Trying New Things, Joining New Orgs

I never thought I would join a sorority. The process of rushing seemed tedious, Greek life has been getting a really bad name lately and I never pegged myself as a “sorority girl”. However, back home in Carmel I had a group of girl friends who I couldn’t live without and I have yet to find that same group of girls at Penn State. I have a bunch of friends here, but I truly believe you can never have too many friends and I’m intrigued by the idea of making friends who could become my “sisters for life” just like my high school friends have become.

Rushing started off easy enough. I signed up online and made a whole profile for myself. I then got a PNM (Potential New Member) number and a date to attend orientation. Once you go to orientation, you meet your Pi Chi group. This group is made up of about 40 girls who accompany you to all of your openhouses, which make up the first round of recruitment.

Openhouses take up the first two days of formal Panhellenic recruitment, or “rushing”. In this round, you and your Pi Chi group visit every sorority on campus for 15 minutes each. Here at Penn State that means 23 sororities in two days. Every one takes the same basic form, becoming a monotonous routine: they do their chant while you wait in the hall, you walk into the sorority suite and shake both the president and recruitment chairs’ hands, then you get paired with a sister to talk to for the duration of your visit. There can be some variations: sometimes you talk to one sister and then another walks over to split your time or other times you can have two PNM’s paired with one sister, but other than that it’s very much the same.

Openhouses almost killed me. I love talking to people, but these rooms aren’t meant for these many people so they get really hot and everyone sweats and you have to scream to be heard over every other conversation happening at the exact same time. Every sorority that you meet begins to mesh together after like the fourth one and most of the time you waste your 15 minutes in the sorority on trying so hard to be liked that you forget to even pay attention to if you liked the sorority.

After openhouses, you choose your bottom six sororities while the sororities also choose their bottom PNMs. The next day you report bright and early for first rounds, where you spend 30 minutes with each of the sororities that wanted to see you again. This round focuses on the philanthropy of each of the sororities. I liked this round better because it was a lot more laid back and rushed than openhouses.

Although I haven’t gotten to them yet, second rounds come next, then preference night and then finally bid day. I like the process of rushing. I love talking to new people and meeting all sorts of different individuals. I also love how I can picture some of these girls becoming my best friends. I love the way that sororities focus on giving back and maintaining friendships for life and I’m really excited to get involved. I just wish it didn’t take up all of my free time because the last week or so has had me in way over my head.

One thought on “Trying New Things, Joining New Orgs”

  1. Shannon,

    This entry was really interesting!

    I had no idea how the process of rushing a sorority worked, and I can’t believe you actually have to visit every single one. That does seem like a lot for just two days, I would have trouble keeping track too.

    I’m glad that the second round seemed more personal, though, it must be nice to be able to get a truer sense of what those sororities stand for.

    The ideas about friendship sound amazing; I’m sure you’ll end up with a great group of friends in whichever sorority you choose.

    Best of luck with the whole process!

    –Natalie

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *