Get rush ready with The Sorority Sister

Speaker 1: 0:00

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Speaker 1: 0:30

I'm Martha Jackson and I know a lot of you are getting ready for sorority recruitment. There's so much to navigate when it comes to sorority recruitment. Everyone has advice, there's a lot of expectations and there's so many unknowns that it can feel very overwhelming. In today's episode, we're going to help get you rush ready and you're going to be able to feel equipped with all of the knowledge and tools that you need to have a successful rush. Today we welcome Audrey Alteanza, a senior sorority member at the University of Texas and a popular YouTuber with over 150,000 subscribers, and Kendall Gwynn, a real estate marketing executive and sorority alumni. The two have collaborated on the sorority prep course, the Sorority Sister, that launched last fall. In this episode, they're going to walk us through the entire process what goes on during Rush Week, what to wear, what to talk about and, more importantly, what not to talk about. You're going to love this episode. So if you know anyone that's about to go through Rush. This is a must-listen to episode.

Speaker 2: 1:28

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Speaker 1: 2:05

Ladies, thank you so much for it. By name Tequila Comos, a special gift for a special person Ladies, thank you so much for being here today. Hi, thanks for having us. So tell us a little bit about yourself and the sorority sister and how you started it.

Speaker 4: 2:18

Yes, I'm Audrey Atienza.

Speaker 4: 2:19

I'm currently a senior at the University of Texas in Austin and so I'm graduating in May and I'm a part of I rushed in 2020, fall of 2020, and I am an Alpha Chi Omega UT.

Speaker 4: 2:34

I also have a YouTube channel and have been on social media since high school and so a lot of my content revolves around college and being in a sorority and all the things and I just kind of film my life and post about my life, which is just the best thing ever. But a lot of my content because it was revolving around me like living in the sorority house and going through rush and all the things, a lot of my audience became women who were going through Rush or wanting to go through Rush and just kind of looking at me for college advice and Rush advice, and so I began posting on YouTube kind of that type of content geared towards sorority Rush advice. And then me and Kendall had the idea and talked about kind of putting it all in one place, where all of my ideas and our advice and just my tips and tricks in one place so that girls can really feel confident and prepped during rush and just helping them through that, and so that's how the Swerdy Sister came to be.

Speaker 3: 3:38

Yeah, and I am Kendall Gwynn. In my day job I do marketing for a student housing company and we develop student apartments. And so I met Audrey working one of our projects in West Campus here at UT Austin, and we got to know each other through doing sponsored YouTube videos and creating content and eventually she became my intern and so we started going to lunch together and just talking about like her plans, post-grad and both like I was getting re-involved like working near campus with my sorority on the alumni side and we kind of birthed this idea for like a sorority recruitment resource. My mom wasn't in a sorority.

Speaker 3: 4:29

I didn't know what to expect when I went through Rush and I really wished I had had like a reliable resource for someone who was like closer to the process than people maybe who hadn't rushed in like 20 years like me, right.

Speaker 3: 4:44

And so we found like she already had this great audience who was interested in this topic and we had a passion for educating people about recruitment.

Speaker 3: 4:53

And then Audrey's own sister was going through recruitment that year and so we were like, well, let's create the resource we wish we had for our own sisters, for our own cousins, for our own family members, to put all our knowledge about recruitment into one place. I was a recruitment chair at the University of Mississippi, at Ole Miss, and I thought there was so much that I learned on the back end of the process that I had wished I had known as a girl going through recruitment, girl going through recruitment, and so, um, you know, audrey, having that more updated experience, we thought we can team up and make something really special to make girls feel confident and like, uh, not intimidated by the process, because it is. It's a long process and it it's very, um, intense. And so, um, we wanted to create something that made Rush feel less overwhelming for people, so that more people could experience the sisterhood and the joy that we found out of.

Speaker 1: 5:50

Well, before we get into everything, tell us what a sorority is, and why would anyone want to join one?

Speaker 4: 5:56

Yes, so a sorority is an organization on campus, just kind of like how high schools have different clubs and different things, um, and each school has different sets of national sororities and so at different schools you may find different types of chapters.

