IrishPipes' Retro Recruitment Story

[speedsters]

i'm cheering for cork!

i'm moving there in 3 months! yay!

[irishpipes]

I hear from University housing that my randomly-selected roommate is Martha from Buffalo Grove. Great! That isn’t far from where I live! We contact each other and decide to meet at Ace Hardware to shop for school stuff. I am surprised to find out that Martha is a sophomore. (Thought they would put me with a freshman.) She is awesome! We get along great as we shop. We decide on matching desktop fans since our dorm has no air conditioning. While we are in line to pay, I ask Martha if she ever considered rushing. She tells me that she is in a sorority, Kilkenny. I am so excited! While in line I accidentally mention something about being in a show in high school. Martha kind of stops and looks at me and asks me what I mean by “a show.” My heart basically stops because great, I let it out of the bag that I am a nerd who was in shows! I decide I might as well own up since we will be living together, plus, now I know that Gerri and Marietta made it ok and they were in the same shows I was. I told her that I had just finished being the narrator in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” and I explain the whole Street Scenes thing. I fully expect her to laugh me out of the store and there goes my chances of being in a sorority. Instead, she tells me that she too was in musicals in high school and now she is in her sorority’s singing ensemble. How awesome is this!

************************************************** ***************************

As summer rolls along, my best friend Cara starts rush at the University of Iowa a week before I do at Illinois. I don’t get a play by play because this is before e-mail and long distance calls were just too extravagant. Cara and her mom went on a recruitment shopping spree and got all new clothes. That made me nervous because I didn’t do that. My mom would have thought that to be way too expensive and impractical. Plus, I had worked at Marshall Fields during high school so I had a pretty good wardrobe.

I moved to my dorm in Champaign the day before my family moved from Illinois to Tulsa, OK. I left my house where I had lived since I was 8 and knew I would never see it again. It was a big transition and if I hadn’t been so clueless I probably would have gotten emotional.

[AlphaFrog]

HIJACK

Originally Posted by irishpipes

I told her that I had just finished being the narrator in “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”

That's on my list of roles that I will play before I die.
(Along with Katisha from The Mikado, and whatever role in Wicked I'm young enough to play when it comes out for non-equity.[Yes, I realize that will probably be Morrible])



/hijack

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

HIJACK



That's on my list of roles that I will play before I die.
(Along with Katisha from The Mikado, and whatever role in Wicked I'm young enough to play when it comes out for non-equity.[Yes, I realize that will probably be Morrible])



/hijack

I have 2 boys, ages 4 and 8, and they are hooked on the Donny Osmond PBS version of Joseph. (I don't understand why they don't like my 1987 high school videotape version as much!) They sing the songs constantly. I must say of all the Broadway-type musicals I was in, that was the most fun, with "Annie" being a close second. But, AF, what are you doing reading this retro thread!!!

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

But, AF, what are you doing reading this retro thread!!!

Spesific interest: An Illinois university with an ASA chapter.

[tld221]

oh this is gonna be a good one, but geez at 22 houses to see!

(and the whole "my friend was in this movie, 'adventures in babysitting'" bit... love it!)

continue!!!!!!!

[irishpipes]

I moved into my dorm, Barton Hall. I love it. It is one of the older dorms on campus. This means it is closer to campus and it has high ceilings and larger rooms. The down side is that we don’t have a cafeteria or lounges. Martha isn’t there because she is staying with her sorority sisters for rush. I’m not really sure where she is since she can’t talk to me. So, I have the double room to myself which is great, but a little lonely. I meet girls on my floor who are there early for rush. Erin and Missy are freshmen like me, and across the hall Laura and Anne are sophomores. Laura and Anne lived together last year and are best friends. They seem nice enough, but they mainly stay in their room with the door closed and they are very quiet. On another floor of my dorm is Jenn, a sophomore who went to my high school. I didn’t know her well since she was a year older than me, but I knew of her since she was very popular and smart, and she had a sister in my grade. She is here early to rush as well as her good friend Shar, another sophomore from my high school who lives in Illini Tower (IT – a private dorm.) I knew Shar very well in high school. Shar seems to know a lot about the Greek scene and is sure which chapters she is wanting. I am very interested but can’t keep it all straight. We all go together to the orientation that first night at Foellinger Auditorium. The Rho Chis are all on stage with matching t-shirts and they do a presentation about how rush will work. There are 2,000 girls going through rush – the most ever. They make a big deal about that. They also keep mentioning that this is the largest Greek system in the country. I think they are saying it because they are proud of that, but I admit it is a little unnerving. We will be broken up into rush groups with 4 Rho Chis per group. Each group has an assigned classroom as “home base” for rankings. I don’t remember learning a lot at this meeting, but it was intimidating to see that many rushees together. I realized there was a lot of competition. Our booklet told us to wear whatever we wanted to the orientation because it was not a rush event. The girls I walked over with all wore shorts and t-shirts - nothing fancy. A lot of the girls we saw there were obviously dressed to impress, though. We were given blank nametags that we were to take home and decorate in a way that told people something about ourselves. Ugh. I am terrible at art. I ended up just writing my name in bubble letters and adding a bit of color. It was not a great nametag. I’m not sure what that told people about me!

