# How Chill is UCSB Rush?

An episode of [Two Ts In A Pod with Teddi Mellencamp and Tamra Judge](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1477524410), 10 Oct 2026, 33 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/28/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/c8c5d667-53e2-4f5d-bcb1-b32a01314a62/0b658209-747e-467a-b5ed-b4df011ba0b8/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=59f37943-e628-4810-8c3b-ae2b00156477

We went to Santa Barbara to see how the Gauchos do it!To say this is the opposite of other schools we have visited is an understatement! This rush is relaxed, chill, only a small percentage of students participate…what’s the sorority scene like when you’re by the ocean in Isla Vista? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Welcome to Dirty Rush, the truth about sorority life, with
[0:04] Speaker 1: your hosts, me, Gia Giudice.
[0:06] Speaker 2: Daisy Kent, and Jennifer Fessler. Hi, everybody.
[0:12] Speaker 3: Welcome back to another episode of Dirty Rush. This is
[0:15] Speaker 3: Trista Sutter, and I'm joined by Joan Vasos.
[0:19] Speaker 2: Hi, Joan. How are you?
[0:20] Speaker 4: Good. I'm good. How are you?
[0:22] Speaker 2: So good to see you.
[0:23] Speaker 3: I'm glad to be back for another episode of Dirty Rush.
[0:26] Speaker 3: I love doing these because I'm getting all kinds of
[0:28] Speaker 3: nuggets of wisdom from you.
[0:30] Speaker 2: For when Blakeslee, if Blakeslee goes through it next year.
[0:34] Speaker 3: And I do have to say welcome to two.
[0:37] Speaker 2: Of our producers, Reese and Evie.
[0:40] Speaker 3: They are going to talk about their experiences today at UCSB,
[0:44] Speaker 3: which I think we've been talking a lot about the
[0:48] Speaker 3: Southern schools, and that's kind of what is so popular
[0:54] Speaker 3: on social media. But I love hearing about the different
[0:59] Speaker 3: schools and what their experiences are, especially, selfishly, because I
[1:05] Speaker 3: don't even know if Blakeslee is going to apply to
[1:06] Speaker 3: any Southern schools.
[1:07] Speaker 2: So this one is great for me. She's all about California.
[1:11] Speaker 3: And I'm really excited to hear about UC Santa Barbara
[1:15] Speaker 3: and get an inside look at what.
[1:17] Speaker 2: Sorority recruitment is like on the West Coast. So welcome
[1:21] Speaker 2: Reese and Evie.
[1:21] Speaker 5: Hi, thank you for having us.
[1:25] Speaker 6: I'm really excited to hear about it because I don't
[1:27] Speaker 6: think I hardly know anybody from schools out west because
[1:31] Speaker 6: I am on the east coast and most of our
[1:34] Speaker 6: students don't go west. So this is going to be
[1:36] Speaker 6: fun to hear.
[1:37] Speaker 4: Yeah, Evie and I are also both from western schools too.
[1:41] Speaker 4: She went to UCLA and I went to Cal Poly SLO.
[1:43] Speaker 2: Oh, you guys didn't go to UCSB. You guys, I
[1:46] Speaker 2: was thinking that.
[1:47] Speaker 3: I thought that Evie had gone somewhere else because I
[1:50] Speaker 3: feel like we talked to her a few weeks ago
[1:53] Speaker 3: about her experience.
[1:54] Speaker 2: So yay.
[1:55] Speaker 5: Okay, good.
[1:55] Speaker 2: I'm glad you clarified that.
[1:57] Speaker 6: They were our spies.
[1:58] Speaker 2: Got it. Thank you. I'm so sorry. I totally messed
[2:02] Speaker 2: that up. So yay.
[2:03] Speaker 3: You've got all kinds of good experience because you went
[2:05] Speaker 3: and visited and also went to two different schools. So
[2:09] Speaker 3: give us the rundown. What was your experiment like?
[2:13] Speaker 4: Yeah. Okay. So we went to get the inside scoop
[2:17] Speaker 4: on Rush. They were starting that night. So their first
[2:21] Speaker 4: round of, I don't know if it's the same, but
[2:24] Speaker 4: at Cal Poly, you have just meeting with your individual
[2:27] Speaker 4: group the first night. So that wasn't meeting all the houses,
[2:31] Speaker 4: but just like getting the gist of things a little
[2:33] Speaker 4: rundown before. So I think that's the event that was
[2:36] Speaker 4: happening the night that we got there. And I didn't
[2:39] Speaker 4: visit any of the Southern schools.
[2:41] Speaker 5: But from what I heard on.
[2:43] Speaker 4: These podcasts, it seemed like there was a lot of
[2:46] Speaker 4: energy in the air.
[2:47] Speaker 5: That day leading up.
[2:48] Speaker 4: But on the UCSB campus, you would not have been
[2:51] Speaker 4: able to tell if rush was happening if it already
[2:53] Speaker 4: had happened. There was none of that like talk going
[2:57] Speaker 4: around the school. Yeah.
[2:59] Speaker 2: And no stress. And not a lot of stress. Yeah. Wow.
[3:03] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[3:04] Speaker 6: I mean, so they had already started school then.
[3:07] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[3:07] Speaker 6: It sounds like in the Southern schools, they have rushed
[3:10] Speaker 6: before anybody else is even on campus. So you don't
[3:12] Speaker 6: even come, if you're not rushing, you are not on
[3:15] Speaker 6: campus that whole week before.
[3:17] Speaker 4: I think it was their first days of school and
[3:19] Speaker 4: rush at the same time.
[3:20] Speaker 6: Yeah. That's what we did at my school at University
[3:22] Speaker 6: of Maryland. We rushed right when we were starting classes.
[3:25] Speaker 2: Abby, did you go to Bama?
[3:27] Speaker 5: Yes.
[3:28] Speaker 7: So I went, I went to university.
