My Sorority Rush Experience: It's No Longer All Greek to Me

I originally planned to avoid rushing because I was hearing mixed things about Greek Life. A girl I lived with freshman year had pledged, and although she seemed to be happy with her decision, I never saw her because she was spending so much time with her soon to be sisters. I labeled that as a bad thing. How did she find time for her homework or her other friends, I wondered.

Also, in the last couple years, Greek life at my school has been the focus of some major hazing problems. In the semester I rushed, for example, three sororities were unable to participate due to hazing allegations against them. They wouldn't be able to recruit new sisters again until the fall. This scared me, but I wanted to find out for myself if all sororities hazed.

So I filled out the rush sign up form and before I knew it, I was preparing for the first night of rush. The first night was Meet your Rho Chi night. A Rho Chi is a sorority woman who disaffiliates from her chapter to support groups of potential sisters throughout the rush process. You do not know which sorority she is in, and the current sisters will make sure that you do not get this information by covering up pictures of her in photo albums.

At Meet Your Rho Chi, we were given a small pamphlet with rush definitions such as bids, formal and informal events, the silence period, and even a background about rush itself. There was also a schedule of events and a directory of the sororities on campus. We were divided into color coded groups by a pre-determined list. We also got our Rho Chi's contact information so we could call her if we needed support or if there was an emergency.

Our next round of rush was called Sweeten Ups. Before we went in to meet the sororities, we listened to a presentation by some current sisters about why they enjoyed being Greek. All the sororities were together in one room and the rush groups each got a few minutes to spend at each sorority's table. While there, we saw photo albums, examples of big/little gifts, got to ask the sisters questions, and received information about dues and the sorority history.

Following Sweeten Ups, there were two nights of Opens. For opens, we went to an academic building where we rotated to different classrooms to meet larger groups of sisters. Each room was decorated based on the sorority's rush theme and there was a sister who took us around and talked to us about her group. We would see some sorority clothing and once again, pictures from the different functions and events.

During this round, we were able to get to know our prospective sisters better by playing different ice breaker games. The opens gave us a better impression of what five sororities we wanted to go to for the informal round.

After opens, we had to go to the Greek Life office to sign up for informals, which took place on Friday night and Saturday afternoon of rush week. Once there, we signed up for the five events we most wanted to go to and found out what times they were. We also got a map of the houses so we could find them on our own or meet up with a group of girls to walk together. For informals, dress was mainly nice tops and jeans.

At informals, we got house tours and talked more in depth with the sisters. There were basic questions such as discussing our majors, talking about our interests, and where we lived on campus. However, rushees could also ask questions about the sorority such as what the girls enjoyed doing together. A couple times, we went to different rooms of the house with different sisters in each room where they answered our questions or initiated little games with us.

After a break from events on Sunday, we had to go to Greek Life on Monday to find out about our formal event schedule. The difference between formals and informals, aside from the dress code, is that formals were by invitation only. This made the formal invitations difficult for sorority girls and prospective sisters. A girl could get invited to up to three formal events. I was only invited back to one. Although that hurt a little, the bright side is that I was invited back to my top choice house.

For formals, we were dressed in nice tops and dress pants or skirts. The formal rush is when the sisters are deciding who they really want in their house. During formals, we got to participate in more ice breaking games and in the house I went to, we took part in a ceremony with the current sisters, though I can't say anything about that ceremony. Formals took part over two days and at the end of those, it would be another day or two before we knew if we got a bid.

On the day bids were supposed to come out, I got a message from my friend who also rushed. She said the Greek Life director called her to let her know she hadn't gotten a bid. I sympathized with her then said I hadn't gotten that call but inside I was really nervous. She told me to call Greek Life, so I did so and found out I hadn't gotten a bid. I was upset and angry, especially since I thought of myself as someone that would be wanted in a sorority. What was especially harder is that the sororities came around to the dorms to hand out bids, and I knew I'd have to see the happiness on the new girls' faces all day.

One of the girls on my floor and my roommate ended up getting bids to the same sorority. Although my own rejection hurt, I still wanted to be happy for them. However, my not getting a bid affected my roommate, who said she was thinking about me at the bid party and how she felt bad. I thanked her, but at the same time, I didn't want my sadness to ruin her fun at bids night.

It's been over a year since I participated in rush and although I am not in a social sorority, I do not regret my experience. I now think of sorority sisters in a better light and not just dumb girls who are desperate to be popular. Also, I don't feel like my life has been negatively impacted just because I'm not in a sorority. There is a big world out there, so I found no need to sit around being depressed just because I didn't go Greek this way.