Speaker 4: 6:16

But for example, me, as an Alpha Chi Omega I am a part of, like nationally Alpha Chi Omega, and same with Kendall, nationally Phi Phi and there. So each school has different chapters and we meet weekly and we there's just girls from each grade and then also just the alumni association, um, and so it's really a big community of just a bunch of women who I really have found it to be just such a supportive community and, like we do social events together but also work for our own philanthropies together and it's just really a great way of a big school like UT making it being a part of something that makes it feel smaller and kind of having that family, yeah, and while and while the like sorority a lot of times people think about their on-campus experience with the sorority they can be part of a lifelong journey, like I have been involved with my sorority alumni club since I graduated.

Speaker 3: 7:20

I would say I had as many girls in my wedding from that I met through alumni club as I did by like in-house. That was all. The girls in my wedding was like girls I was with at Ole Miss and then the girls who I met in Dallas through like alumni club and so while it's like super cool, it's like this you know philanthropic and social organization in your college years. It can be this kind of like networking and support system throughout your whole life. And that's what I think is super special about being in sorority and I you know, I think it's a great for lifelong learning, lifelong relationships and those can really carry through to like having a network of people anytime like you move to a new city or something like that. So sororities are a really cool thing to be a part of and to get to create friends, not just in this one season of life but throughout your life.

Speaker 1: 8:15

I know there's a lot to it and a lot of details you guys are going to share, but just tell us how do we start the process. How do we get the ball rolling? Tell us how do we start the process.

Speaker 4: 8:23

How do we get the ball rolling? So it all starts in the pre-rush season, which we say is kind of if you're rushing in the fall as a freshman in college, you'll start this process as a senior in high school, so before you graduate high school, kind of in these early April, may months, and then all throughout the summer getting for registration, pre-rush networking we talk a lot about in our course and rush events and then also just getting your resume together and your riffs and recommendation letters to be prepared to register when registration opens in the summer yeah, registration starts on.

Speaker 3: 9:04

Every university will have a Panhellenic website and every Panhellenic website will have the details for when your campus's recruitment is and how to register. What's required to register. It looks a little different at every different campus, but it's pretty standard because the Panhellenic organization is national, so you'll find little variances in what they ask for, but they're pretty standard across all camps.

Speaker 1: 9:31

Well, let's get to the fun step. Let's talk about Rush Week. I know there's a lot of days, a lot of details, a lot of things that go on, a lot of back and forth between the members and the potential new members. Tell us about what each day looks like.

Speaker 4: 9:51

Yeah, so there's a total of four rounds. Typically they might be called different things at different schools, but especially in the southern schools I know, like my sister just went through recruitment at Ole Miss and me at UT they're called these things. But the first round is, and then, as they go on, the time gets longer that you're in the house or talking to the girls and the round gets more formal, as well as the list of sororities you're talking to get lower. So the first round is open house, where, if it's in person, you'll go to every single house and every girl is invited to every single house. A lot of bigger schools now are doing this round online. It started in the pandemic, where we couldn't meet in person, so every PNM submitted an open house video kind of introducing themselves, and then the sororities gave a video back and that's how the first rankings were done, and a lot of bigger schools are keeping this process just because open house video. Open house rounds can be up to two to three days on bigger at bigger schools, and having this open, having this round online, makes it a lot easier just to get through all the girls and saves a lot of time and resources for everyone.

Speaker 4: 11:01

So then the first round in person at UT is philanthropy round, and this round is where you're talking to girls face to face or if you had open house in person, you got invited back to these houses and you're talking to new girls or girls you talked to the day before, and the focus on this round is for the sororities to showcase their philanthropies and what events that they do.

Speaker 4: 11:29

Then the next round is sisterhood round. This, personally, is my favorite. This is where all of the sororities kind of just talk about their friendships and the kind of qualities that they've found in their sorority and the memories that they've made and, um, it's just a really fun time to really see, like, what the sisterhood at each chapter is like and kind of if you can envision yourself making friends and being a part of these friend groups within the sorority. And then the final chapter, or, and then the final round, is um preference round, and so for this round you're down to either one to three houses, um, depending on your school and depending on how full your schedule is. And this is the most formal, the more most serious, and this is really when you're deciding how you want to rank your houses and who you want to prep, and these girls are also deciding if you, if they want to extend a bid to you, and then after that it's bid day and everyone submits their preferences and the sororities submit their bid lists and then the best day is bid day.

