Another Student Story
 

So... First student joined my legacy chapter at UMass Amherst this fall. I have a second student who just completed recruitment at Elon today. For a New England hs teacher, this is super exciting to me. (We also had a former student in the super bowl today for Seattle, sorry Hauschka! YAY PATS!)

I asked her to keep her story documented for me party by party, round by round, and she did. She hasn't sent it to me yet, but I hope to post it tomorrow while we have a snow day! There are 9 sororities there, anyone have a good theme for me?

I love a good story, especially one written by someone who we know will finish it:) I'm partial to the idea of NFL playoff teams, even though there's more than nine of those.

Warm islands would sound good right about now: Barbados, Maui, Moorea, etc.

My alma mater! Please post! EXCITED!

I promise to post as soon as she sends it to me :) Warm islands sound good.

Kauai, Grand Cayman, Tahiti - oh my. The possibilities are endless. GREAT theme, Blue Skies.

Okay... So I went with math functions, because I'm a nerdy teacher. At first I was going to change Student2's words and format, but it is what is it and to change it I didn't feel was right.... This may be more specific and not as PC as most stories on here, but it is what it is. If you aren't interested, please just don't read:

Day 1- Casual attire
The first round of my first day I had a break which gave me a lot of anxiety because I was so excited to get into the swing of things and go to my first house. When I got my schedule I was secretly upset because all the “top tier” sororities were at the end of the day, and I knew my then my feet would hurt, my voice would be almost lost, and I’d lose energy. Waiting during that first break was very frustrating, although I had friends in my no party round I still felt as if I was ready to talk and make amazing first impressions! Going into recruitment my favorite sorority was Exponential, then Cubic, Sine, Quadratic, Cosine, Tangent, Square Root, Linear, and then Inverse. Although, the middle order could have been modified I thought I knew that Exponential and Cubic would be my two favorites no matter what. When I got my schedule my first day looked like this:

1. Linear
2. Inverse
3. Cubic
4. Sine
5. Cosine
6. Tangent
7. Exponential
8. Square Root
9. Quadratic

I love a recruitment story as much as the next person, but this one leaves me feeling a bit weird. Your student has provided some honest feedback to you, even though it isn't flattering to many of the groups. Since you have included her hometown and her university she is going to be super easy to identify on that campus.

Maybe it's best to edit significantly? Or not finish? Or delete for now?

I'm a former alum and advisor to the students university and am extremely familiar with the campus. It's not even clear to me the identity of the houses, except for 2. That leaves 7 that are mysteries.

I deleted that part of her story, and I'm struggling to edit the rest of it... not because of content so much as the format she sent it to me in. She has it broken down by group, not by day, so I'm struggling to figure out where she went on which days.... I'll keep trying to figure it out. I'm also not at all familiar with the university, so I have no idea if what she's giving me are valid perceptions or tent talk or what.

Regardless of whether it's valid perceptions (isn't that an oxymoron anyway?) or tent talk, I think it's wise to eliminate any remarks that could cast shade on any of the chapters. Keep it neutral, keep it safe. I am thinking about the recent thread here on GC that addresses "tent talk" and the other one about being pretty enough. Anyway... good luck, sigmagirl2000, with your edit job. Not fun.

Linear:
During Linear on the first day I was so nervous because it was the first sorority I had stepped foot in. It was weird having a sister grab you and touch your back and it felt like elementary school again having to sit on the floor. (??!?!)The round went by so quickly, but I had a hard time making a judgment about the house. By the end of the day I got to choose 5 to keep and I kept Linear, however, it was not one of my tops.

On the Second day I returned to Linear and it was the last house that I went to. A girl I took a class with grabbed me and we discussed our mutual hatred for our class. She was kind, sweet, comforting, and smiley and I really like her, but that day just reaffirmed the fact that Linear is not and would not be the home for me. In my opinion, I’d rather not be in a sorority at all then be in a sorority that I do not feel comfortable with. In this case, I liked Linear, however, I knew it was not the one for me.

Since Cosine dropped me, I went back to Linear for one more day, again, it was at the end of the day, however, I still knew it wasn’t for me. I met a girl that lives in near my hometown and we had a strong connection, however, she is the first person I had had a true strong connection with at Linear and I knew I couldn’t base Linear off that one conversation. I had to narrow it down to two that night and I knew Linear would not be one of them.

Overall, going into Linear was fun and meeting the girls was really fun but I know that Linear will not be the sorority for me.

Exponential:
I went into Exponential with crazily high expectations. They are where I felt that I fit. However, I didn’t hear a lot about them compared to other sororities and as a very involved student I rarely saw exponentials involved in the clubs I was involved with. When I walked into Exponential, I thought the house was big, spacious, open, and had a pretty atmosphere. I immediately was drawn to it and the president was super smiley and seemed like she was straight out of a sorority movie.
The first conversation I had with a girl there was super forgettable. The things we talked about were very simple and we did not have much of a connection. This was the case with the second day too. Although I really connect with this sorority’s philanthropy, I felt no connection with Exponential. The sisterhood seemed ok but not incredibly strong and the girls didn’t seem sorority-obsessed like other sororities, which is not a good or bad thing. In my eyes there was nothing wrong with Exponential, I just didn’t feel at home there and I didn’t feel 100% comfortable there.

Inverse:
Inverse was the second house that I went to. I thought it was decorated adorably on the outside and was again very excited to go in. The girls were cheering and singing. The first day I talked to my leadership mentor for leadership fellows. She is a lovely person. However, the other girls I talked to were so incredibly different from me and I did not feel comfortable going into the house. I knew this house was the house that I would take regret if possible. Obviously, I went to all the houses and then came up with that conclusion. But I am so happy that I went and found that it wasn’t for me.

Sine

Sine is a sorority that some of my friends guessed that I’d be placed in. However, they acted like they were only looking for one girl. I went through three days at the Sine house, and by the end I was pleasantly surprised. Looking back on it, I wish I preffed them. The third day in particular really stuck out to me. The conversation I had with the girl was wonderful, our connection was strong, and I really felt at home with her. However, I think I listened to the stereotypes too much and although I don’t think Sine was the right choice for me, I wish I could’ve had more time. After the first day I hated Sine, the girl I talked to was ok and I felt a little uncomfortable in the house. Although I considered ranking Sine last entirely during round 1, I didn’t and I’m glad I didn’t.