<p>Hi!
I am currently a high school senior and will be attending Alabama next fall! I am from out of state, so I’m a little in the dark about a lot of things. I have a few questions, so if you can help it would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I plan on going through Sorority Recruitment but am a little uneasy about the whole process. I have researched and researched and researched, but it is something that is still pretty foreign to me. My aunt is the only person in my family that has been in the Greek system and even then, it was at a very small college. I know that I need recommendations to each of the houses, but I am having a pretty hard time finding people to write them. How do I go about getting more recs? Also, any other advice regarding Rush would be really helpful.</p></li>
<li><p>I am a huge football fan (because I was raised in the South) and I want to buy tickets to the games. I read somewhere that sororities and fraternities buy blocked tickets. If I plan on going through Rush, should I refrain from buying student tickets? Are the blocked tickets including in the sorority fees? </p></li>
<li><p>I have been accepted into the Honor’s College and have been looking at some of the suite style dorms such as Ridgecrest, Lakeside etc. I am very outgoing and very social and would like to have a roommate with similar interests. However, most of these dorms that I like are Honor’s College only and are far away from Sorority Row. Does anyone have experience with these dorms while being in a sorority? Would it be a better option to consider dorms such as Tutwiler? </p></li>
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<p>Sorry that this is so long! I have a bunch of questions and am very excited for college! Thanks so much for any help!</p>
<p>1) Since you plan on going thru rush, you should go to Panhellenic Preview weekend in the spring.</p>
<p>2) Greeks don’t BUY block seats. Various groups have designated areas to sit for their members who have tickets. </p>
<p>You will have to buy regular student tickets, and if your group (Greek, honors, whatever) has an area of block seating, then you may be able to sit in that area with your purchased regular student ticket.</p>
<p>You will buy your student tix around end of May or beginning of June. Pay close attention to those dates.</p>
<p>3) there are girls in honors housing that are in sororities. the Crimson Ride easily takes kids from the honors area to the sorority area within a short time. </p>
<p>Plus, when you eat with your sisters, you’ll more likely be coming from class, not your dorm.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The best advice I can give you concerning rushing would to be yourself and to have fun. </p></li>
<li><p>Currently, there aren’t any sororities with block seating. Fraternities have block seating and sorority members are invited as dates to the football games and get to sit it block seating.</p></li>
<li><p>Choose the dorm that you want to live in. Many sorority girls like to live in Tutwiler while others like to live in the honors dorms. It is perfectly fine to rush and not live in Tut.</p></li>
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<p>Ask your teachers, ladies in church, mom’s friends etc etc if they were in a sorority and if they’ll write you a rec. </p>
<p>Fraternities have block seating not sororities. Even then, you still need a ticket to get in the gate. Tickets don’t come with block seating. It just allows those members of an organization who have tickets to sit together. BUY TICKETS first thing on the morning you’re allowed. You’ll get an email telling you when that will be.</p>
<p>If you’re definitely gonna join a sorority then Tutweiler will be where you want to be. It’s where the overwhelming percentage of sorority girls will live and it will be close to your house. </p>
<p>Just remember that sorority rush at UA is very competitive and not everyone is guaranteed a bid. Keep an open mind to all the houses and don’t limit yourself to just one or two and you’ll be fine.</p>
<p>Southerngrace: Since you qualified to live in the honors housing, you may want to take advantage of living there – at least as a freshman. If you do not, you give up your chance to live there any other year. Housing does not allow you to transfer into the honors dorms.</p>
<p>Southern Grace congrats on your UA acceptance. </p>
<p>My D is a current sophomore at UA is greek and she choose to live in Honors housing her first year. As a matter of fact all her suite mates pledged. The girls found each other on Facebook and knew that they would be rushing together.</p>
<p>My D was happy in the honors dorm as it was well suited to her studying style. The Tutwiller experience would not have worked for her. That being said she had lots of friends there and always felt that the Tut girls got to really know each other. The difference is having a roommate & sharing a bath with lots of folks. Tut is also very close to sorority row which is handy for meals and meetings! You can’t go wrong either way!</p>
<p>As far as recommendations you should ask at church, school and class mates parents. Many large cities down south have Panhellenic Councils that host events and help with recs. I know at panhell weekend the Atlanta Alumnae Panhellenic Association was recommended.</p>
<p>Southerngrace:
Find out if your area has a “Panhellenic Association”. If so, this group will be comprised of alumni representatives from the various sororities and they can assist you with finding recommendations. We live in Fort Worth, Texas and any senior in our area planning to go through recruitment at any school registers with Fort Worth Panhellenic. The Panhellenic then distributes a master list to the alumni groups so they will make sure they have girls coverered.</p>
<p>Or, if you have any friends who have recently gone through recruitment you could ask them who wrote their recommendations to see if you know any of those people. Getting the recommendations together is a daunting task!</p>
<p>Tutwiler is a great place to live to meet people and for the proximity to sorority row. However, if you plan to live in the dorm for more than one year, you might want to consider taking the honors housing or at least one of the other suite style dorms because if you live in Tut then you cannot move to Lakeside, Riverside, Ridgecrest etc as a sophomore (honors sections or regular sections). There seems to be a communication gap between the housing office and the scholarship and recruiting offices on this!</p>
<p>My advice for you re rush, in addition to that given above, is simple. Keep an open mind.</p>
<p>You will hear a lot of chat re old row, new row, top tier blah… but really it’s all nonsense. Each house has around 200 girls and because of this I think you can find your home pretty much in all the chapters. Very few girls get cut from all chapters and those that do it’s because they don’t have recs or haven’t met the grade requirements. A much larger number drop out because they didn’t get invited back to the houses they wanted.</p>
<p>Some house’s pledge classes are more in-state than others and you must remember that for some houses, a lot of Alabama HS school girls already know a lot of girls in the house and have been coming up since junior year of HS for football games etc. Don’t let this faze you. Almost 50% of rushees and pledges in 2010 were OOS showing that you CAN be successful if you aren’t from Alabama IF</p>
<ul>
<li>you have recs to every house</li>
<li>you meet the minimum grade requirements for the chapters (published in the rush booklet - google this year’s) - usually around 3.0</li>
<li>you have a good resume showing lots of ECs: sports, community service, awards etc</li>
<li>you show interest during all conversations in each house: smile, ask OPEN questions, be genuinely interested in each house, understand what you can give to each house</li>
<li>you make an effort to look well turned out: go up one more notch in the ‘smart’ stakes than the rush booklet, nails/hair/makeup neat and put together. No need to spend a fortune though</li>
<li>you try and meet as many sorority members beforehand as possible - for you, being OOS, this means going to Panhellenic preview in the spring</li>
<li>try to understand how sorority rush works: this will minimise the stress and put everything in perspective. greekchat.com has good info about how it works (use the search function)</li>
<li>YOU KEEP AN OPEN MIND ABOUT EVERY HOUSE AND DON’T LISTEN TO TENT TALK!</li>
</ul>
<p>remember that no one can guarantee you a bid - but do the above and you’ll certainly maximise your chances… good luck! at the very least you’ll meet a TON of new people during rush…</p>