A Totally 90's Teen Movie Recruitment Story!

[APhiLife]

I decided to post my recruitment story with a theme of some of the most popular teen movies from my high school and early college days. I always knew about GLO’s growing up- my mother, aunts and several cousins were all in sororities at different schools in Texas and Oklahoma.
My own mother was tall and glamorous and believed the right connections and social graces were every bit as important as education. She was able to pay her own way through college with the scholarships she earned as a state champion majorette and by competing in beauty pageants.
I grew up in a small town in the South and then my family completely ruined my life by moving to the MidWest when I was in high school. In the 90’s teenagers still had regional fashion trends and accents, so I was definitely a fish out of water. I soon made friends through two of my favorite activities as I was heavily involved in teen pageants and competition cheerleading.
At my new High School I was on Varsity Cheer, selected for Homecoming Court, VP of NHS and in the top 10% of my class. During my senior year in high school, I decided on a state university near my family’s new home. My mother immediately started preparing me for rush the next fall. We were able to secure 2-3 recs and letters of support for each of the sororities on campus from our friends and family back in TX and OK.

My school had 9 National Sororities at the time and I have named them each after a teen movie from the 90’s. In no particular order they are:
She’s All That
Clueless
The Craft
Never Been Kissed
Romi & Michelle’s High School Reunion
Varsity Blues
Can’t Hardly Wait
Pleasantville
Election

[honeychile]

Loving the theme already!

[APhiLife]

I was extremely nervous going into Rush because growing up in Big 12 Country I had always heard horror stories about rush at UT, OU, SMU, etc. So many girls would be crushed by the disappointment of not getting into the house of their dreams or being cut from rush altogether.
Rush was not until a month into the school year so I was hoping to time to meet some of the actives. My mom and 1 cousin were Can’t Hardly Wait. I had two aunts and several cousins who were Varsity Blues and one aunt and 2 cousins who were Pleasantville. The only other house I knew anything about was The Craft- I still don’t know why but my mom and aunts all disliked The Craft with a vengeance.
I registered for Rush the first week of school (the day registration opened!) but did not receive any advanced information about the schedule other than the dates. I asked what the dress was for each day and was told we would find out at Rush Orientation- which took place the night before Open House/Round 1. That would be way too late to go shopping so I called up my cousin who was an active for Varsity Blues at UT Austin and she was nice enough to tell me what to wear for each round.
Open House Round was here before I knew it! I had met members of almost all the houses on campus at class or at fraternity parties and overall had a very positive view of the Greek women at my university. I was still a nervous wreck so my mom said to take the “For Emergencies Only” credit card my parents left with me and get my hair and nails done. Luckily I didn’t have any Friday afternoon classes so a nice style and a French manicure had me feeling great.
For Round 1 (Open House Round) we went to each house for 35 minutes. This round we were told to wear our recruitment T-Shirt and bottoms of our choice. Most girls were wearing shorts and tennis shoes or sandals but I went with a pair of Tommy jeans and high heels because that is what my cousin in Texas said would look best…..

My Rho Chi was gorgeous and seemed really cool. I just knew she was aShe’s All That.

She’s All That- The house was beautiful and these sisters seemed very put together. My rusher seemed really nice but did talk about how their house was big on respect and that younger members had to know their place. They also talked a lot about partying- 18 year old me thought this sounded great! These were the girls I wanted to be, but I wasn’t sure.
Clueless- These girls all looked exactly alike- tall, blond and very thin. Their house was nice, but I could tell that the girls did not take care of it. My rusher asked me what fraternity guys I knew and then started telling me all about the sisters in their house who dated guys in those fraternities.
Can’t Hardly Wait- This group came bounding down the stairs from their house clapping and singing in unison. I really liked my rusher- it turned out she was the older sister of a girl I knew from high school. I also got to talk to two other girls in this house who seemed very down to earth.
Pleasantville- I was so excited to go to this house because I had family who were in Pleasantville. The house was okay, but seemed to be decorated more like a daycare center than for college women. My rusher was really sweet but she seemed a little shy.
The Craft- The girls in this house seemed very laid back. They were the first group I saw that wasn’t dressed all matchy-matchy for Round 1. It seemed like this house was full of girls who didn’t mind being different from one another.
Never Been Kissed- This house was a bit smaller than the others. The girl that rushed me was okay. She asked me what I thought of the other houses I had been too already. I just didn't feel like this was the house for me.
Election- This group was all about leadership. They were known for being very active in other clubs and organizations on our campus. I remember feeling more like I was in a job interview than talking to a friend at this house.
Romi & Michelle’s- These girls were very high energy. My rusher was a cheerleader at our school and talked to me about that. The two girls I talked to at this house said everything like they were so super excited they were about to bust. I just couldn't get their door chant out of my head for the rest of the evening.
Varsity Blues- This house had a lot of trophies and said they always won Greek competitions, etc. They seemed like a very cohesive group and had very outgoing personalities. They seemed to all gel together very well.

