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Old 03-03-2012, 11:39 PM
AXOmom AXOmom is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 472
I have never felt like it was my place (not having ever been through a recruitment) to bring this topic up - but I'm glad that you did 28stgreek because I had resolved that if it ever did come up - I wanted to share daughter's experience with this subject since she saw the honest approach and the "rainbows and ponies" approach used in her two recruitments and she knows which one worked better in the long run. Warning: this is long and windy.

As I mentioned in her recruitment story, daughter was a sophomore with grade issues (not to mention a few other issues) when she went into recruitment at her first school. She had spent enough time reading on GC to know she might have a problem on her hands.

After reading on here at least 1,747, 657 times that your best bet if you had specific questions about recruitment at your school was to call your Greek life office and ask, she did just that. The person in charge of Greek life at WSU in 2008 (want this to be mentioned because whoever she was - kudos to her) was polite but honest in telling her that she was facing an uphill battle, the odds were not in her favor, she would probably face stiff cuts and if that was going to devastate her she might want to get her grades up first and go through next year or think about informal although she couldn't say if that would be happening. In other words - the sororities make the decisions and as it stands they have better options than you (her wording was much nicer, of course).

At the time, daughter thought the woman was one of many big meanie witches who was conspiring to keep her out of a sorority. Two weeks later, after she had dropped out of recruitment, she had a different opinion. Getting cut by chpaters she loved and where she had friends, hurt, but having someone honestly prepare her for what could happen and why helped her accept it and move on fairly quickly. Now, she is grateful to that woman. Her honesty was a kindness - it saved daughter a world of hurt.

Fast forward to the next recruitment (current school). Daughter understood it was up to sororities -not her. Roomate, who was also going through recruitment, was a bright eyed freshman who had drunk the "recruitment isn't very competitive here and everyone finds a chapter they love" kool-aide. She couldn't understand why daughter was stressed - after all - they were guaranteed bids (as she understood it) and at orientation they told them it was mutual selection and you'd find a home you loved. What could possibly go wrong?

Next day, roommate was upset to find out the chapter she absolutely loved had cut her. The next day, same thing. Then, she got her second choice on bid day (she liked the chapter - it just wasn't her first choice).

It took her a while to get past it and I think a lot of that had to do with drinking that kool-aide. She loves her chapter now - couldn't be happier, and I'm fairly certain she is one who now couldn't see herself anywhere else, but I believe if Greek life had been a little blunter in explaining things at that orientation - she would have been happier quicker.

Last edited by AXOmom; 03-04-2012 at 01:37 AM.
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