<p>My D is a freshman at Pitt and thinking aboiut rushing a sorority. Can anyone clue me in to what happens during the "rush"? And what the different sororities are like?</p>
<p>I know very little. I wasn’t Greek in school. Here is what I have picked up:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Moms who were in the particular sororities in which your D is interested write letters of recommendations. In most areas, it’s totally okay to ask someone even if they don’t know your D particularly well.</p></li>
<li><p>Some schools place all girls, others don’t. (I.e. at some schools every girl gets a bid from a sorority, even if it’s her last choice. At others, some girls are totally left out.)</p></li>
<li><p>It seems like at most schools, the girls dress up for the rush events…check the web sites for pix. For some it’s sun dresses. Others look very dressy. At a few they are very casual (t-shirts). Find out about the wardrobe.</p></li>
<li><p>Rush is extremely stressful for many girls and many moms…even if their D isn’t rushing. Example of how the moms get involved: Girl is cut from her favorite, wants to make sure she gets in to her second favorite. Her friends and the mom start a search (usually by text or email) of older friends (HS alums, drill teammates a year older, D’s of their mom’s friends) who may be in that particular sorority to put in a good word for her.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Greek folks, feel free to correct anything I’ve said.</p>
<p>I wasn’t Greek, either, and Frazzled D surprised me when she wanted to rush.</p>
<p>I think MP pretty much has it down, except I learned:</p>
<p>They give you a list of guidelines for what to wear for each day of rush. Some of the"parties" are more formal than others. As an aside - Frazzled D is usually a very casual dresser, and many of the rush outfits were never worn again. She might have done better to borrow clothing from friends?</p>
<p>It looks like Pitt has an information night tomorrow night, so your daughter will have a much better sense of the process after that introduction.
You might find it helpful to check out Pitt’s Collegiate Panhellenic website, which lists the sororities on campus.</p>
<p>Stressful for moms? I got the “oh yeah, and I thought I’d rush sororities this week” reference, and that was about it. Now her friends, they were involved, and their closets scrounged for appropriate outfits.</p>
<p>@ frazzled2thecore in post 3 - I wasn’t Greek either, and two of my frazzled ds surprised me by going through rush. :D. They eventually pledged at very different houses at very different schools, but have had similarly rewarding experiences. They didn’t live for the Greek thing, but found that it added a rewarding dimension to their college lives.</p>
<p>For an enlightening read, I’d look at greek chat (google it). The ins and outs of sorority recruiting are exhaustively detailed there. It’s very different from campus to campus, and house to house.</p>
<p>Be very careful with Greek chat. It attracts a disproportionate number of people who take the process VERY seriously. It would be like reading College Confidential and concluding that 90% of the college-going populace is applying to HYPSM!</p>
<p>That’s a good analogy. I remember stumbling across GC a few years ago and feeling a dread for my poor baby trying to navigate recruitment all on her own. Her experience turned out to be much less daunting than I feared, and was very well explained at her school’s informational nights, Greek Life website, etc.</p>
<p>I still think GC was an enlightening read, though. Makes it possible to glean the meanings of all the terms and have an idea of the way the process works without asking your kid to explain it to you (though you have to offset the fact that some posters are really invested in it). She could have explained it to me, but I wanted her to think I was learning to let go. ;)</p>
<p>The process of “rush” is so that the sorority girls can meet each prospective. And vice versa. It is very different at every school. If you are interested in sororities at Pitt, I would really recommend asking the parents on that board.</p>
<p>For example, at my DD’s school, they don’t dress up for rush. It’s not about dressing to impress. They equalize this by having all the girls rushing wear the same t-shirt with jeans. This way they are not judged by how they look.</p>
<p>FYI - I was Greek at college… and it was so different than what I’ve read here on CC. (Interesting that some of the first people who responded to your post were not Greek.)</p>
<p>Your best bet is to find out what it’s like specifically at Pitt.</p>
<p>Here is the parents’ guide to sorority life from National Panhellenic. It has a really good overview of what to expect.