[3:30] Speaker 1: I didn't go, I went to UCLA, but I, but I,
[3:33] Speaker 1: I went to Alabama like as a producer of this
[3:35] Speaker 1: podcast to like report on it and see everything that
[3:39] Speaker 1: was going on down there.
[3:40] Speaker 7: And like, that was the total, total different.
[3:44] Speaker 1: I mean, just like, I think having had had that
[3:48] Speaker 1: experience of going all the way down.
[3:49] Speaker 7: To Tuscaloosa to see.
[3:52] Speaker 1: Just like, how they do recruitment down there is just
[3:57] Speaker 1: like polar opposites from a school like UCSB.
[4:02] Speaker 7: And you would think that, right?
[4:03] Speaker 1: Like you would think that they would be different, but
[4:06] Speaker 1: I mean, UCSB is still another.
[4:08] Speaker 7: Huge state school.
[4:09] Speaker 1: Like it's not a football school or whatever, but like,
[4:12] Speaker 1: it's still this huge state school and like the biggest
[4:15] Speaker 1: state in the country. Like, so you would still think
[4:19] Speaker 1: that there would be like similarities there, but they couldn't
[4:23] Speaker 1: be more different.
[4:24] Speaker 2: That's so interesting.
[4:25] Speaker 3: Do you feel like it's specific to recruitment, like that
[4:28] Speaker 3: whole laid back vibe? Or do you think it's just
[4:31] Speaker 3: that that's the way UCSB is?
[4:34] Speaker 7: I think it's.
[4:35] Speaker 1: Just like, I mean, UCSB is, and like, I've never
[4:40] Speaker 1: been on their campus before, which I was surprised because
[4:42] Speaker 1: there was so much crossover between UCSB and UCLA, especially
[4:47] Speaker 1: when I had so many friends who were from California,
[4:51] Speaker 1: Southern California, who had like their best friends were at
[4:54] Speaker 1: UCSB and they had like found, you know, like some
[4:58] Speaker 1: of their best friends from home were best friends at UCSB.
[5:01] Speaker 1: Like they would go up all the time, whatever. I
[5:03] Speaker 1: had never set foot on the campus till now. And
[5:06] Speaker 1: I'd always heard about how gorgeous it is. And it's
[5:08] Speaker 1: literally like, you're right on like Isle Vistas. Like you're
[5:14] Speaker 1: just right on the point, like right on the cliffs
[5:17] Speaker 1: overlooking the water in Santa Barbara.
[5:18] Speaker 7: It's gorgeous.
[5:20] Speaker 6: That's like a whole thing.
[5:21] Speaker 1: But I mean, there's like great surf breaks that are
[5:25] Speaker 1: literally steps away from where you go to class.
[5:27] Speaker 7: Like the whole.
[5:28] Speaker 1: Vibe is, I would say it's like the most quintessential
[5:31] Speaker 1: California school. When you think Southern California surfers, people walking
[5:36] Speaker 1: around in flip.
[5:36] Speaker 7: Flops and board shorts, like that is the vibe.
[5:39] Speaker 1: So I think like, it's just so different from like
[5:44] Speaker 1: being in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the main thing there is
[5:50] Speaker 1: their college campus.
[5:51] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[5:52] Speaker 1: Like that is what I think like culturally, like Southern
[5:55] Speaker 1: versus California is going to be different.
[5:57] Speaker 4: Right.
[5:57] Speaker 6: Going to be, I feel like, like, so I also
[6:01] Speaker 6: wonder like, is there, is there a connection between big,
[6:04] Speaker 6: like sec football schools and that a big thing, because
[6:08] Speaker 6: like you want to have your group to go to
[6:10] Speaker 6: the games and it's like, like your weekends or you
[6:12] Speaker 6: need to have your homies with you. Like you need
[6:14] Speaker 6: to have everybody with you that's going to go and
[6:16] Speaker 6: celebrate with you. So maybe the Greek culture gives you
[6:19] Speaker 6: immediate friendships right when you like kind of locked down
[6:23] Speaker 6: at school and you are part of that culture, the
[6:26] Speaker 6: big football culture. And if you don't have a sorority
[6:28] Speaker 6: or fraternity, then you don't have that group of friends
[6:31] Speaker 6: and you're not part of that culture.
[6:32] Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say that is like a great tie
[6:36] Speaker 1: or like a great parallel.
[6:37] Speaker 7: I can't think of like a big.
[6:40] Speaker 7: Football school that doesn't have a big Greek culture because.
[6:46] Speaker 1: It's kind of like that I don't know like party
[6:50] Speaker 1: social atmosphere versus a school like UCSB that doesn't have
[6:54] Speaker 1: a big football team.
[6:56] Speaker 6: The fall isn't taken over by a football thing, but
[6:59] Speaker 6: they have a more individual thing where you don't need
[7:01] Speaker 6: a big group of people. Like if you're going to
[7:02] Speaker 6: go surfing or like you said, they have this kind
[7:05] Speaker 6: of surf culture, beach culture that doesn't require, you know,
[7:09] Speaker 6: it's not a big team thing that you're doing. Like
[7:11] Speaker 6: you could just grab your best friend and go put
[7:13] Speaker 6: on a bikini and go down the beach.
[7:14] Speaker 4: Right. I will say though, that I think the care
[7:18] Speaker 4: is there. I think that the, the, determining factor of
[7:21] Speaker 4: what's cool or not compared to Southern schools is we
[7:25] Speaker 4: notice a nonchalant off almost like everyone wants to out
[7:30] Speaker 4: cool the other person there. And that the way that
[7:33] Speaker 4: that's like determined at UCSB compared to Southern schools is
[7:38] Speaker 4: at UCSB, it was who can seem to care the least.
[7:42] Speaker 5: And maybe in Southern schools, it's who can seem to
[7:44] Speaker 5: care the most.
