I am going to be a______

[deltajas]

alphaxi that is the EXACT way at my school, you basically described our rush. It's so true about girls who "look" jewish too sometimes get past, like Italian or darker Polish girls. That is soooo true, just really unfair that they get rid of great girls just based on religion, I think taht should be mandated against. I just don't agree.
All of te Aephi's and SDT's are also pretty short with dark hair

[ZTAngel]

I think the UF Jewish houses may have gotten better in the past few years. A lot of girls that went to my high school who are Catholic went DPhiE and AEPhi (and it was obvious to these sororities that they were Catholic because these girls had Italian last names). A good friend of mine preffed at DPhiE who has a very Italian last name. She ultimately decided to go Chi-O though. And, the girls who went DPhiE and AEPhi and who are Jewish, were some of my good friends in high school. You would think those would be the type that those organizations would drop because they were blonde, blue eyed....they definitely do not like look like a stereotypical Jew. And, they have last names such as Robinson, Ashton, Small, and Cooperstock. They all got into these sororities without a problem (they also mention to me that they said nothing about their religion during rush). A friend of mine who goes to UF was telling me that DPhiE is only half Jewish. I don't think there's a true way to tell if someone is Jewish just by looking at them. Most of my Jewish friends have blonde hair and blue eyes. I have only one Jewish friend who has dark curly hair. You'd probably never guess that I am Jewish. I am tall with dark blonde hair and green eyes and my nose is....um....not the size of a stereotypical Jew. In my opinion, I think that most Jews do not look like the stereotypical Jew. Look at Sarah Michelle Gellar or Alicia Silverstone.
So, I was talking to one of my friends the other day who is an AEPhi there. She told me that they do place a greater emphasis on people who are Jewish. But, she told me that sometimes there is no way to tell. And, directly from her, "We are not going to cut an awesome girl because she is Christian. A few years ago, we did. Now, we are not going to cut a bunch of girls who are awesome and who would fit in so well with us just because they are not Jewish."
It has been two years since my friends rushed at UF (wow...I am so old ). Out of the 8 Jewish friends who joined Jewish sororities, only 4 are still active. Out of my 5 Catholic/Protestant friends who joined the Jewish sororities, all 5 are still very active.

[deltajas]

hey Zeta
I do agree with you it has seemed to be getting a little better in the past year or so, I think maybe bc of complaints of the fact that no social sorority is supposed to discriminate. I do agree there is no 100% way to tell if one is Jewish, but I g to school in NY and almost everyone is Jewish with dark complection. But yes, I agree Jewish is a religion with many nationalities, but some Jewish people here I know would be offended by not "looking" Jewish.

[DukeBlue]

It's really interesting to hear about AEF at other schools being mostly one religion or cutting based on it, as I was just offered a bid from the chapter here, and not only do they not care one bit about a PNM's religion, I don't even think anyone in the chapter is Jewish. I mean, not that I've asked or can "tell" or anything, but I know a couple are Catholic and one's Lutheran and others are various denominations, or not religious. We have a couple of tall redheads (me being one of them ), a short blonde, a tall blonde, various heights of brunettes, lol..just basically every type of "look" possible.
Oh well. Just judging by the chapter here, I never would have thought so. *shrug*

[ErikaXO]

What an amazing story!!!! I can't believe that girl was so blatantly rude to you.

I too am a dark-skinned brunette and I had a "suspect" maiden name. Actually my mother was of Jewish descent on her father's side, but no one in the family has been practicing Jews for a number of generations. I was raised Christian and since my whole family was too, I never even found out about it until I was 16 and my mother gave me a Jewish Princess medallion to let me in on the "secret" about my heritage. Anyway I have always been drawn to Jewish girls as friends, several of my sorority sisters were Jewish and some of them thought I was too......people always think that because of the way I look. I probably would have slipped through til' 3rd party too!!!!!

[CutiePie2000]

Originally posted by maggieaxid
Has any PNM/Rushee ever tell you that they were going to be part of your organization or another organization and what did you do about it?

maggie, I've not come across this myself as a sorority member, but I did come across this when I was rushing myself and some rushees would run off at the mouth a bit.

I think sometimes when Rushees say things like this, they are merely ignorant of the bid matching process and voting process and they do not realize that Panhellenic recruitment is about MUTUAL selection. They may be under the misguided notion that you just sign up and "join" a sorority.
They likely do not realize that you must be INVITED TO JOIN!

