When You Made IT!!

[adpiucf]

On Bid Day '97, we met in classrooms at the College of Education. Each Recruitment Counselor Traveling Group (4 counselors and their groups) had its own classroom. (Prior, anyone who had not received a bid was called, so all the women in the room that morning DID have a bid.)

The PX's handed out white envelopes and we were told to wait until everyone had theirs. The wait was AGONIZING! The night before at Pref, I knew in my heart where I wanted to be, but there was that nagging "What if" pestering me to also consider my second choice... and perhaps to make it my first. Ultimately, I realized as much as I loved #2, #1 was my home from the beginning.

The PX's finally finished handing out the envelopes and at last, allowed us to open them. The frenzied sound of ripping paper filled the room, punctuated by exclamations and tears of joy. Beaming, I carefully read the words:

The ladies of Alpha Delta Pi Sorority at the University of Central Florida cordially invite you to join their sisterhood.

Joyfully, I ran down Greek Row to my new home with the other new members, and 7 years later, ADPi still is and will always be my #1.

[ZTAngel]

My experience was much like adpiucf's except it happened 2 years later.
Even funnier that she was a PX in my Recruitment Counselor Traveling Group so she was there when I got my bid card.
I remember sitting in the back of the room with the girls in my PX group and we were all talking about how nervous we were. Our PX called us up one by one to the front of the room. We opened our bid cards in front of everyone. I really wanted my #1 choice and would have been happy with #2. I was really scared that I was going to get a sorority that I hadn't even put on my bid card and I'd have to just put a fake smile on my face so that my PX group wouldn't see me burst into tears.
I opened my bid card and it said "The Eta Kappa Chapter of Zeta Tau Alpha cordially invites you to pledge". I was so excited! I started jumping up and down and gave my PX a huge hug!

[sarahgrace]

We all went into separate classrooms with our rho gammas, and then they handed out envelopes to all of us, but we weren't allowed to open them until everyone had theirs. The funny thing was that you could see that some envelopes were cream and some were white, and you could sort of compare the handwriting, so I knew the girl next to me was going to get a bid from the same house as me! And then we opened our envelopes, and I saw that my card said Theta, my first choice, so I was really happy and almost more than that, just relieved! After that I went out and called my parents, then all of us went back into this big auditorium where we found out the affliation of our rho gammas and split up into our new pledge classes. The funny thing was that one of our rho gammas was a Theta, and about half my rho gamma group ended up in Theta! Then it was back up to separate classrooms again, where we met the Theta president and VP education. Then one at a time the pledge classes were let out of the building and were swarmed by the actives who were outside with signs and balloons, cheering and yelling! Really fun!

[adpiucf]

Originally posted by ZTAngel
My experience was much like adpiucf's except it happened 2 years later.
Even funnier that she was a PX in my Recruitment Counselor Traveling Group so she was there when I got my bid card.

Ah yes... did you know we all got in trouble for torturing you guys with "What sorority do you think I'm in?" games

One of the fun traditions at UCF is that after you receive your bid, all the new members congregate in the gym. They sit according to sorority, marked off with banners made by the PX's. Then, Pan Exec reveals their affiliations and makes a couple of speeches. And then.... they introduce the PX's, who are supposed to run into the gym in their letters, reaffiliated for the first time all summer! EXCEPT... that we've actually swapped shirts with a PX friend in another chapter. So we run in, wearing the wrong shirt, seeing looks of puzzlement on the new members' faces, as they're thinking they've figured us out. And at last, we run back out, furiously swap back to the right letter shirt, and are introduced in our real letters!

[ZTAngel]

Originally posted by adpiucf
Ah yes... did you know we all got in trouble for torturing you guys with "What sorority do you think I'm in?" games

GOOD! Evil Rho Chi's who tried to trick us....

I was told that you guys would even wear certain items or do your hair/makeup in certain ways to make us think you were in a different sorority than you really were. For instance, I think there was a PX who was a Pi Phi who purposely wore bright eye shadow one day to make us think she was in a certain sorority (that will remain namelss). I know that Kerri would purposely put her hair in a bow to make us think she was in another sorority when she was really an ADPi (I bet you can think of the sorority she was trying to pretend she was in ).

