Decided to post a little earlier than I initially planned! Sorry it's so long. If any of you are interested in my story but don't want to read this much, let me know! I can put up a spark notes version later!
---
I was incredibly excited for recruitment to begin! I had even managed to pick out all of my outfits within the weeks before because I was beyond excited for recruitment to start. I felt somewhat weird going through as a sophomore, but one of my few female friends who is in a sorority told me that there are always a handful of upperclassmen that go through at my school, which helped to relieve my stress over it. I was going into recruitment without really knowing anyone else who was and only having one good friend who was involved in greek life, so it really did seem strange. But I wanted it more than anything, so I put all of my worries aside and went in with a good attitude!
The first morning of recruitment I attempted to get up with enough time to get ready and walk to our student center where recruitment is held (all of the sororities have some sort of housing, but they are incredibly spread around campus so it is impractical to make us walk from one to another. it would take forever!). But, as usual for me, I forgot how long it took to walk from the sophomore housing to the student center and ended up being in a rush to get there! As I was power walking over to the student center, there was really only one other girl on the sidewalk headed in the same direction! All of the freshmen live on the opposite side of campus, so there were not any girls walking to recruitment from where I was coming from. But this girl stopped me and asked if I was going to sorority recruitment because she was too! I told her yes and she explained to me that she had just transferred to my school and figured joining a sorority was the best way to get involved and to get to know people! We chatted the whole way to the student center where we eventually had to split up to get assigned to our different Rho Gamma groups! But I was excited that I had already made a new friend, whom I still see and say hello to on a regular basis.
Once in our Rho Gamma groups we all introduced ourselves and decorated our individual nametags! There were about 8 other girls in the group with me and there was definitely a strong mixture of personalities! I chatted with a few girls, two of them were actually sophomores, until we got our schedule for the day. Since I went through recruitment last spring, I honestly don't remember the order in which I attended the parties, but I will tell you what I thought of each of them. I wanted to go into recruitment with an open mind, and I tried my best to, but being a sophomore it was hard to push away the stereotypes I had heard about each of the sororities. Every party I went into, I had to remind myself to erase everything I'd heard before from my mind! Also, because my memory is foul I am going to mush my opinions from party one and party two into one! I can't really differentiate between them anymore, and we had to go to all of them anyways so I think my opinion didn't change too much between the first two days.
So, let's begin! Party One&Two:
Draco Malfoy - This was the sorority that my best girl friend was in, but also a girl who I had had serious problems and a falling out with my freshman year (boy drama :x), so I had mixed feelings initially. Luckily the girl I had a problem with could not make it to the first weekend of recruitment, so I knew I had avoided her at least for the first two parties! I was paired with another PNM (I'll call her the
Sorcerer's Stone!) when going in, as I was in most other situations because there was a record breaking number of PNMs that year, and luckily she was one person that I ended up becoming great friends with throughout my recruitment experience. Overall, I talked with some nice, sweet, and friendly girls in
Draco Malfoy. They seemed to have a good sisterhood and an interesting philanthropy. As I said they were all really sweet but they didn't seem to have much personality to them. They were very laid back, a little plain, and just generally nice girls. I thought they were okay and that I could probably see myself as a part of their sisterhood, but I was still uncertain if it was really where I fit in.
Severus Snape - This was the group that I had unintentionally ranked as my top before I even went into recruitment. Dumb idea, I know. But from what I had heard before I had felt it was the place where I was most likely to fit in. The first day I remember talking to a girl and the conversation being fine, but nothing special. I also remember talking to another girl who I thought was awkward and we had a rough time keeping up a conversation. On the second day I was paired with the
Sorcerer's Stone again, and we were talking to a girl that she had talked to before, so they carried on more of a conversation than I did and I felt a little out of place. Overall, I was disappointed with
Severus Snape. I thought it was going to be more than it was and I honestly thought I would just click with the girls but I didn't. I decided that I still wouldn't mind being a part of this group, and hoped I got invited back the next weekend to see if it was different.
Neville Longbottom- This is the one chapter on our campus that has consistently been struggling with numbers, but I tried my best to go in with an open mind. This was the only party on the first weekend where we got to sit down and I remember being really grateful for that! But we sat in groups with about five other PNMs and one sorority member because they had so few so it was a little strange. Overall, the conversation was very awkward because no one seemed to want to talk to them. I felt like that was rude so I did my best to keep the conversation going. It mostly strayed towards academics and classes so it was hard to learn much else about the girls. I mentioned how much I liked their house, because I thought it was the prettiest one on campus, but they didn't really have much to say about that. On the second day we got to pack little bags of snacks for their philanthropy and we were no longer in a big group. This was basically torture because there were gummy bears and we were all starving! I talked to one of the girls I did before and she was nice, but we didn't have much in common. The other PNM I was paired with and I seemed to talk more than the girl in
Neville Longbottom! She was sweet, but overall I could not see myself in
Neville Longbottom. The girls, although nice, were just very opposite than me and I wanted more out of a sorority than I felt the
Neville Longbottoms were giving.
