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Sorority Recruitment Prep Companies Giving False Hope to Fat Girls Everywhere

Sorority Rush has officially gone commercial. A flurry of recruitment prep companies popped up offering “small talk” counseling, wardrobe selection, and recruitment portfolio pictures.

Margaret King of Birmingham, Alabama and a group of her overbearing friends started the trend when they formed RushBiddies when King’s daughter was preparing for rush at UVA. They create resumes, portfolio, photos, solicit recommendation letters, and even deliver bottles of champagne to the sororities of choice.

As nauseating as this is, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Ms. von Sperling offers a Friday-to-Sunday intensive, for $8,000. One day is devoted to carrying yourself properly and the art of conversation. Treat rush, she says, as you would a job interview. Avoid politics and religion. “I teach them how to make interesting small talk: what you saw at the cinema, a trip to Europe. I don’t know too many 20-year-olds who are having a debate about economics.”

Why the fuck would you pay 8 grand to make your ugly daughter better at small talk? If she’s hot then she’ll get in, otherwise she’s shit out of luck. It’s rush, not a job interview. Just because the process takes all week doesn’t mean there’s any real evaluation happening. No one has ever said “Oh ya, that fat girl was just such a great conversationalist we have to give her a bid.”

At least there’s one fat girl that gets it.

Many aspiring sisters spend their summer working out and dieting. “Rushing shakes your confidence level,” says Maggie, who also spoke on condition she not be fully identified. She will soon be heading to Washington & Lee, and is trying to lose weight. “You are being judged on how you look,” she says. Case in point: A study of Northwestern undergraduates in a normal weight range, published in 2010, showed the thinner women more likely to join a sorority.

Why wait to join when you can start feeling insecure now?

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