[7:45] Speaker 4: So not necessarily that they don't care about getting into
[7:48] Speaker 4: the best or not whatever.
[7:50] Speaker 5: Quote unquote top sorority.
[7:52] Speaker 4: It's just that they're trying so hard to come across
[7:56] Speaker 4: that they don't.
[7:57] Speaker 5: If that makes sense.
[7:58] Speaker 3: That's so interesting. That's such a good way to put it.
[8:01] Speaker 3: I feel like California just exudes that vibe.
[8:04] Speaker 2: Like, You know, it's not a big deal.
[8:07] Speaker 6: But that must be really hard on the side of
[8:10] Speaker 6: the sorority girls. The girls are already in the house
[8:13] Speaker 6: to like kind of work their way through. Like, does
[8:16] Speaker 6: this person, are they just really cool? Or do they
[8:19] Speaker 6: really not want to be in our house where they
[8:21] Speaker 6: want to waste.
[8:21] Speaker 3: A bit on you?
[8:22] Speaker 2: Yeah, that's so interesting. I'm really curious.
[8:26] Speaker 3: You know, you guys are talking about big football schools
[8:28] Speaker 3: and that kind of coincides with a huge Greek life system.
[8:33] Speaker 5: But are those schools bigger?
[8:35] Speaker 3: Do they have a bigger Greek life system?
[8:37] Speaker 2: Like UCSB, what would you say the size is?
[8:40] Speaker 3: Like how many houses do they have and how many
[8:42] Speaker 3: girls are going through Rush?
[8:44] Speaker 2: Do you guys know?
[8:45] Speaker 3: I wonder, because I would bet that the Southern schools,
[8:51] Speaker 3: they have those giant houses.
[8:54] Speaker 2: And I know.
[8:56] Speaker 3: You know, SDSU, I've talked to Daisy, I've talked to
[9:00] Speaker 3: our old producer, Hannah, about how And even one of
[9:04] Speaker 3: our friends who's there now about how the Alpha Chi house,
[9:07] Speaker 3: which is what I was.
[9:08] Speaker 2: So they're my sisters.
[9:09] Speaker 5: I was an Alpha Chi.
[9:10] Speaker 7: Oh, you were? Yeah. Love in the bond.
[9:15] Speaker 2: I love it.
[9:16] Speaker 3: But that house on campus at SDSU is super tiny
[9:20] Speaker 3: and like not a lot of people live in it.
[9:22] Speaker 3: I wonder if that's kind of the same as UCSB,
[9:26] Speaker 3: that the houses are smaller, that girls live like in
[9:30] Speaker 3: apartments or off campus when they are upperclassmen. Is that
[9:34] Speaker 3: what you found at UCSB?
[9:36] Speaker 4: I think, yeah, the houses weren't super big. I think
[9:39] Speaker 4: it's also the same at Cal Poly. The houses there
[9:42] Speaker 4: weren't very big. No one really lives in the house
[9:45] Speaker 4: unless from what I found, it was a financial reason,
[9:48] Speaker 4: like it was cheaper than living in other places. But
[9:51] Speaker 4: it wasn't as competitive as trying to get the most
[9:54] Speaker 4: points or whatever your house determines, like delegates it by
[9:59] Speaker 4: like who gets to live there. And I found that
[10:01] Speaker 4: other schools, everyone is like desperate to live in their house.
[10:05] Speaker 4: But I don't think that from my experience or my
[10:08] Speaker 4: friends that were on the West Coast had that same
[10:11] Speaker 4: struggle to live in their house.
[10:13] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[10:14] Speaker 6: So you talked about like them kind of try to
[10:17] Speaker 6: out cool each other. So they're obviously not wearing the
[10:20] Speaker 6: pink and flower dresses and the high heels or whatever.
[10:25] Speaker 6: What were they wearing?
[10:26] Speaker 4: It was all flip-flops. I don't think we saw a
[10:29] Speaker 4: closed-toed shoe once.
[10:31] Speaker 5: Or barefoot, yeah.
[10:32] Speaker 1: We saw a group of guys just walking barefoot.
[10:35] Speaker 4: Down the street.
[10:36] Speaker 2: Oh, the guys, not the girls going through Rush.
[10:39] Speaker 7: Okay.
[10:39] Speaker 5: I was like, wait, what?
[10:41] Speaker 6: No, no, no. I'm wondering about the girls going through Rush. Like,
[10:43] Speaker 6: what were they wearing?
[10:44] Speaker 4: The girls were all in flip flops. And we saw
[10:47] Speaker 4: two walk out of Pi Phi in white t-shirts, jeans,
[10:52] Speaker 4: flip flops, and then full hair and makeup.
[10:54] Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. I love it. I want to go
[10:56] Speaker 2: back to school and go to California.
[10:58] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[10:59] Speaker 6: That's the way to go.
[11:01] Speaker 1: Right it's so amazing yeah like they're they're like wearing
[11:05] Speaker 1: jeans and it and it whereas like maybe at a
[11:07] Speaker 1: southern school for that level of like casual maybe it's
[11:10] Speaker 1: the first day or whatever maybe you'd be wearing like
[11:12] Speaker 1: slacks and a blouse or yeah a sundress like sundress not.
[11:17] Speaker 3: A dress when you guys say flip-flops are you saying
[11:19] Speaker 3: like like what's that company?
[11:22] Speaker 2: Like rainbows? Like rainbows. Or are you wearing Tory Burch?
[11:26] Speaker 5: No, rainbows.
[11:27] Speaker 2: Okay, it's rainbows.
[11:29] Speaker 3: Got it.
[11:29] Speaker 2: Yes.
[11:30] Speaker 7: I love it.
[11:32] Speaker 4: 100%.
[11:33] Speaker 6: I love that. That would be my kind of school.
[11:35] Speaker 5: Oh my God.