[Glitter650]

Well I actually went through a structured informal rush during spring semester so there was an open house where we could meet all sororities.. then we could choose which parties to attend on our own, but sororities had to hold bids until Friday... so I was nervous because it wasn't spelled out you will get your bid by coming here at this time.. you just knew anytime on or after Friday they could extend you a bid... didn't know if they would call.. find you... etc... so I'm like super nervous because there's two sororities I really would like to get a bid from... (it was possible to get more than 1 bid because it was informal) and I REALLY wasn't sure which one was on top at all so I was just hoping that at least one of them liked me. SOO Friday morning I wake up get to class and get out at aroudn 11:30 (bids are held until 12.... at 12 I go to the bookstore to pick up some stuff and when I come out there was some Phi Sigs standing in the quad...they called me over and handed me a red rose and a bid card and invited me to go out with them later that night. On my way home I got a call from the other sorority that I wanted... they extended me a bid as well.... well... I didn't know what to do but I went home and took my 24 hours to decide... and I actually went to an event for sorority #2 that night since I didn't feel like I had hung out with them as much as Phi Sig.... then I talked with another girl who was rushing after that event who had also received bids to both sororities and we talk and deliberated together... and actually ended up going different places... and I believe we are both very proud members of our orgs... I'm actually quite positive I would've been very happy in the other chapter as well and have many friends in that chapter and love the girls... but Phi Sig is where I belong

[adpiucf]

Originally posted by ZTAngel
GOOD! Evil Rho Chi's who tried to trick us....

Yes, white eyeliner and brown lipliner... what sorority would that be? Actually, I think it's all of them (or the 2004 equivalent!) today! I did the bow head, party girl, study girl, etc. We just enjoyed confusing you. It's ok. My plan backfired. It was really hard being in uniform and trying to accessorize a certain look. On the first day of recruitment, most of my girls guessed I was a KD.... and one thought I could possibly be either a ZTA or an ADPi. She wasn't sure. However, by Day 2, 11 of my 13 were completely certain that I MUST be an ADPi, with the rest claiming I had to be a KD b/c I guess I had said, "I love the KD Door Song the best!" when I made y'all start singing, "Go Go Kappa Delta." LOL. I ran out in an Alpha Xi Delta jersey on Bid Day and one of my girls (an ADPi named Jenny) actually teared up.

The most ironic thing about Jenny crying about my "sorority" was that her sister was in my new member class, and even though they are 2 years apart, the look like twins. And I kept calling her by her sisters' name (who was also her roommate, who is also MY Diamond Sister's best friend! How her sister kept me covered up, I'll never know! But she must have laughed like crazy when Jenny came home after Forum and said, "My PX is Abbey and I am SOOOO sure she's a KD!)

[Tom Earp]

Dont even remember my experience as a new chosen Pledge of a Fraternity

Was booted out anyway and started my own as a Local!

We did formal rush and our first one, did not get a single person!

I dont even know if there is a formal rush now at The Pitt! Seems more open rushing/recruiting for at least the Fraternitys!

I remember one time going to school at the Pitt and seeing all of the Soroity Ladies of a Chapter all dressed up at a Patron/Alums House there and thought wow is that Neat!

So, it sounds like there are these things still going on and I am glad!

It shows caring by the Chapters and Greek Organizations!

[KSUViolet06]

I came into Tri-Sigma a few weeks ago through COB. I'd been COB- ing for almost 2 weeks.

After my 3rd COB event, their recruitment director said she'd call me after the weekend. I waited all weekend, and got no phone call on Monday.

As I was leaving class the same day, the recruitment dir. caught me on the way out and asked me to yet another COB. I agreed, figuring it wouldn't be anything special.

Me and another girl went to the house that night. We weren't doing anything, but playing board games.

About an hour in, the recruitment director tells everyone to be quiet because she has an announcement to make. I wasn't paying attention because I figured her announcement was for the sisters.

Everyone got quiet, and the NM Educator came out w/ bid day goody bags for us and said:

"The sisters of Tri-Sigma invite you to join our sisterhood."

I said yes and we went to Dairy Queen to celebrate

[MrsMcCartney]

Jocelyn, that is very similar to what our girls did to the COBers this time too! They invited the girls who were getting in to another "COB event." Then they surprised them by extending them bids to Chi Omega.

Ah, bid day of 1990.....so long ago. I just remember going up to the student center in this huge herd of girls and waiting in line. There was one long table where they had all the bids and you gave your name and they pulled your envelope out of the little box. I knew from my PX that I had a bid but I didn't know if it would be from Chi O or from Alpha Phi. I opened the envelope and was truly surprised to read "The sisters of Chi Omega cordially invite..." I went flying down the stairs and passed my friend Aimee, and I yelled "What are you????" and she yelled "A Xi D!!!!" and I yelled "Chi Omega!!!!!" I ran down to join my sisters and I will never forget the way they jumped on me when I came out! I do remember looking around for one of my good friends to see where she'd gone...she had been cut from Chi O after 3rd party but had preffed at Alpha Phi and DG. We had been thinking we might end up sisters together at Phi but I looked for her there and at DG and she never came. Later I found out from her sister (who had rushed with us and was in my new pledge class at Chi O) that she'd gotten a call from her PX the night before.....no bid. There was a happy ending though....she went through rush again the next year and met a LOT more girls, and she got into Chi O! The day after bid day there was a huge picture on the front page of the campus newspaper of me hugging her as she came down to join us.

