IrishPipes' Retro Recruitment Story

[FSUZeta]

wow! i am exhausted just reading of your first 2 days. i can't wait to learn more.

[OtterXO]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

wow! i am exhausted just reading of your first 2 days. i can't wait to learn more.

OMG me too! It just seems like too much to pack into 2 days. I don't think you mentioned how many days rush was and how many houses you attended each day...I'm curious with so many houses!

[Low C Sharp]

wow! i am exhausted just reading of your first 2 days.

Me too. I was in Champaign recently and I admired the large, beautiful houses, but I can't imagine trying to keep them all straight while shlepping from one to the next in the August heat. And how the sororities cope with 2000 faces is a mystery to me, especially (in the Midwest) largely without recs.
________
Cannabis Seeds

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by OtterXO

OMG me too! It just seems like too much to pack into 2 days. I don't think you mentioned how many days rush was and how many houses you attended each day...I'm curious with so many houses!

If I remember correctly, my rush was 12 chapters on Day 1 (Urbana) and 10 on Day 2 (Champaign) - (lots of clues for those who know the campus!). We had a lunch break and a dinner break. For second stage we narrowed to 8 chapters and visited them 4 per day over 2 days. Third stage was 5 chapters in one day and pref was 3 chapters. I am pretty sure we had a day off between second and third stages. We rushed the week before school started so that made a huge difference.

I also remember that the activities at each chapter were not the same each stage. What I mean is, it wasn't like second stage was house tours and third was skit, etc. I am fairly certain that each chapter did things kind of whenever they wanted.

[irishpipes]

First stage results

Next day, back at the classroom, our Rho Chis hand us each a sheet of paper with abbreviations for all of the chapters that have invited us back for second stage. We can circle up to 8. It is hard to decipher at first because the list doesn’t use Greek letters in the abbreviations. This was confusing to a lot of us because we were struggling with the Greek letters as it was, and there were so many chapters to keep straight. I have been invited back to:


Carlow
Clare
Donegal
Dublin
Kerry
Kilkenny
Limerick
Longford
Meath
Monaghan
Roscommon
Sligo
Tipperary
Waterford
Wexford
Wicklow



I am pretty happy, but the Rho Chis explain that most people get a lot of invites back after round 1. (Basically, don’t be too flattered.) By this time, Pam and Joelle have informed most of us which houses are popular, ugly, fat, wealthy, etc. I wonder how many rushees they affected? I am a little disappointed that Offaly has not invited me back, and surprised that Galway didn’t, after Julie wrote me that card over the summer! I didn’t really connect at Galway, but my friends Melissa and Kim loved it there, so I wonder if I would have been invited back if Julie had rushed me. Although I didn’t have a good time at Kildare, I wanted them to invite me back just because I assumed it was a good chapter since Mary Lisa was there and Pam and Joelle liked it so much. Anyway, I sit down and quickly circle (in no order):


Clare
Dublin
Kerry
Kilkenny
Limerick
Monaghan
Tipperary
Waterford


Our stages went 22-8-5-3. In my opinion this was ridiculous. I had trouble distinguishing some chapters after first stage, but we had to cut back to 8 so a lot of chapters got cut when I would have loved to have gone back. The “regret with interest” was not available, nor were release figures that prevented chapters from inviting you back when they had no intention of pledging you. I am positive that many rushees confused chapters with similar names simply because the whole process was so huge and overwhelming.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

First stage results

Next day, back at the classroom, our Rho Chis hand us each a sheet of paper with abbreviations for all of the chapters that have invited us back for second stage. We can circle up to 8. It is hard to decipher at first because the list doesn’t use Greek letters in the abbreviations. This was confusing to a lot of us because we were struggling with the Greek letters as it was, and there were so many chapters to keep straight.


I am positive that many rushees confused chapters with similar names simply because the whole process was so huge and overwhelming.

I can well image that it would be confusing.

Do you think it would it have been helpful to have some sort of visual aid in the room when ranking? Perhaps pictures of each house and the corresponding letters/abbreviations? It seems like it might be easier to link the chapter (members) to the physical house (the blue one with the orange trim) than just to letters (abbreviations).

[FSUZeta]

tsteven, those are good suggestions.

when i rushed at fsu there were 18 sororities. our rush counselors suggested that we take notes in our booklet about what the house looked like, what they sang, what they wore, who our hostess was, what we talked about, any other members we met, etc. it did come in handy when we had to accept or regret invitations.

