rush at UCSB

[nauadpi]

I just wanted to add another wish of good luck. My mom went there for college and was an alpha phi there, and I know she loved it. But I have to give a llittle note on ADPi, cause I am one. Good luck and have fun.

[AGD4me]

Good luck to you! It was so great to read your nice comments about DG at UCSB... my mom is a Delta Gamma from UCSB! She goes back quite often for anniversaries and alumnae get togethers. I went back with her a few times in high school, and loved it! Sadly there was no DG chapter where I went to school, but I found my home in Alpha Gamma Delta (and my mom always jokes that is has a 'Delta' and a 'Gamma' in it, so it's okay ).

GOOD LUCK!!

[sbhill2]

Good luck to you again! You sound like a wonderful girl and Im sure they'll all want you to be a part of their sorority. Just remember to keep us updated here at GC please! And go DG (Im a little partial towards them obviously)

[AXO_MOM_3]

Best of luck to you during recruitment! I'm sure you will find a wonderful home!

[leilanimoon]

ok...this may take a long time!!! Today was a very fun-filled though exhausting day! I'll go through the details with the houses in alphabetical order, although we did not go through the houses alphabetically(just to maintain some sense of anonymity until it's over!) We were given little booklets to keep our notes in and it gave a bit of info about each house. It's so hard because we had to rank the houses 1-10* after we visited them. I totally just had to go on conversations and first impressions, so I hope I made the right choices! Tomorrow, we go to up to 8 houses, depending on which houses asked us back. EK was actually the first *house* we went to, but they were just introduced to us all and will not be going through formal recruitment but will instead hold an informal after rush has finished. Ok, so, on with the show.

AXO-
Prior to rush, I had heard good things about this house. The first girl I met struck me as very athletic, which was cool, and she seemed very down to earth and peppy. The second girl I talked to was awesome and we talked about Europe and the different mixers and theme parties they have. I learned that she also joined as a transfer and lives in the house. She was a very sweet girl and I didn't have to carry along the conversation. The last girl was probably one of the most unique girls I met. If I saw her on the street, I would never guess that she'd go greek. She was very sweet and seemed very energetic, so it was cool. Overall, I got the feeling that this house is very athletic and peppy. The conversations were great, however, as far as it feeling like home..no...not yet, but I am still waiting to see how things will progress if they invite me back for tomorrow! Out of 1-10, with 1 being the highest, I ranked AXO at 7. This could change, we'll see!

Alpha Delta Pi-
These girls seemed very fun and very cute. Everyone I met was laidback, cool, and funny. It was really perhaps a faux-pas on the girl's part, but at one point me and one of the girls were talkign about something and she slipped and cursed, but we were both so into the conversation that it actually made me chuckle in a good way. I know we are all supposed to maintain a level of decorum, but it was her at her most natural and it was so funny because it actually put me at ease. Their sisterhood sounded really cool. they take a lot of roadtrips together and travel together, which is cool, because I LOVE to travel. As a matter of fact, in most houses, when I brought up European travel, a lot of the rest of the conversation was about where we'd been and what we wanted to do because a lot of people were in majors that had to do with international relations, political scoence, languages, or global studies, which was right up my alley!! I ranked them 5th.

AEPhi-
A lot of the girls here seemed in general really nice, but a few seemed kind of disinterested. Their house is kind of small and they had to rush us 3 and 2 at a time because there aren't a lot of girls in their house. I knew I didnt and wouldn't fit in there because I'm a bit on the girly side and they seemed to be pretty no-frills. I'm looking for girls I can be silly with and talk about fashion and celebrities, yet also about law school, politics, my fears, and my dreams and I knew it wouldn't be with these girls that I'd find that. Trhoughout rush, I gravitated towards the houses with enthusiastic girls, because I always tried to make an effort in every house to find some topic we both loved to talk about and keep the convo going rather than a question-answer type thing. This house kind of felt like that, more like an interview than a getting to know you. I ranked them 10th.

Alpha Phi-
The girls here were all very cute and sweet, and the conversations were cool, but compared to the other houses, it didn't flow as much. There's just a certain spark I look for in the rusher's eyes, to see if they are genuinely interested in what I'm saying or if they are just waiting for their turn to speak or trying to surf their mind for a new question to ask. This wasn't soo much the case here, but sort of, compared to other houses. I ranked them 6th.

