Recruitment Survey: For Active Sisters or Alumae

[greek_troll]

not about ritual or anything secretive, just about your feelings and intuition while recruiting new members. based on a lot of posts i've read, i was wondering what the "norms" were for recruitment in other sororties. for example:

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?
2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?
3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?
4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?
5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?
6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?


My Answers
1. I have gone through two rushes so far as an active, and i've had only 2 or 3 each time, but i think i'm the minority. There are girls in my chapter who will rave about sometimes 7-10 girls.
2. I sometimes have a little bit of a feeling if a girl im preffing really wants a bid elsewhere, but i can never tell which house. i don't hear a lot of rumors really.
3. Because i have a lot of friends in other houses, i definitely get a slight idea. but i've never heard like XYZ MUST GET Penny PNM and Rachel Rushee.
4. This has happened to me TWO YEARS IN A ROW! Maybe i'm just wayyy more clueless than i think, but we've bid TWO girls (who i preffed and TOTALLY thought were 100% in love and wanting to come here) drop out of recruitment, or accept a bid elsewhere.
5. On the first round, i'd say i don't remember like 1/3. Luckily, my sisters are all REALLY sharp, and if they remind me, i can remember at least SOMETHING about everyone.
6. I had my first rush crush pledge our house, she's now my little and one of my (and everyone else's) best friends in the house, but two of my other close friends in the house had huge rush crushes who ended up being NIGHTMARES once they pledged!



please share your stories

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by greek_troll

not about ritual or anything secretive, just about your feelings and intuition while recruiting new members. based on a lot of posts i've read, i was wondering what the "norms" were for recruitment in other sororties. for example:

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?
2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?
3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?
4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?
5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?
6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?

1. I had one as an active, and 2 as a recruitment counselor. One of them wanted another sorority in particular from the get go, so I tried not to get too attached to her. One got dropped from recruitment, and one pledged my group then transferred a semester later. So I stopped having them by my last year.

2. The one group on campus that usually has a fairly significant number of PNMs wanting them from day 1 is Phi Mu and we usually know who these girls are pretty early on (because they say so, to recruitment counselors at least and naturally that gets back to the chapters). Otherwise not so much. Even as a recruitment counselor I didn't encounter a noticeable number of girls that really knew where they were going by pref. Most can't decide until after the parties.

3. No. There are usually about 100 girls going through and 20 or so of those are fought over by all of the chapters, and we all know that we all want them. Otherwise unless a best friend or sister of an active goes through I don't think there is a lot of knowledge about what chapter wants what girl.

4. Not often while I was active. The girls seem to do a good job of inviting back PNMs that want our chapter...and knowing who at pref isn't going to show up on bid day.

5. As an active, most of them...even by pref. But I was a recruitment counselor twice and I knew the majority of the PNMs early on. Of course, that is because we have more contact with them as recruitment counselors.

6. I sort of already answered that question. I'm sure it depends on the rush crush. I can think of a few that sisters badly wanted that did indeed become extremely good, productive members.

[33girl]

This is pointless. Every school is different as far as rounds, cutting and "rush crushes."

[Alumiyum]

Originally Posted by 33girl

This is pointless. Every school is different as far as rounds, cutting and "rush crushes."

I believe that's why she's asking.

[greek_troll]

Originally Posted by Alumiyum

I believe that's why she's asking.

exactly. this isn't at all for scientific purposes. i'm just wondering what everyone's experiences are!

[truebluekappa08]

1 I was always notorious for having bunches! Maybe because our Greek system is pretty big. During one recruitment week I could have up to ten girls that I <3

2 There was a lot of talk at myschool, so yes its not uncommon to know where the PNMs are thinking of going. I was always pretty good at guessing where a girl would end up.

3 My junior year, there was one girl everyone had to have! other than that, I've never seen anything that vicious. We had two other sororities on campus that typically competed for "the same type of girls" so we could tell with them, but other than that, it was anybody's guess.

4 This has never happened to me. I've read about it a lot on here, but I've never dealt with it personally. My senior year there was a great girl who seemed totally in love with us suicide another chapter, and accept a bid there, but again, I didn't pref her or really know her too well.

5 First round- very few get remembered by me. My big had this insane memory, she could remember each girl and the main facts about them. I was definitely not that capable. But I knew almost everyone by pref.

6 Like I said, i had a lot of rush crushes, so they definitely didn't all end up being stellar members. But one of mine actually ended up being my little, and is now president of the chapter! other than that, i think most of them never pledged or just became lackluster members in general... hmmm...

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by greek_troll

not about ritual or anything secretive, just about your feelings and intuition while recruiting new members. based on a lot of posts i've read, i was wondering what the "norms" were for recruitment in other sororties. for example:

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?
2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?
3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?
4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?
5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?
6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?

please share your stories

1. I typically had one or two.

2. Sometimes, it was hard to tell. I tended to end up preffing girls who were really torn between their two choices.

3. Yes. But I tried not to focus on it too much just because you never knew what could happen. Girls always went into recruitment with a fave, but ended up changing their minds due to cuts and such.