[xonikki]

I went through spring informal recruitment, where you got to see all the bids extended to you. You had to go sit down at a table with a member from panhel who handed you an envelope with your bids in them. My roomate came with me because I was so nervous, even though I thought I'd end up getting a bid. The first bid I opened was Chi O and I was so excited I turned around grinning to my roomate and excitedly rambled to the panhel about how much I wanted Chi O, then went to the back of the room and jumped up and down and cried with my roomate from excitement! We all met at the house for our bid day celebration, and it felt so wonderful to walk in and get hugs, even from the girls I hadn't met!

[Adelphean1851]

At UNLV, everyone meets in the student union in the ball room first everyday of recruitment. On bid day it is no diffrent. At the time (1999) they did garunteed bidding so I knew I would get one of my three choices. I was pretty certian I would be happy in Adpi or my second choice but I wasn't sure about my third the girls were nice but they just weren't "me". So when I arrived at the ball room I was pretty nervous, and I was thinking I would end up in my second choice because they had just colonized the year before and were most in need of new members. I held my bid card, steeling myself for the dissapointment and having to face the Adpi's who I had become friends with, and when I opened it the first thing I saw was a Crest headed with a roaring lion. I heaved a sigh of relief and kind of went yess!! internally. Then the rho chi's revealed themselves and my rho chi Abbey (whom I had been convinced was a Delta Zeta because she was blonde) led me and the rest of the new alphas across the hall to a meeting room where all of my new sisters waited with presents. Then we all dressed in our shiny new bid day shirts and went to take pictures by "the flashlight" (the requisite celebrating following, of course) and the rest is history.

[PiPhiGirl2005]

I went through formal recruitment, which takes place over four days right before second semester. The third day is when the rest of the campus moves in, though. Anyway, on the fourth day, we attend preference parties in the afternoon and then we are on silence - which is really hard when all your friends who didn't go through recruitment have moved back into your dorm and are being all chatty! Members of Panhel "patrol" the dorm halls to make sure none of us are talking to anyone.

Anyway, if you got a bid, a member of Panhel will come knock on your door at 7pm-ish and as soon as that happens, you put on shoes and a coat and book it, I mean book it, "up the hill", which is literally up the hill from where the dorms are to Central Hall to the dean's floor, where they assemble all the girls. The girls all open their bid cards at one time and then run down the three flights of stairs and out of Central Hall. I don't know where all the other sororities meet their new members, but Pi Phis stand right at the steps of Central Hall and the Kappas wait at the bottom of the hill near their house.

My roommate and I both went through formal and when we got the knock, thankfully the girls told us both at the same time that we had received bids so we could run together. We both knew that it was Pi Phi, since it was the only one on my list, and she was a legacy. When we got our bid cards, they had our names handwritten on the front, so we located all the other girls with the same handwriting and stood with them, because we knew we were all Pi Phis. Then we ran down the stairs into a gaggle of our new sisters, and the rest is history!

[Kevin]

Received a phone call from the national director of expansion a few days after I interviewed with him.

After that, I was a colonist for three years. When I was VP in the third year, we sent off our petition. I believe we heard back in October of 2001. We then held the chartering ceremony and were fully initiated on March 9th, 2002.

So essentially, I was a pledge for 3 years

[skerbow]

Well, I went through a structured informal as well. After 3 parties, including a pref ceremony, i went home. I was a commuter to UNT, as most of the girls were, and Lived 25 minutes away. I remember hugging one of the girls ( A HUGE NO NO, but I initiated it, so she obliged) she told me not to worry about anything. I went home that night and straighted up my living room because I was sooooo nervous. Then I got a call! It was 10 and the girls were tired, but they wanted to make sure it was okay for one of them to drop by in an hour or so. They apologized for the time and hung up. Sure enough, at 11pm, what was to be my future Diamond sister knocked on my door. She handed me the white envelope, and waited to see my reaction. I was soooooo excited!!! I never dreamed sorority life was for me. But after 3 parties, I knew ADPI was home!! SHe hugged me, handed me a bid shirt, explained the process and said she would see me tomorrow night at our slumber party! It was one of the best nights of my life!!