Speaker 1: 12:35

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Speaker 4: 13:21

yeah, a lot of times when I was going through sorority recruitment, a lot of my friends and my mom was saying like you'll just know when you know, which sounds like overwhelming and doesn't really tell you what to look for in a sorority and whatnot.

Speaker 4: 13:36

So we talk a lot about this in our rush week course of really going into rush, knowing what kind of friends you're looking for, what kind of community and what kind of philanthropy you're looking for, what kind of community and what kind of philanthropy you can see yourself working with in college and what kind of social events and just how you want your college years to look like and what you want your friendships and relationships to look like.

Speaker 4: 13:59

And so then, when you're going into these houses and having these conversations with these girls, really envisioning like, could I be friends with someone like this? Do I think that they are part of a supportive chapter that I would love to be a part of? I know when I went through recruitment, I was really looking for girls who I could look up to and that would really inspire me to be the best version of myself, and I definitely found that in my chapter. And I think the way that the process is set up is those conversations do allow you to kind of get to know them. In that way, even though it is short time like you're in the house for a really short time you kind of do form these connections with the girls you're talking to.

Speaker 3: 14:43

Yeah, I think we do a lot of talking in our Rush Week course about like, like, knowing yourself and like, what are you looking for out of friendships and and I think you know even things like Rush Talk and like. There's been this kind of like, what house are you get into? All that, I can tell you. When you make the most out of a sorority and the people who are happiest and like in their houses are the people who know themselves best going into Rush and they look for people who share their values, who share kind of like their same friendship styles and so like. We have resources like our Rush Reflection Journal and things like that resources like our Rush Reflection Journal and things like that so you can get really introspective as you go through the process and really identify what you are looking for out of a house and what you're looking for out of like that college experience. We spend a lot of time on that, I think.

Speaker 3: 15:36

The other thing that I think Audrey mentions in the course is when you're going through recruitment. I think one thing that we always say is that, like, look as much at the girls around you who are sitting next to you in prep round as, like, the older girls who are in the house because, like, that's your pledge class, that's who you're going to be hanging out with, and so, like looking at the girls who are sitting next to you, who are going through the recruitment process with you, those will be your best friends in the house. And so take a look around the room and see, are those the people that you are really connected with and that you could see yourself being friends with, because that's who y'all will grow up in the chapter together.

Speaker 1: 16:16

Do you all have any advice? Because no matter if you're going to a smaller school or a bigger school, I just keep hearing about how the amount of people going through rush is just a lot. Is there anything that they can do to help themselves stand out from the crowd?

Speaker 4: 16:31

Yes. So this really you can take advantage of in the pre-rush season. So we talk a lot about pre-rush networking and pre-rush events, which we talk about really establishing the connections that you may have at the school or within those sororities and, if you don't, then reaching out and prepping your social media to make you stand out to where these girls may reach out to you and to form those connections. As an active sorority girl, starting when our school immediately sends out admissions, we are looking through social media, we're looking through those Facebook groups to find girls who are planning on rushing at UT and then seeing if anyone knows them in our chapter and inviting them up to events and having coffee with them and just trying to get to know them before the rush process starts. And this isn't necessary like this, isn't?

Speaker 3: 17:29

um, it's not like an indicator that you're going to get into a house, exactly like if you aren't doing this pre-rush or you don't get invited to event.

Speaker 4: 17:36

I wouldn't worry about that, right for example, like I didn't do any of this and girls pop up during recruitment because that's how the process works. But getting these introductions early, before the rush week starts, so that when you are going into these houses these girls already know your name and they're already prepared for you to come in, really helps you stick out. And then another way if you don't make any of those connections, is really just through your resumes in your RIFs and RECs, and we talk a lot about in our pre-rush course the way that pre-scoring works and how all of these potentially may be scored as a sorority and just how you can start the first day of rush in the best position possible.

Speaker 1: 18:22

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Speaker 1: 19:08

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Speaker 4: 19:38

Yeah, totally. So we talk a lot about in the Rush Week course what you don't want to talk about, and I feel like that's a big question. It's like what should I not say or what should I not do? And I always like to remind people that the girl that you're talking to is probably the same age as you, if not just a year older. They are practically they're your peers. They're in college.

