Ole Miss Rush rush story

[rainbuckets]

I hope this story doesn't hurt anyone's feelings.

My daughter, as a daughter of non-greeks and MUW and Miss. State grads (grandparents also), went through rush at Ole Miss last year. She did not have a chance. I had no idea. Forget the stuff about grades being the most important criteria. She was a National Merit Finalist. (It would have helped a lot more if she had been a cheerleader.) Forget the stuff about the sorority members getting to know you during rush - there is a period of only ten or fifteen minutes with the members the first night. She was cut from every sorority but one after the first night (cut from it the second).

Over 50% of the girls that went through rush were from out-of-state. These girls have a better chance than Ms. girls without strong Ole Miss connections. An alum actually told me that they would only take one or two girls from our area, which had over twenty girls going out for rush. It didn't matter that it is one of the more exclusive areas of the state.

Some of the sororities are dominated by girls from out of state, as shown on their websites: Theta and PiPhi, certainly. Possibly KKG and AOPi.

The requirement that legacies are always invited back for the second party certainly did not help my daughter get to know any of the sorority girls.

Looks and reputation did not keep my daughter out. She is pretty(completely unbiased here), has a model's figure, has boys chasing her, and maintains them at arm's length.

We followed all the written rush rules - we just did not know the unwritten rules. Apparently, the lists are made out before rush begins for the most part - certainly the first invitations.

Many of the recs for this area are screened by local alums before they go to ole miss - don't know if some of hers ever made it to the sorority. I wonder if the alums are making the decisions for some of the sororities.

She is missing the sisterhood, and part of college life at this university since greek life plays such a huge role at ole miss. I miss the $3,000 that i spent on rush clothes that she never got to wear to rush, and I feel badly that I let her go through rush just to be rejected, and go to ole miss when she could have gone anywhere in the country.

I also feel badly that it has affected my younger daughter's opinions of sororities and ole miss, and probably those of her friends. But she wants to go to Brown or Emory anyway.

I always will wonder if this is the way people want the system to work.

I forgot to add that she thought the thetas were sweet.