Back to School + Rush/Recruitment Week

Sorry for the delay!

Well I'm sure you all know that the semester has already begun! Let me tell you about my first week in...

-Under trusted advice, I scheduled my classes all for two days out of the week. This way I won't have to be commuting everyday, and only going two days per week really frees up a day or two for doing homework in my PJs. So far, this schedule is working out really well. However one small additional necessity is, in fact, three cups of coffee (my average, at least) to maintain enough brain power and attention span to last throughout the day. I scheduled four classes each day, from 9:30am-7:45pm with a couple breaks in between for sanity purposes.

-I'm already swamped with homework and assignments and preparation to complete. Eek! I'm aiming high for straight A's this semester so I'm prepared to FaceBook=put my face in the book (haha my old algebra professor was European and had this sweet accent and would be like, "ohh yea make sure you go home and facebook.. you know, put your face in your book. and twitter.. twit you little pencil.. hah yea right."

-Panhellenic recruitment (better known as Rush) started on Friday with a mandatory orientation. It basically consisted of the Pan Board introducing themselves and going over the recruitment process. Afterwards we were separated into smaller "Pi Chi" groups with our own two recruitment counselors (disaffiliated-for-recruitment-purposes sorority members). According to the Pan Board, there are 500-something girls rushing this Fall, and they put I think 30 girls per Pi Chi group.

-Today was the second day of recruitment (really the first if you don't count orientation) which consisted of lots.. and lots... and LOTS of talking... to lots.. and lots.. and LOTS of sorority members from all nine chapters. I'm not gonna lie, by the time lunch was over and we had three or four more chapters to visit, I was wiped o-u-t.

Here's how it went: in our student center, part of it is a conference center.. so each chapter was in a different large room within the conference center, and two Pi Chi groups would visit each room for 20 something minutes. As they open the doors, you are greeted with 50+ sorority girls clapping and singing their own welcome songs as you enter the room. As our Pi Chi group was filing inwards, they're members were filing towards the door so each member (basically) greeted each PNM (potential new member), took them to some part of the room, took your tea card (aka: a piece of paper with your name on it) and start a conversation. About 5-8 minutes in, they would stop, sing a song, introduce their president and recruitment chairperson, then let you get back to more talking. About 8-10 minutes into your conversation, another sorority member would approach your conversation, and the girl you were speaking with introduces you to her, tells them what you were talking about, and hand you off to talk to another member.

Honestly I thought it was a pretty cool system. My first impression of this day was that we go into a room randomly and have to spark up conversations with random sorority girls. SO glad it wasn't like that! It was very structured and well organized. Now if you've been nerding it up researching other people's experiences with rushing, let me tell you that they are right when they say, "you just have to feel out each chapter," ... some have better vibes than others. Some girls you'll instantly click with, and others you'll have that awkward moment where one doesn't know what to say next. You may not like one girl's demeanor, while another makes you laugh like crazy.

After we visited all the chapters it was time to rank our favorites. We had to include all houses (as we couldn't just eliminate ones we were not clicking with). The first (6) were #1, plus (1) #2, and (1) #3. If I understand this correctly, tomorrow morning when we come in for the next event we will have "responses" from each house.. meaning, if I chose A, B, C, D, E, and F as my #1s, then G as #2, and H as #3, let's say only A, C, E, F, and G asked me back for more conversation. They call this "mutual selection".. so, for that day, I will only visit A, C, E, F, and G.  By the end of the day, I rank these chapters again, and the process repeats itself.


On that note, got lots of homework to get done! Gotta be up early and in Greek Village by 9am. Keep checking back! =)