nittanygirl's recruitment story!!!

[nittanygirl]

As per als463’s request, I have decided to share my recruitment story at Penn State.

Anyone on here who knows who I am/Knows bits and pieces of my story, please do not post anything that gives it away.

Freshman year, I knew I wanted to join a sorority, but having not yet found GC and not having any Greek relatives, I didn’t really know to research the different organizations on my campus. I ended up joining a service GLO. Service & a sorority? I thought it was the perfect combination.
Long story short, it didn’t turn out to be what I expected, so I planned on signing up for recruitment sophomore Fall semester. Still a member of my service group, there was a complication with us being asked to join a certain council on campus. I would not be able to be a member of both, but wasn’t entirely ready to give up on my service group (afterall, we were doing some great service projects). I could not sign up for recruitment. After it was determined that we could not join, I went through Spring Recruitment (2010) as a sophomore.

This Spring was a very unusual one for recruitment at PSU. Total had recently been raised, so all but two groups were participating in recruitment (17 total) but most were taking less than 7 members. There were about 300 girls going through!
The chapters participating were:
1) Kappa Delta
2) Sigma Sigma Sigma
3) Pi Beta Phi
4) Phi Mu
5) Alpha Omicron Pi
6) Delta Gamma
7) Delta Zeta
8) Alpha Sigma Alpha
9) Zeta Tau Alpha
10) Alpha Phi
11) Kappa Alpha Theta
12) Alpha Xi Delta
13) Sigma Kappa
14) Chi Omega
15) Alpha Chi Omega
16) Alpha Delta Pi
17) Gamma Phi Beta
Kappa & SDT would not be participating. Since there were so many chapters, we had an structured informal recruitment, where we had to go (on our own timing) to 5 or 6 houses three nights in a row, then were invited back to up to three for parties on Saturday or Sunday.

Since I LOVE Food Network, I will be naming my chapters after Food Network Chefs/Personalities.
In no particular order:
Tyler Florence
Ted Allen
Robert Irvine
Artie Sequeria
Morimoto
Cat Cora
Anne Burrell
Michael Symon
Ina Garten
Duff Goldman
Guy Fieri
Giada
Melissa d’Arabian
Bobby Flay
Rachel Ray
Paula Deen
Sandra Lee

So we were assigned 5 or 6 chapters a night in I think 3-4 hours depending on the night, based on their suite locations. We had to go ourselves, and manage our own time-limits at the parties (without clocks or phones this was rough because I didn’t have a watch.

My first night I went to: Sandra Lee, Rachel Ray, Michael Symon, Paula Deen, & Bobby Flay

Sandra Lee
– This was my first chapter. I decided to go here first (we could go in whatever order we wanted as long as we made it to all the houses). I enjoyed my conversations here with girls. Some of the girls seemed nervous talking to me. Some conversations seemed slightly forced. I talked for awhile with the recruitment chair here and she was so sweet! Then there was a fire drill right in the middle of the party! Luckily they knew ahead of time and handled it very well (despite it being January!)

Rachel Ray
– I knew this to be a “top” chapter on campus. I really didn’t think I’d like it as much as I did! I had a great time talking to girls here. I never ran into the girls I knew in this chapter during the party though. All in all, I was really surprised at the good conversations I had here.

Michael Symon
– I really wanted to like this chapter. It was one I liked a lot before recruitment, but didn’t know anyone in. They had a cute video, but I felt ignored by everyone I tried to talk to. Kind of disappointing.

Paula Deen
– I knew multiple girls in this chapter from my major. I walked in and immediately knew someone in an executive position here. I talked to her and had a great conversation with all of them. I really liked their philanthropy. I thought this was a definite maybe. I also thought it might be kind of awkward to join here when I knew how close most of the girls my age already are.

Bobby Flay
– I REALLY wanted to like it here and was VERY disappointed. I wanted to save my favorite (hopeful) for last so I wouldn’t have to limit my time, but by the time I got here, the girls just seemed really worn out and were just sitting around the suite. No very memorable conversations here except one girl was a twin.

