the g/olden days

I’m sure it was the exact same. Lack of culture, lack of diversity. I look at the houses here and I can’t find poc anywhere. It’s 2019 so what’s up with that?

Bid day was kegs on the lawn. Much more laid back but still very competitive.

Okay, I'll bite from the late seventies: We all dressed to the nines every day; there were no shorts and t-shirts during rush. Invitations to rounds were actual paper invitations, carefully designed and crafted to go along with whatever party theme each house had chosen for the day. Rushees would pick up an envelope every day with all their invitations and decide which ones they would accept. We also gave out themed party favors each day to all the rushees who attended our parties. We used to do skits during round three, which could make or break a house's recruitment sometimes. They were fun but stressful to create and plan and rehearse, and required so much time and effort that they were actually a real pain, so I think it's good that those are gone. Nothing was computerized, so party lists and bid lists were done by hand and bid matching was done manually with paper lists and notecards, and made for some very late and contentious nights after prefs. There was no Quota Plus, so super cute rushees could go all the way to pref and put all their houses down and then still not get a bid if they were cross-cut, meaning that their top house had them on the second bid list and their second choice had them on the first bid list so each house hit quota before matching with them. Back then, when quota was reached before every girl was matched, that was that - no more bids, so very favorite girls that houses loved and wanted went without bids and everyone would be crushed! There was also no RFM and rushees could cut houses, so houses could keep inviting girls back all week just to have high returns, and then they would make one huge cut right before pref and these poor girls had already cut other houses so a lot of them would get totally dropped before pref. It was not better back then - y'all have it so, so much better now!

I'll bite too- Very similar to what "Im old" said. We got paper invites that we accepted or declined. A girl could be carried all the way through only to be cross cut at the end and go without a bid. Sororities wore matching outfits and rushees wore hose and heels in sweltering heat. My junior year was the first year a computer was used (90/91) to do matching / invites and boy was it a mess. My sister had an invite on one day to a house that did not have her on their party list until the next day. Overall probably more competitive because of the fact that "Top" houses could carry girls that they really had no intention of bidding all the way through then drop them right before pref while the girl had already cut her other choices leaving her with zero options. It was stressful... but at the same time there didn't seem to be as much emphasis on tiers and "top houses" - with the exception of a handful of instate girls that had legacy status or high school connections you were happy to get a bid anywhere.

I'll bite as well although I was mid-70's. It's everything I'm Old and late 80's early 90's wrote plus this:

1) In mid-70's only three rounds - intro, theme and pref. 95% of girls were from Miss., 5% from other Southern states, so people knew more people. Houses were way smaller.
2) Theme parties looked like Martha Stewart landed at OM - elaborate hand-made name tags, party decor, food (themed to the party decor), matching outfits.
3) Girls ran out on the yard singing and dancing to welcome you to the party.
4) Skit party (theme) could really unduly influence girls. I remember KD had The Wizard of Oz and DDD did a wild west theme to perfection - like something from Broadway. If a house had a 'weaker' theme, I remember girls being less than impressed. I know that sounds shallow (it was) but that's how it was and it's why skit parties were cut.
5) The dreaded "door call." Because there was no RFM, that meant girls could win up going bid-less as others wrote. We had to be in our rooms that Sunday morning because if you didn't get a bid, your rush counselor would come to your room to tell you. That happened to my roommate and it was horrible.
6) The worst part - which RFM solved - was girls cutting houses they weren't interested in because they wanted top tier - and then top tier carrying them throughout the week only to cut them at pref, so they wound up with nothing. I knew a few really terrific girls that happened to.
7) Yes, we could cut houses which didn't work in our favor as noted above.
8) Every rushee (we were called rushees, not PNM's and it was called Rush, not Recruitment) got a glossy magazine type book before rush that had "chapters" on every sorority. This was unduly influential since every house had 4 pages on which they had pics of their members who were cheerleaders, or maybe a beauty queen of some title, or members of top honorary groups. The more active houses (and yes, top tier and also mid-tier, to be honest) had the beauty queens, cheerleaders, "best dressed" or "campus favorite" (yes, that was an actual competition then) or Miss Ole Miss and it made those houses look 'better' to some girls.
9) Parents did not show up on Bid Day. It was a laid-back day, just the new members (you were called a pledge back then) nothing elaborate like now.
10) And the other key thing - you did not get initiated until second semester after you made your grades. I like this since you had to achieve your grades and earn membership - after all you're here to get an education. You had more time to get to know your sisters (how you do that now with 400 members, I have no idea) and the sorority itself.

I'll take the bait too. Early 1980s. We didn't have internet, instagram, etc. like we do today, and no "top tier" talk. Word travelled fast enough through gossip,though. Houses were either good or not good.
People were nicer in general to your face and more accepting of each other. Not so much emphasis placed on looks alone like today. Pledge classes were 50 or 55 girls, so you could really have great friends in your class and true sisterhood. The campus is so different now. Boys would actually call you on your dormroom phone to ask you for a date. The date for football game weekends was for friday and saturday nights. Not sure that was a good thing if you didn't like your date or his frat party...

Parents did not show up at all. If your parents showed up people thought something was wrong with you. If you passed out at a fraternity house and said somebody must have put something in my drink, it was your own fault. Parents showed up on football game weekends. Had to make grades and nobody got in until Jan/Feb.

Connections still mattered but weren't the same since OM was almost all Miss. students and some OOS from the South so lots of girls already knew girls in houses. 3500 students my freshman year.

You got to know girls and houses were small (even the biggest ones) so you got to know all your sisters. No chi chi restaurants or shops on the Square. Way fewer options, didn't matter. And none of the condos everywhere, Oxford was a sleepy town. We moved into the house our sophomore year and lived there through senior year.

It was extremely common (and not necessarily judged/frowned upon) for rushees to withdraw and transfer out if they got released or didn't get the house they wanted.

I'll date myself to the early-mid 90's. One of the biggest differences that no one has mentioned is that most girls lived on campus until they moved into the sorority houses. In my chapter, a few sophomores got to live in the house because of their grades. The rest of the girls had to live in Crosby until they were juniors and could move into the house. It was a privilege to be able to move into the house your sophomore year. Our pledge classes were also so much smaller-quota was around 50 or 55 for all chapters, so of course you got to know all of the girls.