Dorm selection??? Greek House???

lovemykids2
Tue, 04 Jan 2011 09:09:32 +0000

My daughter lives in Burge. She loves the location, though in hindsight she wishes that she had requested Currier or Stanley as a first choice because Burge is the party dorm. Coolbreeze’s report on the dorms is exactly how my daughter described the dorms, although he didn’t mention Hillcrest which is located across the river. My daughter has several friends who live in that dorm and they like it, it’s just a long, cold walk to classes in the winter.

DD went through rush this past fall. She hated it. She was popular (lots of boyfriends, always went to prom, etc…) and involved in sports, service clubs, and the arts in high school, she also had a huge group of friends. Let’s just say that she was not used to being judged on such a superficial level or rejected by girls who made her believe that she was one of them. It was a harsh and important learning experience for her. The end result was that she ended up with two sororities at the preference round and “suicided” because she couldn’t see herself in one of the houses. She didn’t get a bid from the one that she would have accepted a bid from, hence, she is not in a sorority.

She learned a lot from that experience and became stronger and more confident because of it, in the end she’s happy that it worked out the way it did. Her major is very demanding and she now realizes that she wouldn’t have had the time to do both as the Greek system constantly has mandatory activities, even during the week, that she would have had to attend. Her focus is on school so she would have ended up dropping out of a house anyway. She has friends who are in sororities and those who are not, all seem to be happy with their choices. Iowa is not a big Greek school and it’s large enough that you can find your friends in classes, clubs, and other activities. You don’t need to join a house to feel included.

If you do decide to rush do yourself a big favor and have recommendations sent to the houses you’re interested in. The Greek counsel members who spoke during orientation told us that they didn’t look at recommendations and that they weren’t necessary. Personally, I think that they do matter because the girls who had recommendations sent in all got into a house that they wanted. My DD could have had multiple recommendation letters sent to many houses as we know A LOT of women who are in or are still members of their sororities. They were all shocked and confused when my DD told them about her rush experience because on paper and in person she’s the perfect sorority girl. Thank goodness she doesn’t care and is not interested in the Greek system, it could have been a disaster.

If you decide to rush and do end up in a house you are able to live in the house your sophomore year, not sure about junior and senior years.

Good luck!