Title: My Path to Kappa: Greek Rush at Hopkins
Originally Published: December 10, 2007
Name: Anne Mumford
Year: Class of 2010
Hometown: Barnstable, MA
Major: Pyschology
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It’s a cold night in late January, and the campus is quiet and dark. A long line of girls stands, absolutely silent, outside the doors of the Great Hall. 
Brushing snow from their high-heeled shoes and rubbing their manicured hands together to warm them up, they are apprehensive; unsure of what lies behind the thick wooden doors in front of them. Most are freshmen, though a few are sophomores or even juniors. An older girl in formal clothes walks up and down the line, smiling reassuringly and reminding them that they are in a period of strict silence. Behind the doors, quietly at first, chanting begins. The female voices grow louder and louder until the lobby echoes with the sound. Suddenly, the doors burst open to reveal a blur of color, sound and warmth, and slowly the girls file in.
This is was my first night of Formal Rush at Johns Hopkins University. For those of you who don’t know, Formal Rush is the process by which girls join one of the four Pan-Hellenic sororities at Hopkins: Kappa Kappa Gamma, Phi Mu, Kappa Alpha Theta and Alpha Phi. These four are part of national organizations, most of them over a hundred years old, with chapters at colleges all over the country. During Rush, young women get to know the sisters of each sorority and, through a mutual selection process, receive a Bid, or invitation to join, from one of these organizations. In fraternities, Rush is much less structured: the young men attend parties at the fraternity house of their choice and may or may not be offered a bid at the discretion of the brothers. Fraternity Rush is also not as strictly mediated by the University.
Though Formal Rush doesn’t take place until second semester, unbeknowest to the freshmen, both fraternities and sororities have been planning recruitment events long before the year even begins. During the fall semester, sororities hold multiple “Meet the Freshmen” events with activities such as cookie decorating, mocktail parties or movie nights. Fraternities host open parties most weekends both to publicize their fraternity and to meet PNMs (Greek lingo for Potential New Members). Since the freshmen who plan on Rushing often spend a great deal of time getting to know the Greeks, most know which fraternity or sorority they want to join before Rush even begins.
I, however, hadn’t planned on joining a sorority and hadn’t thought much about it during fall semester. I knew about the sororities on campus, mostly because I saw girls with tote bags or sweatshirts with Greek letters on them, but didn’t know much about each one. Over the winter break, I received a mass email from Rob Turning, the director of Greek Life on campus. The email went out to all freshman girls, encouraging them to sign up for Rush, which would take place soon after we arrived back on campus in January. It wasn’t until then that I started thinking about rushing.
Like many freshmen, I had heard about sororities but knew little about what actually went on. Most of what I had heard was through the media and was largely negative – horror stories about girls being branded by their “sisters” or drowning during bizarre hazing events. I knew sororities had things like secret rituals and handshakes, which seemed a lot like a cult and didn’t really appeal to me. My Dad, who had been a fraternity brother in his college days, had a paddle with strange letters all over it in his closet, the purpose of which he refused to reveal. I was lukewarm about the whole business, at best.
But at the same time, the prospect of joining a group like a sorority appealed to me. I come from a very small high school with a graduating class of about forty. Though I already had a great group of friends, I thought that joining a sorority might make the undergraduate student body of about 4,800 students seem a little smaller. So, not wanting to go it alone, I enlisted a friend and signed up for Rush.
As I soon discovered, sorority Rush consists of four rounds of parties, during which each sorority hosts a party. These parties are “meet and greets;” even though a girl might already have a particular sorority in mind, she is required to meet the sisters of all the sororities to get a fair representation of each. Girls will travel to a party thrown by each sorority in groups of about thirty, led by a Rho Gamma: an upperclassman woman who, though she is a member of a sorority, keeps her affiliation a secret so as not to seemed biased. The purpose of a Rho Gamma is to help girls with the difficult decision of choosing a sorority that is the best match for them, as well as to offer emotional support and to make sure girls follow the rules of Rush. Rush is highly regulated to ensure that all sororities are given equal consideration. After winter break, sorority sisters cannot speak to PNMs except for “Normal Social Contact:” basically, ‘Hello,’ ‘How are you’ and ‘Goodbye.’ They also cannot give gifts of any sort or invite PNMs into their residences. This is to prevent any sort of bribery or pressure by sisters to join a certain sorority.
During the week and a half that Rush takes place, sorority sisters are under Strict Silence, meaning they are forbidden to speak to or associate with any PNMs at all. This is because Rush week is meant to be a time of serious contemplation about which sorority is best for you, and you should not be swayed by contact with any sisters. Between parties and during ranking (which I will explain later), PNMs are also under Strict Silence so as not to influence each other.
The first round of Rush begins with “Icewater,” during which girls are assigned to their Rho Gamma groups and attend four parties; one for each sorority. These first parties are short and the dress is informal – the purpose is just to meet the sisters. The second round is called “First Theme” and consists of four parties with themes chosen by each sorority. The parties are longer and the dress is more formal. Girls should be thinking about which sorority they really connect with. At the end of the night, girls are led by their Rho Gammas to a computer lab, where they silently rank their choice of sorority.
