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Open House
Formal Recruitment at my college is set up as follows:
Open House- 17 parties (2 days)
Skit Round- 12 parties (2 days)
Philanthropy Round- 7 parties (1 day)
Preference Round- 3 parties (1 day)
Even though I had my preconceived ideas about some of the chapters, I wanted to make a good impression and have as many options as possible once I got to know the women better during recruitment. I didn’t really know what to expect (I couldn’t go to many info sessions in my dorm fall semester because of a night class conflict), but I prepared outfits with my mom over winter break that I thought were appropriate for each of the rounds, and I spent a lot of time making sure my hair and make-up were perfect so that I could make a good first impression to women I hadn’t already met. I went into each of my open house parties with a smile and tried to be as friendly and engaging as possible with everyone I met.
I can’t remember the order of most of my parties and I also can’t remember all the details from each party, and unfortunately I cannot find my old rush booklet with all my notes but I will do the best I can. I think I mostly wrote down details about what the women were wearing and some basic impressions to jog my memory- and a couple of names if I could (I am horrible with names, and I spoke with at least 2-4 women at each party)
For the Open House parties, we were put into groups of around 30 and lined up alphabetically to go into each party, and (just my luck!) I had to be first in line. That was definitely intimidating to have tons of women staring at you and cheering as soon as they opened the door and then be paraded around the room! The parties were generally the same format; the PNMs walked in during cheering, the President and Recruitment Chair spoke to the group, and then we talked with some of the members.
Lost: I do remember that this was my first party. One of the women I had met from Lost at one of the Go Greek events lived near my hometown, so she gave me a ride back to campus before recruitment since I didn’t have a car. At the party, the sisters were wearing matching polo shirts with the sorority’s letters on the pocket. I was picked up with the PNM right behind me in line, and the girl who had driven me back to campus saw me and waved- it was good to see a familiar face. Once everyone was inside, the President and Recruitment Chair welcomed us to Lost and told us some basic facts about the island (err...chapter) We then went to sit down with the member who had picked us up at the door. The woman that the other PNM and I were paired up with was one that I also remembered meeting a few months prior to recruitment so I felt like I was seeing yet another familiar face! I wasn’t sure how the conversation was supposed to flow between the three of us, and while I wanted to be considerate to the other PNM, I also felt like I was competing against her for our rusher’s attention. I left the party feeling very happy that I got to see these women again, since I already felt a connection with them from the pre-rush events Fall semester.
Hoarders: I am pretty sure this was my second party, and it told me, along with my subsequent parties, that Lost’s party was not the norm. When I walked into the Hoarders party, the level of excitement among the women was much higher, the cheering was much louder, and there were many more members. I was not double-recruited at this party or any of the others. All of the Hoarders seemed to be gorgeous and tall. They were all wearing different outfits, but they were all very dressed up. There were a lot of cocktail-style dresses, fancy tops, and high heels. One of the women I spoke with asked me where I liked to shop and then commented on how difficult it was to shop between seasons. I pretended to wholeheartedly agree. In my head, however, I instantly thought that this was probably not the group for me, and that it must have changed a lot since my high school teacher was in college since she seemed so casual and laid back.
Arrested Development: I came into this party expecting to meet very ditzy party-animal types of women, but I was pleasantly surprised! The first thing I noticed was that they were all wearing really cute matching tops (I think they were purple). Everyone I spoke to was really friendly, and one even told me that she was in the honors program at our college, which I was impressed by.
Chopped: I knew nothing about this group going into recruitment, but after their party I was in love! I met a member who shared my love of musicals (especially Wicked) and told me about how she had seen Idina Menzel perform in London. I was so excited to meet someone who shared my love of Idina that I was practically jumping up and down, and in retrospect, I probably came off as really weird!
Fresh Prince of Bel Air: This was another chapter I knew nothing about, and while I enjoyed the party and the women I met, nothing really struck me as particularly exciting or memorable. I laugh about this now since this chapter was apparently one of the most sought after by PNMs.
