Right before Thanksgiving break my sorority had one of my favorite “mystery date” invites…KAT in the Hat! Weeks before the event, each girl submits 3 names of potential-dates to our social chair. The social chair secretly calls one of the three boys to invite them to KAT in the Hat–but doesn’t tell them who their date will be either. The boys are then in charge of picking out two matching hats; one for you and one for them. We all get our hat the day before the invite and have to make a costume around it. This year I got this fantastic little number….but had no idea what kind of costume it was supposed to be!
The night of the event, all the girls in my sorority meet at the house dressed in their costumes to take pictures before we head off to the event on buses. A few clever girls at this point figured out who their dates were going to be, but most of us still had no idea!
We all headed to the buses (my hair barely fit through the bus door….) and were whisked away on our adventure for the night. Since it was an all-girl bus ride, singing ensued, and we all got to relive our favorite Spice Girls/Britney/Classic-Disney-movie songs.
Our venue was at La Boheme in West Hollywood–a gorgeous restaurant that had been closed done exclusively for KAT in the Hat that night. We all made our way to the dance floor, where we nervously waited for out mystery dates to arrive.
While we were belting out Baby One More Time on the bus, the boys were also loading on buses to meet us at La Boheme. About a half hour after we first arrived, the boys came streaming off the buses looking for their dates.
Everyone began searching for their date by looking for who was wearing a matching hat. My date wasn’t hard to find since he too was wearing a giant blonde wig as well! My date ended up being an old friend and fellow engineer, and we had a great time the rest of the night dancing around in our ridiculous costumes.
Just questions!!
My name is Candace and I am (hopefully) going to be a transfer student in the Industrial and Service Engineering Program next fall! I was referred to this blog site for some research info into the program.
I am hoping to join a sorority too.. but was a little concerned with the time commitment being in such a demanding major… But it seems as though a lot of female engineers are in one! Do you personally find that it is a tough balance in the ISE program?
It definitely seems like a great experience!!
Hey Candace! You definitely can balance being an engineer with participating in Greek life, or any other kind of activity on campus! Viterbi engineers are involved in many organizations–the key is to manage your time.
I actually joined my sorority as a Sophomore, so there’s no rush to commit to Greek life as soon as you come to campus. From my experience, however, I feel like I’ve become more productive and involved on campus since joining since I’m know surrounded by like-minded, involved sisters. My advice is to definitely sign up for recruitment to check out the chapters and talk to girls about their experiences within the different houses. There’s no commitment, and it’s a great way to meet new friends.
Feel free to email me at viterbi.student@usc.edu with any other questions.
I hope to see you around campus! Fight on!