Around the World Recruitment

californialover · #1 06-10-2013, 08:23 PM

Hello everyone!
I'm going to be a sophomore at a university out in California and decided to share my recruitment story with all of you.

Here's some background:
I am the first person in my family to go greek, but I came from a high school that placed a heavy emphasis on sorority recruitment prep (my school even hosted seminars on recruitment prep for my senior class). With that being said my school had me prepped and ready for an SEC style recruitment, since most people in my high school end up going to SEC schools. Therefore, I had at least one letter of recommendation for each of the 10 sororities on campus.

Like I just said, my school has 10 sororities on campus, which I've decided to name after 10 different cities around the world that I love.
9 of these sororities went through sorority recruitment and one went through the first day of formal recruitment and then proceeded to do informal recruitment after formal recruitment was over.

The 10 cities are as follows:
London
Paris
Cape Town
New York
Los Angeles
Rome
Beijing
Sydney
Dublin
Miami

Miami is the sorority who did not continue with formal recruitment after the first day.

MaryPoppins · #2 06-10-2013, 08:27 PM

Ooh, my favorite thing about summer! Recruitment Stories!

DG Illinois · #3 06-12-2013, 02:45 PM

I cannot wait to hear it as well!

Sciencewoman · #4 06-12-2013, 04:15 PM

Yay! I'm rooting for Sydney.

KDCat · #5 06-12-2013, 10:41 PM

Yay, a recruitment story!

Paris better be KKG and Dublin better be KD.

Just sayin'

WCsweet<3 · #6 06-12-2013, 11:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KDCat

Yay, a recruitment story!

Paris better be KKG and Dublin better be KD.

Just sayin'

Right? I can't help but root for Dublin.

sigmagirl10 · #7 06-15-2013, 03:53 AM

Please continue the story! I'd love to hear it (plus I've totally figured out the school...which never happens, so now I want the whole story haha)

ColdInCanada11 · #8 06-15-2013, 05:20 AM

Rooting for Dublin as I live there (here) haha!

Tulip86 · #9 06-15-2013, 06:45 AM

Rooting for LA!

californialover · #10 06-15-2013, 07:12 PM

The first two days of recruitment were convo days, where we had 30 minutes at each house. I'm writing this post a year after my recruitment, so I don't remember the number of bumps I had and so on, so bear with me!

The first house I went to was London. London is thought of as a top house at my school, and while I wasn't interested with tiers, I was curious to see what a "top" house looked like. The house was absolutely stunning, and the inside looked like it had stepped out of an interior design magazine. The girls were all gorgeous, and I instantly felt very uncomfortable in the house. I'm not sure if it was the nerves of this being my first recruitment party or what, but I just couldn't find myself fitting in here. The conversations were fairly dull, sadly, and I left knowing I wouldn't be going back.

The next house I went to was Cape Town. The first thing I noticed about Cape Town was the fact that its house seemed a lot more open and welcoming than London's. I truly felt like this was a house I would be comfortable living in. I remember I talked to three girls here, all of which had different majors, and were all lovely people that I really enjoyed talking to. I left Cape Town hoping I would be invited back.

The third house I went to was Rome. I was so excited to go to Rome because a good friend from my high school was in this chapter, and if the girls were anything like her I knew I would feel very comfortable here. I was right! The girl I talked to had the same major as me, and we talked about our majors, what we did this summer, and more. My friend came by to say hi, and left the house wishing the party had been longer.

The next house was New York. A girl from my high school was in this chapter, and I had always admired her although we were not close. For that reason, I was very excited to be at New York finally! But the party was awkward, the girl rushing me seemed uninterested in the conversation and actually insulted my choice of major. I left the house incredibly disappointed that my expectations for this house had been so far off from reality.

After a lunch break, I went on to my 5th house of the day, Los Angeles.
A girl in the grade above me at my high school was in this chapter, and she was rushing a girl right beside me. I wasn't too impressed with my conversation at this house, but the girls were nice enough, and I was definitely willing to give them another try!

The 6th house of the day was Dublin, whose house was my favorite out of all of them. The girls I talked to at Dublin were so sweet, and we talked about travel the entire time. One of them hugged me as I walked out the door, and I hoped I would be invited back.

My last house of the day was Paris. My time at Paris was uncomfortable because both me and my rusher were exhausted after a long day, and she kept looking at her watch. This definitely seemed to be the longest party of the night, but I was just ready to get home and go to bed.

The second day I only had 3 houses.
The first house I went to was Miami, which was only participating in the convo day part of recruitment. I found this party very awkward because Miami didn't have a house, which meant their party was being held in the living room of a frat house, and the boys in that house kept entering and exiting the house, which was distracting. I really wanted to be a part of a sorority that had its own house, but if formal recruitment didn't work out, I was open to considering going through informal recruitment with this sorority.

My second house of the day was Beijing. The girls in Beijing were very sweet, but I didn't feel like I connected with them that well. Perhaps it was just the two girls I was talking to, but I didn't see myself as a part of this chapter.

My last house of convo day was [COLOR="rgb(160, 82, 45)"]Sydney[/COLOR]. As much as I tried to ignore stereotypes, it was hard to ignore the mean connotations associated with this sorority. I didn't want to let what other people thought of a house affect my decision too much, but it was hard to ignore. I was hoping a good convo day could help relieve some of my concerns, but sadly the conversations here were just downright awkward. I left knowing I wouldn't want to come back to them because I didn't feel comfortable in this house.

By the end of the day I knew my rankings
The houses I wanted to go back to were
London
Paris
Cape Town
Los Angeles
Rome
and Dublin
The three houses I regretted were
1. New York
2. Beijing
3. Sydney

My RC was shocked I didn't want to go back to New York, since it is thought of as one of the top sororities on campus that many girls wanted to be a part of, but I was confident in my decision, and happily confirmed my rankings.

Jess1994 · #11 06-15-2013, 08:57 PM

Good story continue please!

FSUZeta · #12 06-16-2013, 09:33 AM

How sad that the fraternity boys kept coming in and out of the meeting. Can't wait to read more.

Sciencewoman · #13 06-16-2013, 10:14 AM

Is it too late for me to switch from rooting for Sydney?

I guess I thought that Miami was a colonizing chapter, but I can't imagine alumnae leaders from a new group having an opening round event in a fraternity house!

BAckbOwlsgIrl · #14 06-16-2013, 11:36 AM

Quote:

I guess I thought that Miami was a colonizing chapter, but I can't imagine alumnae leaders from a new group having an opening round event in a fraternity house!

Actually, my campus did have the new group in a fraternity house for the first round. The collegians traveled from 5 hours away to help out.

FSUZeta · #15 06-16-2013, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BAckbOwlsgIrl

Actually, my campus did have the new group in a fraternity house for the first round. The collegians traveled from 5 hours away to help out.

i have also heard of it happening. I always assumed that the fraternity men would have to clear out during the time the sorority would be using the parlor.