ISUKappa's Retro Recruitment

[ISUKappa]

I matriculated at Iowa State University in the fall of 1997. I had never even considered attending any other college – my parents and both my older sisters had been Cyclones, and I'd been going to athletic events since before I was in Kindergarten. In fact, I never even applied anywhere else, despite my high school guidance counselor encouraging me to at least fill out applications for other schools such as Northwestern, Michigan and Notre Dame (I think my high school guidance counselor had a higher esteem for my academic abilities and motivation than I did). I took one look at the applications for the other schools, decided it was too much work, and stuck with my beloved Iowa State. In fact, due to the rules that were in effect at the time, I didn't even need to apply – my high school standing granted me automatic acceptance to any of the state universities.

Neither of my parents had been Greek during their time at Iowa State. My dad went to school mainly during the summer and winter quarters, when he could take a break from farm work, and my mother lived in the residence halls all four years of her schooling. My oldest sister was a charter member of the Phi Beta Chi chapter on campus and my middle sister had gone through rush at the encouragement of one of her older friends from high school. So I was an in-house legacy* to a housed chapter, plus an unhoused one. But I, being the stubborn, independent youngest sister, was determined to forge my own path.

My high school was on the smaller side. My graduating class had 100 members; you knew everyone and everyone knew you. It was extremely easy, and common, to be involved in a number of extracurricular activities. And so I was. Band, vocal, drama, speech, cheerleading, any number of clubs, 4H – I did them all, plus held down a part-time job as a waitress at a local restaurant and took a full load (meaning 2-3 AP courses and no study halls) of classes. I graduated third in my class (by the most narrow of margins) also held the title of my county's fair queen that summer. I wouldn't necessarily consider myself Patty Popular of my school (but I wasn't Helda Hideous) was intelligent, involved and committed and could talk to a brick wall if needed. Any chapter on campus would be proud to have me as a member, right?

So I sent in my information to sign up for rush and anxiously waited for August.


* Technically, I guess this isn't quite right - my sister was four years older than me, and had just graduated from her chapter that spring, so she was no longer in the house, but everyone in the house knew her, and by association, who I was.