I love reading everyone’s experiences as they went through recruitment…so I decided I’d share mine!
For me one big factor in picking a college was Greek Life.
The school I ended up going to has 14 Sororities.
In alphabetical order they are:
Alpha Chi Omega
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Gamma Delta
Alpha Omicron Pi
Alpha Phi
Chi Omega
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Kappa
It took me a little bit to think of names that I haven’t seen used…so I went with the characters from Lost, since there’s at least 14 of them haha!
Here they are in no particular order:
Claire
Eko
Jack
Sawyer
Kate
Sun
Charlie
Hugo
Libby
Michael
Walt
Boone
Sayid
Locke
When I went to recruitment I knew absolutely no one! I knew a few other people that were going to my school but none that were going through rush.
Unfortunately I had a bit of tough time at the beginning of the week because my luggage got lost at the airport! Luckily I ended up having an amazing Rho Gamma group who let me borrow some clothes!!
The first two days of the week we were split up into groups by our last names, they were huge groups because our school the most girls going through recruitment it had ever had…over 700 girls! I was towards the back of my line but I ended up getting along really well with 2 girls in front of me and the 1 behind me, which ended up being really helpful throughout the first few days…which you’ll read about!
Also since I didn’t know much about any of the houses I didn’t go in saying ‘I will only be in X, Y and Z houses. I’m really glad because it helped me judge the houses on the girls I talked to rather than their reputations.
I can’t remember exactly what chapters I visited the first day and the second but we went to 5 the first day then the next 9 the second day.
The first day I wore what I had worn the day before on the plane…since my clothes were still missing along with my bedding and towels!!! Luckily I actually brought my makeup and such on the plane with me!! I wore two tank tops (since it was almost 100 outside) dark blue with white under, jean shorts and sandals, everyone was pretty casual both days so I didn’t stick out too much!
The second day my bedding had made it to town but I was still missing my clothes! I wore the same shorts, different sandals and a free people tank top that a girl let me barrow…it was soo cute!
Claire
I remember that this was the first house I visited. Since I was at the back of the line the last sister had to pick up 3 of us. Luckily we had talked a little before hand so we were all comfortable with each other and weren’t competing for the spot light. Almost right off the bat I knew that I wouldn’t fit into this house, they were a struggling house but they did have a lot of diversity which I liked. Even though I knew I didn’t fit in here I really liked the girls I talked to, she was so friendly and talkative. She told us why she joined the house and how much she loved her sisters, you could really tell that she loved being a member of the house she was in. I was really glad that this was the first house I went to, talking to the sister made me really comfortable and relaxed about the rest of the week!
Eko
I remember waiting inline outside of the house and being surrounded by bees haha, all the girls were freaking out, luckily they don’t scare me too bad! At this house I had a 1-on-1 conversation with a girl who was AMAZING! We talked about why I was going through recruitment, I told her I wasn’t sure if it was for me but I thought I’d give it a shot. She told me about how each house is different for each person, she said her twin had been in the house but ended up dropping because it just wasn’t for her but she’s still friends with people in the house! This girl was just so genuine and just comfortable in her own skin, it really showed by her body language and everything she said! I talked to a few more girls that day but the first one really stood out.
Jack
The first thing I noticed was how light and airy this house was, it really made me feel comfortable. I talked to a few girls here and I remember it was such a tight squeeze in their dining room since there were so many people! I couldn’t really hear some of the girls I talked to….after saying ‘WHAT?’ a few times I just ended up smiling and nodding. The last girl I talked to told me about how diverse the house was, she talked about how there’s a lot of different groups in the house…I’m was all for diversity and wasn’t looking to be in a cookie cutter house but the way she talked about how diverse they were made me a little nervous…I know she was trying to talk up her house but it just came off wrong.
Sawyer
The girl I talked to in this house had a smile plastered on her face and never blinked! It was a little weird…it made me feel like I should just smile, nod and say ‘FOREAL?!? OMG!’ Needless to say I didn’t put this house on the top o f my list. I just didn’t feel a connection to say the least.
Kate
I loved loved loved this house! It was so amazing from the outside and even more on the inside. I talked to two girls (separately, no hot boxing of course!) who I connected with automatically. We spent the whole time laughing, on the point of tears because of it and there was never the ‘so yeah’ awkward moments. I really wanted to go back to this house later for house tour day!
