WCsweet<3's Recruitment Story

[WCsweet<3]

I was tired and I wanted rush over with. Although I felt like I knew what my schedule would be, it still hurt to only see two. Yeah that’s right, Beavers and Cougars. I shook it off remembering I could still have a bid to Beavers and that’s all I needed. I was ready to go

Beavers: A girl whom I had apparently talked to the first day picked me up. I didn’t remember her at all, but looking back at the notes I think she was the second sister I met. She was really pretty and seemed nice. We went up to her room and she gave me a letter. The letter was really cool, telling me how I had been her first “rushee” and that she had been thinking of me all week. We had started to talk about random things, but nothing about the sorority. Eventually we started talking about boyfriends (there was a picture on the desk). She said her boyfriend was an independent and totally unsupportive of her being in Greek life. I was really sad about that especially since mine had been supportive. We moved onto a different topic rather quickly. She was the president of an interest fraternity as well. SF had tried to join but was not accepted. I kind of stuck my foot in my mouth, talking of how we handled her rejection with cookies and kind of played the whole thing off, not intentionally, but it was like a snowball down a mountain it just gets bigger until it takes out the ski lodge. I think that left a sour taste in her mouth. We went downstairs for the ceremony. It was beautiful and I wanted to cry, I really did, but I couldn’t get a tear out. I still left saying that I wanted to come back.

Cougars: I had tried all week to be open-minded and I hoped that one day it might change. I could not see myself fitting in here. The girl who picked me up was someone I had not met. She had done informal recruitment and had only been part of the chapter for a few months. She didn’t have much to say, although I could tell she cared a lot about her chapter. The ceremony was really sweet, but to say I was feeling out of place would be an understatement. I could tell that some of the PNMs really were moved. I wanted to be moved. I couldn’t feel anything.

We returned to the lecture hall in silence. The groups split up and sat in different halls to complete our final ranking. I felt like I was sitting on hot coals. Could I really only put down one house? I could not put down Cougars. I felt horrible. I had tried all week and I could not see myself in that house.
I only wrote Beavers.

[AlphaXi_Husky]

While I'm a proponent of maximizing options, I think you did the right thing by not putting down a house you didn't feel a connection with and wouldn't have been happy in. I am crossing my fingers for you that you find a home with Beavers!

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by WCsweet<3

I finally got to cut one, which was Cougars. I know it probably didn’t really matter who I cut because I will probably be cut from Ducks and Huskies.

Now, I've never done this whole formal recruitment thing, so I might be clueless, but... if you cut Cougars, how did you get invited back to their house for Pref? I thought they'd no longer be an option at all..

[WCsweet<3]

The way it worked, for us anyway, was at night we would list our choices of who we want to ask us back. If we only got invites for say 6 out of a possible 7, our rankings would be ignored and we would go where we were invited. Our rankings were pointless unless we were invited to over the maximum total.
Think of it as the people who get their schedules in the morning and are able to choose which to keep. Those who have more circle the ones they wil go to for that day. We did it at night. Maybe this was to keep tent talking to a lower level. I don't know.

I thought that was common. Is it? How do other schools have their PNM rank?

[ASTalumna06]

[quote=WCsweet<3;1726128]If we only got invites for say 6 out of a possible 7, our rankings would be ignored and we would go where we were invited. Our rankings were pointless unless we were invited to over the maximum total.quote]

This didn't really answer my question. My question is, if YOU cut a group, or "suicide" (as I understand this to mean), why would you then go to that group again?

When you said you cut Cougars, did you mean that you suicided? Or do you mean that you ranked them at the bottom of your list, with the other three in the #1 spot, so that if you were invited back to all of the chapters, Cougars would be left out, and you would attend the other three for Prefs (which is the maximum that you could attend)?

[AlphaXi_Husky]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

This didn't really answer my question. My question is, if YOU cut a group, or "suicide" (as I understand this to mean), why would you then go to that group again?