Speaker 4: 20:00

They're just as nervous to talk to you as you are to talk to them, and so just going into it as if you are having coffee with a new friend or just wanting to meet someone, and the conversations will be very natural. We talk a lot about on our TikTok too. I have a lot of videos about kind of what questions sorority girls tend to ask on each round and what questions, as a pnm, you should ask to kind of keep the conversation going. But really the girl on the other end, the active sorority girl, doesn't want there to be an awkward moment in the conversation either. So you're not going in talking to a like brick wall, like they're trying to continue the conversation just as much as you are, and so it typically ends up just being a pretty like casual and fun conversation, getting to know each other.

Speaker 3: 20:50

And the rounds help guide that too. So, philanthropy round you're going to be talking more about their philanthropy and you're going to get to learn more, and that's what they want to tell you about is, like, the events that they have, the fundraisers they're doing, like their passion for, like their particular cause, um, so you can ask about that. That's really easy. Sisterhood talking about, like, what do you like to do with your friend? Um, you know how do y'all spend a typical saturday night? Um, so each of the rounds are very like, they're thematic in that you can ask questions in that realm, um, and it's just like you're getting to know someone. Um, you, either through an interview process or through the dating process or something like that, you'll naturally ask more, um, deeper questions as you get to like the preference round and things like that.

Speaker 4: 21:36

And preference round is the longest. But at this point you are going back to the houses that you love the most and that you have really made connections with, and they want you to be there just as much as you want to be there, and so that round is honestly one of the easiest, even though it's the longest and like the most serious. It's just because you've made connections in that house already. Most likely you're talking to a girl you've already talked to that week, and so it gets easier as the process goes along and you just kind of get more comfortable being in the house.

Speaker 1: 22:05

I just remember, even though it was a very long time ago, always stressing out what to wear each day, and I'm sure for many girls they feel the same way. So can you give some tips on what to wear?

Speaker 4: 22:16

Yes.

Speaker 4: 22:17

So, like I mentioned, in the rounds, as they go on, they get more serious, and so that's kind of how your outfit should be too is the first days, especially if open house is online you won't even be going into the houses, so just an athleisure fit or something comfortable, comfortable.

Speaker 4: 22:41

And then if you, for the first days that you are going into the house whether that be open house or philanthropy round, your school will typically provide you a t-shirt, so everyone will be wearing the same shirt, and then your job is just to pair a cute skirt or short with it and sneakers and just accessorize for shoes. I also say like, as the rounds get, as you go on through the rounds, your shoes can get more uncomfortable. But really on those first days you're running around campus trying to get to those houses, and so there's no need to wear heels. Cute sneakers are fine. And then sisterhood round, a cute sundress, just something a little more elevated but still casual, and you could wear sneakers, you could wear heels, just based on your comfort level. And then preference really is the most formal, where you're dressing up in your nicest dress, your nicest jewelry, your heels, and each school will kind of give information, like your panhellenic organization will post on Instagram or post on their website of kind of their dress code for each day.

Speaker 3: 23:45

But and then we also like we were talking actually earlier this week about like one really great resources. Now that you have things like Instagram reels and TikTok, you can go back to like brush talk from last year at your school and see what people wore different rounds, because that like all exists online and so that's a really great resource. If you want to know, like at your particular university, just go search from like recruitment the previous year and check out what the girls were wearing that round. The other tip that I thought you said was good to say the thing about the sizing registration.

Speaker 4: 24:15

Oh yes. So, like I mentioned, you get a T-shirt from your school for open house or philanthropy round, and I am the person that loves an extra, extra large t-shirt. I love to sleep in it, I love it to basically be a dress on me, but this is not the time to get the largest size, because you will want it to be cute with your skirt, um. And so looking on tiktok and seeing kind of what girls wear and how their shirts fit them, and I just think that's a great way to kind of see what the style is at your school too.

Speaker 4: 24:47

I'm from California, so I came to UT really not knowing anyone. I didn't know anyone coming into UT and so I didn't really know what to expect. And so if I did have TikTok at that time and Rush Talk was a thing, it would have been nice to kind of see, like, what the styles and trends were. But overall, just dress the way that you want to and the way that you're going to be most comfortable and confident talking to these girls, because at the end of the day, we say this a lot in our courses, but you want to be in a house that wants you for you. So if you feel like you're completely changing everything about you, then that's maybe not the best. That's not the home for you.

Speaker 1: 25:27

So I know that each sorority is allowed a certain number of recruits based on how many people are going through Rush. Can you talk to us about that process, because it's my understanding that it's a pure numbers game and sometimes people can get eliminated from a house that they really wanted.

