A Tasty Tale: Fall Recruitment 09

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by KD4Me

I don't know a lot about SEC rush, and don't know which school the OP is describing. Is it common for members of the sororities to be so rude to PNM's in whom they (presumably) aren't so interested? Not leading a girl on by giving her false hope is one thing, but I've never heard of PNM's being cut out of conversations, left alone, spoken to so rudely, etc.

I will say though, that it does happen that the rotations get screwed up sometimes and a PNM gets accidentally lost in the shuffle.

However, I'd think that most chapters have sisters who are not paired off with PNMs and are supposed to be on the look out for "lost PNMs" and making sure that someone picks them up.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by KD4Me

I don't know a lot about SEC rush, and don't know which school the OP is describing. Is it common for members of the sororities to be so rude to PNM's in whom they (presumably) aren't so interested? Not leading a girl on by giving her false hope is one thing, but I've never heard of PNM's being cut out of conversations, left alone, spoken to so rudely, etc.

No. It would be very uncommon. I have some familiarity with the campus described, I think, and it would be shocking and fairly outrageous.

It's possible that some PNMs are simply more sensitive to how responsive their rusher seems or are more creative and dramatic, and so little things to them are blown up into a big deal.

I'm going to be interested to learn with house matches rushers to PNMs by name in the second round because I think that's kind of new if it's the campus I think it is. Maybe release figures have made a whole bunch of new techniques popular.

Prefs!

I went in for Prefs EXTREMELY nervous! I was worried about my ranking, worried about the people, worried about everything! Chocolate Peanut Butter Girl had really thrown me off- nobody had been so rude to me through the rest of rush and I had not expected something like that to happen. I hadn't been so nervous all through rush- but people were talking about how most people were going to have one party because of the cuts, what different houses did rushing their favorites vs nonfavorites, etc. My Gamma Chi (who was AWESOME and the voice of reason, thank God) got the few girls left in my group to calm down and handed out schedules. We could go to 3 parties if invited.
Mine read:

Mint Chocolate Chip
Chocolate
-break-

2 houses! And my top 2 at that! I was SO excited! I will admit to being a bit disappointed about losing Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl, but after such a bad round at the house the day before I pretty much expected it. I was SO excited for my two parties though! Yay Chocolate and Mint Chocolate Chip!

Mint Chocolate Chip- I loved this house! I finally got to see the girl I knew and I was SO excited! Their speeches were beautiful and their food was so yummy! The ceremony they did was fantastic- I had goosebumps! I could feel how much the girls loved each other and how excited they were to see us back! I texted my mom right after to tell her how much I loved it!

Chocolate- I loved this house! The girl I got was fabulous- each of the girls rushing got to decorate a table where we sat while we ate, and hers was adorable! She shared so many great stories and we really connected. Their ceremony was so heartfelt and touching- goosebumps again! The girl rushing me started crying during one of the speeches- I could tell how close they all were! I texted my mom again after I got out!

So now I had to face a tough decision. I was very very nervous riding the bus back to the meeting spot to rank my houses. I decided to talk to my Gamma Chi about my pros/cons if I could, but the second everyone got in the room 2 girls in my group burst into tears! They seriously couldn't stop crying. They finally sorted it out but by the time I could talk to my Gamma Chi the room was empty. I talked to my Gamma Chi and the one who ran a group in the same room...It took me FOREVER but they were SO great, very encouraging and trying so hard to help me out. I felt bad because I knew I'd be happy in both houses but I just couldn't pick between them! It was MUCH harder than I expected going into rush.

I finally ranked them:

1.Mint Chocolate Chip
2.Chocolate

Next up...BID DAY!

[ComradesTrue]

Originally Posted by lotsofdots

I texted my mom right after to tell her how much I loved it!

Originally Posted by lotsofdots

I texted my mom again after I got out!

Is it typical to have a cell phone at the parties? I can't imagine carrying a phone into the party and with a recruitment as large as this one how would the Gamma Chi's keep up with everyone's valuables? It just seems needlessly cumbersome.

(dating myself here since I rushed pre-cell phones)

Hey yall!
I just wanted to clarify a little bit on some of the rudeness comments.

For a few of the houses, I genuinely believe that it was stress and confusion, especially in the first few rounds. And at French Vanilla, somebody DID snatch me up quickly- I was just a little confused when my girl said goodbye and walked off without intro-ing me to another sister. The only house during round 3 where I was really hurt was Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl, because this girl actually said that stuff about philanthropy to me and then she and her Big JUMPED on the other PNM and kinda left me behind. Other than that, I totally understand that in the chaos of bumps, I just got pushed a little bit out of the way so that it was more difficult to grab me.