Tri-Delt
I really wanted to like this house. Their philanthropy seemed so awesome! They have a penpal who is a cancer patient and they have a march for the child and raise money for them. this was the most impressive philanthropic activity I'd heard of at that point. The house itself was really pretty, it smelled pleasantly of strawberries andhad apleasant feel, but the girls seemed to be bored with me and there were too many lulls in the conversation. They could've just been tired, but, hey, we were all tired, and houses I went to AFTER them were still in the spirit. I ranked them 9th.

Delta Gamma
Still totally love this house! They are sooo cute! Every girl was cheerful, had smiles on their faces and knew how to keep the conversation lively. I totally lost myself in the moment while I was there and loved how they seemed genuinely interested in me. I guess I'll know tomorrow if they REALLY were,lol...but I like to be made to feel good about myself, just like anybody and I felt something pretty special there. What will surprise you is that I ranked them 4th insteadof 1st, but that is because my 1-4 is really all #1 at this point and I felt like they might ask me back no matter what (I REALLY hope so, at least) so it didn't matter too much where I ranked them because they are supposedly not privy to how they were ranked by each girl, only if they were in the top 8 or not for each girl.

Gamma Phi Beta-
One really cool note. They have a phat pool and a house with apartment-style living. These girls seemed really sweet but because I'm older than most of the girls I talked to, they seemed at a lost as to what to ask, because they had dealt with so many freshman that day and were used to asking questions geared more towards them like what dorm they were in, if they were familiar with Isla Vista(the student community). There were lulls in the conversation where it was just like, ummm..so..yeah..and when they asked me about my summer vacation, I started into my oft-told story about my whole eurail vacation and they seemed a bit too overwhelmed by it. Even though they had never heard the story before, I had told it at every house and we were getting near the end so I was kind of just relaying it without as much enthusiasm and I think they might have taken that as a sign that I was being cocky or something because theyd ask, "So, whered you go?" and I kind of just sighed and said, All over!" so it was maybe bad on my part, but I started to pep up again at this house towards the end because I kept telling myself I wanted to try and maintain the same level of enthusiasm at each house and give everything a chance. Perception, or pretty much the way u choose to react to a situation can kind of change how you respond to things and just basically change your way of thinking so by the time I talked to the last girl, I was back to being bubbly old me! I ranked them 8th. I hope if I'm invited back I can learn more about these girls!

Theta-
OMG! Why was everyone so gorgeous!?!? lol..I guess they are pretty top on our campus! Every girl seemed genuinely nice, though, so it was fun chatting with them! I felt like I really was just meeting someone for the first time. I forgot where I was, I was totally in the moment, and I was totally being myself. I was genuinely interested in the topics we covered and the girls seemed to really listen. I was so impressed by this house..they were awesome. I ranked them 2nd. One girl was so funny because we ended up having a lot of htings in common and she's say something like,"omg, are you serious?!? shut up!" i know it sounds bizarre, but it was just hysterical...you would think that's a big no-no but she just reminded me of friends I have back home. I felt very comfortable in this house.

KKG-
I had a wonderful conversation with the 1st girl I talked to and we talked or a loooong time! The 2nd girl was just as sweet and the 3rd was cool, too, but a little shy so I don't know exactly how I stack up to them, but I loved the 1st 2. I ended up ranking them 3rd.

Pi Beta Phi-
Ok, this is the group I ranked number 1. My reason being is mainly based on a few factors. One, I discovered that a really cool girl from a few classes of mine was in it. She came over and said hello to me while I was chatting with another rusher and totally put in a good word for me. She is the sweetest girl ever and exemplifies to me what a sorority girl should be. Smart, funny, confident, and dedicated. The other reasons were the conversations I had with the girls in the house and the overall poised demeanor most of the girls displayed. Everyone seemed really mature and classy. The 1st girl who rushed me joined as a junior transfer which put me at ease because so am I. I liked the fact that she was honest. When she asked me what I did for summer and I told her I travelled throughout Europe she said, Wow, every girl I've talked to today has been talking baout their trips to Europe and I've never left the States. Rather than harp on it just to keep conversation going, the conversation just veered towards other topics and it was a lot more laidback. then the other girl came over to start rushing me and the 1st girl told her about Europe and this girl and I started talking about itagain and had so many similar experiences. The conversation was so hyper and fun, it was just what I needed because this was near the end of the day and I was so exhausted but this totally pepped me up again!