Erin and Missy from my floor are not in my rush group, and neither are Shar and Jenn. It seems like the groups are somewhat divided by class status. I am pretty sure my group is all freshmen. So, I don't know anyone in the group, but really I didn't expect to at such a big school.

First Stage – Day 1:

My very first rush party! I am wearing a white mini skirt with big white buttons down the side and a red and white striped t-shirt. (Think Zoom! T-shirt, but red and white.) I have white waffle-weave flats on and of course I have full make-up including blue and pink eyeshadow, violet eyeliner and violet mascara. The pink shimmer lip gloss completes the look. I have shoulder-length strawberry blonde hair and it is curled all around from the hot rollers. Oh yes. Welcome to 1987.

It is hot and I am not really sure where we are on campus. We walked here from our classroom in Lincoln Hall, and I think I am pretty far from my dorm. There are about 50 girls in my rush group. Some are really dressed up and others are wearing shorts or outfits like mine. I don’t know anyone in my group. There are 2 girls standing next to me, Pam and Joelle, and they are obviously friends. They are very dressed up compared to everyone else, and are wearing a lot of makeup and hair spray. They talk constantly about sororities. I assume they know what they are talking about. I find 2 girls, Melissa and Kim, that I hit it off with and we become rush friends.

Roscommon: I cannot believe how beautiful the house is on the inside! The girls are really nice and the party is very laid back. I liked everyone I met, and was very impressed, I think partially because I had never been inside a sorority house before or been to a rush party before! After we left, I heard Pam and Joelle say that this is a Jewish sorority. What?? There are sororities with specific demographics? I am Catholic so this concerns me. I was worried that I could end up somewhere totally wrong for me just because I didn’t know things like that. I really liked everything about that first party, but I misunderstood Pam and Joelle’s comments to be that EVERYONE was Jewish. In retrospect, I understand that this was not true, but I was only 17 and had a very low Greek IQ.

Mayo: I don’t remember anything about this party except the chant, which I could still repeat to this day! I must not have felt a real connection because I didn’t note anything from this party.

Monaghan: This is the first house where the energy was really high. The members were singing and clapping and it was crazy! I loved that! Everyone was very nice and reminded me a lot of my friends from high school. No one was pretentious at all and I had a nice time.

Kilkenny: This is the first chapter that I really felt – wow. Like Monaghan, there was the initial high-energy singing and clapping. The chapter had a Disney theme with Mickey Mouse ear shaped name tags. I liked the 2 girls who talked to me. One of them liked to sing, too, and they talked to me about all of the singing opportunities in Greek life. I don't see Martha, my roommate, but I assume she couldn't talk to me anyway since we are roommates. (I didn't really understand the silence rule, just that there was one!) I liked this chapter a lot.

Wicklow: I am sort of confused by this chapter. The house is in a more residential area and is cute but very small. In fact, our rush group has to take turns going inside because we don’t all fit. Because of that, we only have the chance to meet for a few minutes with the member we talk to, and there is one member talking to 3 of us. I don’t think this is the kind of Greek experience I am looking for, but I was very impressed with how these members carried themselves when they were obviously so different from the other chapters.

Donegal: This is a really beautiful house. The girl who rushes me is a senior who went to my high school and was in “Annie” with me. This was definitely the most personal treatment I got because she already knew a lot about me so we spent time actually having a deeper-than-normal rush conversation. I’m not sure about this chapter, though, the overall energy is a little low, and Sherry, the girl who rushed me, alluded to “the benefits of being in a smaller chapter.” I actually hadn’t noticed the size until she brought it up, but it sent up a red flag for me.

Dublin: This house looks like a castle. Tricia, my high school boyfriend’s friend, is a sophomore here. Tricia and I get along ok, but I don’t think we would have the same group of friends. I do like the girls who rush me and I have a nice time. Tricia finds me and gives a quick hello.