[11:36] Speaker 2: Blakeslee, I hope she gets in because she will totally
[11:39] Speaker 2: fit in. This is her vibe.
[11:40] Speaker 4: And there was like capris. You could see all the
[11:43] Speaker 4: capris were back too. Girls were wearing like the capris pants. Yeah. Totally.
[11:48] Speaker 6: I would say like.
[11:49] Speaker 1: Yeah, like I would say like, The girls there are
[11:52] Speaker 1: definitely more on trend as opposed to Southern. It's all
[11:57] Speaker 1: about like being classic, preppy.
[12:00] Speaker 4: But it's also geographical trends. Like those are the trends
[12:03] Speaker 4: for over here. But I'm sure if you were in
[12:04] Speaker 4: a Southern state, the trends would be completely different. Like
[12:08] Speaker 4: a golden goose over there is equivalent to like a
[12:10] Speaker 4: loose capri pant here.
[12:11] Speaker 5: You know what I mean?
[12:12] Speaker 7: Yeah.
[12:13] Speaker 6: So how many people go through Rush at that school?
[12:17] Speaker 6: I mean, I have no, I feel like it's not
[12:19] Speaker 6: a big group.
[12:20] Speaker 4: One of my sister's best friends as a freshman in college,
[12:23] Speaker 4: and she just went through it. And she sort of
[12:26] Speaker 4: was telling me that it's the most girls they've seen yet.
[12:30] Speaker 4: I don't know what, but I think the number keeps increasing.
[12:33] Speaker 4: So I don't know if the houses also have the
[12:36] Speaker 4: capacity to fill that.
[12:37] Speaker 5: Because they aren't as big.
[12:39] Speaker 4: So I heard from her that a lot of people
[12:41] Speaker 4: were getting cut this year. So it wasn't Even though
[12:45] Speaker 4: the school itself has a laid back feel, maybe the
[12:47] Speaker 4: process isn't as laid back as it would stereotypically seem. Yeah.
[12:52] Speaker 1: To go back to what we were saying, because you
[12:55] Speaker 1: asked Trista how many people go through it. So it's
[12:58] Speaker 1: like about 2,500 students are like active members of Greek life.
[13:03] Speaker 7: And then they're at UCSB. Yeah.
[13:07] Speaker 1: And then the undergrad population.
[13:09] Speaker 2: Is that including fraternities or just sororities?
[13:12] Speaker 7: That includes fraternities.
[13:14] Speaker 4: Okay.
[13:14] Speaker 7: And then the undergrad population is 23,000.
[13:17] Speaker 2: So like 10%.
[13:19] Speaker 7: 10%, which is similar. UCLA was like 10% too.
[13:23] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[13:23] Speaker 2: How do we know how it is in the Southern Hemisphere?
[13:28] Speaker 7: Alabama, it's 40%.
[13:31] Speaker 2: 40%.
[13:32] Speaker 3: Wow.
[13:33] Speaker 5: I believe that. That's huge.
[13:35] Speaker 2: I believe it too.
[13:36] Speaker 3: I would love to know what Indiana, like how much
[13:39] Speaker 3: it is at Indiana.
[13:40] Speaker 7: Ole Miss, 48%.
[13:42] Speaker 5: Oh my gosh.
[13:43] Speaker 2: Almost 50% of people.
[13:45] Speaker 5: Wow.
[13:46] Speaker 6: So like when, if you didn't go through rush into
[13:49] Speaker 6: Southern school, you would feel almost like, I, I, I
[13:52] Speaker 6: got to guess as a freshman, it'd be hard to
[13:54] Speaker 6: make friends because everybody is going through rush. It sounds like,
[13:57] Speaker 6: I mean, I guess everybody doesn't get to school. I
[13:59] Speaker 6: remember them talking about the numbers, like 15,000 girls went
[14:03] Speaker 6: through one of the schools we talked about. And like,
[14:06] Speaker 6: that's insane. That's just incredible. I don't even know how you,
[14:09] Speaker 6: I know that they do a lot of background checks
[14:11] Speaker 6: on the girls. During the summer, and I can't imagine
[14:14] Speaker 6: how they would get through that many. Did you have
[14:17] Speaker 6: any concept or any idea if they do the same
[14:20] Speaker 6: kind of things at the schools that you guys visited?
[14:24] Speaker 6: or the schools that you guys went to, did they
[14:26] Speaker 6: have that kind of committee at Rush that did like
[14:31] Speaker 6: the background checks, scoured social media, created a file for
[14:35] Speaker 6: each girl going through Rush so you had like a
[14:37] Speaker 6: little background on them before they came through your house?
[14:39] Speaker 4: Yeah, I think Evie and I were both on exec
[14:42] Speaker 4: at our schools. I know we had a committee, but
[14:46] Speaker 4: I don't think it was the same, at least at
[14:48] Speaker 4: Cal Poly, it wasn't the same scouring of like, They
[14:52] Speaker 4: didn't do, we didn't look through social medias before we
[14:55] Speaker 4: weren't allowed to. So we didn't know anything. Even on exec,
[14:59] Speaker 4: we didn't know anything about who we were talking to
[15:01] Speaker 4: before it happened.
[15:03] Speaker 3: I feel like that has changed, right? Like big time.
[15:06] Speaker 3: They're definitely doing their research.
[15:08] Speaker 2: It seems like.
[15:09] Speaker 6: There's a whole like committee that works all summer.
[15:12] Speaker 2: It's crazy.
[15:13] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[15:14] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[15:15] Speaker 6: But maybe, maybe you're not doing it at these schools. Maybe,
[15:17] Speaker 6: you know, they, they don't do it. I mean, it sounds.