At the end of the night, I had very sore feet but was very excited. I just knew I was meant to be a She's All That! Their house was beautiful, they were beautiful. Of course they were probably already fighting over who would get to be my BIG! Right?
I called my mom that night and said I totally know which house I am going to be in. She said to just keep my options open. Okay, afterall- It seemed like every house could be so much fun! But I had to rank them to select my top 6 for Philanthropy Day:

1-She’s All That
1-Can’t Hardly Wait
1-The Craft
1-Pleasantville
1-Romi & Michelle’s
1-Varsity Blues
2-Clueless
2-Election
2-Never Been Kissed

[Benzgirl]

Originally Posted by APhiLife

I grew up in a small town in the South and then my family completely ruined my life by moving to the MidWest when I was in high school.

[APhiLife]

Benzgirl-
16 year old me thought that moving up north was a fate worse than death. Somehow I survived. I feel bad for my parents now that I look back on the time known as the summer of pouting.

[APhiLife]

There was a lot of tent talk on Friday evening into Saturday morning. A guy I knew from XYZ fraternity called and asked me which houses I liked. I said they were all nice girls, I knew that if I told him my favorites, then I might as well shout it from the rooftops. We were told to wear spiritwear for our university- so I put on a pair of khakis and my favorite new tiny-tee from the bookstore.

I met up with Rho Chi group at the Student Center and noticed that two girls were missing. We found out that they had already dropped which seemed really strange. Also, about 80% of the rushees were wearing the free t-shirt we received at the freshman orientation over the summer. I was nervous that I looked weird wearing something else, but it was too late to run back to the dorm and change. So I got my invite list and it was:


Can't Hardly Wait
The Craft
Pleasantville
Romi & Michelle’s
Varsity Blues
Clueless


I have to admit I was a bit disappointed that She’s All That didn’t invite me back. I didn’t understand why and wondered if I did something at their party. But I was still THRILLED to have a full schedule and put on my best pageant smile. During Philanthropy round we had 6 parties that were 45 minutes each.

Pleasantville- These girls had a wonderful door chant and their smiling faces were a great sight to see. They did a short presentation about their house accomplishments and then we did a craft that tied into their philanthropy. This house was very passionate about their national cause and the girl who was rushing me said that she had spent 4 weeks during summer volunteering at a camp that tied into their philanthropy. I liked these girls but their house overall seemed like the girls were kind of babyish.
Romi & Michelle’s This house had a really long door chant with a bunch of synchronized movements. It was impressive. They were so perky. We did paint picture frames for their philanthropy and conversation was easy with the girl rushing me. About every 10 minutes or so one of the girls would start a shout out and the rest of the chapter would do a chant or a song. It kind of stopped the flow of conversation and all the bouncing up and down seemed a little strange. I still liked this house but I didn’t know if I could be THAT perky and happy all the time.
Clueless- The first thing that surprised me at this house is that the girls did not come outside to greet us but had us walk in and then an active picked each girl up. After a few hellos, the active that I was with realized she had the wrong girl. Instead of telling me that she just said that she saw a girl she really connect with yesterday and wanted to say hello. So a few minutes later a girl comes rushing up to me and says she is so sorry she forgot that she was supposed to be with me this party. So this house had us tie dye tank tops for girls who participated in their philanthropy. I was very nervous about getting dye all over my clothes as I still had two more parties to attend. This house just gave me the impression that they were kind of too cool to care much.
The Craft- Again, this house was not dressed all matchy-matchy so we could see a bit of each girls individual style. They didn’t do a chant or anything, but did come out and greeted us each by name. Once inside we walked down a hallway that had a photo tour of the house working on their philanthropy projects. A group of the girls had even gone overseas to help with a school for their philanthropy. I really liked this house and felt like the rushers were really trying to get to know me.
Varsity Blues- I was really glad that I had the same rusher from the day before at this house. I also like that not all the girls in this house looked alike. We decorated bags for their philanthropy project and luckily being a Southern girl- I definitely knew how to use a Bedazzler and fabric puff paint! I talked with the actives in this house about intramural sports and sisterhood events. They liked to travel to other universities and chapters of their sorority. I could definitely see myself in this house.
Can’t Hardly Wait- When I first got my schedule I was very nervous that being in the last party the day meant I was at the bottom of their list. I was also concerned that the only reason they invited me back was because I was a legacy. This house had another great opening door chant and the actives came out in order to pick up their girls. I really liked my rusher and found her easy to talk to. The philanthropy activity was putting together toiletry kits. It wasn’t the most exciting activity but I was touched when two of the actives talked about their own experiences with the philanthropy. I really liked this house and was super excited to think that I might wind up wearing the same letters as my mom!

