[GPhiBLtColonel]

OOPS! I forgot one other fraternity - which I will dub Cleveland. Sorry about that!

My son is not doing AFROTC - he likes the military (he better! LOL!) but he is definitely not "that" type. His major is a specialized concentration within the business school.

So, prior to the “official” start of Orientation in mid-June, my son was able to link up with a couple of members of BRIDGESTONE whom he had already befriended because two of its members are from our high school and hometown. They went to grab a bite to eat and just hang out. My son says he likes these guys and would be comfortable as a brother. I was happy to hear that because of what I already knew about this group, plus I knew one of those hometown guys and really like him and his folks!

Once Orientation began, we visited each of the fraternity tables that had been set up (sadly, not all of the groups showed up). My son signed up wherever there was a sheet that asked for potential rushees’ information.

My husband and I were VERY impressed with TAYLORMADE and would have been thrilled if our son got a bid from them. We loved all they stood for and were very impressed with the chapter GPA! Ironically, I was a little sister at my alma mater’s chapter of TAYLORMADE back in the day. One of the brothers at orientation was even from our hometown!

We also visited with the NIKE brothers and my son said he liked them a lot. He said they seemed down to earth and an easy going group of guys.

There were four TITLEIST brothers at Orientation that were extremely friendly and looked like they were a lot of fun. Their trifold board was slightly unimpressive (hand lettered) but at least they were at Orientation and had a display! Since it wasn’t on their trifold board, I asked the typical “mom” question – eg what was the chapters GPA? The guys started hemming and hawing and shuffling their feet and finally said they tried to keep it up to about a 2.9…oh well, they did look like fun bunch of guys. My son later commented that he liked them and would probably have fun as a brother there but he was concerned that maybe they partied too much. (I looked at my son in awe – did he really say that? I was pleasantly surprised and impressed at his observation!)

Side Note: GPA is very important for my husband and I because my son has to get/keep a 3.0 GPA for the academic scholarships he was awarded by the university.

We again visited with the BRIDGESTONE brothers table and reaffirmed that they were a great group of guys. The chapter had a budding reputation on campus because they were new and they also have a good chapter GPA. They were getting a brand new house that was going to be in a primo location on campus so that was also very cool, in my son’s eyes.

Speaking of houses, not that it was a huge factor in my son’s impressions of each chapter, but he did feel strong enough to comment on the various physical structures and how impressive – or not – each was. He was eager to be able to live in a fraternity house one day! He really liked the BOBBY JONES house and was hopeful he would be able to link up with these guys during the summer to do some rush events. He also liked the CALLAWAY house and we reminded him that our next door neighbor’s son is an enthusiastic member of CALLAWAY (a recent alum) and would definitely help with a CALLAWAY reference, as would one of my GPhiB sister’s hubby.

After Orientation, we set about looking to see which fraternities had online reference forms and if we knew anyone who would agree to help write one for my son.

I was humbled to have one of our very own GC members (we’d linked up earlier discussing politics) volunteer to do a reference for his fraternity, NIKE! That made my son very happy because NIKE was one of my son’s favorites so far!

One of my pledge sisters is married to a brother in MIZUNO and he did on online recommendation to his fraternity and he sent us the very nice thank you email he got in response. That excited my son because MIZUNO is typically one of the top fraternities in terms of GPA on campus plus they have won the top award within their own fraternity for two consecutive years.

My sister (real/bio) also volunteered an old close friend of hers to do a reference for CLEVELAND. Again, this made my son happy because he was vying for one of CLEVELAND’s freshman scholarships and he liked the brothers he had talked to already. He also said he liked their house!