Indiana University 2014 Recruitment

[sigmagirl2000]

so I'm learning about these "cold dorms" and rooms with no beds in them, and really.... why on earth would anyone pay to live in a house with no lights or heat where you share a room with 40 people? You couldn't pay me enough to put myself through that, even at 18 years old.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by sigmagirl2000

so I'm learning about these "cold dorms" and rooms with no beds in them, and really.... why on earth would anyone pay to live in a house with no lights or heat where you share a room with 40 people? You couldn't pay me enough to put myself through that, even at 18 years old.

Maybe it's the terminology but we call them sleeping porches. And since those are common in the south on farms and at cabins, it's a grea way to sleep. Nothing but sleep going on. All the chatter is elsewhere in the building. And they are also usually on the 3rd floor which makes them no so cold...esp if oyu have an electric blanket. Very cozy, very quiet.

[*winter*]

Originally Posted by Titchou

Maybe it's the terminology but we call them sleeping porches. And since those are common in the south on farms and at cabins, it's a grea way to sleep. Nothing but sleep going on. All the chatter is elsewhere in the building. And they are also usually on the 3rd floor which makes them no so cold...esp if oyu have an electric blanket. Very cozy, very quiet.

What about now? When it's freezing? Certainly they have heat now!!!

[blueiumom]

Originally Posted by sigmagirl2000

so I'm learning about these "cold dorms" and rooms with no beds in them, and really.... why on earth would anyone pay to live in a house with no lights or heat where you share a room with 40 people? You couldn't pay me enough to put myself through that, even at 18 years old.

Im cracking up. We had SO much fun in those dorms! They must be an old-house thing. The frat or sorority house uses maybe the whole top floor for bunk rooms. Ours were divided by temperature and then one for the seniors. Always quiet; always a place to go sleep whatever time of day. My sons also had them in their fraternity, at least as an option.

I didn't like them as much at my last reunion . . . apparently I snored so I wasn't too popular!

[seraphimsprite]

Originally Posted by sigmagirl2000

so I'm learning about these "cold dorms" and rooms with no beds in them, and really.... why on earth would anyone pay to live in a house with no lights or heat where you share a room with 40 people? You couldn't pay me enough to put myself through that, even at 18 years old.

I'm not from IU, but we had sleeping porches in my house and I actually liked them? We had a few different sleeping porches to choose from - one was the traditional large room filled with bunk beds and open windows, and then we had a few smaller porches, one was for quiet/light sleepers, one was the rowdy porch, etc. The thing I really liked about them was it meant if you wanted to be loud at 3am on the 2nd floor, you never had to worry about waking up your roommate or the girls down the hall, and then the floor with the sleeping porches had 24 hour quiet hours.

Also, at least on my campus, the alternative in most of the other houses was this weird system where the juniors and seniors were the "room owners" who got to sleep in the room and decorate and then the sophomores would get a desk and a closet and still sleep on the sleeping porches. I still remember one house from rush where some of the sophomores had their closets in the hallway. So having everyone on the sleeping porches seemed better to me.

That said, I lived in for three years and by my senior year I was done. Two really would have been enough.

[Benzgirl]

[sigmagirl2000]

I still don't understand. Why on earth have a room if you don't sleep in it? How in the world do you sleep in an unheated room in Indiana or anywhere else that gets remotely cold in the winter? This sounds like... I don't know.... girl scout camp in the winter or something.

No lights + no heat = no friggin way.

In my chapter, the members were displeased if they got assigned to one of the two triples in the house, because there were too many people in the room... and those rooms were like 15' by 20'.

Everyone fought for the one tiny single... maybe we New Englanders are just more private people?

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by sigmagirl2000

I still don't understand. Why on earth have a room if you don't sleep in it? How in the world do you sleep in an unheated room in Indiana or anywhere else that gets remotely cold in the winter? This sounds like... I don't know.... girl scout camp in the winter or something.

No lights + no heat = no friggin way.

You had a room in which to keep your clothes, books and general stuff, in which to dress, study, hang out with your roomies etc. - everything except sleep, and we did that on the sleeping porch.
No heat - I still like a bit of a chilly room to sleep in. You turn on your electric blanket about 30 minutes before you go up to bed. Once you get there, with another blanket and your flannel PJs, you're toasty warm and can sleep SO well. It's not like being outside in the open. It's not nearly as cold inside since you do have walls and bodies around you. Summertime - well, the house was closed in the summer so it wasn't an issue.
And it's not pitch black dark - the exit signs are on 24/7. When the sun came up, it was darkish, but not black-dark.
As far as the alarm issue - we didn't have a schedule, but you could post a note in the main telephone room where people hung out to wake you. Usually the girls would turn their alarm off quickly. And you just kind of train yourself to ignore other people's alarms.