[15:20] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[15:20] Speaker 1: I don't want to give off the impression that they just,
[15:24] Speaker 1: it's completely different on that end. Because from what I know,
[15:28] Speaker 1: like one of my, but I was like, um, president
[15:33] Speaker 1: of my sorority at UCLA. And then I was like
[15:34] Speaker 1: best friends with the same sorority president at UCSB. And
[15:39] Speaker 1: I was talking to her through the whole rush process
[15:42] Speaker 1: and was like, any girls that I knew that were
[15:44] Speaker 1: going through, I was like, look out for this girl,
[15:46] Speaker 1: look out for this girl.
[15:47] Speaker 7: And they, and she would give me like a report
[15:49] Speaker 7: every day.
[15:49] Speaker 1: I'm like how she was doing or what, how she
[15:51] Speaker 1: thought she was going to go through or whatever. So like,
[15:55] Speaker 1: I definitely, there's still the, I think across the board,
[16:01] Speaker 1: every house, like you want the best girl. So you're
[16:04] Speaker 1: going to like use the resources at your disposal to
[16:08] Speaker 1: do that.
[16:09] Speaker 4: I would maybe agree if this is what you're saying, like,
[16:13] Speaker 4: That it is somewhat more word of mouth and hearsay
[16:16] Speaker 4: than the online, I feel like.
[16:21] Speaker 2: Got it.
[16:21] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[16:22] Speaker 5: That makes sense.
[16:23] Speaker 3: I feel like you're going to trust your best friend
[16:27] Speaker 3: at another house, at another school over what you're hearing
[16:31] Speaker 3: online or you should.
[16:32] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[16:33] Speaker 6: And people like don't always represent themselves perfectly on Instagram.
[16:38] Speaker 6: Like you can't really tell like how involved they are
[16:40] Speaker 6: in a club or whatever.
[16:41] Speaker 2: So no, it's a highlight reel.
[16:43] Speaker 6: Yeah.
[16:44] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[16:45] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[16:46] Speaker 1: I would just say they're probably looking for something different
[16:49] Speaker 1: than maybe your typical like Southern girl. Like SB has
[16:53] Speaker 1: so many people who are from Southern California or just
[16:57] Speaker 1: California in general. Cause it's such a big state school
[16:59] Speaker 1: that like you're looking for that.
[17:03] Speaker 7: Kind of vibe I think like a chill.
[17:07] Speaker 1: Beach girl who's maybe she's into music or maybe she's
[17:10] Speaker 1: got specific like cool tastes and things or is different
[17:15] Speaker 1: in some way or does art or like not to
[17:18] Speaker 1: say that Southern schools aren't looking for that I just
[17:20] Speaker 1: feel like that's such like a California creative which like
[17:26] Speaker 1: was definitely a thing at UCLA but I felt like
[17:29] Speaker 1: we had a lot more out of state kids at
[17:32] Speaker 1: UCLA or or I mean just like the proximity to
[17:36] Speaker 1: the beach I feel like really breeds.
[17:38] Speaker 6: That it I so I feel like that beach element
[17:41] Speaker 6: is a huge element did you guys get an idea
[17:44] Speaker 6: of like which were the top houses and was there
[17:46] Speaker 6: did you get a sense of any competitiveness did you
[17:49] Speaker 6: talk about did you talk to girls going through this
[17:52] Speaker 6: were they aware which were the top houses and were
[17:54] Speaker 6: they feeling you know any angst about getting into one
[17:57] Speaker 6: of those houses So.
[17:59] Speaker 4: One of my good friends who's in a fraternity there
[18:03] Speaker 4: still goes there. Cause he's just one year below and
[18:07] Speaker 4: we were interviewing him on the street and we asked
[18:09] Speaker 4: him what like their perspective was. And even before he
[18:12] Speaker 4: could chime in some, another passing by, I think frat
[18:15] Speaker 4: guy or just guy was like DG Pi Phi A
[18:18] Speaker 4: Phi just said it like interjected and then kept walking.
[18:21] Speaker 4: And then my guy friend was sort of in agreement
[18:25] Speaker 4: with that, but we just thought it was funny how
[18:27] Speaker 4: there was, it seemed like a unanimous understanding, even just
[18:31] Speaker 4: from a passerby or like, you know.
[18:35] Speaker 2: That's interesting.
[18:36] Speaker 6: So did you feel like the girls, I guess the
[18:38] Speaker 6: frat guys knew it because they were already in the system.
[18:41] Speaker 6: The freshmen that are coming in there, do you think
[18:42] Speaker 6: that they were kind of in tune, which were, and
[18:45] Speaker 6: can you tell, like, are their houses nicer? Are there
[18:47] Speaker 6: just more girls in that? So are they like, how
[18:49] Speaker 6: do these girls, if it's not such like a big
[18:51] Speaker 6: Greek system, how do they find out which house they
[18:54] Speaker 6: want to be in? How do they figure that out?
[18:55] Speaker 4: I think that a lot, this is where the internet
[18:59] Speaker 4: does come into play along with word of mouth, but
[19:01] Speaker 4: just like follower counts.
[19:03] Speaker 5: That is still a big thing at these schools.
[19:06] Speaker 2: Really? Yeah.
[19:08] Speaker 3: This is the first time I am hearing this. So
[19:11] Speaker 3: you want your follower count. To be super high when
[19:14] Speaker 3: you go, really?
[19:15] Speaker 4: And just the house follower counts. Each sorority will have
[19:19] Speaker 4: their own Instagram.
[19:20] Speaker 2: And social media.
[19:22] Speaker 5: So whichever one has the most followers, the girls are like,
[19:26] Speaker 5: I want to be in that one. Not always, but
[19:28] Speaker 5: that is.
[19:29] Speaker 4: Normally a telltale sign of what house they want going
[19:34] Speaker 4: into it. And then I think the conversation's contribute after
[19:38] Speaker 4: the fact.
