MaggieXi's Retro Elon Recruitment Story

[SoCalGirl]

I never understood the 4-1-4 system. Can you briefly explain that? Thanks!

[MaggieXi]

Basically the 4-1-4 as I understand it is that first and second semester are 4 months. January -- the "1" month at Elon was called Winter Term and you would take a concentrated class, study abroad or do an internship for 3 weeks or so. Every Winter Term that I had was a blast! I took some really interesting classes and did volunteer work my senior year.

As for the silence thing, back then (and I KNOW its changed since then) you could "hang out" with sorority women up until the Monday morning that recruitment began. It was a very gray area at the time! Once Sigma Kappa colonized the following year, the whole process changed. By the time my senior year came around we had a new Greek Advisor and she was very very good and changed our whole recruitment!

BTW, because someone asked me, the sororites on Elon's campus at this time were:

Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Xi Delta
Phi Mu
Sigma Sigma Sigma
Zeta Tau Alpha

[MaggieXi]

So Sunday night I go and meet Heather my Rho Chi and meet with another group. Torey from my dormand from a bunch of my classes is in the other group and I am really happy that I know someone to go through first round with.

Our Rho Chis checked our name tags to make sure that they were ok looking. I think mine turned out really cute! It's kind of like a necklace and it has Maggie from the Simpsons on it since I am from Springfield too. Heather actually used mine as an example to the group because it was "memorable". We also got our schedules for Monday and Tuesday. I will be seeing: Down Dog, Shanti and Warrior on Monday and Tuesday I will be seeing: Om, Half Moon and Lotus.

When I got back to my room Traci was re-doing her name tag because she said that her Rho Chi told her it didn't say anything about her or make her stand out. Just to drive her nuts, I told her that my Rho Chi used mine as the example as what to do. She got a little mad at me, but maybe I know more about this rush stuff then she does! Elon was really big on name tags being about the PNM. Generally, it wasn't a good idea to make a nametag that was just your name.

Sarah came back tonight and she has definetly decided not to rush but she said that she would help me get ready and do my hair and stuff. Oh, and she is still not speaking to Courtney! But Courtney is really getting on my nerves too she keeps going to different girls rooms and telling them what she thinks about all the different sororities. This is what she says:

Om & Down Dog are the sororites to be in. They are for the really pretty and classy girls. Most of the girls in these sororites have lots of money too. So you have to be able to "aford" to be in their sororities. She is of course wants to be an Om or Down Dog.

Half Moon is third on her list already. They have a really good southern reputation and its generally they take only girls from the south so anyone from the north doesn't really have a chance with them. But generally, its more for the "regular" southern girls.

Lotus generally is full of party girls. The drink beer out of cans and through really good mixers with the fraternities, which, according to Courtney isn't a bad thing because that means frat guys want to hang out with the Lotus'. They also have a lot of girls who play sports.

Shanti is for really smart girls. They have the highest GPA and win everything. However, a lot of fraternity guys don't like to hang out with them because they are "know it alls" and "goody two shoes".

Warrior is absolutely the worst house to be in. Courtney said if you get a bid from them, you are better off declining it and re-rushing next spring.

It's amazing now to look back and see all the garbage girls like Courtney spout. They really make the whole process worse by putting all these thoughts in girls heads and make them doubt themselves!

I ran into Colleen from down the hall. She is a sophmore who didn't rush last year. She told me not to listen to Courtney's stereo-types and that she knows girls in each house and they aren't all like how Courtney has described them. Colleen is rushing this year and she told me that there are two sororities she would like to be in but won't tell me which ones because she said she doesn't want to jinx herself or listen to anything that other people have to say about it. I was so happy she told me that! Even though I wish she told me the two she likes the most!

I can't wait for tomorrow! Too bad I have to sit through classes all day first!

[violetpretty]

When I went through recruitment, my boyfriend was not thrilled about the idea, but he wasn't totally against it. He was younger than me, so therefore, still in high school, and he thought that I wouldn't have time to come home and be with him if I joined a sorority. He realized that denying me of a good time at college would just be selfish and he was ultimately supportive.

[PinkRose1098]

It is so funny to me when I hear other people say that a boyfriend didn't want them to join a sorority. My boyfriend was much more supportive of my decision to go through rush and kept encouraging me when I had bad days during rush. Come to think of it, he was more supportive than my family ever was during that time.

[trojangal]

It definitely helps. While I was in college, the bf, who had a huge family of Greeks, actually offered to pay for my rush fees if I decided to do it at a later time. My parents never had a clue about Greek life on campus.

Hooray for the young woman who encouraged having an open mind and not to listen to the naysayers!

[MaggieXi]

Monday's parties were an absolute blur!!! I rushed back to my room after classes and got ready. The weather was really really bad outside. It was sleeting and its expected to snow tonight. My Rho Chi sent messages to all of us saying that recruitment was on until otherwise announced. So I had to change my outfit plan and I wore black pants, a blue/gray button down and black boots. Sarah did my hair and helped me with my make-up. Sarah is a hair stylist now!

Courtney and Traci were freaking out because the weather screwed up what they were going to wear and were frantically pulling things out of their closets to figure out what to wear.

So I got to Moseley to meet my Rho Chi group and then we trekked in the sleety-rain down to the greek courts. At this point, the greek courts (later known as the Loy Center) were under construction. Not all the organizations had houses yet but they were being built We got in line outside Down Dog in alphabetical order. The sorority girls were banging on the door and I could hear them singing inside and doing cheers. I couldn't help but laugh at the whole thing. The the doors bursted open and Heather took our coats and in we went.

Down Dog was really nice. I was met by Beth, a girl from one of my classes who is a sophmore. She asked me a lot of questions like where I was from, where I lived on campus, what my major was, what my parents did, etc. Turns out she is from New Jersey and went to high school with my cousin Rob! Beth introduced me to a lot of other people and I have no idea who I met or if I was supposed to say something special. But all in all, I liked Down Dog. I guess you could could consider them "classy" or whatever like Courtney said, but I thought they were just normal people.

Shanti was next. They had a really pretty house too! I don't know who the first girl who was who took me around and she asked me a lot of the same questions that Beth did at Down Dog. She also took me around to some tables they had set up with pictures of all the sisters, awards, their philanthropy and activities. I kinda thought the girl was bragging though when she was telling me how much stuff that Shanti did. At the very end of the party I ran into April, my orientation leader. She gave me a big hug and told me that she was really excited that I was going through recruitment. I guess Shanti was ok but I think Courtney was right about them being "know it alls". But I was surprised that April was in that house because she just didn't ever seem that way to me.

Warrior was last. They do not have a house in the greek court yet. They have an old house on Haggard that we had to walk up a hill to in the snow. We were all cold and tired already! We got to warrior and I was immediately a little freaked out. They brought us into this room where they had all these antique dolls on the shelves. I hate antique dolls! I felt like they were looking at me! Warrior also showed us a video about their national sorority -- not their chapter which I thought was kind of pointless and made us sit on the floor to watch it which was kind of wet from all of our shoes. I was brought around by one first and she kept leaving me with other people. I didn't like it at all! I really don't want to be a Warrior!

I got back to my room and shared stories with Courtney, Traci and Karen. They all had good nights and visited some of the same houses and some of the houses I will see on tuesday. Traci told me later that at Om, the girls like scream at you when you get inside of the house and she totally got scared!