I rushed this fall at a school notorious for how difficult its rush process is. At orientation, the night before festivities started, the head of recruitment bragged about our school's high placement rate, and how the number of people who aren't asked back to any house at all was so small it was practically nonexistent.
This didn't quell my fears. For some reason, it made it worse, and my mind started racing about how I would be the one person out of over a thousand that would get completely cut from all the houses and have no options.
As the week unfolded, I realized how irrational that fear was--both for myself and everyone around me.
So, here is my advice for going through sorority recruitment:
1. What you're wearing doesn't really matter.
Yeah, everybody is going to tell you this and you're going to roll your eyes at them. You're probably rolling your eyes at me right now, and stop it! I can honestly say that from round one all the way to bid day, nobody even batted their eyes at what I was wearing, and I suddenly felt silly for spending so much time on every meticulous detail. Nobody cares! The girls that are rushing you really are genuinely interested in getting to know you for who you are, not for what you're wearing. (Well, maybe one house is interested in what you're wearing… but only one out of eleven!)
2. Be prepared to be so far from prepared for what you will see at your first house.
Hang with me on this one. On day one, I was seriously about to throw up on the front lawn of my first house. I was so nervous and I really didn't think I would be able to even carry a conversation once I got in there because I would freeze up.
Also, the yelling. There is SO much yelling, especially during the early rounds. Door songs, goodbye songs… sometimes you'll be in the middle of a conversation with a girl and she'll start yelling in your face. It's crazy. Organized chaos at best. You just have to hope the houses you like come later in your schedule.
And just remember that every girl you talk to during rush has been through the exact same process you have. Especially at the first few houses on round one, they all understand that you're very likely overwhelmed, whether you hide it well or not.3. Be yourself!!!
This is a cliché for a reason!!! It especially holds true when you're going through a process like recruitment. The idea is to find your new home, and you can't do that unless you truly act yourself. It would be miserable to fake your way through recruitment and end up in a house with absolutely nobody you could get along with for the next four years of your life.
College is so much fun, even more so when you have people to share it with. I was true to myself all the way through recruitment and ultimately ended up in the house I was supposed to be in. And it is so much more fun that way! When I ran home on bid day, I was screaming and crying and acting absolutely crazy, but wasn't judged for it at all because so many girls were acting the exact same way I was.
4. Trust the process.
This is another recruitment cliché that is so hard to hear, especially when you're in the middle of recruitment and you feel like a million things are being thrown at you. Trust. The. Process. Ultimately, you will end up where you need to end up. And you will be so thankful! Trusting the process for what it is makes absolutely no sense but works out in your favor. And it will save you so much energy and stress!
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