4. It happens that sometimes you would Pref a girl and she ended up elsewhere. Strangely enough, every girl I ever preffed ended up accepting a bid from us!

5. We had a smallish recruitment (no more than 150 girls max) and I have a great memory so I always tended to remember everyone (at least their name if nothing else.)

6. Murphy's Law states that the PNM that everybody just LOOOOOVES and OMG JUST HAS TO HAVE BECAUSE SHE IS SOOO CUTE and SWEET and has OMG I WILL CRY IF NO ONE LIKES HER fights over her will do one of the following things:

*Be a complete waste of a bid. She will do nothing except sit and look pretty, then depledge before initiation.

*Terminate shortly following initiation because "it's like, not fun anymore." or some other dumb thing.

*Create some major drama within the next year, make a scene about it, make like 60% of the chapter hate her, and cause mass terminations before terminating herself.

Murphy's Law also states that the girl who IS NOT the OMG LOVE HER FAVORITE or the OMG SHE WILL GET IN OR I WILL QUIT girl will usually become some sort of officer and end up participating WAY more than the girl that everyone is just SO in love with.

Of course there are exceptions but that's how I have seen it go down

True story.

[psusue]

Okay, I'll bite.

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?

I have like 3 this year. With about 800 girls going through that wasn't too many. All of the girls I loved ended up going to a chapter, and one came to ours!

2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?

I wish that I had. One of my rush crushes made it to pref but went to another chapter, which was fine but I kind of wish that I'd read her better. With some girls though it was completely obvious.

3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?

I never heard any rumor of this myself, but during recruitment I'm pretty focused on our chapter and recruiting women for us, not what's going on with everyone else.

4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?

Only once, but she went to a chapter that is very similar to ours in a lot of ways (and told me later that it was a hard choice). We're still friends though and I couldn't be more happy for her.

5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?

I have a pretty amazing memory in terms of the women I met. I can typically pull out several facts about a person after only meeting them once, even if it's days later and I've met 10 other women in between. Being a former RA, you get good at this. Also, the secret is write good notes!

6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?

I mean in my experience it was a 50-50, but it usually ends up as it was meant to. I am so glad that the one woman that I preffed that I had a "rush crush" on joined our sisterhood but I am also equally happy for the other women who also found their homes. It's about fit, for us and them.

Gosh, this has got me all sentimental and excited for formal next year. I actually really enjoyed most all of it last year, even though it was exhausting. It is just such a great, challenging experience.

[littleowl33]

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?

My first year I had a lot! But sophomore year is also the year you're hunting for a Little so you're more prone, in my opinion. After realizing that every chapter is competing for the same girls everybody loves I stopped getting so attached.

2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?

Sometimes. When I first joined my chapter we were not doing very well and most PNMs were pretty obvious either way - either they really did not to be there and were just going through the motions, or they were there by choice and seemed excited to get involved. By graduation we were doing better and since most girls were legitimately trying to make a choice it was more difficult to tell.

3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?

Yes. Like I mention earlier (and another poster mentioned upthread) most groups were competing for the same girls and everybody knew who they were.

4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?

I don't think I ever have. Of all the girls I preffed I either knew they wanted us (and they did) or knew they weren't decided (and they went to another chapter or turned down our bid).

5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?

Not too many. I loved recruitment and went over our face book of PNMs lots of times before the first round, so I typically could at least match names to faces for every girl going through. That said, there were usually only about 200 (not like the crazy huge recruitments at larger schools).

6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?

In terms of pledging: My first recruitment, when the chapter wasn't doing well, it was pretty unlikely and everybody knew it, which was awfully demoralizing. My senior year we were in a better place and we ended up with a lot of our "rush crushes", which was awesome!

In terms of them becoming a big part of the chapter: Sometimes. Some of them joined and became incredibly active, but these were often girls that knew how much they were wanted and chose to make a difference in our chapter even though they knew they had other options. But the opposite can happen, too... PNMs who know the chapter really wants them and subsequently act like they're too cool for school for the next four years. Most of them ended up going inactive within a few semesters though.

[purpleparrot]

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?
2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?
3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?
4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?
5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?
6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?

