That's right, another retro thread. . .

[LegallyBrunette]

Despite the safety/budget things going on at Umass in 2001/2002, it wasn’t an easy decision for me to leave. Over the previous semesters I’d made some great friends and really enjoyed the atmosphere. But in the light of the fact I was primarily there to get an education in a safe environment, with the help of my parents I decided to transfer. The school I ended up choosing was a very small Catholic (Augustinian) liberal arts school north of Boston, Merrimack College. MC was pretty much the opposite of “ZooMass” in every way. There were only 2100 students and pretty much everyone lived on the enclosed campus. Although it’s quite liberal for a Catholic school, it was still Catholic and Campus Ministry was a large presence. Having grown up in an EXTREMELY lapsed Catholic family and attending public school my entire life until that point, I was afraid that I was in for a bit of a culture shock. Before going to MC, I had never considered that my boyfriend (the same guy from before) wouldn’t be able to stay in my room when he came to visit and I was shocked to learn that the underclass dorms were dry.

During the summer of 2002 I started to get REALLY nervous about the move the MC. It was just so different after the uber-liberal large state school environment at Umass. Would I be able to make friends as a sophomore/junior or would everyone at this small school be settled into their cliques already? Would I chafe unbearably under the rules? What was I thinking? As the summer drew to a close, some of my fears were allayed. I found out that although MC has some traditional Catholic school rules on the books (dry, single sex dorms), they’re not very strongly enforced and the overall campus culture is quite liberal. It is still Massachusetts, after all. In spite of this, I was still anxious about the prospect of making new friends. Most upperclassmen live in on campus apartments & townhouses, but because I was considered a sophomore because of transferring, I was assigned to a sophomore dorm.

Just before school started, I received a mailing from the Office of Student Activities promoting Greek Life at MC. Until then, I hadn’t really considered the prospect that Greek Life might still be an option for me but I began to see it as a way to open doors and help me make friends in this new and somewhat foreign environment. I became determined to at least check out what Greek Life was like at MC, in spite of my boyfriends’ reservations.

Upon moving onto campus that fall, I realized I hadn’t been housed in a sophomore dorm, so much as in a hall filled almost entirely of transfer students. Much to my delight, many of the other girls were also interested in Greek Life. Although I really liked the girls on my floor, I wasn’t going to let my friendship with them stop me from becoming involved, the way I had at Umass. I refused to become complacent so early in the school year again.

From the beginning of the year informal recruitment signs were all over campus. At MC there is informal recruitment in the fall for transfers & upperclassmen where the chapters can bid to total and formal deferred recruitment for freshman is held in the spring. There are three NPC chapters at Merrimack:

Alpha Sigma Tau
Theta Phi Alpha
Zeta Tau Alpha

Since I am getting excited to see the new Harry Potter movie and don’t want to give away the ending to my story too early (even though you already know where I end up), I’ll give them code names after Harry Potter characters. In no order:

Hermione Granger
Harry Potter
Ron Weasley


Time to do some work. Next update I’ll explain the way recruitment works at Merrimack and the various other girls from my floor who participated with me. I'll try to keep this moving a brisk pace, I know how frustrating it is when these drag on. Thanks for reading!

[LegallyBrunette]

In 2002, fall informal recruitment at Merrimack was structured as follows:
On Monday, there was an Information Night where Panhel would present an overview of the Greek system & the informal recruitment process in general and answer any questions that the prospective rushees had. Members of all the sororities were present wearing their letters. I don’t remember forming any particular impressions of the groups on that night since I was most focused on the Panhel reps (who were not wearing letters) and what they had to say. I remember the sisters of the various orgs more of sitting on the perimeter. However, I had formed impressions of the groups before Recruitment started since it was the third week of school and I had seen members around campus and already had a chance to interact with them in classes and such. I’ll explain my impressions of the groups in a bit.
On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each of the groups would have a party in the Campus Center (none of the sororities at Merrimack are housed). Ron Weasley was Tuesday night, Hermione Granger was Wednesday and Harry Potter was Thursday. Rushees could attend whichever parties they wished, but were strongly encouraged to attend all three. There were no bid cards to be filled out and no limit on how many bids a rushee could be given. Bids would be given out on Friday. It wasn’t indicated what time bids would go out.

I attended the Info session with a few other ladies from my hall. Their presence and opinions shaped my experience, so I’ll provide a bit of background about each of them (names changed).

Caroline: Transfer from a school in the south where she had been offered, but denied, a bid from Pi Phi. Was initially only interested in Ron Weasley, despite the fact she categorized them as “leftover dorks” at her old school. From an extremely wealthy family, but very nice and down to earth.

Allison: Transfer student from a state school in New England. Also very wealthy, and not afraid to talk about it. Partied A LOT. When she introduced herself to me she said “Hi, I’m Allison and I was the first girl to get alcohol poisoning at State U. last year.” Yikes.

Megan: Transfer student also from Umass (although we never knew each other)who was also in my major. Was mostly going through recruitment because the rest of us were. Had a rocky first couple of weeks at Merrimack due to a really bad roommate situation. She was a little nervous about the prospect of Greek Life because she didn’t party much and was concerned that’s what it was all about. A bit naïve, but very sweet.

Melissa: Transfer student from another school in Massachusetts where she had been a new member, but then de-pledged from Alpha Phi because she was transferring. Was super nice & hysterically funny. Because of her experience with Alpha Phi, I think she had a better idea of what she was looking for.

Also, because recruitment was the third week of school, as I previously mentioned, I’d already formed some opinions of the groups before attending their parties. However, none of the chapters at Merrimack are also at Umass, so any experiences I had with sorority women at Umass really didn’t impact my views on the individual groups at Merrimack.

