<p>I was hoping to start a discussion on the pros and cons of Greek Life, particularly with regard to an OOS freshman. My early thinking from having spoken to a few people at Bama Bound is that it can be a huge time commitment and distraction. As well, two weeks into school seems like it is way to early to pick what will likely be your core group of friends for the next four years. On the other hand there is something to be said for the special bonds that can be developed and the early immersion into school social life and philantropy. I am also concerned with what rejection might do to the confidence and psyche of a freshman already dealing with the stresses of a new school with 25,000 people.</p>
<p>What do others think? I am interested in hearing the good and bad.</p>
<p>As a former greek at UA I’m a big proponent of joining a fraternity. You’re concerns are justified though. And for that reason I think it’s best that OOS students, that don’t have ties to any particular fraternity, wait until their sophomore year to pledge. </p>
<p>This will give then time to get adjusted to their academics without the distraction of pledging. It will give them a chance to get to know some guys in the various houses around campus. And get a better understanding of which house he may fit in with best.</p>
<p>I do think one should go through formal rush their freshman year though to see the insides of the different houses and make some connections. Just be upfront and tell them you’re probably going to wait until the following year to pledge. If they like you they’ll be willing to wait and will even invite you to their house for the band parties and other things throughout the year so that they can get to know you better and vice versa.</p>
<p>I’m not a big fan of pledging in the spring. For one not all fraternities have spring classes. Plus you miss out on many of the experiences that make pledging fun (ie. swaps). Also your pledge brothers are normally those you’ll remain closest too. It’s nice to have a good sized pledge class so you’ll have a variety of guys to bond with.</p>
<p>My DD is a rising sophomore who is OOS and went through sorority recruitment last fall. Her second sister and I both hold Greek affiliations and my house is active at UA (note…she did not pledge my house but found her letters at another house,which was fine by me) She loves Greek life and would not have been happy at UA without joining a sorority. She has made a fabulous group of sisters who have supported her in her adjustment to life at UA ( and the south) as well as academically. It is time consuming I will give you that. The sororities all have study hall hours for their pledges and grade point is a BIG deal. I can only speak for my sorority and my daughters but a typical week would look something like this.
Monday…pledge meeting in the evening, usually around 7pm. You are only excused if you have a class. Homework nor a test the next day or week will not get and excuse
Tuesday…Panhellenic has lectures and meeting on this night that typically require all pledges to attend. Again you are only excused if you have class. Some sororities and fraternities will have parties for their pledges to attend on this night…they are not Swaps and are not required.
Wednesday…Chapter meeting…same excuse rules apply.
Thursday…Swap night…these require you to be at the house at 9 and then the Swap usually goes form about 10 until???
Friday…free…usually Frat parties
Saturday…if there is a game at home then the house will usually have a game day meal. The Greeks all sit together and usually the Fraternity pledges go and save seats for actives and dates.
Sunday…my DD goes to church. sometimes she will have an afternoon activity at the house or a philanthropy activity on this day.
Yes…it is time consuming but study hall is done Monday night after the pledge meeting and also Tuesday night and Sundays. These are proctored and there are a set amount of hours required (5 maybe…I forget)
Homecoming is VERY busy…there are activities every night that require attendance as well as the HUGE house decs and floats that are being pomped and put together. To be honest I know DD did not go to school for 2 days that week and I’m not sure how much sleep she got either.
Again though she has wonderful memories, pic and through the Greek system has met a terrific southern boy whom she (and us as well) loves dearly!
As for the rejection and the psyche of it I would have to tell you that if my Dd had not gotten a bid she would have come home. She is a UA to get a degree but she is also there for Greek Life. Recruitment at UA is competitive but more and more houses have OOS girls in them. We were told to keep our options open and my DD did that and it all worked out very well for her. she personally did not know any girls who did not get bids but I do know that about 300-400 girls either did not get a bid or chose to drop from recruitment. It is a stressful week but my DD met so many wonderful girls and has many friends throughout the Greek system. Recommendations to each house are a must. This can be hard for some but if you contact your local Panhellenic Council they should be able to help you.