[bluefish81]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

Our stages went 22-8-5-3. In my opinion this was ridiculous. I had trouble distinguishing some chapters after first stage, but we had to cut back to 8 so a lot of chapters got cut when I would have loved to have gone back. The “regret with interest” was not available, nor were release figures that prevented chapters from inviting you back when they had no intention of pledging you. I am positive that many rushees confused chapters with similar names simply because the whole process was so huge and overwhelming.

Wow! 22 to 8! That's a huge cut, especially when the first day is generally so insane. I was expecting you to say that it went from 22 to oh, maybe 12 or 14 or so.

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

tsteven, those are good suggestions.

when i rushed at fsu there were 18 sororities. our rush counselors suggested that we take notes in our booklet about what the house looked like, what they sang, what they wore, who our hostess was, what we talked about, any other members we met, etc. it did come in handy when we had to accept or regret invitations.

When I rushed at Iowa State in 1997, I think our booklets had little pictures of the houses in them - which was nice. It also had some general info about the chapter - colors and symbols maybe?

[amycat412]

Originally Posted by TSteven

I can well image that it would be confusing.

Do you think it would it have been helpful to have some sort of visual aid in the room when ranking? Perhaps pictures of each house and the corresponding letters/abbreviations? It seems like it might be easier to link the chapter (members) to the physical house (the blue one with the orange trim) than just to letters (abbreviations).

The rush booklets USC sent out the summer before my freshman year in 1987 had a page with a pic of the house, both greek letter and nicknames, and colors, mascots, etc-- blank page on the other side for notes. It made it MUCH easier to decipher things.

[susan314]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

Our stages went 22-8-5-3. In my opinion this was ridiculous. I had trouble distinguishing some chapters after first stage, but we had to cut back to 8 so a lot of chapters got cut when I would have loved to have gone back.

Wow - that's just crazy. So, you were supposed to be able to narrow down to 8 chapters after a whirlwind first round where you briefly toured 22 chapters? Pure insanity! I can't even imagine!

I had enough difficulty going from 16 to 12 during my first round! Your opinions of a chapter can change so drastically after going back a 2nd time - I bet a lot of PNMs dropped houses that they regretted later.

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by susan314

(Think about it - some girl gets her heart set on pledging a "top tier" sorority, but realistically speaking she's more likely to get into/be happy in a "middle" group. After round one, she cuts all of the middle and smaller chapters b/c the "top" houses string her along for awhile...once the "top" houses make their cuts, she's left with nothing. This girl might never go Greek, even though she could have been a fabulous member in several houses. irishpipes, I wouldn't be surprised if you told me that sort of scenario happened all the time during your days at Illinois. )

You sort of stole my thunder!!!

Oh, and we did have a wonderful rush book - it was called "Picture yourself." It had one page for each chapter with a picture of the physical house, the letters and written out name, founding date, etc. and one random photograph of a few members. It was invaluable, but still, it was very difficult to take meaningful notes first stage because we were walking between parties. Walking while writing is a challenge and a skill I do not possess. Hence, the poor descriptions!!!

First stage parties were only 20 minutes long, and the next party would start on the next half hour so we only had 10 minutes to get from one house to the next. Anyone who has been on campus could tell you this is no easy task. U of I does not have a sorority row of any kind. Houses are scattered all over Champaign and Urbana in clusters.

[irishpipes]

Sorry to post 3 times in a row.

I guess I could tell you that the following chapters are no longer in the running:

Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Xi Delta
Alpha Sigma Alpha
Alpha Phi
Alpha Chi Omega
Gamma Phi Beta
Delta Gamma
Delta Phi Epsilon
Zeta Tau Alpha
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Delta Tau
Phi Sigma Sigma

For those who know U of I, feel free to guess which "county" they were!

[susan314]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

You sort of stole my thunder!!!

Well shoot...I didn't even think that it might have played into your personal story, since you ended up in a chapter...it was just the first thought that popped into my head when I read about the 22 to 8 set up.

(Really, I could go back and edit the comment if you want...after all, how many people probably saw it late on a Friday evening... )


P.S. I'm guessing Wexford was Alpha Xi Delta. Also guessing that Offlay = Delta Gamma (with the chapter celebrity being Donna Mills - do I get bonus points if that's right? lol )