I've been inspired to write by all the other posters, so I hope I don't bore you all to death.
Okay, I go to a school that's has a deferred recruitment system in which Winter is when formal recruitment occurs. Having lots of credits and a decent GPA I decided to try informal in the Fall.
I went out to the Fall Involvement Fair at the university and went by all 14 of the sorority tables to gain fliers/information. I had a very good idea of the house(s) that I would like to belong to, but I wanted to meet everyone I could first since it's a lifetime commitment. I have to say, this was a very mixed experience. Most of the tables were awesome and the girls were very friendly and handed me information just for walking past them. Others were very rude; in particular, a pair of Pi Phi's (no offense to any sisters on here, I'm sure you're lovely - but these girls...
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I walked up to the Pi Phi girl passing out fliers, made eye contact, smiled, held out my hand and asked if I could have one of the fliers. She starred at me like I was retarded for several seconds - as if I was deformed and my mere presence offended her, then she looked to the girl directly behind me, handed HER a flier and said "You should consider joining a sorority!" I slowly walked by the other girl at the table, who made brief eye contact then turned her head and refused to look at me again. I walked away and felt the tears filling up in my eyes - it's one thing to meet me and decide I'm not right for your organization, it's another to snub me from the first second. I have no idea what their problem was with me (especially since no one else seemed to have any issues), but, needless to say, I chose not attend the events they listed on the Panhellenic calendar.
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A few days later the campus held a Sorority 101 seminar to explain the Greek process. This session offered no tips, advice, or guidelines for informal recruitment and only offered up the details of formal. I left there completely confused, yet hopeful as the president of the Panhellenic swore that there was room for everyone in their sorority system.
The next week various informal events began. I was so jumbled up from the 101 seminar that I thought I was supposed to visit all the houses I could, then rank them. As such, I went to events for six different houses (one time each) instead of focusing on a few houses that I really liked. Out of the six houses though, I really did like everyone and I could have seen myself as a member at anyone of them. However, I was stretched out too thin to make any lasting impressions.
It wasn't until I later e-mailed my Rho Gam that I found out how confused I was about informal. Unfortunately, informal was essentially over by the time I was straightened out. I wasn't surprised to not get any bids. My Rho Gam pushed me hard core to sign up for formal, which I did not want to do. As I told her, even though I won't graduate until 2011, I have a 3rd year standing and I don't think I can compete on paper with 500 freshmen (because anyone looking at a list of everyone's stats is going to see me as "about to graduate" and not consider how much time I actually have left). However, she assured me that if I explained my graduation date to everyone then it wouldn't be a problem at all and no one would penelize me for it. So I did sign up for formal hoping that some of the girls would remember me when I came through again.
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Formal recruitment has officially begun, so I guess I'll update soon. Thanks for reading so far!
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