Ron Weasley: I had met a few of them the first weekend of school when Megan and I had gone out to some parties on campus. Megan had gone to high school with a sister from Ron Weasley. They seemed to know how to have a good time and were very visible on campus (always wearing letters). The sisters were usually very put together. The ones I had met at the parties were very friendly when I saw them around campus.

Hermione Granger: When I received the info about recruitment over the summer, I noticed one of the pictured sisters of Hermione Granger was a girl who I had gone to high school with (now graduated from Merrimack) and really liked. Also, there were two Hermione Grangers in one of my classes, Nicole and Jenn, one of whom was my presentation partner. They were both really down to earth and friendly. Nicole and I had spent a lot of time together before recruitment during class and such. She was excited when I told her was I going to recruitment, which made me feel really welcome. Melissa’s RA was a Hermione Granger, and she really didn’t like her, so that kind of turned me off and neutralized how much I was interested in them because of Nicole.

Harry Potter: I didn’t know any Harry Potters socially or from class (unusual given how small Merrimack is). I had seen a couple of girls wearing letters, but it was usually the same two girls. They were definitely not as visible as either of the other two groups. They had a chapter at a school where my good friend from high school was in a local, and my friend had advised me they weren’t very strong on her campus. This definitely shaped my impression of Harry Potter.

Parties will be in the next update…hopefully this afternoon.

[Ocalagirl]

The Harry Potter movie was good and I just know this thread will be too!

[LegallyBrunette]

I don't have time for another big installment before leaving work today and I'm out of town this weekend, so the parties will have to wait till Monday, but I remembered a couple more details this afternoon.

Caroline was not only exclusively interested in Ron Weasely, but more or less stated that she was guaranteed a bid because she, too, had a high school friend in the chapter.

Also, even though the four of us were approaching recruitment together, after the info session we discussed the possibility that we would end up at different chapters, and were okay with that possibility.

Finally, a note about recruitment at Merrimack in general. It is a small school in the north and is generally not very competitive. It's not a big deal for juniors to get bids and usually during formal *most* girls are matched somewhere. However, at this time two of the chapters generally hovered around total while the third was smaller, so PNM's (both during formal & informal) tended to compete for spots in the two larger, and therefore typically more desired, chapters.

[GymnastA]

Holy crap, this is right up my alley! Half my graduating class goes to Merrimack and I know 2 of the chapter presidents now! UPDATE ASAP

[LegallyBrunette]

GymnastA, check your PMs.

Tuesday afternoon, prior to Ron Weasley’s party, Allison announced she had changed her mind about Recruitment and didn’t want to be part of a sorority. She said it just wasn’t “her thing.” Oh, well. I later found out she was afraid of being rejected by all the groups, which made me sad. Although we hadn’t been great friends, that didn’t set well with me, and that aspect of Greek Life still bothers me a bit.

But anyway, back on topic. We had been instructed by Panhel that casual dress was fine for each of the parties so I wore a chocolate J.Crew cowl neck, Abercrombie jeans (I’m guessing many southerners just cringed?) and camel colored leather boots. I arrived at Ron Weasley’s party by myself (for the life of me, I can’t remember why I wasn’t with the other girls). The room was nicely decorated with lots of white Christmas lights and pictures and various paraphernalia everywhere. However, I was immediately intimidated because all of the sisters of Ron Weasely were wearing black cocktail dresses, which was a little off-putting in contrast to my casual outfit. Fortunately, all of the other rushees had also followed panhel’s advice and were dressed casually too. As I was still adjusting to the initial shock of entering a room with 30 women in cocktail dresses, I was warmly greeted by a sister named Kirsten. When she found out I was transfer she introduced me around to a sister who was also a transfer student. That sister, Melanie, showed me some various photo albums and their “brag book” and explained how Ron Weasley had helped her transition to Merrimack. After having some fancy little hors d’ouevers and punch she introduced me to the chapter president and a handful of other sisters. At some point, dues and various social activities were discussed, too. As I had already figured out, Ron Weasley was really involved on campus and had some great campus leaders in their chapter. I really enjoyed meeting everyone and was feeling pretty comfortable. Altogether this mingling probably lasted about 45 minutes.

Next, a couple of the Ron Weasley sisters sang a popular song with the words changed to be about their chapter. It was a moving song to begin with and a few sisters cried during the personalized parts. It was touching and I remember thinking I’d like to feel that strongly about an organization that I could be moved to tears. After the song, there was more mingling and Kirsten came back over to me and whispered “Don’t mention it to anyone else, but we’re having a party on Saturday night in my apartment and you should come.” I didn’t make the connection at the time, but Saturday was AFTER bid day. I thought it was pretty cool that she wanted to hang out with me and as the party ended I felt good about Ron Weasley and decided I would really like to get a bid from them. Most of the sisters remembered by name and specifically said “Bye, LegallyBrunette!” as I was leaving.

Later that evening, Megan, Melissa, Caroline and I met to discuss the party. In spite of her earlier statements, Caroline had actually missed Ron Weasley’s party because she had a night lab that had run late. She was a little upset, but since it was informal, she planned to meet with some sisters later on and figured it wouldn’t be a big deal. Melissa had really liked the party as well and was pretty much ready to be a Ron Weasley right then. Megan had a good time but had described Ron Weasley as feeling a little “too fancy” for her.

The four of us all were in agreement that we wanted to see what the other chapters, especially Hermione Granger, had to offer. I called my boyfriend, who was still less than thrilled with the whole idea of my joining a sorority, but I was so upbeat from Ron Weasley’s party that I didn’t let his negativity bother me. I went to bed in a really good mood.

[AlwaysSAI]

Whoa! I'll take that as a dose of bid promising...good thing you didn't make the connection!

UPDATE! UPDATE! UPDATE!