Petals' Recruitment Story at Penn State (finally!)

[aephi alum]

... And all of this is going on... during classes. Are midterms happening now as well??

It sounds like Petals and her fellow PNMs will be choosing between study and sleep for the next couple of weeks. Not to mention the sisters - consider the party schedule + setup + cleanup + membership selection. A good argument for immediate fall formal recruitment before classes start, if ever I heard one. Heaven help the engineering majors...

Best of luck, Petals. Relax and have fun!

[petals]

Haha, amen to aephi alum… thank goodness recruitment didn’t start a week earlier, as I’ve got more papers than I have classes due (for the midterm) this week alone (luckily I wrote most of them last week… but still!) It’s definitely going to be ten days of adrenaline and caffiene.

I didn’t realize how nervous I was about all of this until I was sitting with the 800 other girls at orientation today. It’s kind of intimidating for me, at least, since I’m a sophomore and not going through with any friends (at least from looking around, it seems that most of the girls are freshmen doing this with 3 or 4 floormates). Luckily there are some other sophomores in my Pi Chi group, and even overall, my group seems pretty diverse and fun.

I’ve heard that the open house rounds are the most hectic (they start on Tuesday), so tomorrow’s going to be non-stop work to get ahead in classes before the madness starts. Thanks again for all of the kind words and advice! Like I said, I’m going through this crazy process alone, so having a place like this to come back to feels really good

[SigKapSweetie]

I'm glad your Pi Chi group seems like fun. I'm sure you aren't the only one going through recruitment solo. Good luck on Tuesday and for the rest of the week!

[LOVEinZTA]

I was supposed to have a friend going through recruitment with me (and since the groups were done alphabetically, she would've been in my group as well) but at the last minute she decided not to rush so I was alone. They'd line us all up in alphabetical order everytime we went to a party so I got to know the girl who stood behind me pretty well (not to mention I memorized what the back of the girl in front of me's head looked like) and as it turned out, she ended up pledging Zeta with me. Not only that, but a month later she was my cousin in our family! You'll definitely get to know some people really fast, I have faith!

[DominoTheta]

Sounds like these girls are going to REALLY be put to the time management test. Time management is one big challenge in sorority life. I agree with the above post, I feel for the sisters!

[33girl]

Originally Posted by aephi alum

... And all of this is going on... during classes. Are midterms happening now as well??

It sounds like Petals and her fellow PNMs will be choosing between study and sleep for the next couple of weeks. Not to mention the sisters - consider the party schedule + setup + cleanup + membership selection. A good argument for immediate fall formal recruitment before classes start, if ever I heard one. Heaven help the engineering majors...

Best of luck, Petals. Relax and have fun!

I personally think that 4 days of nothing but 12 hours a day rushing 20 groups before classes begin would be even worse. At least this way they have some time to process everything. Necessary, in my opinion, with that many groups.

[UGAalum94]

I tend to think that doing rush while school is going on gives the pnms more perspective than doing only rush for a week before school starts. When all you are doing is rushing, you tend to get a little crazy and think your life will be determined completely by the outcome of rush, which just isn't quite so.

But I wonder if moving rush into the school year helps with this or not at places where greek life is a huge deal. For instance at Ole Miss, did moving it back help make it more sane or did the insanity continue as always but now everyone has to juggle class too?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I tend to think that doing rush while school is going on gives the pnms more perspective than doing only rush for a week before school starts. When all you are doing is rushing, you tend to get a little crazy and think your life will be determined completely by the outcome of rush, which just isn't quite so.

Yes! Exactly my point.

But at Ole Miss or Bama I don't think it makes a dent.

[twinkle555]

good luck petals!! try to stay sane and load up on redbull

[SECMom]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I tend to think that doing rush while school is going on gives the pnms more perspective than doing only rush for a week before school starts. When all you are doing is rushing, you tend to get a little crazy and think your life will be determined completely by the outcome of rush, which just isn't quite so.

But I wonder if moving rush into the school year helps with this or not at places where greek life is a huge deal. For instance at Ole Miss, did moving it back help make it more sane or did the insanity continue as always but now everyone has to juggle class too?

My older daughter went through rush at Bama the first of the only 2 years that they had a delayed rush--and it was only delayed 2 weeks. Bids went out at 4pm and she had a test in her 5pm class, even though the university had said that no tests would be given that day, so she missed a good bit of her bid day activities. The next year rush was delayed 2 weeks again and trying to balance rush with classes nearly killed her. She is a huge proponent of rushing before classes start.

My younger one just went through rush at Ole Miss, and she says that she wouldn't take anything for the 7 weeks she had at school without being in a sorority. She loves the fact that she had an opportunity to bond with so many girls without them being members of different groups, plus she was able to get her academic feet under her without having a lot of pledge activities to go to. She was fortunate that rush was the week after midterm, and since their rush is fairly short (3 parties) the most intense part was on the weekend. She is a huge proponent of delayed rush......but her sister just rolls her eyes and says: "wait till next year!"

I rushed at Auburn in the 70s and can't imagine juggling all that with classes. I have a feeling that Baby Bird will go through once as an active and then do everything in her power to become a Gamma Chi.....that is what I did

[blackngoldengrl]

Delayed rush gives you a sense of how to manage work with greek life, too. Not that you will be spending 4 hours each day doing sorority stuff ( for the most part... ) but it can give you an idea of how to balance, and plan ahead-as it seems Petals is doing.

Good luck Petals, I'm looking forward to hearing how this goes with soooo many choices!