All in all, today was a great day. I met some girls in my Rho Chi group that were friendly and we as a a group had lunch together. I had a chance to flex my conversation muscles(ok, that sounds silly,huh?) and just have a good time. I am praying for the best tomorrow. As a junior, it's very possible that I will be cut heavily, but I'm overall pleased with the experience nonetheless and I know I at least got a taste for what sorority life is like at UCSB. So many girls were involved in study abroad, loved to travel, loved to play sports and just overall do things that I like to do. That was great to have that commonality because since I've been here (snce Winter quarter), I haven't really had an opportunity like this to meet a lot of girls, I'm still relatively new to campus and only knew ppl from my high school.

*Sigh* I'm so pooped, I better get some shut-eye! I'll let you all know tomorrow what's up with me!

oh wait, sigma kappa is in the process of rebuilding and they had their nat'l come out and speaK and a few words from the president. I'll write more about that later. I'm gonna collapse!

[breathesgelatin]

yeahhhh!!!!! you like pi phi!

[MoxieGrrl]

Thank you soooo much for the awesome update! I felt like I was rushing with you! Seems like you had a great time and are keeping an open mind about things.....Good luck!!!!!

[sbhill2]

Im so glad you liked Delta Gamma ! Obviously Im a little impartial but good luck with invites and rush in general! Keep us updated as you go through mroe houses!

[Angelic]

It sounds like you are have a wonderful time and meeting some fabulous girls!! I hope you find a house perfect for you!

Keep us updated!!

[CelticGal]

Sorry to hear about the Sig Kap situation. Don't count them out completely! Sounds like you're having a lot of fun. Let us know what happens!

[AXO_MOM_3]

What great detail - I felt like I was there too! Sounds like you are having fun AND keeping an open mind! I hope you get to return to all your favs! Good luck second round!

[GPhiBLtColonel]

...but it made me sad to see Gamma Phi rank so low Hope you will get another chance to form a better opinion of them/us!

[leilanimoon]

omg, girlies! im soo excited! Here are the houses I was invited back to:

Tri-Delt
Theta
Kappa
A D Pi
AXO
AEPhi

I was soo happy to be invited back to Kappa and Theta, as well as surprised, because they are pretty top on our campus! As soon as I found out where I was invited back I instantly became nervous but I kept as cool as possible! I just had to worry about impressing my top 2 the second time around and I sure hope I did! I find out tomorrow, but anyways, I'll let you know how today went.

I'll go ahead and list them in order of how I went to them.

Tri-Delt was the 1st house and I was a little apprehensive about them because the night ebfore I had ranked them 9th out of the 10th. I had to carry too many of the conversations and wasn't getting a great vibe the first night.

This time around was a lot better, but I can honestly say that I STILL don't see myself in this house. We had pretty good coversations about the philanthropy and about the girl's pen friend and how she send letters to a girl who just graduated high school with cancer. I am still very impressed with their philanthropy and think that that is probably the best thing they have going for their house. One of the girls I talked to kind of put me off because she didn't know very much about her sorority. I had asked her if there was a mascot and at first she stammered a bit and said Pandas and then a few minutes later said, oh, wait, I think we are dolphins. This was kind of the gist of the rest of the conversation with her. After that, I talked to a really nice girl who was very cheerful and all. She was losing her voice from talking so much during rush but still had a good attitude. The only real problem with this house is that they would always ask very early in the conversation questions which put me on the spot, like, "Is there anything you want to ask me specifically?" and things like that. I still like the houses where we just kind of end up talking and never have to stop and think about whether we should be doing or saying this or that (nothing illegal like name-dropping and stuff, but, you know, random chatter). I asked her a lot of questions and she was really pleased that my questions weren;'t your run of the mill ones. I asked her what made her bond with Tri-Delt stronger than her bond with her friends out of the greek system, what her most memorable sorority experience was, whether she had had an y cool experiences with meeting other Tri-Delts when travelling just by wearing her letters, etc...
So, I had a good time there and all, but I could not see myself hanging around these girls, going to the movies, chilling in our pj's and doing things I like to do. I looked for girls that I felt reminded me of my friends back home or people I admire and look up to. I didn't find it here so much as at the other houses.

The house itself was very cute, beautifully furnished, and all, so that was another nice point about them. At the end I ranked them once again as 9th.



I had a break in-between, and then I had my next house.