After we let the last party- I was completely drained. We went back to Student Center and ranked the houses. My picks were:
[COLOR="rgb(255, 0, 255)"]1-Can’t Hardly Wait [/COLOR]
1-The Craft
1-Varsity Blues
2-Pleasantville
3-Romi & Michelle’s
4-Clueless

Afterwards we had an all Rushee pizza party at the campus Bowling Alley and the tent talk was going wild. I heard from one of the girls in my Rho Chi group that the “missing rushes” were due to Clueless calling some girls and telling them to drop formal rush and go through COB. Also, I heard that Can't Hardly Wait had all their parties full that day so I was so worried that my chances for Pref were not good.

I was completely exhausted and hoping that I had a full schedule of 3 Prefs the next day!

[KYKAT]

Thanks for sharing.

[Benzgirl]

I'm rooting for The Craft. Sorry, mom.

[33girl]

As above, so below. I would root for Romy and Michelle but it sounds like Christy Masters horned her way in and planned some of the recruitment parties.

[BlueCarnation]

Are you going to tell us where you went to school? I think I know, but...

Thanks for sharing!

[Benzgirl]

Pretty sure I know but I'll hold my tongue...or keyboard.

[APhiLife]

So the next afternoon I went to the Student Center and received my invites for Pref and they were:


Varsity Blues
The Craft
Can’t Hardly Wait

I breathed a huge sigh of relief once I knew I had a full schedule.

Varsity Blues- I was so excited to come to this pref party! I really liked this group and felt like I could just be myself. I was rushed by a very nice girl I had briefly talked to on Philanthropy Day. Everything was going great until one of the Chapter VP’s came over and when I was introduced she just busted out laughing. My rusher was looking away like she didn’t want to start laughing too. The VP apologized and said that she and other girls thought I must be some kind of sorority stalker when they received my rec and letter of support. That they read them out loud in their best “Ellie Mae” voice and just had quite a laugh about it. I am sure I just looked shocked, I felt like you could have knocked me over with a feather. I just wanted to get out of there. I can’t even really remember the pref ceremony at this house at all.

Can’t Hardly Wait- I had to really pull myself together before this pref party. I put on my best smile and loved the intro that the CHW’s had for Pref. My rusher was a great conversationalist and the time seemed to go by really quickly. The Pref Ceremony was very pretty and I did cry a little. It felt great to release some of the nervousness with those tears. I also like that the sisters walked us each all the way to the door when we were leaving.

The Craft- My last pref party was The Craft and the sisters all looked so excited for Pref day. I remember being rushed by a super sweet girl who had also grown up in Oklahoma so we had a lot in common to talk about. They had a very beautiful ceremony that really highlighted how much they appreciated all the girls in their chapter. I was very nervous and could definitely see myself in this house too.


At the end of Pref we went back to the Student Center. I wish I remembered more about the 2nd and 3rd parties on Pref Day- I guess it is true that a negative impression always lasts longer! I put down my choices as:
1- Can’t Hardly Wait
2- The Craft
Then I left and went to call my mom and tell her that my choices were either her house or The Craft. It was a rather uncomfortable call.

[33girl]

Were you supposed to only put down two, or were you purposely skipping Varsity Blues even though you were supposed to have 3 written down?

[APhiLife]

The next evening I rushed to the Student Center for Bid Night and opened my envelope and was thrilled to see a Pledge T-Shirt for......

Can't Hardly Wait


Also known as- Alpha Phi at Northern Illinois University!

Just wondering if any of y'all had guessed it would be
Can't Hardly Wait?

[APhiLife]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Were you supposed to only put down two, or were you purposely skipping Varsity Blues even though you were supposed to have 3 written down?

I was purposely skipping writing down Varsity Blues. My 18 year old feelings were fragile.