At the same time, the sorority sisters are doing the same: privately ranking the girls based on whether they feel they are a good match for the sorority. Criteria includes things such as personality, conversation skills and GPA. Legacy – whether your mother, grandmother or sister was in the sorority – is also 
considered. These two rankings are compared by Rush officials, and in the third round of Rush you are only invited back to the parties of sororities you ranked highly and who ranked you highly. You could be invited to three parties, two parties or only one party. This was an emotional time. Some girls were elated at having been chosen by their first-choice sorority. Some girls were rejected from a sorority they preferred, or weren’t invited to the same parties as their friends. Some girls, including my friend who rushed with me, chose to drop, or quit Rush. After attending the parties they were invited to, girls once again ranked and were privately ranked. At the fourth and final night of Rush, called Preference, girls are invited to only one or two parties. The dress is formal and the parties are long to help girls make their final decision. Each sorority performs a formal ceremony for the girls invited. At the end of the night, the girls put in their final ranking.
In bed, the night after Preference, I thought about the two paths my life could take. The next day, called Bid Day, girls would find out if they received a Bid, or invitation, from a sorority. What would my life be like if I chose to decline my bid, or didn’t receive one? What if my bid was from a sorority I didn’t like? If I declined a bid, I would have to wait a whole year before rushing again. Was the sorority life really for me?
The next day, I waited anxiously in line in Shriver Hall. The girls around me talked quietly about which sorority they hoped had picked them, or if they had been picked at all. We all watched as girls left the small room we waited to enter, some shrieking with joy, others with tears silently running down their cheeks.
At last, my turn came. Inside, I sat at the end of a table around which members of the Pan-Hellenic council solemnly sat. The president, a willowy blonde with a serious expression, informed me that I had received a bid that I could accept or reject. She slid an envelope across the table to me. Inside was the culmination of a week of waiting, of thinking, of smiling until my cheeks hurt and making polite conversation while silently wondering, What do these girls really think of me? I took a deep breath and tore open the envelope.
I had received a bid from my first choice sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma. I accepted on the spot and received a book of my soon-to-be sisters’ faces, names, activities and phone numbers. That night, I became an official Pledge with a ceremony in which all new members receive a pledge pin which they must wear at all times until they are initiated, six weeks after Pledging. I met my pledge class, the other freshmen and sophomores that pledged with me, and the Kappa sisters, the girls with which I would share the next four years of my life. Far from Legally Blonde-esque cookie-cutter sorority girls, these women were diverse in their interests, majors and enthnicities. The one thing they all had in common was their love for Kappa and their enthusiasm. These girls accepted the other Pledges and myself with open arms, and the next six weeks were a whirlwind of activities and bonding sessions. Hopkins has a strict no-hazing policy, and I can say quite honestly that I experienced nothing akin to hazing during my entire pledging process.
We experienced a number of secret ceremonies in which we were transformed from Pledges to full Sisters, allowed to call ourselves Kappas and wear the sorority letters. The rituals (which I can’t share, since I have pledged never to divulge them) are far from cult-ish, and help to strengthen the bonds between sisters. Kappa is one of the oldest and largest sororities in the country, with songs and traditions that reflect its rich history. Knowing that thousands of women have experienced these same rituals and performed these same ceremonies, and that we all share the same secrets, is a really powerful feeling. Just as I had hoped, I found a community of women I could really relate to on campus, who were there to support me in rough times and help me through anything. Kappa has it’s own support system, both for personal and academic problems. I’m proud to wear my letters around campus and see my sisters doing the same.
Most sororities have a Big Sister/Little Sister system in which an older sister becomes your “Big,” helping to mentor you and help you find your place within the chapter. My Big Sister, Katie, surprised me with gifts and took me out to lunch, but the most valuable thing she gave me was her friendship and support. This spring, I hope to get my own Little to continue our Kappa family!
The last year has been an incredible one. Through Kappa, I’ve gotten involved a lot of philanthropy events such as helping to put on the Kite and Key Cook-Off, in which we teamed up with the sisters of Kappa Alpha Theta to raise money for the Maryland Food Bank. I’ve made some great memories at Kappa Date Parties and Formals, and had an amazing Spring Break with three others sisters in the Bahamas. We hold regular Kappa-only sisterhood events, like pumpkin-picking, Sex and the City marathons or study groups during finals. I have made lots of new friends and met my boyfriend of almost a year at a Kappa mixer. I’ve also gotten involved with Sigma Chi fraternity, and now hold their “Sweetheart” position, in which I help with fraternity PR and events.
Kappa by no means dominates my life; many of my best friends aren’t Greek, including my three suitemates (Hopkins sororities don’t have houses). I’m involved in a number of other campus activities, like Blue Key, the admissions volunteers, and Throat Culture, a sketch comedy group. The great thing about Greek Life at Hopkins is that you can be as involved as you want to be. Joining Kappa was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I highly recommend Rushing, or at least getting to know the sororities at their events in the fall. Though the journey from PNM to Sister can be a daunting and emotional one, the reward is well worth it.