After my first night I liked (but we didn’t rank until night 3):
Rachel Ray
Paula Deen
Sandra Lee
Bobby Flay
Michael Symon

[33girl]

What happened if you missed a chapter? Did you forfeit your chance at a bid?

That would be hard, but on the other hand, good way to keep everyone on their toes and make sure who's there for the right reasons.

[nittanygirl]

Originally Posted by 33girl

What happened if you missed a chapter? Did you forfeit your chance at a bid?
.

Yes. If you missed any parties (unless you had class and had an excuse approved ahead of time) you would be released from recruitment.
I was so nervous about messing up my timing.

[nittanygirl]

My second night was the one I was most excited for because I was to go to the chapter I was most interested in! I learned from the night before and went there first. I had to go to Melissa, Morimoto, Duff Goldman, Cat Cora, Ina Garten & Anne Burrell.

Melissa d’Arabian
– I LOVED this chapter before recruitment. I know several girls in this chapter, love their philanthropy and was so excited. The girl I knew best, unfortunately wasn’t there that night which was sad. I met two wonderful girls who pledged as juniors and talked to them first. I really liked them a lot. Then I met several other sisters. I loved this suite. It was so comfortable and homey ☺ I knew I could see myself here. I spent wayyy too much of my time here though!

Morimoto
– I knew a few girls in this chapter from various things around campus. I was lukewarm about it though. I walked in and these girls were dressed very surprisingly for recruitment, but it went well with their theme and they had cute drinks. I really had a hard time talking with girls here though.

Duff Goldman
– These girls I really liked. I loved the suite and all of their awards. I also love their dedication to philanthropy. I met sooo many girls here I don’t know how I could have possibly kept them all straight. I had 5 sisters talking to me at once here. I just happened to be there at a time too, when there were only 3 PNMs in the suite! I could see myself here.

Cat Cora
– This was a chapter that one of my friends said she thought I’d love. Unfortunately, the girl I talked to and I did not click at all. I could hardly even get her to tell me anything about the sorority.

Ina Garten
- A “top” chapter here, and pretty visible on campus. I see their letters more than other chapters when I’m on campus/downtown. I liked one girl I talked to, who didn’t seem to fit the stereotype associated with this chapter, but most of the other conversations were forced, and it was also hard to get a word in with other sisters. I spent a decent amount of time snacking here.

Anne Burrell
– Another “top” chapter, I did not like this at all. I talked more to one PNM who knew someone from my hometown than I did anyone else at this party. I pretty much felt ignored.

As of night two (still no official ranking):
Melissa d’Arabian
Duff Goldman
Rachel Ray
Paula Deen
Sandra Lee
Cat Cora
Morimoto
Bobby Flay
Michael Symon
Ina Garten
Anne Burrell

[nittanygirl]

Night three: Giada, Robert Irvine, Tyler Florence, Ted Allen, Artie, & Guy Fieri
I don’t 100% remember what order I went in this night.
Giada
– I knew one girl in this chapter very well, and another had lived on my floor freshman year! We decorated cookies and I looked at scrapbooks. It was really really cute. I loved it here and they all seemed very close. This was one of my favorites.

Robert Irvine
– I LOVED it here. They were great! I had good conversations with all the girls I met here. The drinks were adorable, their slideshow was cute and I really liked the suite here. This was another favorite! I thought for sure I’d be invited back here.

Tyler Florence
– I really liked this chapter too! I knew another girl from my major here, and she is really sweet! I really liked the two girls I talked to here, who were really good friends. One was a snap bid to the chapter, and actually told me so. The conversation was effortless and I really liked it.
Ted Allen – They had a very big suite! It seemed very empty though with few seats. I sat in a chair while two actives sat at my feet. It was a very awkward situation and we couldn’t seem to get the conversation off the ground.

Artie Sequeria
– The girl I talked to here was gorgeous. I love the way the letters of this chapter look together. Not really a good reason to join a chapter though! We unfortunately didn’t seem to have a lot to talk about.

Guy Fieri
– This was my last house of this ‘round.’ I ran into a girl I knew from my freshman summer here and we talked the whole time. I really liked this chapter, but I don’t think I did myself a favor by only talking to her the whole time, even though it was good to catch up.

