With Fraternity and Sorority 101 sessions scheduled to begin soon, the start of informal recruitment has arrived and with it, first-years have begun to “completely and totally lose it,” according to Head Director-General of Greek Cohesion and Facilitation Smith McDonnell. The pressure to connect with upperclass students has begun, and for first-year women who are planning to join a Greek organization, the all-consuming process has begun.

This past week, after the announcement of the start of Sorority 101 sessions, Eileen Elaine-Langone-Center ’20 agreed that the stress of rush has become a major part of her daily life. She has begun to worry about her lack of older friends.

“That email really made me panic because I realized I didn’t know any upperclassmen. All of my friends made an Excel spreadsheet the other night of all of the older girls they’d ever met and some fun facts about them, but I didn’t have anything to contribute. I felt like such a loser,” Elaine-Langone-Center said.

In an attempt to find someone to add to the spreadsheet, Elaine-Langone-Center purposefully sat next to a girl in her international politics class who always wore her sorority letters and offered to be her partner on a project.

“I’m really happy she said yes because her sorority is definitely my top choice. I essentially got a bid because I told her I would just do the whole project. I even starred her name when I put it in the spreadsheet to show my friends I had a real ‘in,’” Elaine-Langone-Center said.