Wow, Kelly ~ that's quite a story! I'm exhausted just reading it!
Good luck with alum initiation!
OK, my turn...
On my campus, rush happens pretty much the day you arrive as a freshman. I hadn't planned to rush. Nobody in my family had ever been greek, and all I knew was the Animal House stereotypes... but I got dragged along with the crowd to Panhel's info meeting and sorority tours, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
There were 5 sororities on campus:
Alpha Phi
Alpha Chi Omega
Sigma Kappa
Kappa Alpha Theta
Sigma Iota Phi (local)
The local did not take part in formal rush, which left 4. Since only Alpha Phi had a house, all rush parties except informal rush (which I'll explain later - I think this is unique to my school) were held in function rooms in the student center.
First thing was tours - 10 minutes per house - basically, enough time to talk to one or two girls, see a skit, and that was it. The people I talked to at 2 houses came off as complete ditzes. I decided not to rush either house... I regretted this later, since you really can't judge a chapter by one girl. Then, I visited the other two houses. The girls I talked to seemed genuinely friendly and excited about their groups, so I decided to focus on those 2 sororities.
Next were open houses - 2 hours Friday night and 5 hours during the day on Saturday. You could spend as much or as little time with any sorority. I met a bunch of great people - and they remembered my name even when they bumped into me outside the rush rooms (like in the ladies' room) and I wasn't wearing a name tag. This impressed the heck out of me because I'm terrible with names.
After this, we got our first round of invites back, and not surprisingly, I was only invited back to the 2 houses I'd been focusing on.
Saturday evening and Sunday were "informal rush". You would go out with a particular sorority for a few hours... Alpha Phi took people over to their house, and the other sororities would take people for ice cream, tours of Boston, etc.
I spent Saturday evening with one of the 2 sororities. I met yet more of the sisters, and I was getting increasingly sold on Greek life and this house in particular.
On Sunday, I visited the other sorority. I signed in at the same time as another rushee, so 2 sisters took us out. Well, they spent the ENTIRE TIME rushing the other girl, and barely said anything to me! Now I was disenchanted with greek life...
Sunday evening were theme parties.
After theme, I sat down and thought a lot about whether I wanted to continue rushing. What happened at that last sorority really turned me off. I liked the other house - but when it came down to it, I realized that I didn't really feel that "sisterly bond" - you know, the feeling that you've come home, that everyone talks about. And Sigma Iota Phi was holding rush after formal rush. So I decided to drop out of rush, and rush SigIPhi.
Fast forward 6 days or so, to SigIPhi's first rush party. After seeing roomfuls of women (chapter total was 80 and all the nationals were close even before formal rush), I was surprised to walk in the room and find only 7 sisters. I thought, what is wrong with this group, nobody wants to join? It turns out that SigIPhi had just been founded the previous spring, and this was their first-ever rush.
I arrived about 10 minutes before the end of their first party - but they stuck around for another hour, and I got to meet all 7 of them as well as a couple of the rushees. They all made the effort to talk to me, even if just for a few minutes. And... click... there it was... the feeling that I'd come home.
They had 2 more rush parties, then bid day. Panhel even supplied a rho chi. I guess they liked me because they offered me a bid!
After the bid day party, they held their pledge ceremony for me and the other 4 new members, and I got my big sister.
So... how come my user name is aephi alum? The short version is that, about a year and a half later, we decided to go national, and chose AEPhi. The long version... I'm too tired to type it right now...