1) So far I have had 1, maybe 2 each recruitment
2) No, not at all. I can tell during prefs if they aren't interested in my house, but I usually have no idea what house they wan't if they aren't interested
3) Not really
4) That has only happened once (but I am not 100% sure we gave this girl a bid). Usually if I think they want our house, they show up on bid day and if I think they don't want it, they end up elsewhere. I can usually tell if they are on the fence between my house and another also
5) First round I generally remember less than 5 girls, and I rush TONS. By pref I start to remember a lot more. I remember most of the girls I rushed during the 3rd round, and all the girls I preffed.
6) 50/50, I have had very few rush crushes, and half of them came to my house (half being about 2 lol)[/COLOR]

[IrishLake]

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?I only ever had one rush crush each of my 2 formal rushes. One went Theta and became my Little, the other went Zeta and to this day is a good friend (we knew eachother from the age of 5).
2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?
No, I was usually clueless.
3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?
Yes, rumors were very common at my small school.
4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?
I only prefed 2, and I was 1 for 2.
5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?
I always remembered the girl I was first paired up with, and then maybe one or two more. By pref, I knew each girl coming through the door.
6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?
Well, this one is kinda an NA for me. My Little ended up transferring in the middle of the following year.

[prettyv]

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have? I had a few girls I wanted in our chapter, but only 1 "rush crush" in the sense that I wanted to DIE if we didn't get her. (We didn't get her )
2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?
Generally, yes, but there were always surprises.
3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?
No. You'd hear stories about dirty rushing after, but never during.
4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?
I had the opposite happen to me - I was so sure this girl was a lost cause. She was SO adorable, but she didn't seem interested in what I had to say and our conversation was forced. Turns out she had just had a really bad morning and ended up accepting our bid!
5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?
I'm usually good with "gut feelings" and names, but I'm awful at remembering people when I get introduced to a lot at once.
6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?
Like I said above, the one huge I had went somewhere else (where, in hind sight, was perfect for her). Echo what was said about "Murphy's Law" though, some of the girls I didn't remember turned out to be the most amazing active members of the chapter. I haven't had anyone we loved turn out to be ATROCIOUS members, but it's the quiet ones you have to watch. I was told I too, was a big question mark for a lot of people who surprised everyone. Some people just don't "interview" well.

[violetpretty]

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?
Probably 1-3 each year. There was only one that I would have been upset if she didn't join, and she became my little.
2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?
When I recruited, I didn't really hear much, but as a Rho Gamma, I could definitely tell!
3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?
Similar to #2, I heard a lot more gossip as a Rho Gamma than a recruiting collegian. Also, as an alumna, seeing the database and basic info of all the PNMs, you realize that a lot of chapters tend to go for women from certain high schools.
4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?
Of the PNMs I've preffed, my gut has been right each time about whether she will join our chapter or not.
5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?
I've been good about remembering everyone I talk to.
6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?
My little didn't hold a position, but she lived with sisters junior and senior year and participated well in the chapter.

[wholeah]

Originally Posted by greek_troll

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?
2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?
3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?
4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?
5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref?
6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?

1. I go to a reeeeally small school (campus total is 48), so I only have one or two "rush crushes" per year. My first recruitment as an active, though, my rush crush was the "I will DIE if this girl is not in my chapter," and she ended up joining a different sorority, so my most recent crush was much milder. She joined my chapter, though, and is my grand-little!
2. We have deferred recruitment, so we typically have a feeling before recruitment starts and have a solid idea of what each PNM wants after pref.
3. Again, because of deferred recruitment, it's pretty clear which chapters are going after which girls, though there are always a couple girls who are strongly desired by everyone.
4. During my time as an active, that has happened only once and with a legacy... It definitely made my chapter realize that we need to clue in on how our legacies feel about us before recruitment even starts and push even harder to start recruiting them early.
5. I've been a recruitment counselor for the past two years, and I'm really good at remembering people, so I typically don't have a problem remembering the girls in my group throughout the process.
6. That's a really hard question to answer because it honestly depends on the girl who is being recruited... In my case, my rush crush who actually joined my chapter has already taken on an officer position!

[papayafruit]

My school is like Wholeah's in terms of total.

1. Each rush week, about how many "rush crushes" do you have?
I've only ever had one rush crush, if you can call her that. I've done recruitment two times, but this time I'm a Rho Gamma!

2. By pref, do you have a pretty strong feeling about which girls want which houses?
As a recruiting active, I know last spring (our formal recruitment) I could tell some of the girls were between us and others. As a Rho Gamma, I definitely know because, obviously, they talk to us about it.

3. Do you get a feeling or hear rumors about which houses want which girls?
Like before, maybe a bit, but this time, I probably will as it gets closer to pref night.

4. How often do you pref someone, confident that they want your house, and they reject a bid?
I think this only happened for us once, at least while I was there.

5. On the first round, how many girls do you honestly not remember at all? What about by pref? A lot actually. It's very hard as a first time rusher to remember every girl, but by pref, I knew most of their names if they kept coming back. As a rho gam, it's pretty much the same. First night so many girls, but by now I've gotten quite a few names down.

6. Is it likely or unlikely that your biggest rush crush ends up pledging, and becomes a big part of your house?
I don't have one at the moment, but I can definitely tell where people might end up going if they get bids.