My final rankings:
1. Melissa d’Arabian
1. Giada
1. Robert Irvine


2. Duff Goldman
3. Tyler Florence
4. Rachel Ray
5. Paula Deen
6. Guy Fieri
7. Sandra Lee
8. Cat Cora
9. Bobby Flay
10. Artie Sequeria
11. Morimoto
12. Michael Symon
13. Ted Allen
14. Ina Garten
15. Anne Burrell

It was freezing and I remember running to post office to turn in my rankings.

[DubaiSis]

Penn State doesn't have chapter houses, right?

[nittanygirl]

Originally Posted by Jen

I honestly have no idea how you can keep track of so many groups lol. I thought 7 was hard.

lol I know it was rough. If I had waited much longer to write this I don't know if I'd have remembered as much. But luckily since their suites are all so different and since I was already familiar with the groups, I think it made it easier to remember them based on how their suites are set up! Plus the chapters I already knew girls in are easier to remember.

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Penn State doesn't have chapter houses, right?

Nope. We have suites/floors in the dorms.

[DubaiSis]

Doesn't that seem weird for a Greek system this size? Maybe the Big 10 will rub off on Penn State and you can make that big change.

[BraveMaroon]

Despite the lack of UGA Alum and my favorite food geek Alton Brown in the lineup (perhaps he's either KKG or SDT? ), I am enjoying this one.

Write on!!!

[nittanygirl]

Originally Posted by BraveMaroon

Despite the lack of UGA Alum and my favorite food geek Alton Brown in the lineup (perhaps he's either KKG or SDT? ), I am enjoying this one.

Write on!!!

Oohhhh yesss, I think he is!! lol

More story coming soon! I had the rest of this written but it disappeared from the word doc? Oh well! I'll finish and post more later!

[33girl]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Doesn't that seem weird for a Greek system this size? Maybe the Big 10 will rub off on Penn State and you can make that big change.

No, no, no.

(from Penn State's web site)

Myth: There are no sorority houses at Penn State because of an old Pennsylvania law that defined a dwelling that housed a certain number of unrelated women as a brothel.
Fact: Sorority houses did exist on the University Park campus, and there is no such state law nor any University prohibition against sorority houses per se. The first sorority house on campus was Stone House (a former faculty residence), which in 1928 became home to a women’s social club, Nita-Nee, which became Kappa Alpha Theta in 1930 and occupied the house until 1949. Other sororities also had campus houses but, like KAT, moved out of these aging structures soon after World War II and into newly available suites in residence halls. The sororities rented the suites from the University—as they continue to do today. The advantages of residence hall suites and the high cost of private housing in the post-war era discouraged off-campus sorority houses, although the borough of State College, in its zoning laws, makes no distinction between sorority and fraternity houses.


The absence of houses makes sorority membership far more affordable and it would be a shame to lose that. Many members most likely would not be able to be part of the Greek system if they had to pay the dues associated with having a huge house.

Not to mention, I have no clue where they'd put the things.

Also keep in mind that the chapters at Penn State are smaller than at most Big Ten schools.

[nittanygirl]

So, Saturday morning, dressed in my new cute outfit I found at TJ Maxx the day before, I went to a lecture hall on campus where we were to receive our invites back.
They called us out alphabetically (boo I hate this system) and so I had to wait forever. In our “alphabetical” groups, we went to different, smaller classrooms in the building to receive our invites. Before the girl passed out our slips of paper, she reminded everyone that since this was not formal recruitment, and sororities did not have a lot of spots open, that we may not all get three chapters back, and we may not get back our favorites.
Anxiously, I waited for my slip of paper.
I got it, it read.
Saturday: ------------------ Sandra Lee -------
Sunday: ------------------------------------ Paula Deen

I was crushed that I got cut from all of my top chapters. I really liked one of them and had met so many girls in it that I thought for sure I’d at least be invited back to second parties. It kind of hurt when I heard a girl complaining about getting back my favorite chapter. How did that even happen when there were so few spots open? Wouldn’t they invite girls back who wanted to be there over girls who didn’t? Being a GC reader/poster, I didn’t want to be upset., because here I had two chapters left. Even though I was lukewarm about them. Still. This was more chapters than some girls had received back, and I knew I would at least give it a try. Even though did shed a small tear over loosing a lot of favorites.