Waterford: I think this is the chapter that Barbara didn’t get, but I am not sure if I remembered the letters correctly. The exterior of the house is very pretty and I am excited to go inside. Doors open and wow. Everyone is dressed in Illini gear - Orange and blue outfits with face painting and hair ribbons. The energy is contagious. Their chant is even an Illini chant, rather than one for their sorority. I meet 3 girls, including Gerri from my high school, and kind of get passed around a lot. I didn’t care for the rush style (being bumped constantly) but it doesn’t affect my impressions. I LOVE this chapter!

Galway: I like everyone I meet here, but nothing special stands out to me. Julie, who had sent me the card over the summer, waves but I don’t get a chance to say hi. A few of us go into one of the active’s bedrooms to talk. One of the other rushees dominates the conversation so I just check out the room. It was small but very pretty and decorated in yellow. After we leave this chapter, Melissa and Kim tell me that they loved it. I was just ok. Kim is sure this is where she wants to pledge! I am a little disappointed that Julie didn’t rush me here. So far, people I knew have rushed me for the most part, so I guess it turned me off a little.

Wexford: This house is a little off the beaten path (I think – I am still a little confused about campus) and it is in more of a residential setting. It is a very pretty house, but once we get inside it is obviously physically much smaller than most of the others. There are teddy bears everywhere. We go into one of the bedrooms. It is a regular sized bedroom but 6 girls sleep in it! That seemed strange but fun to me. The girls I talked to were nice, but there was one rusher to 3 rushees and the rusher was bumped, so it was hard to make a connection.

Kildare: I have never heard of this sorority but the exterior of the house is gorgeous. It looks just like a sorority house should, and most of the houses at U of I do not follow this particular architectural style. Well, this party was awful. Right off the bat I see Mary Lisa, a sophomore from my high school who was very intimidating. She was pretty and smart and very wealthy. She was a cheerleader in high school. I didn’t even know she went to U of I. She passes right by me without any indication that she recognizes me, despite the fact that we were in Street Scenes together for 3 straight years in high school (I was a singer and she was a dancer). Great. This is not starting off well. I end up talking with an active while sitting on the floor behind a sofa. It was very loud in the living room and it was getting late. I was tired and I had nothing in common with the girl talking to me. She was nice enough, but I could tell they would not be inviting me back. As I suspected, Pam and Joelle love this chapter!

Offaly: It is pitch dark and everyone is dead tired. We are all sitting on the cement outside of this house and saying that we wished we could just skip it and go back home. This house is beautiful and I am pretty sure we have been on this street earlier today visiting other houses. Finally the party starts and the doors swing wide open. I cannot believe the energy in this chapter! It is practically midnight and these girls are singing, clapping, and smiling as if they just started. They are very welcoming and the inside of the house is as pretty as the outside. They show us a picture of a famous alumna of their chapter. It is kind of funny because we know what she looks like now as a famous person, and to see her sorority composite photo is a little strange but funny. Plus, it sort of seems like a shrine or something, which is a little strange to me. I really like this chapter and I hope that I get invited back! As we left, a lot of the girls were commenting that this was a favorite. (I don’t think because of the picture of the famous alumna – we all made fun of that!)


Notes from Day 1:

I think that at some large schools, buses are used to transport the rushees from house to house. Not so for us. We had to walk all over Champaign and Urbana in the heat, with no regard for our shoe selections! This was incredibly tiring and made first stage a real blur. In my opinion, it put the chapters that came later in the schedule at a huge disadvantage because the rushees were so fatigued. Also, there were not tents set up in front of the houses to shade us as we waited for parties to start. We just stood on the sidewalk, and as the day dragged on, we sat on the ground!

Another observation was that despite the artistic nametags that we were all required to make, each sorority gave us a nametag to wear during the party that they removed before we left. This was irritating to me because I wondered why it was so important for us to make the ridiculous artsy-craftsy one if the chapters already made cute ones for us!!! (I later learned this assisted the chapters in keeping rushees straight. It was for the rushees’ protection, really)

************************
OK, so that was a really long post, but that is only half of first stage!!! There just are a lot of sororities!

[irishpipes]

First Stage - Day 2 -

Today I wore a denim mini skirt, huge earrings and white flats. My shirt is this weird sort of geometric thing. It is turquoise and has this fold over collar that hangs down in front and is sort of off to one side. It is my absolute favorite shirt because it is so cool!

The biggest thing about today is that we are in Champaign, and more of the fraternity houses are here (as opposed to Urbana). The jerks have put couches on their front lawns and drink beer and hold up score cards and make cat calls as we walk by. It is so humiliating.

