I know that today's system of rushee's ranking their choices, then invitation lists being generated based on invitations is efficient, and ultimately provides the same result as actually handing the rushee all of the invitations she received and letting her sort through them. However, the less efficient system made it VERY clear that the dynamic of "mutual selection" consisted of sororities issuing invitations and rushees responding to those invitations.
In the dark ages, we were called to the Rush Counsellor's room one by one, and little cards with the names of the sororities that invited us to the next round were handed to us. If Toppa Toppa Heap did not invite you to round 2, there was no little card from them.
It was easy to see, for example, that I was invited to THESE TEN that I held in my own little hands, and NOT invited to the two that were missing. From those ten, I chose which 6 to attend for round two.
It was very clear in that system that the only "Cuts" you could make were in those rounds when your physical invites exceeded the number of parties you could attend. It was a visual, concrete reality that helped educate us on what was actually happening. I think it also fostered gratitude for those invitations rather than annoyance. THESE were your invitations--- period. Your name was handwritten on the card by someone in that sorority, and they were inviting you into their home.
Ranking encourages rushees to think they will never see their lower ranked chapters again. But if those are the chapters that are inviting them back, they will!!
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