Tuesday, August 16, 2011

While Some Are Worth the Wait, Others Are Worth the Rush

I know rush is starting for most girls who are going Greek! I wanted to wish y'all a wonderful rush season as it begins! For anyone who's not familiar, there are a few days of rush:

1. Scholarship Day
2. Leadership Day
3. Philanthropy Day
4. Sisterhood Day (Preference Night)
5. Bid Day

Scholarship day is typically the first day and it's casual, more relaxed than the other days and meant for you to quickly learn about the sororities. At USC, it's actually two days long since there are many sororities. USC Greek Life also provides PNM's (potential new members) with t-shirts as a part of rush and all the girls wear those that day! The wonderful Pi Chi's (recruitment leaders) go around with all the groups of girls, spending 20 minutes in each house!

Leadership day whittles the pool down a little (for USC PNM's it goes to a maximum of 7 sororities) and you spend 35 minutes with each house finding out what each does on campus. You wear the second of the two shirts today, again staying calm and casual. These days are great because you won't have to worry about the crazy heat or sweating through a dress!

Philanthropy day is again down to a maximum of 4 sororities, helping you find where you fit best! Today it gets a little more serious as the different philanthropies are special like women against domestic violence, Habitat for Humanity, Girl Scouts, Children's Hospital, or Camp Fire USA! You learn about all the philanthropic events that the sorority holds like DHOP, Turtle Tug, Kat's Making Tracks, and other events!
Sisterhood day is the most serious and each PNM only visits 2 sororities. This day is also known as preference night. These meetings run an hour or longer and are taken very seriously because most of the PNM's visiting the houses could very well be pledges and eventually sisters. Today is learning all about the bond each sororities shares as sisters. Some are candle-lit while others are done with floor-length dresses.

The last day is the least or most stressful of all depending on your view: bid day! Today each PNM finds out which sorority she will be in for the rest of her college experience! You also find out which sorority your Pi Chi is in as well since she has disaffiliated from her sorority since the beginning of the summer to minimize bias. It is a very emotionally-charged day and there is a lot of running and jumping and cheering!

Is anyone going through rush this week? I wish all of you the best of luck!!!

xxKatie

8 comments:

...just another preppy shopaholic said...

Brings back such wonderful memories! :)

SHF said...

I'm so excited for rush to start! Im a senior this year & can't believe my time is almost up! Our rush is a little different - I'm a DG on a Canadian campus. We start with two days of House Tours/Scholarship, followed by Philanthropy Day, then Chapter Pride/Sisterhood Night, Pref Night, and finally Bid Day! Can't wait! Good luck with rush =)
PS: which sorority are you in?

SHF
thechroniclesofs.blogspot.com

Stu said...

And to think everything I knew about sororities came from watching GREEK lol!

Unfortunately we don't have fraternities or sororities here in the UK. Shame :(

Peanut said...

Never been in a sorority. That looks cool.

Brooke said...

This makes me miss rush so much! At the time I couldn't wait for those long days to be over but now I would give anything to do one last door song!

Lindsey said...

I'm almost through rush. Pref is tomorrow, and I had my first rush crush this year. She is definitely little material!

Emily Ruth said...

Rushing a sorority was by far one of the best decisions I made in college! Panhellenic love to all my greek girlies! There is nothing like sisterhood :)

ChelseyB412 said...

I agree - going greek was the best decision I made while in college. Our recruitment was different as well. We were one of the only schools to follow strictly FORMAL recruitment. We had Round 1 where the PNMs visit all sororities and learn about philanthropies and things like that, Round 2 where the PNM visited 3 sororities and we focused on philanthropies, and Preference, when the PNM only visited two sororities. This is my second year after graduating and I miss recruitment - I wish I was back for it!! Good luck to all the girls going Greek this year!! <3