[19:39] Speaker 3: I have a follow up question to that. Do you
[19:41] Speaker 3: have as part of your executive committee or executive board
[19:45] Speaker 3: or whatever you call it? Do you have someone on
[19:48] Speaker 3: there who's in charge of your socials like a social
[19:50] Speaker 3: media director yes I was I was mine wow and
[19:54] Speaker 3: was it your job to just get followers so that
[19:57] Speaker 3: you could have an easier time with recruitment wow I
[20:00] Speaker 3: mean that.
[20:02] Speaker 1: Is a whole like probably one of next to like
[20:07] Speaker 1: president and i don't know vp membership that's probably one
[20:10] Speaker 1: of the most important roles i just think your online
[20:13] Speaker 1: presence makes such a difference because it's like well i
[20:17] Speaker 1: also remember and that like this is something i was
[20:19] Speaker 1: thinking about today like ucsb is on the quarter system
[20:22] Speaker 1: same with me so when i was going into rush
[20:25] Speaker 1: all my friends at home from high school had just
[20:28] Speaker 1: gone through like had already left for going to school
[20:30] Speaker 1: and i was waiting to like go to school you
[20:34] Speaker 1: know plenty of weeks later because I was on the
[20:36] Speaker 1: quarter system. And like, I remember just scouring all these
[20:42] Speaker 1: Instagram accounts, like spending all my time looking at it,
[20:44] Speaker 1: prepping for rush, whatever, getting so excited and seeing, you know,
[20:48] Speaker 1: which girls do I think what I would like or whatever.
[20:50] Speaker 1: So you really do end up looking at like their
[20:52] Speaker 1: Tik TOK and Instagram and And that's where the whole
[20:54] Speaker 1: like dancing thing comes into play.
[20:57] Speaker 6: And so do they still do that at the California schools?
[21:01] Speaker 6: Do they still have a whole like the prep week
[21:04] Speaker 6: of learning all the dances, songs and all that? So
[21:06] Speaker 6: they still do all that. So it sounds like they
[21:08] Speaker 6: are trying to impress the girls that are the PNMs,
[21:12] Speaker 6: but they're not trying to impress the girls.
[21:15] Speaker 4: I think that the sororities are definitely trying to impress
[21:20] Speaker 4: the girls coming in. Even though on the side of
[21:24] Speaker 4: being recruited and being a PNM, you feel like you're
[21:27] Speaker 4: just trying to get accepted back to all of these
[21:30] Speaker 4: houses and it doesn't feel like that.
[21:32] Speaker 5: It is a big.
[21:33] Speaker 4: Competition between houses for who gets the best new class.
[21:38] Speaker 6: Yeah. How many people were each of the houses accepting?
[21:42] Speaker 6: And did they have a set number? Like everybody was
[21:46] Speaker 6: only going to take 25, everybody was going to take
[21:48] Speaker 6: 30 or something like that? Or does each house... um,
[21:50] Speaker 6: determine their own number?
[21:52] Speaker 1: I think it's, it's something that's set across like, um, you,
[21:58] Speaker 1: you can't have one house that like takes a hundred
[22:00] Speaker 1: girls in another that takes 50.
[22:02] Speaker 7: It just like, wouldn't be fair.
[22:03] Speaker 1: So I, from, I don't know exactly how many they
[22:07] Speaker 1: took this year, but I know that, um, like the
[22:11] Speaker 1: standard was around like, like 75 in a PC and.
[22:17] Speaker 4: I think that it keeps increasing because my year when
[22:20] Speaker 4: I was accepted as a PNM, we had 64 members
[22:23] Speaker 4: in our class.
[22:23] Speaker 5: And then this past year, it was above 100. Oh, wow. Yeah.
[22:29] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[22:29] Speaker 5: That's huge.
[22:30] Speaker 7: I'm talking about UCSB. That's like UCSB numbers.
[22:33] Speaker 4: Oh, yeah.
[22:34] Speaker 3: I mean, that's that's pretty big numbers for what I
[22:37] Speaker 3: would consider a smaller Greek system.
[22:55] Speaker 2: Okay.
[22:55] Speaker 3: So because we're talking about UCSB, I want to hear
[22:58] Speaker 3: about Del Playa. I didn't know about this and we
[23:02] Speaker 3: toured UCSB either last year or the year before.
[23:06] Speaker 4: Sorry.
[23:06] Speaker 7: It's Deltopia.
[23:08] Speaker 5: Deltopia. Deltopia.
[23:10] Speaker 7: Okay.
[23:11] Speaker 5: So tell us about what is Deltopia?
[23:13] Speaker 2: I need to hear all the things.
[23:15] Speaker 4: Deltopia is like a huge street party at UCSB.
[23:22] Speaker 5: It's, I don't think it happens anymore.
[23:25] Speaker 4: I went when I was a freshman in college with
[23:29] Speaker 4: my friends because Santa Barbara is an hour and a
[23:31] Speaker 4: half away from where I went to school. And we
[23:34] Speaker 4: stayed in the dorms with someone. And it's literally just
[23:39] Speaker 4: that one street right on the beach where sort of
[23:43] Speaker 4: there isn't like a quote unquote frat row. But a
[23:45] Speaker 4: lot of the fraternities have houses or like satellite.
[23:48] Speaker 5: Houses on that strip.
[23:50] Speaker 4: They're all throwing parties on the side of the cliff.
[23:54] Speaker 4: And it turned into something where it was just a
[23:57] Speaker 4: huge commuter fest where everyone from out of town came,
[24:01] Speaker 4: which I was one of them, so I can't even complain.
[24:04] Speaker 5: And then it just got way blown out of proportion.
[24:08] Speaker 4: And so they now have super strict police enforcements going
[24:13] Speaker 4: on there now.
[24:15] Speaker 2: So it's not really a thing anymore because they got
[24:17] Speaker 2: shut down.
[24:17] Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
[24:19] Speaker 2: Oh, that's too bad. I mean, it sounds really fun.
[24:22] Speaker 5: It was fun.