The sororities provide lots of opportunities to become involved in the sorority, philanthropy, life at UA (my DD’s house required her to sign up and become involved in two different clubs/activities on campus) as well as intramural sports teams.
Recruitment for the girls is done a little over a week before school begins. Yes, I would agree that it seems some what strange that one could find their core group of friends by attending short parties at 15 houses over 5 days but it has worked 99% of the time for many years. If you would like to chat more about the process please feel free to pm me…I would be happy to talk with you. I currently sit on our local Panhellenic board and although I am not directly involved with recruitment at UA I have a vast amount of experience with the process and also procuring rec letters and preparing for the process.</p>
<p>I am so sorry to just blather on about the sorority stuff when ya’ll were wanting fraternity…as my kindergartners say i have “old timers” disease sometimes… sorry have trouble keeping track who has sons or daughters…
NJ correct me if I"m wrong but isn’t frat recruitment going on right now. I know DD’s boyfriend is on his way to T-Town even as I write to do something recruitment related for his frat?</p>
<p>Ahpimommy:
Absolutely no need to apologize. I enjoyed your post and it gave valuable perspective. A lot of the issues are universal to frats and sors, so your information was quite helpful. Continue to blather…</p>
<p>Ahpimommy, no need to apologize at all. MABama has a son but many others have daughters on here and your info in regards to sorority life is very useful for them and others that will join this board down the road.</p>
<p>Yes, fraternity recruitment is going on now. I’d say most of the fraternities will have a large (if not all) percentage of their pledge class already set. All fraternities are required to participate in formal rush but that doesn’t mean they have to give out any bids at that time. This is the reason for my recommendations from earlier.</p>
<p>OOS guys are at a huge disadvantage to get a bid from a good house their freshman year unless they have previous ties. Many fraternities at UA recruit from certain high schools and towns throughout the state. The spring parties and informal get togethers during the summer aren’t possible for many OOS kids to attend either. </p>
<p>If you spend your freshman year getting to know different guys in various houses. You’ll have a much better chance of getting offered a bid to a good house for the next fall. And you’ll have a much better understanding of what the various chapters are like and whether you’d fit in or not.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for how it is now exactly. But when I was at UA fraternity life went like this.</p>
<p>Sunday night - “Beer and brotherhood”. For actives this is a fun night. For pledges this SUCKED. With the current hazing rules I’m not sure these lineups exists anymore.</p>
<p>Monday night - study hall from 7 - 9 for pledges and anyone who didn’t make grades last year.</p>
<p>Tues night - see above</p>
<p>Wed night - chapter meeting (actives only), study hall for pledges</p>
<p>Thur night - Swap night (these are the nights you’ll find your future girlfriend or wife)</p>
<p>Fri night - Band party </p>
<p>Sat afternoon during home football games - open house for alumni, friends, and family</p>
<p>Sat night - Band party (pledges required to be back at the house at 3am to clean up after the party)</p>
<p>Sun afternoon - lawn party (very laid back and casual)</p>
<p>Pledges are “supposed” to be at the chapter house between 10am through dinner hour Mon - Fri when not in class. But there are many ways and excuses to get out of this most of the time.</p>
<p>Block seating is determined by fraternity GPA. They want you to get good grades. With the required study hall hours there is no reason you can’t get decent grades while pledging. You just need to learn how to budget your time and utilize the resources that are available to you.</p>
<p>Thanks NJBama. S said exactly what you said about recruiting. We are OOS and definitely at a huge disadvantage . He is on his way back to T-Town right now as there are some activities going on with some fraternities this weekend and he knows he is behind. We live 3 hrs away so he can’t participate every weekend. I agree with you about waiting till soph year but "Mr Social’ won’t listen . Any hints as to which frats are best? Are honors kids in demand?</p>
<p>I wonder why they don’t institute a delayed recruitment/rushing process. That would remove some of the “old boys network” advantage inherent to in-staters.</p>
<p>I’d like to see it delayed as well Feeno, but I doubt it will happen.</p>