Tipperary: This is a very interesting looking house – kind of like 2 houses put together. I am surprised when we go in that the inside is very attractive and comfortable. A very outgoing girl introduces herself and off we go. I liked the girl I talked to initially, but the second girl who came over knew one of the girls rushing with me and they started talking about their mutual friends and I was totally out of the loop. When we left this chapter, I overhear Pam and Joelle saying that this is one of the chapters where the really pretty, really nice girls go. It is obvious that they approve, but I am turned off since I felt excluded from the conversation during the party.

Sligo: This house seems to be pretty far away, but it is nice. When we get inside, a girl named Cathy picks me up. She tells me that she is Dave’s sister. (Dave is a friend from high school.) She is incredibly nice and tells me she has been dying to meet me since she knew a lot about me because I hung out with Dave (who is my best friend Cara’s ex-boyfriend.) She obviously has talked to someone about me because she asks a lot about the specific teachers that I had in high school, my group of friends, etc. It is a great conversation and a nice break from the usual rush questions. Cathy is a senior and I didn’t have a chance to meet anyone else here. This chapter didn’t do a big song/chant at the beginning so it was tough to get a feel for their personality. Pam remarks that they are too small to even be a consideration.

Clare: I don’t have any notes from this party, but I put a star on their page so I must have liked it!

Longford: This house seemed strange even before we entered. It was a little run down and seemed small. It was right on campus, but still, it didn’t seem like a sorority house as much as a fraternity house. One girl rushes 3 of us. She wasn’t very talkative and it was HOT in the house. The windows are open and we kept having to swat flies. There was a funny smell that was distracting as well. This was definitely my least favorite so far. I felt bad though because I have no idea what the true personality of the chapter was because my particular rusher was very shy and quiet.

Carlow: This is another very attractive house, inside and out. I don’t remember anything specific, but they got a star as well, so it must have been nice!

Kerry: I don’t care for the exterior of this house, but I am still excited to go inside. Wow again – so much energy from these girls! Their cheer is very cute and the girls are adorable. The inside of their house is gorgeous. I meet 2 girls who talk with 2 of us the entire time, I liked that because we really got somewhere with the conversation. Melissa from my rush group is sitting very near me and she is smiling a lot. I can tell she likes it here too. They aren’t my very favorite, but I really want to come back here.

Cork: This is one of the few sororities that I had heard of before coming to school. I knew that I had a rec here, whatever that meant. There is one girl in my rush group who is a legacy here and she talks abut it constantly. I have very high expectations here, but I must say that I don’t find anything remarkable, and actually don’t feel any special connection at all. I am happy for legacy girl, who obviously loved it, but I didn’t feel it here. I wrote “maybe” in my book.

Meath: Pam and Joelle have told us that this chapter only takes freshmen. I don’t know if that is good or bad, but they make it seem like that is bad, because sophomores are so much cooler than freshmen. Anyway, I am greeted by Anne-Marie – a sophomore from my high school. I didn’t know she went here either! I never really knew her well, but I thought it was nice that she rushed me.

Limerick: This house is stunning on the outside, and already has my mom’s stamp of approval since her sister had received a bid from them. (Eyes rolling at my mom’s cluelessness!) This is another high energy house. I am met by Tracy and we get to talk one on one until she introduces Dana who joins us. They both seem to be more outgoing versions of myself. I love this chapter and feel very at home.

Leitrim: Finally the last party of First Stage. It is dark and we all drudge in and sit on the beautiful wood floors. I guess I am just tired because I just don’t feel much of anything here. I would like to come back and give it a chance when I am not dead tired.

Back at the dorms, Jenn likes pretty much all of the chapters, but Shar, who is more sorority savvy starts naming off the “good” ones. Shar is a very nice person, but she is kind of materialistic, I guess you could say, so of course I am very interested in her opinions, since I was a 17 year-old idiot. I can’t remember all of her “good” sororities, but I did have a very chicken-scratch looking list in my booklet that says “Shar – good sororities..”

Missy and Erin from my floor have entirely different opinions. Erin is like me and doesn’t know anything about Greek life. She likes several chapters. Missy, on the other hand, has informed us that the only chapter to join is Cork. When I told her that Cork isn’t one of my favorites, she looks at me like I am insane, but then Shar tells us that Cork is really good at other schools but less so at U of I. I am not sure how Shar knows that, or if it is even true, but it is interesting. It was the first I had heard that reputations are different at different schools.

