"Forced" prefs?

[KDCat]

Originally Posted by carnation

Literally no one. And no one showed up the next year or the next either. I knew one of the sisters and she told me, plus I heard stories about it for years.

I think it hurt them worse than the rushees who had to go to the parties because they put out all that effort for nothing and then had to stand out there waiting for a new member class who never came. If the PNMs hadn't been made to attend all prefs, the chapter might have had some advance warning because in the south, there are many girls who are too nice to show their displeasure by crying or gritting their teeth at the parties. They just go back to the computer and SIP.

That's awful!

I went to a small school which only had 3 sororities (Missouri S&T), but they used to take a middle ground on this. You had to attend all parties up until pref, but you could decline any pref invitation you received. You could attend pref at all 3 if you were invited to all 3 or you could attend pref at just one, even if you were invited to all three. We were given a schedule to tell us what time to be at each house. IRC, we met a Rho Chi near the house and went in as a group.

[AOT767]

Originally Posted by KDCat

That's awful!

I went to a small school which only had 3 sororities (Missouri S&T), but they used to take a middle ground on this. You had to attend all parties up until pref, but you could decline any pref invitation you received. You could attend pref at all 3 if you were invited to all 3 or you could attend pref at just one, even if you were invited to all three. We were given a schedule to tell us what time to be at each house. IRC, we met a Rho Chi near the house and went in as a group.

I'm a recently initiated member of this chapter, and from what I gather, this has been changed. Don't take my word as 100%, because although our Rho Chi's were wonderful ladies, I felt extremely uninformed during the recruitment process. But from hearing the older ladies talk, it seems that last year was the final year you were allowed to turn down invitations from the chapters for pref, and this year they required you to go to every party on your list. I feel like we were told that we had to attend all parties during the whole process or we would be ineligible for a bid. Luckily for me, I only preffed at my favorite chapter so this wasn't a problem for me, but I did notice many girls during my pref party who clearly didn't want to be there but were still trying to be polite about it.


Carnation, your story sounds awful and I feel for those poor girls. It would be so heartbreaking to experience something like that! I would have no idea what to do in a situation like that, I hope those ladies played it off as gracefully as possible and still enjoyed their time as collegians.

[KDCat]

Originally Posted by AOT767

I'm a recently initiated member of this chapter, and from what I gather, this has been changed. Don't take my word as 100%, because although our Rho Chi's were wonderful ladies, I felt extremely uninformed during the recruitment process. But from hearing the older ladies talk, it seems that last year was the final year you were allowed to turn down invitations from the chapters for pref, and this year they required you to go to every party on your list. I feel like we were told that we had to attend all parties during the whole process or we would be ineligible for a bid. Luckily for me, I only preffed at my favorite chapter so this wasn't a problem for me, but I did notice many girls during my pref party who clearly didn't want to be there but were still trying to be polite about it.

Congrats on initiation! So are they doing 3 pref parties now or 2?

(BTW, EA KD was my first choice, too.)

[KDCat]

Originally Posted by AOT767

Last year, we had 3 houses for Day 1, you could be invited back to up to all 3 for the second day, then pref was 2 houses. I think Panhellenic is making several changes for recruitment this year, but I'm not positive as to what those changes are (if any).

Back in the day, you could go to all three houses for pref, if you liked. I didn't know that I could decline a pref, so I went to all three. I was surprised when one of my pledge sisters told me that she declined an invitation to another chapter's pref party.