Looking back, were you right?

[ZetaGirl22]

I knew NOTHING about any "reputations" going into recruitment. We had deferred recruitment, but I was a commuter and pretty out of the loop as far as greek politics went. I basically judged the groups based on how my conversations went, and wether I felt comfortable there. I remember visiting the one of the biggest (membership wise) group on campus and wrote "too big" LOL in my rush book. Little did I know they were one of the "big 3" on campus at that time. But looking back, even though we were small when I was a collegian, and we had to work EXTRA hard with recruitment stuff and it was VERY stressful, coming VERY close to being closed, I couldnt be happier in hindsight with my decision to become a Zeta Tau Alpha. They were my first choice after all!

[DG4evah]

I pledged freshman year; had a great rush except was cut right before pref by XYZ sorority that my mom and my grandmother were in. I had decided before then I didn't like that sorority that much, but it really hurt my feelings. You're like why? Looking back, knowing what I know about recruitment- probably grades. had a 2.5 GPA. I ended up making 3.5-4.0 in college. Their loss.

So then it was down to DG, which was a chapter that had all types of girls, and another sorority, say ABC, which was made up of only blonde, beautiful girls. Also every girl from my school in my group went ABC. But they were really cool about it; by that, I mean they didn't act like I was a sure thing. ABC was really nice, but I just didn't feel like it was for me. I also wondered if they were really that nice or just fake. After I decided on DG, they(ABC) were so nice to me. I could have been happy there in retrospect. But I'm very much a want to make friends on my own, not be chosen for who my parents are.

I did go through an "I wonder" phase, but only because the DG that rushed me ended up being my big sister but wasn't around that much. ABC had this girl rushing me from my school that I liked so much. So I was sad about it because she just was a great person. At our school, sororities didn't mix too much with each other.

I was right about most of the chapters except for my own. Apparently we were a 2nd tier sorority just up from 3rd tier. I knew we were 2nd tier but didn't know the move up was pretty recent. In fact, short story- evil fraternity XYZ asked our sorority to a swap (mixer) for April Fool's Day and it was a lie. Because to them we were a bunch of fat chicks. About 6 years before I pledged.

During rush I was wowed by the rising sophomore & junior class of DG. These were sharp girls. The seniors were cool too, but kinda different. When our amazing pledge class got in, the guys took notice! They had been taking notice but finally all the fraternities wanted us to have mixers with them! Even evil fraternity XYZ! That was a really boring mixer.

Now the years have flown by: almost 20 years! The chapter is amazing and I know I've personally contributed to that. Been very impressed with the leadership at Executive Offices and seen one colonization as well! I hope my daughters go Delta Gamma.

It's funny, my niece went ABC at the same school and is really happy there. I'm glad for her.

[carnation]

Looking back, I can see how deferred rush vs. non-deferred rush affected PNMs in the universities I attended and you know what? It ws 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

At the first school, you couldn't rush until you were a sophomore. There was a lot of dirty rushing and women had their opinions of each group set in stone way before they ever rushed. The "weaker" groups got dumped hard and fast right after first parties. So did the PNMs who weren't "in the know". There were literally hundreds of unhappy women.

At the second school, you rushed before freshman year started. Girls who were "in the know" about Greeks had their choices made before recruitment (so did some of the sororities) and girls who weren't had to cut and be cut so fast that a lot of girls ended up (still do) unhappy with their choices. I doubt that there's much depledging, though, since getting a bid as an upperclassman isn't too easy.

So I lucked out and got a bid I loved but looking back, I can see that I would have been happy at several sororities--maybe not right off, but as I got to know the girls.