My own favorites are Kerry, Limerick, Waterford, Kilkenny, and Offaly.

[FSUZeta]

wow! i am exhausted just reading of your first 2 days. i can't wait to learn more.

[OtterXO]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

wow! i am exhausted just reading of your first 2 days. i can't wait to learn more.

OMG me too! It just seems like too much to pack into 2 days. I don't think you mentioned how many days rush was and how many houses you attended each day...I'm curious with so many houses!

[Low C Sharp]

wow! i am exhausted just reading of your first 2 days.

Me too. I was in Champaign recently and I admired the large, beautiful houses, but I can't imagine trying to keep them all straight while shlepping from one to the next in the August heat. And how the sororities cope with 2000 faces is a mystery to me, especially (in the Midwest) largely without recs.
________
Cannabis Seeds

[irishpipes]

Originally Posted by OtterXO

OMG me too! It just seems like too much to pack into 2 days. I don't think you mentioned how many days rush was and how many houses you attended each day...I'm curious with so many houses!

If I remember correctly, my rush was 12 chapters on Day 1 (Urbana) and 10 on Day 2 (Champaign) - (lots of clues for those who know the campus!). We had a lunch break and a dinner break. For second stage we narrowed to 8 chapters and visited them 4 per day over 2 days. Third stage was 5 chapters in one day and pref was 3 chapters. I am pretty sure we had a day off between second and third stages. We rushed the week before school started so that made a huge difference.

I also remember that the activities at each chapter were not the same each stage. What I mean is, it wasn't like second stage was house tours and third was skit, etc. I am fairly certain that each chapter did things kind of whenever they wanted.

[irishpipes]

First stage results

Next day, back at the classroom, our Rho Chis hand us each a sheet of paper with abbreviations for all of the chapters that have invited us back for second stage. We can circle up to 8. It is hard to decipher at first because the list doesn’t use Greek letters in the abbreviations. This was confusing to a lot of us because we were struggling with the Greek letters as it was, and there were so many chapters to keep straight. I have been invited back to:


Carlow
Clare
Donegal
Dublin
Kerry
Kilkenny
Limerick
Longford
Meath
Monaghan
Roscommon
Sligo
Tipperary
Waterford
Wexford
Wicklow



I am pretty happy, but the Rho Chis explain that most people get a lot of invites back after round 1. (Basically, don’t be too flattered.) By this time, Pam and Joelle have informed most of us which houses are popular, ugly, fat, wealthy, etc. I wonder how many rushees they affected? I am a little disappointed that Offaly has not invited me back, and surprised that Galway didn’t, after Julie wrote me that card over the summer! I didn’t really connect at Galway, but my friends Melissa and Kim loved it there, so I wonder if I would have been invited back if Julie had rushed me. Although I didn’t have a good time at Kildare, I wanted them to invite me back just because I assumed it was a good chapter since Mary Lisa was there and Pam and Joelle liked it so much. Anyway, I sit down and quickly circle (in no order):


Clare
Dublin
Kerry
Kilkenny
Limerick
Monaghan
Tipperary
Waterford


Our stages went 22-8-5-3. In my opinion this was ridiculous. I had trouble distinguishing some chapters after first stage, but we had to cut back to 8 so a lot of chapters got cut when I would have loved to have gone back. The “regret with interest” was not available, nor were release figures that prevented chapters from inviting you back when they had no intention of pledging you. I am positive that many rushees confused chapters with similar names simply because the whole process was so huge and overwhelming.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

First stage results

Next day, back at the classroom, our Rho Chis hand us each a sheet of paper with abbreviations for all of the chapters that have invited us back for second stage. We can circle up to 8. It is hard to decipher at first because the list doesn’t use Greek letters in the abbreviations. This was confusing to a lot of us because we were struggling with the Greek letters as it was, and there were so many chapters to keep straight.


I am positive that many rushees confused chapters with similar names simply because the whole process was so huge and overwhelming.

I can well image that it would be confusing.

Do you think it would it have been helpful to have some sort of visual aid in the room when ranking? Perhaps pictures of each house and the corresponding letters/abbreviations? It seems like it might be easier to link the chapter (members) to the physical house (the blue one with the orange trim) than just to letters (abbreviations).

[FSUZeta]

tsteven, those are good suggestions.

when i rushed at fsu there were 18 sororities. our rush counselors suggested that we take notes in our booklet about what the house looked like, what they sang, what they wore, who our hostess was, what we talked about, any other members we met, etc. it did come in handy when we had to accept or regret invitations.