George Lopez: I was really excited to go to this party since I enjoyed meeting a lot of the women during Fall semester. Unfortunately, I had pretty awkward conversations and a couple of the women I talked to seemed a little ditzy (I know I use that word too much but I don’t know how else to describe it).
Glee: Since I knew I wanted this chapter, I was really worried about making a good impression. I tried to appear extremely interested and engaged in everything that was going on, and I was very conscious of how I acted with the women rushing me. I made sure I was always smiling and maintaining eye contact, even though I was dying to look around the room and take everything in at once. One of the women I had met during the Fall semester even stopped over to quickly say hi to me! Even better, I remembered her name! I thought these were all very good signs.
Hey Arnold: I talked to a member during this party who talked about herself way too much and didn’t seem to want to get to know me, so I left this party feeling like this chapter was kind of stuck up.
Home Improvement: I don’t remember any specifics, but I definitely enjoyed this house.
House: This party started out just fine, but during one of my conversations, the member asked me about my high school activities and I told her I was in the band and played percussion, and she smiled and replied, “Oh, what’s that?” Frankly, I then thought she was kind of stupid, and although I answered as though nothing was amiss, I didn’t really feel good about this chapter after the party.
Parks and Recreation: I went into this party expecting the women to be fairly dumb based on my previous impression, but luckily this was not the case at all. I enjoyed the party, but nothing really memorable happened.
Seinfeld: This party was not very memorable either. I saw the woman I knew from my high school, but I was unable to catch her eye during the welcoming cheering to wave hello.
Survivor: I was hoping to see one of the women from my high school in this chapter during the party, but I didn’t see either of them in the room. I had a couple of really funny conversations, one of which was about a member’s and my mutual dislike of cheese (weird I know).
The Office: I enjoyed this party, but I felt like I was getting drilled by one of the women rushing me. She kept asking questions like “Why did you choose this college? Why did you choose your major? Why are you going through sorority recruitment?” Now I realize these are normal recruitment questions and she was probably just nervous, but at the time her tone made me feel a lot of pressure to have really good answers to impress her.
The Twilight Zone: I wasn’t really sure what to expect at this party since I knew a really nice, classy woman from my high school who was a member, yet I also heard this was known as another “slutty” chapter. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed the party very much! The women seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say, and one even high-fived me when I told her about other activities I had gotten involved with on campus!
Wife Swap: This was the only chapter that I felt like I really had had a “bad,” awkward experience in (looking back this seems like such a small, silly thing to even worry about). The woman who picked me up started making small talk with me, and when she found out where I was from, she commented on how we must have gotten a lot of snow over winter break. I replied that it wasn’t that bad, just a few inches. She said she had heard it was a lot worse, like a couple of feet of snow. So I said in what I thought was just a friendly, casual, conversational kind of way, “Oh we didn’t get that much snow. Who said that?” She then gave me this weird look and said sort of condescendingly, “I did.” This created a very awkward moment as you can imagine, and I don’t really recall what else happened during that party.
Iron Chef: This was my last party of Open House, and I really enjoyed it. I was somehow “coincidentally” paired up with a woman who had been active with yearbook in high school, just as I had been. I enjoyed meeting someone who had a lot in common with me.
The tent talk wasn’t too bad yet, but I had heard general dislike of Lost. It was pretty difficult to rank, since I did like some things about all of the chapters. I felt confident about Open House overall, and I figured I would be asked back to most of my favorites. My rankings ended up looking like this:
My top 12 (in no particular order):
Arrested Development
Chopped
Fresh Prince of Bel Air
Glee
Home Improvement
Iron Chef
Lost
Parks and Recreation
Seinfeld
Survivor
The Office
Twilight Zone
My bottom 5:
1. Hoarders
2. George Lopez
3. Hey Arnold
4. Wife Swap
5. House
Last edited by Greekgirl12; 07-07-2011 at 10:30 PM.
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Hybrid Mode
