Well folks, It's that time of year again. Fall sorority recruitment 2016 is right around the corner, and at an SEC school like UGA saying this is a huge event would be an understatement. With 18 sororities to pick from and over 1000 PNM's, this year's recruitment is sure to be more intense than ever.
Whether you've been waiting to pledge a sorority since middle school or you just decided to rush this week, there's a lot of pressure riding on just five hectic days.
You'll spend months beforehand anxiously garnering recommendation letters, attempting to assemble the perfect rush week outfit combo, and nervously gathering as much intel and 'recruitment tips' as possible. I rushed last fall, so I've had a year to try to wrap my brain around exactly what went on during that crazy, crazy time that we call rush week here at UGA. While a lot of what I was told about rush proved itself very true, there are a few things I'd like to share based on my personal experience that I don't think are as commonly emphasized.
1. Take stereotypes you’ve heard with more than a grain of salt.
People are going to talk, and all talk is biased. Because my friends and I went to an in state university, people we knew from high school at UGA each had their own set of opinions to pass along. Though we continued to tell ourselves (and everyone else) that we had an open mind, we were undeniably influenced by all the stereotypes thrown our way. Looking back, we each went into rush week thinking we had a pretty good idea of who and what each sorority was. How foolish of us. How could we think that the opinion of one or two people could properly summarize a group of 300+ accomplished and intelligent young women? Of course, everyone wants know what houses are “good” or “top” and what houses are “bad” or “bottom.” If you say ranking never even once crossed your mind, I’d call you either a liar or saint. Fact is, "top" vs "bottom" is a highly subjective measurement. I love where I wound up, but I have to admit that 90 percent of the cliches I heard and believed about other houses were complete nonsense. Every sorority is the best choice for somebody. I can’t stop you from going into rush with preconceptions, but I want to urge you to give each and every sorority equal consideration and effort when going through the recruitment process. See what each group is about for yourself, and go where you feel fit, comfortable and at ease. At the end of the day, It’s not about competing to be the “hottest” sorority on campus. Trends and reputations fade; go to the sorority where you see yourself making lifelong connections.
2. Don't get overwhelmed by forced, repetitive conversations.
I’ll be completely honest with you: recruitment can start to feel like a pretty fake process by your second day of houses. You get up at 5 A.M., dress up like your life depends on it, join an ant herd of anxiety riddled girls and get filtered onto your group’s bus for the day. Next, you stand for what feels like hours on Milledge avenue until your knees are weak, your bladder is full and you're sure this morning's perfectly applied mascara must be running down your sweaty face. By the time you are herded into a house and greeted by a terrifying amount of overly enthusiastic older faces, a five-minute conversation about your hobbies or plans for the future is the last thing on your mind. Still, you paste on a smile and give the conversation your all; that’s all you can do. Even though this may seem highly rehearsed and even fake, try to remember that it has a genuine purpose. You want to get to know the girl you're talking to, because she represents your potential new sisterhood. She wants to get to know you, because you are potential new sister. Stay positive, and just let the conversation flow. Both of you are probably nervous and tired. Recruitment is a mutual selection process: this means that while you don’t want that house to cut you, they don’t want you to cut them either. Bottom line, you're both two people trying to make a good impression. Some of the best conversations I had weren’t about how my summer was going or where I went to high school, but about how much we both loved Game of Thrones or how passionate we both were about writing. These conversations are the easiest to have no matter how tired you are, because they’re genuine. These are the conversations both you and the girl you talked to will remember.
3. Rock the heck out of your individual style (clothing, piercings, tattoos, the works).
Please don’t go into rush week thinking you need to look a certain part. In the weeks before rush, I found myself obsessing over whether or not my normally laid back style would fit in with the brand name fashion trends that I was never quite on top of. My friends and I were told by multiple people to cover up or take out any visible piercings or tattoos we had. Somehow, we all got it in our head that the best PNM was the PNM who fit the "sorority girl mold" (seriously?! What does that even mean?). The thing is, it’s very easy to tell when someone is comfortable in their own skin. Wearing Jack Rogers sandals and huge pearls is absolutely not the way to go unless you just happen to adore Jack Rogers sandals and huge pearls. When I actually went through recruitment, I noticed that many of the girls I talked to were proudly showing off their own piercings or tattoos, and flaunting their own sense of fashion. I remember being 100 percent envious of a girl who wore Birkenstocks and flowy hippie pants during house tours (a girl who, I might add, wound up with a bid from her first choice house). I would have loved to have let my natural sense of style out during rush, but I thought I had to appear overly girly and preppy in order to make the cut. Please please please, let your wonderfully unique sense of style show. That’s what will make you stand out. You know what I think makes the huge organization of Greek life women at UGA so great? How different we are allowed to be. If piercings or tattoos are your thing, great. If they aren’t -- great. Don’t feel the need to hide something you normally wouldn’t for one week, unless you're prepared to hide it for the next four years. Would you really want to be part of a group that wouldn’t accept your individual mark, anyways?
