from one of my classes. She really loved pink floyd and I knew this because I had seen one of her floyd tattoos and her pj pants had dark side of the moon prisms. I told her that I also really liked floyd and we talked about it for a while. I felt very comfortable talking with all of the Stars, like I didn't have to try hard to make conversation, but I also felt a little conceited, like I was almost better than them in a way (stupid i know--probably came from their reputation on campus). I also felt a little bit like I was making myself out to be a little more "chill" than I actually am...

After the parties were over, Julie and I were walking back to our dorm when I ran into some non-greek RAs. They noticed how we were dressed and asked if we had come from recruitment. I told them that we had, and both of the girls asked me what organizations I was interested in. I told them that I really liked the Triangles, the Circles, and that the Stars were nice also. Julie agreed. The girls exchanged nervous glances and asked me if I knew anything about any of the new member programs. I said that I had heard a little about the Stars--(mostly from Julie's first hand experience although I didnt say that). The girls said that the Triangles were the best organization--and then added to me that they were the only organization to which you could belong and also be an RA. This confused me since I knew a Circle who had graduated that was an RA (but I kept this to myself). The girls then told me "privately" that they had both been new members of the Circles and then dropped out during the new member period. When I asked them why they wouldn't really elaborate except to say that they had had some trouble with the process, and that there was no way you could be a good RA and a Circle. This news troubled me a little, but I was still in sort of a recruitment "after glow" and so dismissed most of what they had said--I had after all already heard that the Circles and the Stars had difficult new member programs (although it was rumoured that the Circles had the hardest). At the same time, all of the RAs on my campus who were greek were Triangles...so I figured that there had to be a reason for that...and besides--I did have the same hair color as that Triangle family.

[LucyKKG]

Oooh exciting! All of those rumors sound so lame and complicate everything. I'm glad you took them with a grain of salt.

[twinkle555]

i cant wait to see where you end up!!

[SthrnZeta]

I'm curious what "difficult new member programs" are? Do you mean hazing or just long?