[24:23] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[24:24] Speaker 5: I got an MIP though when I went.
[24:26] Speaker 2: Oh, no, that's not good.
[24:29] Speaker 5: It's a risk.
[24:30] Speaker 6: You survived it.
[24:31] Speaker 5: It's okay. We survived.
[24:33] Speaker 1: I know.
[24:33] Speaker 4: I went back when we were touring it again with
[24:35] Speaker 4: Evie this past time. I went back to where it
[24:38] Speaker 4: went down and I was like, I'm still standing.
[24:40] Speaker 7: That's such a good.
[24:43] Speaker 6: It's just a warning.
[24:46] Speaker 5: Yeah, that was a phone call. My mom didn't love
[24:48] Speaker 5: to receive though.
[24:49] Speaker 2: No, you know what?
[24:51] Speaker 3: A phone call that I will never live down is
[24:54] Speaker 3: I was at Indiana. I was out for my 21st
[24:57] Speaker 3: birthday and my, I may have told the story, Joan,
[24:59] Speaker 3: if I have, I'm sorry, I'm telling it again. So
[25:03] Speaker 3: it was my 21st birthday and it was a, um,
[25:08] Speaker 3: a tradition at IU that everyone does 21 shots on
[25:12] Speaker 3: their 21st birthday.
[25:14] Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
[25:14] Speaker 3: So I got to 18 freaking shots and I'm, yes,
[25:17] Speaker 3: I'm five, two. And then I had gained the 15,
[25:19] Speaker 3: the freshman 15, although maybe I wasn't. Yeah, right.
[25:23] Speaker 2: Exactly.
[25:24] Speaker 3: Um, so there used to be at, um, the, the
[25:29] Speaker 3: bar that we were at, which is still there at
[25:32] Speaker 3: Indiana Kilroy's. there was a on the wall phone, like
[25:36] Speaker 3: an actual phone that you, you know.
[25:38] Speaker 2: You would whatever, put in a quarter or whatever. Um,
[25:42] Speaker 2: they definitely don't have that anymore. Um, and I called
[25:45] Speaker 2: my mom and I said, mom, you'd be so proud
[25:48] Speaker 2: of me.
[25:48] Speaker 3: I mean, can you imagine Joan, you get a call
[25:51] Speaker 3: from your daughter and you're like, I mean, if Blakeslee
[25:53] Speaker 3: called me and she's like, I'd be so proud of you.
[25:56] Speaker 7: What do you mean? You just did 18 shots.
[25:57] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[25:59] Speaker 6: So we have the same tradition at Maryland, at University
[26:02] Speaker 6: of Maryland. And I did all 21. And I was
[26:05] Speaker 6: sick for an entire week. And I had to go home.
[26:08] Speaker 6: I was so sick. I couldn't stay in my dorm.
[26:11] Speaker 6: I had to go home and my mom, I told
[26:13] Speaker 6: her I had the flu.
[26:15] Speaker 4: Oh, you weren't, you didn't think your mom would be proud.
[26:17] Speaker 6: No, I didn't think she would be proud. And I
[26:20] Speaker 6: told her I had the flu and she took really
[26:21] Speaker 6: good care of me. And I still, to this day,
[26:23] Speaker 6: feel guilty. And I'm going to see her tonight. I
[26:24] Speaker 6: think I'm going to, I'm going to confess it tonight.
[26:26] Speaker 5: You're going to come clean?
[26:27] Speaker 6: I'm going to come clean tonight.
[26:29] Speaker 2: She's 94.
[26:29] Speaker 6: I don't know if I have much time. So I'm
[26:30] Speaker 6: going to do it tonight.
[26:32] Speaker 7: Oh, Joan, do it tonight.
[26:34] Speaker 2: Report back. I need to hear how it goes.
[26:37] Speaker 6: You did 21 shots. That's hysterical.
[26:39] Speaker 7: My goodness.
[26:40] Speaker 6: Matt, it's amazing. We're all still alive, isn't it?
[26:43] Speaker 2: We're all still.
[26:44] Speaker 4: Thank God.
[26:44] Speaker 3: And thank God my mom forgave me because why would
[26:47] Speaker 3: I think that my mom would be proud of me
[26:50] Speaker 3: that I did 18 shots?
[26:51] Speaker 2: Like, come on.
[26:52] Speaker 3: I probably just gave her a minor heart attack, you know?
[26:56] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[26:56] Speaker 6: Like I'm going to have your stomach pumped right now.
[26:59] Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. You're coming at me.
[27:01] Speaker 6: I have your stomach pumped.
[27:04] Speaker 2: Oh my goodness.
[27:05] Speaker 6: That this, that since the houses, the sorority houses aren't huge,
[27:10] Speaker 6: that there are other ways that the girls get together.
[27:13] Speaker 6: Do they have satellite houses? Do, how do they figure
[27:16] Speaker 6: out how to socialize if they're not all gathering at
[27:18] Speaker 6: the big house?
[27:19] Speaker 1: So I, I do maybe want to correct Reese here
[27:22] Speaker 1: because they were like, or just interject. I think I
[27:27] Speaker 1: heard that they do house like up to 45 members
[27:31] Speaker 1: and then only like you know, if you had 70
[27:34] Speaker 1: members in a pledge class, then like, you know, that
[27:39] Speaker 1: it wasn't required that everyone's lives in, but you know,
[27:43] Speaker 1: you know, half of your pledge class could, I mean,
[27:46] Speaker 1: the houses look, they didn't, I mean, they weren't like
[27:48] Speaker 1: Bama big or even like our UCLA houses were pretty big,
[27:52] Speaker 1: but they looked like, I mean, great big houses that
[27:55] Speaker 1: a bunch of girls could.
[27:56] Speaker 7: Go hang out in.
[27:58] Speaker 4: Okay.
[27:58] Speaker 6: So they're doing a gathering place.
