Deferred Recruitment

reverie · #1 06-13-2004, 10:43 AM

At my school girls do not rush until fall of their sophomore year. I know many girls in all of the sororities and feel I definitely click with some more than others. Of course I will try to keep an open mind during rush, but people at my college are already asking me where I want to go (and I have some sort of idea) before I've even been formally introduced to the sororities!

Has anyone had the same experience? And if so, did you opinion of the sororities change while going through rush?

33girl · #2 06-13-2004, 11:27 AM

I didn't rush till I was a sophomore. I had an idea of where I wanted to go, but I definitely looked at all the sororities even though it was an informal rush and didn't have to. I ended up where I thought I wanted to be to begin with but I definitely had some thinking to do when I signed my bid card.

While a lot of people don't like deferred for this reason - that women might already have a group in mind - I think it is better because the rushees have seen what the sororities are like on an everyday basis. Just because you put on a great show for formal rush doesn't mean you are like that all the time, and I think it sometimes ends up with women choosing a sorority that is really something different than what they thought it was.

carnation · #3 06-13-2004, 11:33 AM

The school I did my first two years at only allowed sophs on up to rush. This being a large Southern university, the end result was that most of the girls were aiming for 4 certain groups and the girls who didn't get them ended up feeling like "leftovers" and either dropped from rush or tended not to be ecstatic about their Greek experience.

So...it was great for those girls who were being wooed and courted 24/7 by the Big 4. In the rush pics, you would see the same faces at the parties of those 4 groups. But for the other PNMs...

33girl · #4 06-13-2004, 11:36 AM

That sounds more like a problem with closed-minded rushees and improperly used release figures - not deferred rush.

carnation · #5 06-13-2004, 11:45 AM

And also with closed-minded sorority members, who had their pledge classes picked out months ahead of time! But it got so bad that the year I was a junior, recruitment was moved to second semester of the freshman year and then the next year to first semester of the freshman year.

I don't think we had release figures back in the day. With only a 3-day rush, it was worse because legacies or people with recs couldn't be released by any sorority until the day after the second (theme) parties so there they were, thinking they were having a great rush, and BAM!!! Few or no prefs to go to.

OtterXO · #6 06-13-2004, 12:23 PM

reverie:
I went through rush fall of my soph. year and I knew girls in most of the houses and thought I was going to pledge a particular house because I knew a lot of girls in it. As it turned out, during rush I was really unimpressed with the rest of the chapter (even though I still loved the girls I knew). I ended up loving Chi-O, which ironically was the one house where I didn't really know anyone before rush. So keep an open mind, you may end up somewhere you didn't expect!
And if people ask you where you want to go don't answer with any specific house(s)!!!

LuvUTrulyKKG · #7 06-21-2004, 10:08 AM

I didn't rush when I was a freshman and decided that I was going to rush as a sophomore. I thought that I knew which group I wanted to join and almost didn't give the others a chance until I realized that I wouldn't have fit in as much as I do now. It turned out that I didn't even have to go through formal recruitment because I was extended a bid through COB. Looking back on it now, I am so glad the light went off in my head and told me to consider the group that already contained all of my friends... Kappa! It was the best decision I ever made!

ETA: We also have deferred recruitment, not as sophomores (but sophomores can rush), but during the winter term of our trimester system (so january) and this also adds to the problem of many girls going in with a set mind on a particular group and some girls being heartbroken! IMO, if you look at all the options and give each a fair chance, you will probably end up where you belong... and it will be a great experience!

pinkyphimu · #8 06-27-2004, 06:14 PM

i rushed as a sophomore at a school with sophomore deferrment. the best thing i can say to you is to go through rush and pretend you don't know anything about any of the groups. i know at my alma mater that people had a pretty good idea of where they wanted to go....and many were disappointed because they thought they were "in" and then didn't get a bid. from my experiences as a collegiate and an alumnae, there are plenty of incorrect assumptions and rumors spread about each chapter. you really can't believe any of what you hear. go through the process with an open mind and see where it leads you! give all the groups a chance and don't cut a group unless you have to. i am guessing that your school probably doesn't have a large number of NPCs, so that probably won't be a problem. for some groups, you do not see their true colors until the last few nights of recruitment.