i am SO SUPER EXCITED for rush

[MsVixen]

i'm going crazy here... and my rush isnt till sept 24th! ack! tell me about rushing your house

[violets]

Ms. Vixen...congratulations, rush is a great time I'm so happy to see someone looking forward to it. However, give yourself this time to adjust to your campus. Make a point to meet everyone on your floor. Really focus in on your studies, I know its tempting just to have fun but its much better to get a good idea how much time studying each class will take. That way adding your sorority responsibilities will be much easier.
Try out some of the other groups on campus as well prior to rush. What were you involved in during High School, drama, Key Club, Choir? Find a similar organization on campus and go to their first meeting this semester. (If you do meet some actives in the groups they might not be too chatty due to "silence" so don't be offended). This will be a great thing to talk about during rush as well, I was already involved on campus when I rushed and the sisters appreciated that.
Whatever you do avoid talking about the "reputations" of the houses on campus. This is of no use to you whatsoever. Seriously, the best way to enter rush is with an open mind and heart. Reputations can sometimes be built on an encounter that one freshman has with one active sister at a Starbucks where she cut him or her on line or something equally silly. It has no bearing on where you will find support and sisterhood for four years of college and beyond.
Good luck!

[sairose]

msvixen, good luck with rush, and have a great time! Hope you end up in your first choice house!!!

[twinstars]

Here are some tips for you....

--Use this time before school starts and you get all busy to get your things together for rush week. Plan out which outfits you'll wear for each round. Make sure everything that needs to be is dry cleaned and in top condition. Decide how you'll do your nails and hair for each round. Decide which accessories make the best statement with each of your outfits. Make an appointment to get your hair cut a week or two before recruitment. If you have highlights, get those touched up then, too.

--Think about good topics of conversation for the rush parties. It's not your job to keep the convo going, but if you can be helpful, it's only to your benefit. Keep in mind, the active you're conversing with is just as nervous as you are. She may be a sophomore, and this may be her first year rushing from the inside. You know for sure they'll all ask you how your summer was... what funny/interesting/unique experiences can you talk about? They'll ask how you like college so far... be prepared to talk about your classes, your dorm, how much fun you're having, etc. It's easy to at least have topics in mind for the questions I guarantee they'll be asking you.

--Go into rush with an open mind. Trust the sororities to let you know where you belong the most. If a house keeps inviting you back for the next rounds, give them fair consideration, since they believe you'd make a good sister. If a house cuts you, it just wasn't meant to be, even if you really thought that was the place for you. On bid day, even if you get your second or third choice house, trust that the sororities know where you truly belong. You end up where you do for a reason, even if that's not clear to you on Bid Day. So many of us sorority girls can tell you stories of ourselves or friends ending up in what they thought was their second choice house, only later to realize what they thought was their top choice would have been a bad match, and that where they ended up was the perfect house for them. Trust the system, even if that's hard to do.

--Realize that the whole formal recruitment process is terribly impersonal. If you get cut from a house, don't take it personally. Girls get cut for strange and dumb reasons sometimes. Sometimes perfectly great girls have to be released because only a certain number of PNM's are allowed to be invited back, and other PNM's made a stronger impression on the sisters. If you're cut, it DOESN'T mean you pissed anyone off or they thought you were a dork or ugly or whatever. It doesn't mean that at all. Getting cut from at least a few houses is totally to be expected. It's very rare that a girl makes it through rush week never being dropped by any of the houses.