When you said you cut Cougars, did you mean that you suicided? Or do you mean that you ranked them at the bottom of your list, with the other three in the #1 spot, so that if you were invited back to all of the chapters, Cougars would be left out, and you would attend the other three for Prefs (which is the maximum that you could attend)?

It sounds as though WC's campus is doing RFM, and I interpretted her saying she "cut" a group as she ranked them last. Using RFM you technically can't "cut" a group if you don't have a full party schedule for the next day.

So from what I'm reading, yes to your last question.

[basket96]

Some campuses have gone to the method of PNMs ranking their houses the night after parties. If they can return to 4 out of 6, then they would rank 4 as #1 and then they would rank the rest as #2, #3. Then, instead of panhellenic potentially issuing 6 invitations for the PNM then to decide, the PNM only gets 4. Sometimes it will be her top 4 (if she was invited to all of those parties). In that case, she would never know if whe was invited by her final 2 chapters or not. If she was NOT invited to all of her top 2, then she would have those where she was invited PLUS any from her bottom list in order to get as close to max as possible. In this way, no PNM receives more than the maximum number of invitations.

It is intended to minimize the impact of tent talk. It also cuts down the "she received 6 invitations, how come I only received 4?" sort of thing. I guess you could say it sort of equalizes recruitment. Plus, PNMs are really deciding based upon how they felt that night instead of what they hear from "everybody else".

In our school, it seems to be very successful. We have combined it with the RFM and although the first year was a bit shaky, now it is doing really well, with most chapters at or over quota.

I am anxiously awaiting to hear the ending to your story!

I don't know what it is about you, WCsweet, but you remind me of a gal who used to post here years ago by the name of newbie. Old timer GCers might remember her. She was accepted to USC and everyone hoped that she would rush. She was like the GC "little sister". (She did attend USC, but never rushed, she graduated, and now works in Silicon Valley.)

[WCsweet<3]

Firstly, I would like to say that I am honored for everyone to be posting and keeping their interest! I am almost humbled. I didn't think many people would read my story.

What AlphaXi_Husky and Basketcase96 said is correct. When I said cut, I meant I ranked them last. Sorry for the misuse of terms, that is how the word cut is used here.

I never knew the system was RFM. I will have to research that hmm...

To ASTalumna06, I only "suicided" my last night. I maximized my options when I wrote Ducks, Huskies and Beavers saying that I would accept those invites over an invite to Cougars. I think we use the term cut as to cut them from our list? I don't know why we use it that way and I am sorry for any confusion. Hopefully all is clear now.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by WCsweet<3

Firstly, I would like to say that I am honored for everyone to be posting and keeping their interest! I am almost humbled. I didn't think many people would read my story.

What AlphaXi_Husky and Basketcase96 said is correct. When I said cut, I meant I ranked them last. Sorry for the misuse of terms, that is how the word cut is used here.

I never knew the system was RFM. I will have to research that hmm...

To ASTalumna06, I only "suicided" my last night. I maximized my options when I wrote Ducks, Huskies and Beavers saying that I would accept those invites over an invite to Cougars. I think we use the term cut as to cut them from our list? I don't know why we use it that way and I am sorry for any confusion. Hopefully all is clear now.

Yes, thank you. I was just really confused, because right after you said that you thought the other two chapters were going to cut you, you said you cut Cougars, so I assumed "cut", when you described it, meant the same thing, and that you cut them completely from your options.

Anyway... keep going! We're all anxious to hear the end of the story!

[agzg]

Originally Posted by OTW

I am anxiously awaiting to hear the ending to your story!

I don't know what it is about you, WCsweet, but you remind me of a gal who used to post here years ago by the name of newbie. Old timer GCers might remember her. She was accepted to USC and everyone hoped that she would rush. She was like the GC "little sister". (She did attend USC, but never rushed, she graduated, and now works in Silicon Valley.)

I don't know newbie, but I think we're all so interested in her recruitment in particular because she posts on other boards and threads, and seems like a genuinely likeable, intelligent young woman.