4. Don't have your heart set on anything (rejection is a reality).
This is the hard one. This is the one you're not going to want to believe. Yes, I stand by the fact that every sorority is good in its own way and that you CAN be happy wherever you wind up or if you don’t wind up in one at all. With this being said, recruitment can be ruthless. Girls can get dropped from every sorority they thought they wanted, and be left heartbroken and shell shocked. I am not trying to scare you at all, but I want you all to be fully equipped to deal with being cut. It happens to all of us. Unless you are some sort of super human Beyonce/Selena Gomez everyone-just-loves-them type, the chances of you being called back by every single house are slim to none. I had a friend going through recruitment who absolutely had her heart set on one sorority. She could already envision life within that sorority and had trouble seeing things any other way. She had friends in that sorority who, while maintaining enough levels of political correctness, absolutely gave her reason to believe she had a spot on their bid day lawn. Guess what? She got cut, was completely devastated, and came way too close to dropping altogether. Moral of the story? Don’t set your heart on anything, and don’t assume you’re above the rejection line. Girls you talk to throughout rush can often tell if you have your mind already set on another house, and won't want to give priority on their bid list to a girl who doesn’t want to be there.
5. Rush, even if you don't plan on joining on a sorority.
I never, ever saw myself as a sorority girl. I wasn’t going to rush at all until my best friend from high school decided to and I figured… OK, why not? Personally, rushing turned out be a wonderful experience. As an only child, I have always craved the lifelong, unconditional bond that siblings hold. After signing up, I realized joining a sorority and taking seriously the sisterhood that comes with it could potentially provide me with lifelong bonds of my own. Once I acknowledged that a genuine sisterhood was most important on my checklist, joining and choosing a sorority became a lot easier. Some of my best friends in my sorority also signed up for rush at the very last minute, or had complete intentions of dropping up until pref day. Now, these girls are vital members of our family here. What if this winds up being you, or your best friends to come? On another hand, I do know several girls who went through rush, realized a sorority wasn’t going to be for them, and left with no regrets. If you're sitting on the fence about rushing at all, I wholeheartedly recommend going through with it. However things end up, you won't be left to wonder what might have happened for the rest of the year.
6. Take advantage of your Gamma Chi leader.
Gamma Chis are seriously the best. They are there to help you with anything and everything, and they’ve been exactly where you are during rush week. These girls became a Gamma Chi solely because they want to help other girls have the best possible recruitment process and Greek life experience possible. Yes, they each have their own sorority. During recruitment, however, they completely disaffiliate from that sorority. During rush week, they even live in a hotel with only other Gamma Chi's in order to give you the most objective experience possible. Don’t be embarrassed to talk to them, or paranoid that they might be in the sorority you’re talking about. They genuinely care about where you wind up, and they want to guide you through the tougher decisions.
7. Everything works out exactly how it's meant to, even when you're initially disappointed by the outcome.
So many people repeated "everything works out the way it's supposed to" over and over again before recruitment, and I didn’t believe them for a second. I thought, ‘So the girl who gets dropped by her top picks is supposed to be happy about it? Yeah, right!’ It took actually going through rush for me to realize that if her top picks didn’t work out, they probably just weren’t the right picks for her to begin with. Think about it, guys. Don't you want to be part of a community who wants you equally as much? Don't you want to join a house who easily takes notice of your positive attributes and wants to see more of them each day of rush? Recruitment week is all about making that happen. Whatever houses you find yourself at on Pref day, remember that a couple hundred smart, successful girls signed off on you being there, are excited for you to be there, and probably want you on their bid list. Keep an open mind, and enjoy the experience for what it really is.
8. When rush week gets hard, remember why it's worth it.
If there's anything I want girls to know, its this: A sorority, or lack thereof, cannot and will never be able to define you as a person. when you lose your voice from talking, when your cheeks hurt form smiling, when your heels give you blisters and when you don't think you can handle another house or 5 A.M. wake up call, remember WHY you chose to rush. Remember that you're here for you, and that whatever happens you're bound to learn something about yourself. Remember that you have just as much right to be at each house you visit as every other girl, and just as much to bring to the table as every current member you talk to. remember that these girls are not super humans, and rush week is not a monstrous system designed to swallow you in its clutches. These are normal girls who were in your shoes one to three years ago. The recruitment process is just that; a process. It's not foolproof and its not infallible, but it has worked for a very long time. The outcome of your week, whether or not it turns out how you hoped it would, is not the end all be all to your college experience. Your level of happiness in college is going to come from what you make out of not only rush week, but all the weeks, months and years to come.