[National</a> Panhellenic Conference](<a href=“http://www.npcwomen.org/parents.aspx]National”>http://www.npcwomen.org/parents.aspx)</p>
<p>Personally, I think there is a lot of interesting things on greek chat, but it won’t all apply to your D. After all, Pitt does not have the same competitive recruitment as an SEC school, but you can definitely pick up do’s and don’ts. Let me give (through you) a few pieces of advice:</p>
<ol>
<li>Go in with an open mind. Don’t listen to “reputations” of houses, especially from other clueless freshmen. You will hear that one house or another is unpopular, or the party girls. Fact is, most of these stereotypes are not really true, and she should judge the women for herself. In reality, she is not looking for fashion models, but rather people that she wants to hang with on a Friday night. In the same vein, give a chance to groups even if you didn’t click with the first person that you meet. After all, there are 60+ members at Pitt, so you haven’t met everyone. </li>
<li>Do make a good first impression. Wear clean, figure-flattering clothes that fit with the guidelines that she learns from the Orientation. I say err on the side of dressy when possible. For instance, if they say jeans or skirt, go for a skirt. Wear comfortable shoes (lots of walking, standing). I think it is helpful to wear a piece of jewelry that is a conversation piece.</li>
<li>Clean up your facebook profile! Trust me, they will look. Make sure there are no really unflattering photos of you dancing with a red cup in hand. You can choose to make everything private, but the groups will probably want to at least look at your photo and check out your interests. </li>
<li><p>Conversation is key. Here are some questions that you should be able to answer with confidence:
- Tell me about yourself.
- How did you choose your major?
- What are your hobbies?
- What kind of community service have you done?
- What prompted you to go through recruitment?
- Why are you interested in joining a sorority?
- Favorites: music, TV shows, movies, color/s, sports
- Do you like to travel? Where have you traveled?
- What did you do this summer?
10)What classes are you taking?
11)If you’re a freshman, how did you choose this university?
12)If you’re an upperclassman, why did you decide to rush this year? How many more years will you be in school?
13)What kinds of clubs were you involved with in high school?
14)Do you have any Greeks in your family?
15)Where are you living this year? - What do you like to do for fun?</p></li>
<li><p>If you truly want to be in a house, maximize your options. Don’t skip a party. if you get to preference, rank both houses. You are more likely to get a house. Evn if you end up in a house that you don’t love (yet) go to bid day activities, get to know the other pledges and have a great time. If you really don’t feel it after you have gone through new member education, then drop before you are initiation. That way, you give them a chance to get to know you. But once initiated, you can’t join another sorority. Regardless, if you recive a bid, you can’t rush again for a year. If you go to pref night and REALLY don’t like your choices, then don’t sign your bid card. But think to yourself, do I want to have sisters? It is often more difficult to get a bid as a sophomore, and the groups that you rejected may reject you next time. After all, they WANT you as a sister.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>“4. Rush is extremely stressful for many girls and many moms…even if their D isn’t rushing. Example of how the moms get involved: Girl is cut from her favorite, wants to make sure she gets in to her second favorite. Her friends and the mom start a search (usually by text or email) of older friends (HS alums, drill teammates a year older, D’s of their mom’s friends) who may be in that particular sorority to put in a good word for her.”</p>
<p>That may be true in the southern / SEC campuses, but it certainly wouldn’t be true of where LINYMOM and I went. Either they like the girl or they don’t. The most that would happen would be if someone discovered a current sister actively in the house had some connection to Suzie Q – they’d make sure they were put together during parties to help break the ice. But there’s no “good word” that would matter if they didn’t mesh with Suzie Q. They are running their own “shop” – as they should.</p>
<p>thanks for all the info! I checked the Pitt website and the sororities there are:</p>
<p>Chi Omega
Theta Phi Alpha
Kappa Delta
Delta Phi Epsilon
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Epsilon Phi</p>
<p>Do the sororities each have a special focus (eg. a type of community service or academic interest) or are they just basically clubs of girls who like each other and want to socialize/party together? Do some of the sororities have relationship with fraternities?</p>
<p>I’m not planning to get involved in the recruitment process…just really curious…I think my D brought plenty of clothing but not too much on the fancy side- though I’m sure she can borrow from other girls as needed. </p>
<p>I was worried because I had read somewhere about recommendation letters and such…and I haven’t got a clue about where my D would obtain one!</p>
<p>AEPhi is historically Jewish, but that may or may not be the case at Pitt. Each sorority will have a philanthropy or cause (heart disease, cancer, etc.) but you don’t ave to have any special interest in that cause. </p>