Sun
I only talked to one girl in this house, she was pretty friendly but didn’t smile that much…when she did she looked like she was in pain. She talked a lot about booze, money and designer stuff…which made me feel a little awkward but I made the best of it and we got away from those topics. She told me how close she was to her sisters and how glad she was to have found the house. When I left I was kind of iffy on the chapter but all the other girls in my line had talked to amazing girls so I figured the girl I talked to was kind of a fluke, I wanted the give them another shot.
Charlie
I loved this house right away. The girls were so cute when they came out to get us, and the girl I talked to was amazing. In this house we doubled up (2PMN/1Sister) which wasn’t awkward since I was with the girl behind me in line. We were pretty similar so we just kept the conversation going. I really wanted to go back to this house the next day and really wanted to talk to the same girl again, she made me feel at ease…and so at home!
Hugo
I the outside of this house was kind of funny looking, almost hotel looking, however the inside was amazing! We doubled up for this house, again with the same girl who had always been with me, and we talked to a sophomore. I’m pretty sure this was the fist house of the second day because the girl we talked to was pretty nervous…by the end she ended up being really funny! She talked about how she had just moved in during work week and it made her wish she had moved in sooner because she became so close to the other girls in her house. This house didn’t stick out too much but it was defiantly one I wanted to visit again!
Libby
I’d talked to some pretty down-to-earth girls at other houses but nothing compared to the girl I talked to here. She was exactly like me, we talked about how wearing jeans around the house just felt awkward and how she loved to just curl up in her PJs or sweats and a sweatshirt and just hang out. We ended up laughing the whole time! We talked about how fake some of the girls going though rush were, no on in particular…well I guess I shouldn’t say fake but some of the girls woke up like 3 or 4 hours before we had to meet just to get ready (we all had to meet at 7am!!!) and would only talk to people in line if they were wearing designer clothes!
Michael
This was the only house I semi-knew about before rush so I did end up going into rush really wanting to be a part of this house. One the first two days of recruitment at our school they are allowed to sing/chant…we’d all heard that this house did something scary, but we weren’t sure just what it was. We were standing in line when all the sudden they hit the windows really hard to start off their song...everyone screamed and it was pretty funny. I talked to a girl who had the same major and played the same sports as me, planned ahead of time of course haha! She told me about the types of things the house did as a group and things like that…she also told me stuff no other house did. She talked about school, what classes she liked, etc. and asked me what classes I was taking and even if I had any questions, which was pretty cool. I defiantly wanted to go back to this house!
Walt
I talked to 3 girls in this house. It was pretty cool because the front of the line ended up doubling up rather than the back of the line. The first girl I talked to was pretty down to earth, you could tell she was nervous and the conversation didn’t flow well but it was towards the end of the day and we were both pretty tired! The second girl I talked to was extremely nervous, her eyes kept darting around the room…but she did tell me sorry, that she was kind of awkward which made me laugh. She talked about how she’d joined during informal and loved getting to know all her sisters. The last girl I talked to sat down, we introduced ourselves and the bell rang, meaning the party was over…we laughed because we hadn’t even said more than 10 words to each other.
I wasn’t sure what I thought of this house…not my top but not my bottom either.
Boone
This house kind of reminded me a grandmas house…but the inside was super open! I talked to the president, she was pretty monotone but still interesting. She cracked a few jokes and told me what made her join the house. I didn’t connect to her well but someone next to us spilled their drink so that made everything a little less awkward.
Sayid
Sayid, Sayid, Sayid. This is thought to be the ‘top house’, the ‘rich’ house. I thought it was funny to find that out later since it didn’t stick out at all to me! Sure it was full of blonde, skinny girls wearing tons of diamonds and other jewelry but it didn’t catch my attention. The girl I talked to was so fake…she was overly tan, too much makeup and hair that looked like it took her hours to do, almost prom style. The only thing I remember was when I asked her what she does for fun in the house…her response? ‘We like totally just get together…like a group of like 60 of us and like watch movies and play games’ Puh-lease. The way she said it was the fakest thing I’d heard all week. I made the mistake of saying I’m paying for part of my schooling…that got an interesting facial reaction. I didn’t want to go back.
Locke
I really liked the look of this house. I talked to a brunette…in a house almost full of blondes…she talked about partying for a few minutes but I think she was pretty nervous, once we got off of that subject it never came back up. She told me about house points, study tables, sisterhoods, etc. It was pretty informative since I didn’t know anything about them. I wanted to go back the next day.
That night I went to pref from top to bottom.
1 Michael
2 Kate
3 Charlie
4 Libby
5 Locke
6 Eko
7 Hugo
8 Sun
9 Boone
10 Walt
11 Jack
12 Sawyer
13 Claire
14 Sayid
We could be invited back to a max of 10 houses the next day