[tld221]

I really didnt know anything about greek life and definitely didnt think i would be interested. My senior year of HS, I was senior class president, top of my graduating class, captain of the volleyball team, and while i wasn't really a "popular" type (i actually considered myself quite nerdy), enough people knew who i was. I had accepted a full scholarship to NYU (back then, it was like, eh whatever - i just figured it was "another school" in the city) and since I wasn't the social butterfly in HS, i really didnt think about college in a social aspect. I just thought, "wow, i'm getting a great education and i'm going to learn everything i can!"

Fall 2002
There are flyers for a Round Robin. I have no idea what that is but I can tell it has to do with joining a sorority. I’m on the fence about going, cause I didn’t think I was the sorority type at all. And admittedly I’m sure many of my friends would think it was dorky. But what the hell, I go to this Round Robin just to see what it’s about.

3rd North, at the time, was the “greek” dorm – each “house” was one floor of connecting rooms, common space, dining area and elevator with private access. It was like staying in a penthouse.

I stayed at Rubin, which is across campus from 3rd North, where Round Robin will be. already I feel kinda awkward. I wore jeans and a hoodie not knowing what to expect. I had arrived a few minutes late, with trying to find the place and all, and had to look for a seat. As the rest of my NYU experience would prove, I could feel many eyes following me to my seat, as if to say “what is she doing here? She’s here for rush?”

Now NYU is really one to toot its horn for diversity, but again, you would not have seen it in this room. I read over the PNM pamphlet quickly but hadn’t missed much.

All the orgs talk about their history and do some kinda presentation. I remember in particular, DphiE did a spy-themed video on “finding the best sorority” and one of the locals did a dance to some song that was popular at the time. The other GLOs just kinda talked about how great they were and it was a little awkward considering there was a room of about 200 confused freshmen staring back.

Anyway, we were assigned our rush counselors. More than half the people there scattered, figuring that quickly that greek life wasn’t for them. That cut our rush groups down from 30ish to as few as 10 PNMs to a group. We all got name tags and she talked to us about what the next week would be like, preference night, bid day, etc.

I had actually planned to go home that weekend (I missed it a little and I live an hour away from campus) and really wasn’t all that intrigued. If you couldn’t tell, NYU’s greek life is nothing to sneeze at. Though it had come a long way, its version of “formal rush” doesn’t hold a match to the kinds of rush described on GC. Sure it was a week long, but the events were very informal (ex. One night would be a pizza night, another nite a movie nght, one house just had snacks one day and said “come over between 12-2 and hang with us”). Also, since it’s not a greek campus, you may actually have been better off socially without being greek.

Out the corner of my eye, I see a face that looks like me! We acknowledge each other and gives me a “what do you think” face. I frown in the negative, she nodded back. As I left 3rd North, we bump into each other again – we live in the same hall. She mentioned how she wasn’t that excited about rush, and that it didn’t meet her expectations so far, but would check some of the events out, just to make the effort.

I figure, well if she can try it out, so can I, right? I went home that night and decided I would just have to come back to campus early to see what this greek life had to offer!



Here are the chapters at NYU:
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Phi Zeta*
Alpha Sigma Tau
Delta Phi Epsilon
Kappa Psi Delta*
Theta Phi Beta*
Zeta Sigma Phi*
Alpha Kappa Delta Phi (HAALGO)
Kappa Phi Lambda (another HAALGO)
Sigma Iota Alpha(HLLGO)
Omega Phi Beta (another HLLGO)

* denotes local org. SIA and OPhiB both came to my campus recently, I would say in the last year or two.

Now maybe you have a few questions, in particular, where the hell does the NPC/NPHC remix come in? Don't worry, i'm getting there, just gotta build it up for you.

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