[27:59] Speaker 7: Yeah, definitely.
[28:00] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[28:01] Speaker 3: Like what do you, do you have like not with
[28:05] Speaker 3: these smaller houses, I assume you still have formal dinners
[28:09] Speaker 3: and you have all your meetings there. And you know,
[28:12] Speaker 3: if there's like, you can probably go there for not
[28:15] Speaker 3: formal dinners.
[28:16] Speaker 5: Is that what the house is used.
[28:18] Speaker 2: For, for people who aren't living in it?
[28:20] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[28:21] Speaker 1: I mean, they, yeah, they have, it's like the same
[28:23] Speaker 1: thing kind of like what I had at UCLA with
[28:26] Speaker 1: having like a chef and staff and people that, you know,
[28:31] Speaker 1: take care of the place.
[28:33] Speaker 7: Like, and they're doing the same kind of.
[28:35] Speaker 1: I don't know, activities that you would do at other places,
[28:38] Speaker 1: like houses, like your sisterhoods.
[28:42] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[28:43] Speaker 7: And things like that.
[28:44] Speaker 1: I feel like the biggest thing that I noticed with,
[28:48] Speaker 1: which was what you were saying, Trista with like Del
[28:52] Speaker 1: Playa is where the campus is and it's all within
[28:57] Speaker 1: like a few blocks, you have all the sorority houses,
[29:00] Speaker 1: all the fraternity houses on the blocks that like go
[29:03] Speaker 1: right up to the beach.
[29:05] Speaker 2: So, so it is called Del Playa is the area.
[29:08] Speaker 2: I thought you were.
[29:09] Speaker 1: Talking about Deltopia, which is the name of the party,
[29:12] Speaker 1: which is this huge party that they have every now
[29:16] Speaker 1: that I think has been shut down. But I mean,
[29:18] Speaker 1: I think all of this like kind of makes it
[29:21] Speaker 1: to like such a It is very much like a
[29:24] Speaker 1: social and like party school. I think like it's been
[29:26] Speaker 1: voted like the number one party school. Nuh-uh.
[29:31] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[29:31] Speaker 4: Really?
[29:32] Speaker 2: Compared to Arizona?
[29:34] Speaker 1: It has been like because also like UCSB had these
[29:39] Speaker 1: like infamous. Halloween parties, not like back in like the
[29:43] Speaker 1: eighties and nineties. And then, or maybe I'm like dating
[29:47] Speaker 1: that too late, but I know it was like when
[29:50] Speaker 1: my friend's parents went to UCSB and they shut down,
[29:53] Speaker 1: like it got so dangerous because a big thing is like,
[29:57] Speaker 1: they're on this cliff. And when people get drunk, there's
[30:00] Speaker 1: been like deaths.
[30:01] Speaker 7: That have happened.
[30:02] Speaker 5: Oh my gosh. So scary.
[30:05] Speaker 1: And it's the most compact, like square mileage or something
[30:11] Speaker 1: of like under 21 year olds or like in the war.
[30:16] Speaker 7: In the U S or something.
[30:17] Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. That's cool.
[30:19] Speaker 1: So they kind of like rule this area and are
[30:22] Speaker 1: not like as intact with like the outer community of
[30:26] Speaker 1: or the other people that live nearby. So I think
[30:29] Speaker 1: they kind of just like run this area and things like, you.
[30:33] Speaker 7: Know, can get out of hand.
[30:35] Speaker 5: Yeah.
[30:35] Speaker 1: So I think they shut down Halloween a long time
[30:38] Speaker 1: ago and then all the UCSB kids would come down
[30:40] Speaker 1: to UCLA for Halloween.
[30:42] Speaker 7: And then now I.
[30:45] Speaker 1: Think they've, they've always had this like Deltopia party and
[30:47] Speaker 1: everyone would go up to UCSB for Deltopia. And now they,
[30:51] Speaker 1: I don't, I think they've since shut it down just
[30:54] Speaker 1: because it's gotten way too crowded.
[30:56] Speaker 4: Yeah.
[30:56] Speaker 7: Out of hand. Like, we're not talking about, like, one
[30:59] Speaker 7: frat party.
[31:00] Speaker 1: We're talking about, like, 20 frat parties going on at
[31:02] Speaker 1: the same time, all, like, on the coast.
[31:06] Speaker 2: And just, like, there's... Oh, my gosh.
[31:09] Speaker 7: I mean, I've had a grease race. There's, like.
[31:13] Speaker 4: steel fences like wired fences like in between each one
[31:17] Speaker 4: and girls are like not even girls me and my
[31:19] Speaker 4: friends were climbing over them like in our bathing suits
[31:23] Speaker 4: and I think we had like twisted tees because that's
[31:28] Speaker 4: what they were giving out oh gosh it was just
[31:30] Speaker 4: it was fun but it was definitely like a scary
[31:34] Speaker 4: situation waiting to happen with all these young people on
[31:37] Speaker 4: the edge of a cliff.
[31:38] Speaker 3: Drinking yeah drinking drinking yeah Thanks, everybody, for listening in.
[31:59] Speaker 3: This was really interesting to me, just talking about the
[32:02] Speaker 3: differences between UCSB California schools and the Southern schools. So
[32:07] Speaker 3: thank you, Evie and Reese, for all of your nuggets
[32:11] Speaker 3: of wisdom, for all your insight, for interviewing some of
[32:15] Speaker 3: these students, for being on the UCSB campus and bringing
[32:18] Speaker 3: it back to the Dirty Rush podcast. Everyone who has
[32:22] Speaker 3: joined us, I hope you'll also join us on Instagram
[32:25] Speaker 3: and TikTok at Dirty Rush Podcast so that you don't
[32:28] Speaker 3: miss any episodes, exclusive.
[32:31] Speaker 2: Clips and more. Thanks so much. Have a great day.

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