olderPNM's retro recruitment....

[olderPNM]

I'm a sometimes poster on GC who went through recruitment at an undisclosed school many years ago. I'm going to follow 20Something's lead and attempt honesty but without disclosing anonymity. So here is my story...

The chapters at my school were as follows:

Huey - popular chapter but also known to be pretty into drinking and smoking. I saw a few girls smoking in Huey letters during my freshman year which I thought was a bit tacky.

Dewey - smallest chapter at my school. Also known as the "heavy" chapter at the time. (Looking back on it, they weren't heavy but for some reason had acquired that reputation.)

Louie - one of the smaller chapters. Louie didn't have too many mixers with the big fraternities but tended to socialize with the smaller fraternities.

Donald - I had heard of them but I didn't really have much of an impression of them prior to rush.

Mickey - Like Donald, I didn't really have much of an impression of them prior to rush. I did know one Mickey who lived in my dorm freshman year who was really friendly and was a dancer.

Minnie - A friend's girlfriend pledged Minnie during fall rush. I couldn't really get a feeling for Minnie's reputation on campus but found out later that they were a very popular chapter on campus.

Goofy - middle of the road chapter. I mixed them up with another chapter on campus who had a similar letter in their name. I thought they were the same chapter for most of my freshman year.

Pluto - In more detail below, I knew a few Plutos and was unsure of my opinion of them. I had heard a few unflattering rumors about some younger Plutos and their behavior at parties and mixers, but also knew some really nice ones.

Ariel - A popular chapter at my school. Known for having a lot of blonds and being popular with the guys. They also were known to party a lot.

Prior to beginning school at Anonymous University (AU for short) I had a pretty bad impression of greek life. I really don't know why I did, but the fact that no one in my family was greek probably had something to do with it. My sister's high school friend had joined a sorority at a VERY greek university and came home with stories about needing to get her nail polish color approved before painting her nails. Not a great first impression. A high school friend of mine actually asked if I was rushing and I had no idea what she was talking about. I thought she was asking if I was running short on time with my college preparations! (I was really clueless!) I think I said something along the lines of "ummmmmm, no....um, not really". Then she proceeded to tell me the chapters she was interested in joining at her future college and I felt like such an idiot, although I still had no idea what "rushing" entailed.

So I headed off to college with no intention of joining a sorority and not really much insight into greek life (except my mortifying answer to the "are you rushing?" question). I remember getting a rush flier in my mailbox at school and disregarding it completely.

During the beginning of my first year in college, a girl on my floor "Sara" had a friend who went through formal fall rush and joined Pluto. She seemed to really enjoy her time at Pluto and I met several Plutos that seemed really nice. Although they seemed to have a so-so reputation. I heard a few things from guy friends about their "loose-ness" at mixers and parties. I still liked the Plutos I met and wouldn't let one or two girls ruin a whole group for me just because they happened to be in the same sorority.

Sara decided she was going to go through informal rush in the spring. (Even though it was informal, all the chapters participated that year.) Sara convinced me to come with her because she didn't want to go by herself. (Looking back on this, not the smartest decision considering how opinionated she was.) Even though Sara's friend was a Pluto, Sara was dying to be an Ariel. She saw Ariel as being the "typical" sorority (i.e. blond, wealthy, pretty, etc.) and Pluto as not the typical sorority. Sara had pretty much made up her mind which houses we were to consider, so we went to four houses: Pluto, Ariel, Huey and Minnie.