Speaker 4: 25:45

Yeah, so that really is a part of the process. I think I made a TikTok last year on the first round of sisterhood where kind of a lot of cuts happen and I was like there's no one who's going through this process that doesn't get cut from a house, like that's just how it happens. Each round you get less and less houses back and you have to rank less and less houses and so on both ends. As an active sorority girl, we get kind of we can get upset when a girl doesn't come back to our house and definitely as a pnm there were some tears on sisterhood Round for me that morning when I found out I got cut by some houses that I thought I loved. Well, that I did love.

Speaker 4: 26:25

But now, looking back, I always say like everything happens for a reason and these girls do know their chapter a lot better than you do. And so I look back at those houses that I loved now as a senior, knowing the girls in them, and they're great girls. There's great girls in every sorority. But that wasn't my home, like my people were in Alpha Chi, and that's why I ended up where I did. But there are ways to, especially on the first few rounds before they get to talk to you. A lot of girls can sometimes, I say, slip through the cracks if they don't have enough rifts and wrecks or if they just don't know anyone. Grade risks, all of. There's just a kind of a few things that can flag you and possibly, if you have no one in the house to kind of root for you and pull you up. Um, you make it drop yeah.

Speaker 3: 27:23

And so I think, like, like you said, martha, it's a, it's a numbers game, and each, each round um panel linux will give the houses a certain amount of people that they can keep um, and so it starts with your resumes, your rev, there's all I mean. It's, it's a spreadsheet, right, it's a calculation, and so there's, there's all I mean. It's a spreadsheet, right, it's a calculation, and so there's. It's important that you take all the pre-rush steps so that you go in with like a baseline, like pre-rush score. And I think it's. I think that's even more important because, like, say, you do have an off day, like, say, you go into a house and you're not, you're bubbliest, maybe it's the last house of the day, you're super tired and just like sick of answering the same questions over and over again. Like that pre-rush score can also help, both through you if you have like a bad round or something like that. So that's why we put a lot of like importance on the pre-rush um recs and resumes and all of those things is because those things can help get you through rounds. And same with the pre-rush networking. So you'll get a score after each round and it'll be.

Speaker 3: 28:28

It depends, every house does it differently, but it can be cumulative, so you can be helped and bolstered by your pre-rush scores in that regard. But like it is, it's inevitable You're going to get cut from houses. I mean, nobody goes through with like a perfect rush like that. That's like almost unheard of these days. And so I think we try and really prepare girls for that um and their moms for that. We we actually talk a lot um directly to the parents, because the parents can put a lot of pressure on this process. Um that can add stress um as opposed to like alleviate stress, which is um can sometimes be really hard, because this is can be an emotionally like taxing, especially kind of going through your.

Speaker 3: 29:11

It's physically demanding of like walking through all the houses and like the heat of you know like pretty much it's hot everywhere still um during recruitment just talking and talking, and like you talk so much, it's just socially draining too um so but we, we prepare girls to get cut from houses and we prepare um parents for that as well how to support um your daughters, your um, you know your sisters through that, because it's, I like to think of it as an inevitable part of recruitment. And so you know there's, if you do all of your check, all the pre-rush boxes, I think you set yourself up to be in a really good place to have a recruitment that's good for you.

Speaker 1: 29:54

Well, thank you, that was by far the best explanation I've ever had. Well, ladies, this has been so informative. I know this is going to help so many people out there. How did we get in touch with you? How can we learn more?

Speaker 3: 30:07

Yeah, so we have tons more information on our website, the sorority sistercom. We have links to all of our courses, like our pre-rush club, our rush week course, and then our Instagram and our TikTok have just tons of content that Audrey shares for free of all like a lot of stuff that we discuss in the course, and so that's a really great resource if you're like just starting to get into it. I mean, we have a lot of juniors in high school who are checking out our content, and TikTok is a great place to start learning about the recruitment process and sororities in general.

Speaker 1: 30:45

Well, I actually watched one of your YouTube videos today and I found it very informative. So, as always, I will provide links with everything that they've talked about today. Well, thank you again so much for joining me today. I'm excited to share this information with everyone. That's been another episode of the Bubble Lounge. I'm Martha Jackson, and we'll catch you next time.