It is certainly possible that I was oversensitive. Actually, it's DEFINITELY possible, since I'm literally just typing up the notes I took right after each party, and we all know how stressful rush is!

For the record, I don't think poorly of the houses just because of how one sister acted during rush- I'm sure there were other factors to their behavior, and I know everyone isn't like the handful of people I met.

I just basically wanted to say that I didn't intend to write this in any way that would make the houses seem rude or unprofessional. I hope I didn't offend anybody and that yall understand!

[FSUZeta]

i understand where you are coming from and i have seen rudeness happen-on the side of the sorority and on the side of the pnm too.

lotsofdots, i'm glad that you looked beyond the rudeness and didn't drop out.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

i understand where you are coming from and i have seen rudeness happen-on the side of the sorority and on the side of the pnm too.

Sometimes there's rudeness sure, but I think it's far more likely to be the result of someone not knowing how to handle something well or being exhausted rather than deliberate behavior from the members of the GLO side.

Even if you aren't crazy about your guest, it would be rare not to care how you acted during a party. The "philanthropy isn't all we do" thing seems really bad.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Even if you aren't crazy about your guest, it would be rare not to care how you acted during a party. The "philanthropy isn't all we do" thing seems really bad.

This. It strikes me as particularly odd.

[FSUZeta]

when i went thru rush, i was abandoned at my very first party. my hostess seemed very apathetic toward me and didn't seem interested in carrying on a conversation with me. i tried to get a conversation going, but she interrupted me in the middle of a sentence to say that she saw a girl that she knew and she was going to go say hello-no 'let's walk over there" (we were seated), no "i'll be right back", she just left me sitting there by myself and she never came back. needless to say i did not want to visit that house again. unless that sorority member had managed to get thru life so far and into a very competitive chapter with no home training, she was being rude.

i had never met her, rush was before school began, i knew noone in the chapter, so could not have possibly insulted her, dated her boyfriend, turned her in for cheating, etc. people can be rude, for no apparent reason.

[UGAalum94]

Wow, FSUZeta, that's really horrible.

I'm amazed that, even if she was a jerk, no one from the chapter stepped in to sit by you and chat you up.

My experience was pretty different. GLO members were on their best behavior. If something unpleasant happened, it was out of stupidity or exhaustion.

I can remember one of my sisters twisting her ankle as we left one of the parties, and most of us just kept doing what we were supposed to do with our rushees. I'm sure it looked horrible and unsisterly, but we just didn't really know what to do. That kind of stuff, I can understand how it happens, even if I don't condone it. But to just decide to treat your guest badly is shocking.

[piphibabyangel]

this is ridiculous to read. i am shocked some people actually just leave pnms like that

[APhiAnna]

Perhaps it was really sloppy bumping? I was HORRIBLE at bumping during my first recruitment and I was definitely one of those "interrupted girls in order to bump" type of actives. It can be so hard for newer members to remember where they are supposed to be...maybe some of the rude girls were panicking because they knew they had to be at a certain part of the house at a certain time but the woman expected to relieve them hadn't come? I know that usually bumping is set off by the arrival of an active, and not a departure, but who knows what type of problems can happen with inexperienced actives.

Either way, sorry to hear about a discouraging day!

[FSUZeta]

maybe she wanted to rush the girl she knew and was mad that someone else had gotten her? either way, it was a rotten way to begin my recruitment experience, but all the other 17 houses made up for it(there were 18 at fsu at the time) and i had a very happy recruitment experience after that.

so anyway, lotsofdots, come back and finish telling us your story!

[ellebud]

Just a comment about not offending anyone (or being PC to a fault): I have said before, and will reiterate, that these stories have many functions. There is a wonderful vicarious thrill that we get hearing how a pnm's recruitment evolves. And there is the opportunity for pnms, sisters and alums to learn from the experiences of the pnms. If a pnm feels that a house was rude to her, perhaps they were. Perhaps they were unaware that they came off as rude. Perhaps the pnm is overly sensitive, but perhaps there are young women who could use an attitude adjustment or retraining in rush technique.

I feel an "apology" is not warrented if something is said in a polite, constructive way. Think of it this way: If you had spinach in your teeth and you had a job interview, would you want to know and get rid of the spinach? Or do you want a futile meeting that doesn't get the job?

I want to hear the happy end to this story!

We weren't technically supposed to bring them but it was a lot easier for me to figure out what I liked and what I didn't when I had to articulate it concisely to another person- and I didn't want to impact anyone else on the bus so I went ahead and used my phone. =( so...I was a little bad. Sorry yall.