Since my party at Sandra Lee was not until the afternoon, and I had to catch a bus that wasn’t scheduled for awhile, I stopped and got a Starbucks. There, I ran into the girl I knew well from Giada. She just kind of looked at me, gave me a weak smile, and turned away. This made me feel very sad inside, but I decided not to let it get to me that my favorite chapters had cut me.

[nittanygirl]

Saturday, I trudged back to campus in the snow to attend my party at Sandra Lee.
There were a lot of girls waiting outside the suite when I got there. When we went in, we sat in groups of a few PNMS and a few sisters at various places around the suite. Another PNM who I ended up sitting right next to had been my neighbor on my floor freshman year! This was her second time through recruitment of any kind. I honestly don’t remember much about the conversations here other than that. I didn’t dislike it here though.

Saturday night I got a phone call from home with some bad/upsetting news that would really impact my joining/pledging a sorority. It left me worried about time, stress, and financials. I considered dropping out right then, but I thought maybe, just maybe I could find a way to make it all work. And I didn’t want to drop out right in the middle of a “round” because I thought it would be rude. I didn’t want either of the chapters to think I wasn’t interested at all. So I went to my last party.

Sunday, was my party at Paula Deen. When we went in here, we were paired with one other girl and we made a big circle around the room. PNMs in chairs, actives on the floor. I talked to this one girl the whole time. The only thing I remember talking about a little bit was THON and the committee I was on for it at the time. This was in January & THON is in February, so all of campus was getting pretty excited! My conversation here was okay, but it just didn’t really feel right.

That night I sat in a chair in front of the Greek Life office for hours. I was contemplating dropping out again. The situation and more phone calls from home, were really on my mind. In the end, after 3 hours of sitting in front of the office, I decided I needed to drop out., but I was in tears. I thought this was really my last chance at being a part of a sorority. I just knew though, that I couldn’t take the place of someone else who really wanted to be there, in case I wouldn’t be able to afford it and would have to drop out. So sadly, I went home.

[nittanygirl]

Monday I received a call about a snap bid into a chapter, but unfortunately I had to decline due to the situation at home. It wasn’t that I didn’t long to be a part of a great organization, but I just knew that there was no way I could afford it this semester now.
So throughout the Spring semester, I saw girls everywhere in their letter shirts. I tried to push it all behind me, and yet again to jump into my service organization. It just still was not a fit for me as hard as I tried to get involved.

Summer came, and I was taking a class on campus where you have teams of to work on a “project” that is essentially the whole class. My roommate and was one of the people picking teams, and picked a girl from her high school to be on our team. She was a Sandra Lee. Let’s call her Suzi.

Over the summer, Suzi and I began hanging out more and more, because we were also both leaders in a campus program that helps freshman adjust to campus. Suzi introduced me to many of her Sandra Lee friends this summer and we hung out various times. I became closer with another girl Suzi introduced me to in Sandra Lee as well. We one day decided to take a trip to Hershey Park. What better way to get to know someone than to get lost in Hershey and then spend the day going around the amusement park together? Pretty typical way to become friends, right? During that day the girl told me more about Sandra Lee and her experiences in her sorority.

Because of this girl, and Suzi, I became more interested in the thought of going through recruitment again. The issues at home had long since subsided, and I was had all summer to save up some money to put towards dues this year, if I were to go through recruitment again.
After this summer, I was a Junior. Juniors get bids at Penn State. It is not unheard of, but you still have to keep a very open mind, which was fine with me. I decided to email recruitment chairs once it got closer to the semester about COB events happening before formal recruitment. If they didn't work out, I would possibly consider giving formal recruitment a try.

[angels&angles]

This is a great story and I really appreciate you posting it all at once. Can't wait to hear what happens next!