Hello! My name is generallygreek; my mom is on this forum, and she's been nagging me to get this up, so I'm starting it now.
She's been getting prime updates and can probably fill in the blanks where I'm a little lacking.
My campus has winter recruitment, and thus we also have an extensive informal recruitment process, so I wanted to post about that as an introduction, as well as to give a little background to the story.
There are six sororities on my campus. I came into this with pretty much zero preconceptions about them. For the purposes of this story, I'll be calling them:
Gryffindor
Hufflepuff
Ravenclaw
Slytherin
Beauxbatons
Durmstrang
I'll reveal the name of the one I join once rush is over, but the other five will stay anonymous.
Informal recruitment technically started about a month into classes and lasted all the way through fall term, so I'll be covering from just before classes started to just before winter break, when a period of no contact began before formal recruitment.
Let's start with
Gryffindor. I had stayed on campus for a couple days during the summer, and my host had been a Gryffindor, so I did have some preconceived notions of them. They seemed like fun, active girls who liked to be out and about, something that attracted me. I thought Gryffindor could be somewhere I could fit, or at least somewhere I'd have fun during rush. Unfortunately, the two Gryffindors I knew really well weren't interested in recruitment, so I didn't have anyone to really advocate for me in their chapter. I still really liked the girls, though, and hoped for the best in formal recruitment!
Pretty soon into the term, the
Ravenclaws had their hooks in me. Both my Big AND my RA were Ravenclaws, and both of them were really nice, helpful, and supportive. My Big and I clicked right away and spent a lot of time together, especially early on in the term before we got really busy. Many of them were in my clubs--the Ravenclaws seemed to be everywhere, involved with everything, and I never met one I didn't like! I still felt like I should keep my options open, though, so I tried not to get too attached early in the process.
The
Hufflepuffs were the other place I could really see myself fitting. I didn't meet too many of them before I got on campus, but they were real sweethearts. One my friend's Bigs was really nice, in particular, and a Hufflepuff in one my classes and I made friends. I heard that they have the highest GPA of the sororities, which I found impressive, and they held quite a few fundraisers that I tried to get involved in. By the time formal recruitment rolled around, Hufflepuff was my strong second choice, and I knew I'd be happy with them if I joined.
I came on campus thinking that
Slytherin was the top sorority on campus, and they might well be (though I tried from the beginning to ignore the idea of ranking), but that fact in itself was a bit off-putting to me. I've never really enjoyed attention, and get stressed when trying to keep up appearances, so I wasn't sure if I'd fit in Slytherin. I told myself to keep an open mind and give them a chance, so I waited to form an opinion of them until I'd actually talked to some of them. A couple sat next to me in one of my classes, but I never really worked up the courage to start a conversation. Other than those two, I didn't meet any anywhere else, so I decided pretty early on to wait until formal recruitment to see how Slytherin worked out.
Beauxbatons was rather elusive. Everyone kept telling me these girls were really nice, but I couldn't seem to manage to meet one! My roommate's Big was in Beauxbatons, but she wasn't on campus until a month into the term, and was very busy playing catch-up after that. I was really disappointed; I wanted to meet these girls, especially since I'd heard they were really into their philanthropy, and I'm big on volunteer work. Oh well! Meeting them would also end up waiting until formal recruitment started.
Durmstrang. These girls were strangely scarce during fall term. My rec writer had really gotten me interested in them, but I'd never talked to them and didn't know a single one, and neither did my friends. Maybe they just didn't wear their shirts? Their unfortunate lack of presence in my spheres on campus made me decide to wait until formal recruitment started to make a judgment. It felt wrong to write them off when I hadn't even met enough to form an opinion.
I'll post on the first night soon. I've got some free time in the afternoon tomorrow, so that's probably when it'll go up. Hope you've enjoyed reading so far!
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