[blueiumom]

Originally Posted by sigmagirl2000

I still don't understand. Why on earth have a room if you don't sleep in it? How in the world do you sleep in an unheated room in Indiana or anywhere else that gets remotely cold in the winter? This sounds like... I don't know.... girl scout camp in the winter or something.

No lights + no heat = no friggin way.

In my chapter, the members were displeased if they got assigned to one of the two triples in the house, because there were too many people in the room... and those rooms were like 15' by 20'.

Everyone fought for the one tiny single... maybe we New Englanders are just more private people?

Still making me smile . . . in Indiana, our "cold dorms" definitely have heat - at least they did by the time I was in school in the eighties. It was radiator heat though, hard to control from room to room. So, we chose our bunks based on what temperature we prefered. The warm dorm was just plain hot and I figured cultivated germs like crazy, then there was an in-between temperature dorm, and the cold dorm usually had the windows open to offset the hot radiator heat! And of course we all slept in those hot Lanz flannel nightgowns! I'm sure the house corp loved our approach. :-)

[sigmagirl2000]

this whole idea makes me really confused as to why the unhoused chapters have a negative stigma... I can't fathom anyone wanting to live in a dark room without heat or lights when they could have their own room in an apartment

[Rhomom]

Originally Posted by sigmagirl2000

this whole idea makes me really confused as to why the unhoused chapters have a negative stigma... I can't fathom anyone wanting to live in a dark room without heat or lights when they could have their own room in an apartment

LOL--you do not live in a dark room without heat or lights, but I can see where the description might convey that idea. Each live-in has an assigned room they call their own.The houses are absolutely gorgeous at IU. The "dorms" are for sleeping only, and in most cases one can choose to sleep in their room or the dorms. Sometimes roommates trade off. They have a desk, closets it is their room. And the dorms are not freezing, or even that cold. They are quiet, away from all the ruckus and very comfy. My daughter loves sleeping up there....

[Katmandu]

Originally Posted by sigmagirl2000

this whole idea makes me really confused as to why the unhoused chapters have a negative stigma... I can't fathom anyone wanting to live in a dark room without heat or lights when they could have their own room in an apartment

It's a pretty simple concept. The sorority houses with sleeping dorms also have bedroom type rooms with closets, desks, chairs, etc for use in studying, chatting, hanging out and "living". They are decorated and attractive. Sleeping dorms ONLY have beds and are only used when members are actually sleeping. They are typically quiet and kept dark 24/7 for catching naps and sleep. I would have loved that in the afternoon after an exam!

[khlkcca]

After reading every post in this thread I have three things that struck me
1) I want to thank the person that posted the more accurate statistics.
2) everyone understands that feelings were hurt and the system is broken, but when we resort to being nasty to one another it accomplishes nothing. I don't think anyone I've seen comment was in membership selection we have no idea what went on and/ or how hard it was for them to from 1600 to roughly 40 girls in three short meetings. Give the girls a break!
3) Finally, i could not disagree more about all the girls looking alike. I saw big and small, white and black, blonde brunette and red heads, and finally i saw girls that looked like they spend forever in front of a mirror and others that look like they just run a brush through their hair and go. The only thing I saw similar was hairstyle and age.

Congratulations to those that received a bid, and enjoy the cold air dorms they are the best!

[bluepink]

Wow.. On a lighter note the train pic is funny! And I am so very thankful for an awesome SEC recruitment and sorority experience for my daughter after reading this thread. I had no idea. As a Mom, don't think I could have been as strong as some on here. The "competiveness" of the SEC looks like a cakewalk! My daughter loves living in the house and will do so her Senior year so that will have been 3 years but that house is so nice I don't blame her. I do hope it changes for IU. I'm sure some think their experience will be better but the odds don't seem as great at IU. If I had rushed here, I'd never have made it so congrats to those who did!

[Sciencewoman]

After the second round house tours during recruitment, I ranked a "top tier" house last because I couldn't stand the thought of their "dormer" sleeping room, as it was called. I think they were the only chapter that had that, and they spent a lot of time explaining how it worked.