Rush 101 Question from a Mom

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by carbonbeach81

What great advice from everyone! Her grades are spectacular, she's in National Honor Society and taking advanced classes, and is very close to the top of her class. She is involved with great activities at school, including community service with NHS, a mentoring program, and other activities, but so far hasn't had any leadership roles.

Please go into school/recruitment knowing that it will be full of the same "top notch" girls, with stellar GPAs, tons of community service, AP classes, leadership positions, beauty pagent titles, etc etc etc.

And when you get a moment, read this.

[alum]

Your daughter sounds fabulous. As the OP is probably aware, this is a baby bubble year with one of the largest number of high school graduates in a long time. I would think that anyone who has to deal with the college application process would know about the competitive admissons process (especially for females) and realize it may extend to Panhel Recruitment as well.

[irishpipes]

I'll bet anyone who ranks everything in life would know that.

[carbonbeach81]

Thanks to everyone who gave me such kind responses, even before I was alerted to check the stickies which answered most of my questions.

Just a couple of you made me regret posting here and unwelcome. You must have misinterpreted me as a helicopter parent, and nothing could be further from the truth. My husband and I have done everything we can to make sure our daughter stretches her wings and challenges herself as an individual throughout the years because we know how important it is for her to be completely prepared for each successive step she takes, including college. We've never coddled her in any way even when it would have been much easier to do so.

If she decides to go through rush, fine. If she decides it's not for her by the time she goes off to college, that's great, too. We just want her to be happy and make the most of college. I also never meant to imply she was somehow special because of her grades or accomplishments. I'm sorry if my post was written in such a way to convey those ideas, mostly because I'm not like that at all....neither naive nor a hovering parent.

I do think this is a very friendly forum and apologize if something I said made you think of hovering Moms who interfere before, during, and after the rush process. I can only imagine how frustrating those parents can be.

Although I participated in just one set during rush week before I received the call that my father had suddenly died and was unable to continue, I do remember how extremely competitive the rush process was....even back in the late 1970s.

I know this is a very welcome forum and I'm sure my post was simply misunderstood. Sometimes I don't have a way with words! Thanks again.

[SWTXBelle]

It's tough, I know. (My eldest is off to college in 10 days!) We are currently very sensitive about helimoms, but I concur that your post isn't screaming "HELICOPTER!".
I do cosign to having her do as much of her own footwork as possible. She should do the registering, contact women about recs (friends' moms, relatives, networking as has been suggested) and even check with friends of her who are in college to get information about recruitment. It's good practice for those all-important conversations later.
And, remind her not to wish her senior year away - it will be over before she knows it. Good luck to her (and you, too!)