<p>Rec letters are a huge freaking deal in some systems, and no big deal / optional in others. I would suspect Pitt would be the latter type. If thats the case, You can simply say to people you know -hey my D is going through rush at Pitt, can you write her a reco. They will go to their alum magazine or website, pull down a brief form, fill it out, and send it in. If Pitt is like what I think it is, it’s not a huge deal either way – each house is going to meet her anyway and form whatever mutual impressions from there, and the rec letter merely serves as a “hey, keep an eye out for …”. In the southern / SEC schools, it appears to be a much bigger deal. Again, have someone “on the ground” confirm what I’m hypothesizing about Pitt.</p>
<p>There is quite a lot of info on Pitt on greek chat, plus some posters who are alumni and advisors there… suggest your daughter does a bit of a search there for info - but most info should come from the Greek Life office at Pitt!</p>
<p>good luck to her - she will meet lots of new people regardless of the outcome</p>
<p>Never ever having been greek, when my older D was in the middle of rush at Syracuse(and I was clueless) I enlisted the guidance of a good friend who was Greek back in the 80’s at Emory…</p>
<p>In addition, I contacted the greek office at Syracuse to ask ALOT of questions, mostly pertaining to expenses and procedure so we knew that when we got the crying phone call, how to react or not react…I was basically clueless beforehand and found the greek office to be a valuable resource…</p>
<p>ditto everyone else’s responses that greek like is VERY different at every school…</p>
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<p>That is SO nice.</p>
<p>My D visited 11 schools - about a third “southern”, a third “midwestern” and a third “northern.” After visiting each school, she would say whether she would rush there or not. There was one particular southern flagship where she said “abolutely no way.” My friend had two nieces going through rush at that school. Even though one got her first choice and the other got her second, both said it was the worst experiece of their lives. They were positive that several of the sororities judged SOLELY on looks.</p>
<p>I am not saying this to trash sororities. I am saying this to stress that you can’t generalize nationwide, or even statewide. Rush at several of the large southern schools is reportedly BRUTAL…girls have left schools because of it. Rush at other schools is reportedly fun and pleasant.</p>
<p>Do research the particular school and try to talk to moms and girls (who are not drama queens) about what to expect.</p>
<p>^^Ditto rush at Penn State; I know at least two girls who have left the school in the past few years due to the brutal aspect of Rush…</p>
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<p>And did you get the crying phone call? (I hope not!)</p>
<p>I wrote this back in 2010 about how they match up girls with sororities by using a computer program.</p>
<p>The first round girls visit every sorority. After the first round, each house ranks girls from 1 to whatever. Every girl picks their top 8 out of 12 (total number of sororities), lets say. The computer program then try to match each girl’s pick with sororoties’s ranking. If a sorority gets to have 100 girls return after the first round, then as long as you are one of those top 100 and the sorority is also your top 8 then that sorority will stay on your list. Lets say if a sorority has you as their top 100 and you didn’t pick them, then they wouldn’t be on your list, EXCEPT if you were suppose to have 8 sororities on your list and only 5 had you as their top 100, then whichever sorority ranked you higher would get you to come back. That is why some girls wonder why certain sororities keep on coming back to their list, even though they have cut those sororities from their list. </p>
<p>For the next round, girls would have fewer on their list, and sororities would also invite fewer girls back. They keep on doing this until the final round where girls only have top 3 sororities left (now remember, not all 3 could be their top choices). Each girl at that point rank those sororities for the first time from 1-3 (before just a random list 8, 6 4 sororities). Each sorority then rank girls from 1-60, knowing they would only take 40 (each house takes different number of girls). The computer program then look at each girl’s list (from 1-3) to see if their first choice also have her as their top 40, if so, then that girl is done, if not then it looks at the second choice to see if that second choice sorority has her on their top picks, and so forth. It’s the same for a sorority. They may have their top 40s picked out, but those top 40s may not choose them as their first choices, then they would need to dip down below their top 40s to get a full class. If not enough girls pick them as their top 3 then a house could end up with fewer girls.</p>
<p>The whole matching up is kind of complicated, sometimes I wonder if their computer program is full proof to take all of that into consideration. In theory that´s how it is suppose to work.</p>
<p>What oldfort describes at Cornell is generally the same at Northwestern. Except in our day we carried punch cards to the computing center, which of course you never visited since only nerds were into computers. The bottom line is that the system privileges the girl’s picks over the house’s picks.</p>