<p>Signal, I’m hesitant to name the “best” fraternities but I’ll list a few of the historically strong fraternities and a few that are popular now. These are strictly my opinion from experience and talking to current greeks at UA. Please note that the best fraternity is the one where you fit in best though.</p>
<p>Delta Kappa Epsilon
Sigma Alpha Epsilon
Sigma Nu
Phi Gamma Delta
Beta Theta Pi
Sigma Chi
Alpha Tau Omega
Theta Chi
Kappa Alpha (no chance for a bid if you aren’t from the south)
Pi Kappa Alpha</p>
<p>That’s just a small list off the top of my head and doesn’t mean anyone not listed isn’t any good.</p>
<p>I’ve posted the stats before but FAR more girls drop out of recruitment than get dropped completely - some just realise it’s not for them, but most drop because they don’t like the invites they get back… which is silly, really, when you consider that the sororities have c.200 members and pledge classes of 80-100 girls… made up of athletes, dancers, bible studiers, artists, leaders, partiers, tee totallers, cheerleaders, scientists, volunteers etc etc etc…surely out of those you can find a group of girls that you get on with?? If it was a class of 40 or less, I can understand that ‘not clicking with’ argument… but THAT many??</p>
<p>One of the main problems with delayed/deferred recruitment for both fraternities and sororities is that is gives a whole semester for freshmen to hear all the nonsense about tiers and reputations and so on. My school had deferred recruitment and I can safely say that the gossip was unbelievable… it makes it much harder for the less desirable chapters to compete in this environment. Fortuantely, at Bama, all sororities make their quota each fall, and it has been so successful that Alpha Phi colonized a couple years ago and Delta Gamma is joining this fall. I think having 50% OOS sorority rushees who have not heard as much ‘tent talk’ makes their minds much more open to all the wonderful chapters at UA…</p>
<p>I should have worded my “delayed recruitment” post better. I’d be in favor of fraternity rush the week before school started like it used to be. Nowadays most fraternities have their pledge classes filled up before July. It really hinders the incoming OOS freshmen that want to pledge but can’t get down there for all the spring and summer rush parties. </p>
<p>I’d like to see them do away with early bidding and require everyone that wants to pledge to go through a formal rush the week before classes start. This would put everyone on a more equal footing.</p>
<p>NJBama’s version of delayed fraternity recruitment sounds like a great idea, provided that the fraternities would adhere to the delayed recruiting rules. </p>
<p>Greek life can be a great option for many people and I highly suggest that students consider joining a Greek organization. Greek life at UA and the South in general is somewhat different from that of other schools, so your family’s previous experience/knowledge of Greek life may be different from what actually happens at UA. </p>
<p>As a disclaimer, membership in a Greek organization is not a prerequisite for anything except for membership in The Machine and a couple other organizations. Greek life may not be a good choice for you for any number of reasons. Financially speaking, there are ways to reduce the cost of being Greek through budgeting and such, so don’t get too concerned about the sticker price. Whatever you choose, make friends with the people you enjoy being around and without regard to their Greek affiliation, race, political orientation, gender, sexual orientation, ethic origin, financial situation, culture, etc. Friendship can overcome any and all boundaries if all those involved are willing to do so.</p>
<p>Another huge problem with delayed/deferred recruitment for both fraternities and sororities is the loss of a semester’s worth of income: meals, rent/parlor fees (for out of house members), and dues. In spring the seniors graduated and if there weren’t new members replacing them financially right away in the fall, it could bankrupt chapters.</p>
<p>Often people forget that fraternities & sororities have a lot of fixed costs and overhead that have to be paid regardless of the number of members a chapter has. Those big old (physical) houses are really expensive to maintain, operate, and staff.</p>
<p>lol no. The University doesn’t pay for the mortgage, upkeep, or daily operational expenses of the houses. </p>
<p>However a delayed recruitment like I’m talking about wouldn’t affect the budget of the fraternities. The official start of pledge-ship would still start with the beginning of classes. It would simply require fraternities to participate and use formal rush to offer bids to recruits.</p>
<p>Have rush the week before classes just like the sororities do and just like it used to be done 20+ years ago. This would give the OOS kids a better chance of going through the process on equal terms and garnering a bid to some of the better fraternities on campus.</p>