I remember once when I was a collegian going through rush, a somewhat snooty girl snorted at me and made some comment of:

"Why would someone want to join <insert sorority name perceived to be "unprestigious" here> Sorority? If *I* rushed, I'd join <insert sorority name perceived to be more 'prestigious' here> Sorority"

Well, I responded to her, "You don't JOIN a sorority...you're INVITED to join a sorority".

Suffice it to say, she didn't have a response to that!

I think when rushees make a claim like this of "I'm going to be a ____" as opposed to "I *WANT* to be a ______", it is more a case of they just don't know any better, and to assume that they're a shoo-in; in some ways, I think it is best to take them aside and explain this to them, that rush is about MUTUAL SELECTION, they must choose the sorority and the sorority must CHOOSE THEM!, rather then them ruining their chances everywhere by shooting their mouths off. In all likelihood, they may not realize that they are alienating themselves from all the sorority groups! I don't think that these rushees would necessarily make undesirable members, but I think education about the process of MUTUAL SELECTION is key!

[Eirene_DGP]

We had a girl this rush to be like, when I get my letters this and that. She also had a bad habit of always talking about when she rushed various other organizations and how they did this and that. She was so annoying. I mean I love all Greek orgs. but some people will just push you over the edge talking about what they should of/could of done. Obviously she didn't make the cut.

[Dejajeva]

although I do account a lot of this for just bad mannerisms...I'm sure a lot of these girls do mean well...they get their hopes up and let their wishes slip a little bit...Ya know? They just are new to being greek and it's all...well...

Greek to them.

lmao
sorry

Jess

[greeklawgirl]

Speaking of "its all Greek to me"...one of my absolute favorite memories of my first semester of college--before I really knew anything about sororities--people would ask me, "Are you greek?" And I would be just astounded:"Oh my God, yes! HOW did you know?"

After a week of thinking that these people were frighteningly perceptive, I figured out what they were actually talking about. It was a killer story to tell when I finally did rush.

But I still get a kick out of saying that I'm Greek twice over. Its a special source of pride to me.

[XO_Princess]

greeklawgirl, that is too funny!!

[carnation]

bump- I'm just pushing up some rush threads from last fall to get us all fired up!

[Skchickie]

I think AEPhi has definetly gotten better recently.. when i rushed in fall, (before I dropped) I was asked back to AEPhi, but there is NO WAY they could have possibly thought I was Jewish... I have red hair, green eyes, freckles, and the most English last name ever... but I got along great with the girls I talked to, I was kind of sad that I dropped...

Erin

[KappaStargirl]

DeltaBetaBaby, if you're reading this, did AEPhi and SDT get a lot of rushees from Maine East and Niles North, too? Both schools have a lot of Jewish students, so many that they close for the High Holidays. But anyway...just curious. A friend of mine who ended up at IU told me that lots of the Jewish girls from our graduating class went AEPhi or SDT.

As far as religion goes, it never mattered on our campus, maybe because the Greek system was so small. I think I was one of 5 Jewish students on campus, but no one cared much. I'm blonde and blue-eyed with a German last name...my mother likes to joke that I look like a poster child for the Aryan Nation... most people don't believe I'm Jewish when I tell them.


For everyone else: For those of you that have deferred rush, do you think that any freshman truly go through Rush with an open mind? Ours was deferred at a campus of 1100 where everyone knew everyone else. Most girls, myself included, knew where they wanted to be before Rush...although I did go to all the parties to which I was invited and ended up preferencing Theta as well as Kappa (only other sorority was DG).

[Glitter650]

WOW.. very strange to me to hear about houses cutting people becuase of religion... I thought we were done with that. Just as people of any race can join any sorority... that's why NPHC is said to be made up of "historically" africian american sororities... because now anyone can join. Just as race shouldn't really be a factor, religion should no longer be a factor either. At my school rush is all about your personality pretty much, and what you've done in high school, or so far in your college career. It is very interesting to me that someone said that Phi Sigma Sigma is a "jewish house" at their school. I think our founders would be VERY VERY upset to hear that. Our founders were ALL of different religions and started Phi Sig because they coudln't be in the same sorority because they were from different religions. We were the first non sectarian sorority, and the first to have a non-scripture based ritual.

[deltaduke]

After being on both sides of the rush system I think
1) any house would be crazy to drop a great girl for any reason other than grades (we couldn't take anyone under 2.9 GPA).
2) all schools should have rush in the spring rather than the fall, that way you can get more info than second hand from fraternity guys!

Good luck!