My Retro-ish UCLA Recruitment

[LAblondeGPhi]

Summertime, Summertime. Time for some retro recruitment stories!

I've already posted bits and pieces of my recruitment and collegiate experience throughout the boards, but I'm consolidating them here for your summer procrastination enjoyment.

You all obviously know what house I ended up in, and what school I went to. At the time of my recruitment, we had 11 chapters on campus. I knew I was interested in sorority recruitment, but had no real idea what it was like or what to expect – I was mostly interested because it looked girly and fun.

***EDIT***
I forgot to include the chapters on campus, for the curious:
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Phi
Gamma Phi Beta
Delta Gamma
Delta Delta Delta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Pi Beta Phi
Chi Omega


I’m coding the chapters by city, because I’m not feeling very creative.
San Diego
Los Angeles
San Francisco
Denver
Seattle
Houston
Dallas
Washington DC
New York City
Atlanta
Chicago

I had some family members who were Greek at UCLA in the 80’s, but nothing to give me any legacy status or leg up. The only real advice that I got through the grapevine (via my mom), was to emphasize that she and step-dad lived in a nice part of town. I thought that was superficial, and that money couldn’t possibly have anything to do with how well my recruitment would go, so I ignored it.

I signed up for recruitment once I arrived on campus, and convinced some of my hallmates to come with me to the first couple of pre-recruitment events.

Other girls I knew going through:
“Sarah” – My roommate during orientation. Like me, she had been planning to go through recruitment. She was already partial to Houston, because her boyfriend’s cousin was a member at UCLA.

“Julia” – Literally the first person I met when moving into the dorms.

“Jessica” – My roommate. We were randomly assigned, but she seemed pretty cool.

“Jennifer” – Julia’s roommate, seemed very chill and sweet.

The first event we attended was basic meet-and-greet that used to be referred to as a Welcome BBQ. I don’t recall any food ever actually being served, though. PNMs would attend, and each chapter had about 10 members milling about chatting with them. It wasn’t mandatory and it was pretty informal.

I recall attending with Julia and Jennifer. We all had similar names, and it was funny to introduce our trio as such. We first talked to a member of Dallas who was petite, blonde and outgoing. I don’t recall what we talked about, but I remember we all had a very positive impression of her and her chapter after our conversation.

The only other house I remember talking to was Atlanta. We met two members, one rather petite, and the other quite tall. Our discussion centered on sisterhood events their chapter does, and I remember they emphasized a weekly viewing party of Dawson’s Creek. I vaguely remembered them mentioning their skit that year and how they were excited for it. I found both of these girls to be just a tad awkward, and I didn’t care for Dawson’s Creek, so I left unimpressed with them.