A Retro Recruitment Thread with Many Bumps Along the Way

[Cutie_Hootie]

First, let me apologize to those of you who are sick of these threads, but I just couldn't resist!! I've been reading these since they started and finally gathered the courage to tell my story. My current day thoughts will be in blue.

I went through rush/recruitment in 1992 at a very small liberal arts college in Indiana. We have four sororities, and for this thread I will call them:
Gryffindor
Hufflepuff
Ravenclaw
Slytherin

I was the first person in my family to attend a four year college, and definitely the first person to go through rush. My first real eye-opener was at a meeting sponsored by my hometown's Alumnae Panhellenic. I was certain that this was something I wanted to do. My mother, on the other hand, was worried about hazing. Of course she had nothing to worry about, but she still asked me a couple of years ago if it had ever happened! Finally I convinced her that things would be just fine and she should be confident that I would make wise decisions. I arrived on campus ready to conquer the world, sorority rush included. But wait a second...we had deferred rush. There were no limits on visiting houses, as long as you didn't spend the night there. We freshmen were in the Fraternities the first night on campus (cannot believe that--they have to wait three-five weeks now!), and we quickly met Greek women, as well as learning the opinions of all the fraternity boys. Here are my first impressions:

Gryffindor--Very friendly women who were visible at each fraternity I visited. If anything, I saw them aligning with the Phi Delts. A number of girls on my floor liked this house. They had quite a few athletes in their house, mostly volleyball players. Also known for their high g.p.a.s. They were also one of the oldest chapters on campus.

Hufflepuff--These girls were fun! Very visible on campus, especially at the parties. Mostly seen at the Beta house and rarely anywhere else. Had a lot of athletes, mostly field hockey players. The youngest chapter on campus--they had only been on campus for five years.

Ravenclaw--The socially elite house on campus. Very pretty and very preppy girls. Visible all over campus--they wore their letters constantly. They hung out at Lambda Chi and Fiji, which were my two favorite fraternities at the time. A very close friend of mine had an older sister who had been a Ravenclaw here, and I idolized her, so of course I really had a strong pull towards Ravenclaw. This was the oldest house on campus and they made sure you knew it.

Slytherin--The Slytherins hung out at every fraternity. They were social, but didn't align with any one chapter. They were very well respected on campus--they had a lot of cheerleaders and dance team members. Seemed like the All-American girls. One of the girls on my hall had an older sister who was an upperclass Slytherin on campus, so we got to know her and her friends pretty quickly.

The campus saying at the time went like this: Ravenclaw was old money, Slytherin was new money, Gryffindor were the studious girls, and Hufflepuff were the party girls. This was soooooo inaccurate, not to mention rude.

I knew very little about the whole system of rush, but I did know that I had at least two recommendations-- for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I assume (but am not certain) that I also had recs for Gryffindor and Slytherin because of the paperwork filled out at the Alumnae Panhellenic meeting. Things were going well through that first semester. I attended all pre-rush events (house tours, progressive dinner, philanthropy day) and had a Rho Chi who was a Gryffindor. I really liked her and that definitely had an influence on my opinions. So when I went home for Christmas break, my mom and I went shopping for Rush. I made sure to investigate what the suggested clothes were, and I think I fit the bill quite nicely--for first party, I planned to wear a grey pinstriped jumper with a turtleneck and tights (oh my goodness-what was I thinking?!), for second party I planned to wear a skirt and sweater, and for pref I was wearing the ever-popular black dress. Then one afternoon, I got a thin envelope from the college--my grades. I ran to my room, ripped it open, and immediately started sobbing. I had missed the minimum g.p.a. by two hundreths of a point. No Rush, and I was certain that my life was ruined.