Hermione Granger- For some reason I don't remember much about the first two parties for
Hermione Granger, but I remember liking them and thinking that I wouldn't mind being a part of their group. Supposedly, this is considered one of the "top" sororities at my school. They do have the highest overall GPA and seemed to be very involved, but I tried to push these pre-conceived rankings out of my mind. The first day I talked to a girl in my grade that I had met before move-in and she was so excited that I was doing recruitment that she couldn't stop gushing about it! Of course, this made me excited and really put me in a better mood! I was glad that people were happy I was going through recruitment even though I was a sophomore! The PNM that I was paired with during this round really frustrated me though! She kept directing the conversation towards herself and talking about how she thought it was a great opportunity for networking and talking about all of the philanthropies that she had been involved in, and it really made me feel like I had not done enough to deserve a spot in this group! I left feeling nervous about the situation, but the next day I felt better because I was on my own and both of the girls I talked to were really sweet. The one used to live on my floor my freshman year and even though I didn't know her, she was very welcoming. The girls put on a skit on the second day and I remember it being hilarious! All of the girls loved it. After the second day I was really happy with
Hermione Granger and hoping I would be invited back next week so I could really learn more about their sisterhood. I felt like I had really got along with all of the girls I spoke to. But I couldn't tell if that was because they were all so sweet, or because we really clicked!
Ron Weasley - This sorority was one that a lot of the girls were talking poorly about and that really bothered me. Personally, I think it's fine if you didn't feel like you got along with the people you talked with or if you had some awkward silences. But I don't think that justifies talking poorly about the group or joking about skipping their parties. I tried to ignore all of the other girls and go in with an open mind. I had a lot of acquaintances in this group that I thought were really nice, so I didn't see what all of these girls' problems were! I was paired with the
Sorcerer's Stone once again, which was a relief, and we just chit-chatted with a couple girls. Unfortunately, keeping up a conversation was incredibly difficult. The
Sorcerer's Stone and I just didn't seem to have anything in common with these girls! I kept trying to jump start a conversation but they never seemed to go anywhere. I remember the next day we did a craft for their philanthropy and it took like, two seconds. Then we were forced into more awkward conversations. I was confused. The girls I knew in this sorority were really nice and personable, but everyone I was talking to was so awkward! I just didn't understand it. I left their parties feeling confused but I overall decided I couldn't see myself in
Ron Weasley. They weren't offering the things I wanted to get from a sorority, and I just hadn't clicked with anyone yet! I also think this was my last party of the day on the first day, so I was pretty exhausted!
Luna Lovegood - I went in not knowing much about this group. One of the girls I talked to used to live on my floor my freshman year again and we kept up a good conversation! She was really nice and I remember really liking this groups symbol, plus they had super cute t-shirts on! But, once again I was paired with the conversation hog girl and I felt like I never got a word in. She just made me feel uncomfortable. I was really starting to not like her! The next day I was with a really nice girl who shared my name but we were paired with a very intimidating
Luna Lovegood. The conversation seemed okay but she just seemed really not interested in us at all. I would ask her something and she would be looking around the room and not at us. Then she would just give us a pretty bland answer. I couldn't understand why she didn't want to have a conversation with us! Luckily, they then showed a video about their group and it was pretty cute. It looked like the
Luna Lovegoods had a pretty decent sisterhood. I couldn't really tell how I felt about them yet. I felt like they weren't that involved on campus because I never really heard about their events. I figured if I got invited back next weekend, I could make a better judgment!
Harry Potter - I remember being very nervous for this first party for some reason. The room we were placed in on the first day was incredibly small and
Harry Potter was a very large group. So, it was really hard to hear over all of the other conversations going on in the room. The first girl I was paired with was really nice and we had a good conversation at first. Unfortunately, after awhile we were struggling with things to talk about and it was making me really nervous. I wanted to like this group and I was upset I couldn’t carry on a conversation with this girl. Luckily, I was then bumped over to someone else. Yet another girl who lived on my floor freshman year! We hit it off right away and talked about what life was like our freshman year and about how crazy my roommate was! After the party I felt sort of bad for talking about that, but she brought it up not me! She also mentioned the group of guys I was friends with and asked me if I was still friends with them. I couldn’t tell if that was a good thing either. :/ I definitely wanted to make a better impression the second day cause even though I liked this group, I felt the first day hadn’t gone as I had hoped. The second day ended up being INCREDIBLE. The first girl I talked to I got along with great and we talked all about how much we like clothes and how they got to get super dressed up for their yearly philanthropy event! She made an effort to introduce me to her other sisters and got me a seat right in the front before they put on their skit! And boy, let me tell you, I thought it was awesome! They showcased all of the different things their sisters were involved in and there was a lot of dancing and music, and it was all so funny! I left their second party basically in awe, feeling like
Harry Potter was the place for me. I couldn’t have been happier!
After the day was over, the
Sorcerer’s Stone and I talked about which groups we liked best. I mentioned how amazing I thought
Harry Potter was and she agreed! We both loved them! There were other groups we liked as well though.
Overall, by the end of the first weekend, I ended up ranking something like this.
1.
Harry Potter
2.
Hermione Granger
3.
Severus Snape
4.
Draco Malfoy
5.
Luna Lovegood
6.
Ron Weasley
7.
Neville Longbottom
I would have been happy with being invited back to any of my top five! But I was pretty certain I did not fit with my last two.
Harry Potter and the Sorority Recruitment!
Linear Mode
