Wear warm clothes? Check. Be prepared for some walking? Pshh. I have legs of steel. Talking to girls? Ha, I attended an all-girls school for ten years. Seriously, rush week will be a breeze.

Well, after going through Rush Week, I can tell now you. . . it was no “breeze.” The second my alarm clock went off in the early morning hours, I was up and moving with only a few chances to catch my breath. My roommate and I would hastily throw our clothes everywhere and search for the best necklaces to wear with our “snappy casual” outfits for round 2 or our “business formal” outfits for day 3. What even is “snappy casual”? I still don’t know. I pulled off this look with black jeans, a white and black blouse, a white and black blazer, and black booties. Luckily, I had three weeks of winter break to shop for each round and put together some sense of an outfit that would match the undefined outfit descriptions.

After the morning festivities of fixing myself up to look as best as possible, I moved on from focusing on my appearance to focusing on my confidence. Yes, looks can get you somewhere but they surely don’t get you into the sorority of your choice. Once you enter a sorority house, you need to be able to hold a good conversation, or “girl-flirt,” and connect well with the person sitting in front of you for however long the time allows. That’s it. I talk, you talk, they judge, I judge, I’m in, I’m out.

The best part of the day was sitting inside the warm houses. A girl would walk me to a chair, take my coat, and hand me a hot chocolate, apple cider, or possibly, like in the case of one particular house, a white peppermint mocha with crushed peppermint on the rim of the glass. We would talk about practically anything until a new girl would walk over, the two would switch places, and the conversation would repeat itself yet again. It was easy to tell if I truly connected with a girl—our conversation would flow from the second it began. There would be no back and forth Q and A, but rather a real conversation about the rush process or my transition into college. Also, a tip to future rushees: smile. A lot. It makes you look and feel happy and it shows you are enjoying the conversation!

The house visits were all good and jolly, but the second I stepped outside everything changed. In twenty minute intervals, I would take off my heels, throw on sweat pants and snow boots, run to the next house, take off my sweats and boots, put my heels back on, and stand in the cold until the door opened and in I walked to meet new or familiar faces and sip a warm drink. If I wasn’t in the mood to taste the drink, it at least provided me with a much-needed hand warmer.

The problem with rush, however, is not the freezing cold weather or the long conversations. It’s not the stress of picking out outfits or deciding how much make-up is too much. The problem is that this process creates too many tears to stream down the faces of beautiful girls as they sob in the bathroom stalls thinking they are not pretty enough or good enough. It is the system of ranking houses before we even get the chance to know if they want us or not. “The system doesn’t lend itself to back-ups, so the girls who end up not getting into houses are those who limit their back-ups right away and end up fundamentally lost,” said Kiki Hosie ‘17. “I think they should try reversing the system so that we get the list of the houses who want us back before we rank them. That way, we know which houses to even bother ranking and less girls will be screwed over.”

Some students had their minds set on one house or had a few favorites. According to Halle Bershad ‘17, “Going into rush week everyone has their own idea of which sororities they like and which ones they would want to be in but throughout the process everything changes. There are definitely some low points but there are also some very high points that make the experience momentous. You just need to remember everything happens for a reason and to always keep an open mind.”

Although not all students got into the house of their dreams, many seem to have come to appreciate the house they are now in and are enjoying their new family. But for others, it did not turn out as well. A few girls I know were cut from all or most of the sororities and are now considering transferring to another college in the fall. Luckily, students who did not get a bid and still want to rush will have the potential to join a new house, Phi Mu, coming to campus in the fall, or they can repeat rush week and give it another shot. As awful as the system can be, it does manage to get a good number of girls into houses, where they can make new friends, attend social activities with other fraternities and sororities, participate in community service, and become part of a supportive sisterhood.