Theta
It was as awesome as ever, once again! The first girl and I talked about our trips to Paris and bonded over the clothing store, MANGO. As soon as she mentioned it, i couldn't help it, I squealed because that is my absolute favorite store in the world. So our conversation kind of veered towards silly chatter but it was a break from the old , "whats your major?" routine. So many people I've met are so well-travelled it's almost scary and so many know people who have done Semester at Sea, which I'm totally considering doing some day. After that I met a few other girls in the house and they were all very sweet. I'm so tired now that I can't remember the entire details on the house and all but I know their president's room was SWEET!!! They also looked like they had a lot of fun activities throughout the year. I ranked them as #1!

After this was lunch.

Kappa-

Very beautiful girls, very peppy and genuinely nice girls. Had the best conversations of the whole day there. Very beautiful backyard and looks like they have fun events. Every girl that I had met yesterday made sure to say hello and when I was leaving so many people called out my name. They made me feel so special. I met their president and we talked about how we both went to Havasu during Spring Break. I could totally see myself here. I ranked them #2 but in my heart, they are tied with Theta.

ADPI-

Why is everyone so cute? That's the best word to describe them and I think one of the girls described it there best when she said that they were comprised of girls who would've been great in any house, but found their home there. Everyone was very warm and chill...lol..sounds silly, huh? I met their president or recruitment chair and she was extremely personable! The last girl I talked to was an adorable redhead with the prettiest, friendliest smile I've ever seen. We talked about our dogs and this is my all-time favorite topic because I'm a major dog-lover and have 4 back home. I can see myself here, I ranked them 3rd.

AXO-

Met a girl who had spent a year in Germany. Very cool because she is minoring in German(Did I mention I love learning languages?) and she seemed very fun, if a bit on the wild side. I think this house is composed generally of good-natured girls. My only apprehension is that they seemed almost too diverse on first glance. It is hard for me to get a good feel of a house if everyone seems to kind of be soo different from the next. Maybe it was just the luck of the draw and I just met all different types of girls randomly, but I felt a teeny bit off-kilter. I can sort of see myself here but only time will tell. I ranked them 4th. their house is massive! 3 stories high!!!

AEPhi-

These girls invited EVERYONE back. Their house is really small and not nearly as nicely decorated. They don't have a cook or I don;t think a house mom either, so they seemed to be extremely untraditional, which is okay for some people, but I'm kind of looing more for the greek experince. We were required to go to everyone that invited us back and at first I was so dreading going becauise if it were up to me, I wouldn't go, mainly because I had had a hard time holding a conversation with these girls the day before and I already knew I didnt want to be there. A lot of the rooms inside had lofts for the 3rd roommate and at one point, one of the rushers said, hey, if you want, you can climb up there and check it out. she was rushing me and another girl and I didn't kno what o say to that and she said, "Go ahead, go up there" and it just got really quiet, I felt uncomfortable becuase I could see the loft ffine from where I was and it didn't look all that appealing and I was wearing heels (!?!?) The rest of the conversations were okay and some of the girls I met were indeed very nice girls and pretty spunky, but I just knew they weren't for me. I ranked them 10th.

Then my group met up on campus and we had to rank all 10 (even those we hadnt been invited back to). I put

#1Theta
#2 kAPPA
#3 a D pI
#4 AXO
#5 DG
#6 Pi Phi
#7 APhi
#8 Gamma Phi Beta
#9 Tri-Delt
#AEPhi

They had us put all 10 because it is possible that someone who dropped us before may decide to pick us up again, though it is not very likely. If that were to happen, I'd be happy if it were DG. Tomorrow is the 1st day of school..odd to start on a thrusday, huh? then at 530pm we go to find out our 4 that we will go to for theme night from 6-10. then we narrow it down to 2, so the week's almost over...*sigh*..im so glad I made it this far, I just really hope that I can hang on to my top 2, I would die happy! lol..but i would still be very happy in ADPi and quite possibly AXO!

[sbhill2]

Originally posted by leilanimoon


#1Theta
#2 kAPPA
#3 a D pI
#4 AXO
#5 DG
They had us put all 10 because it is possible that someone who dropped us before may decide to pick us up again, though it is not very likely. If that were to happen, I'd be happy if it were DG.

Im so happy to hear that you liked DG even though you didn't get asked back to them. (I had to add that in as my shameless plug) You sound like you really have a good head in this and that you know what you are looking for in houses. I wish you the best of luck in the next round and let us know how things go please!
Susie

[pinkyphimu]

i am so excited to hear that things are going well for you! i can't wait to hear about tomorrow's parties!