And I can't believe I just used the phrase "young woman." I think I just aged myself 10 years.

[WCsweet<3]

BID DAY

I waited on pins and needles. I think I had my phone in my hand in every class minus my dance class and lab. Boston text me during a class. She had gotten a phone call from her Rho Gamma during class and had a voice mail. I talked her down saying “oh she just wants to make sure you know the time” Which was possible, no one really knew what time we were supposed to show up. Luckily, the voicemail was exactly about that.

So a quick update on my friends:
Boston: really liked Beavers, she had single preferenced. In fact, she had only had Beavers and Cougars.
Chicago: was in between Beavers and Wildcats.
Denver: had loved Bears, but they cut her the night before pref. She was left with Cougars and Beavers (notice a pattern?) She didn’t like either of these sororities but went through with pref night anyway. She fell in love with Beavers and single preferenced them as well.

I made it though all my classes except the last one. Since this class was a lab, I didn’t have my phone. My class got out at 3:30 and I ran over to my phone. There was a phone call. I tried to not worry and I changed my shoes. My boyfriend had that day off of work and was going to walk me from class back to my dorm. I met him outside and told him the situation. He made me listen to the voicemail. My Rho Gamma said she needed to talk to me and to call her back. “Well, crap!” (edited words… It was a little more colorful) I called her back and well it was bad news. No bid. I had never really connected to my Rho Gammas before today and she was really sincere. So cry cry cry…


Now I feel horrible. No, not in this story, but as of right now. You see the story above is not my story for this fall. In fact, the above story is not even at my current campus. I transferred this past summer to a new school. I figured to tell my current recruitment story, I should put out some of the details from my last recruitment. I also did not want to make my current recruitment story real time as I have no idea who is watching. I thought the old story would fill these gaps. I apologize for anyone hoping for an ending, but recruitment at my current school started on Tuesday and will conclude this Tuesday. I would like to thank you for all of your advice. I visited my first houses tonight and took all of your advice with me. I would like this story to be seen as a before and after. The old story is before I found Greekchat and the after is having been on Greekchat for months and being a little more aware.

Back to the story:
A week, later my roommate, Chicago, who had gone Beavers along with the other two, told me about COB. Well I was against that. I mean, if they didn’t want me they didn’t want me. Right? Well SF decided to go and after the second party SF received a bid. OW! My four best friends are all in the same sorority but not me? This stung for a while and I gave up on Greek life. I figured it wasn’t for me. It was still hard to sit around and watch my friends go through their new member period, philanthropy events, Greek Fest, Big/Little revealing, etc.
Near this time, my grandmother became very sick. I could not go home to help or see her since I was thousands of miles away. I was having a lot of problems in my major and ended up disliking it. I talked to my family about transferring schools, changing majors or both. Although my current college had the major I was going to study, I really needed to be home. Luckily, a university that was two hours from my home had a great program. I decided to transfer.

Chicago was trying to get me to try sorority life at my new school, but I was really hesitant. I still wanted to be Greek, be involved and do everything my friends had gone through. I wanted to find my home. I knew very little about the sororities at my new school and was not sure if I even wanted to try. After searching for a while about sororities and Greek life in general, I found Greekchat.

[KSUViolet06]

I really didn't see this coming.

It must have been really tough seeing all your friends join the same chapter, and deal with a sick relative.

Best of luck with your actual recruitment this week.

[WCsweet<3]

Thank you! Tonight was the first open house. More details in I think two days...

My family has had quite a bit of illness. It is a tough case for my dad though and I really need to be close by him. Alzheimer's is a crappy crappy disease.


p.s. I am singing. I have had such a good night that although my cheeks hurt (and my throat) I can't stop smiling and singing.

[AlphaXi_Husky]

I wondered if this wasn't a live story based on other things you've said. I'm sorry it didn't work out the first time, but lots of well wishes to you this time around!