<p>Thank you so much for all of this advice! I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it… I will definitely look at the alumni website and continue my search for people I know personally to write recs… I’m sending in my application to Bama on Monday, so hopefully soon after that I’ll get an acceptance! Can’t wait!</p>
<p>Good Luck…keep us posted when you get your acceptance letter…welcome to the Bama Family and Roll Tide :).</p>
<p>From a Bama advisor on the Greekchat website today:</p>
<p>Alabama has 1608 registered as of now and expect 1700 by the start of recruitment on the 14th. Less than 700 of those 1608 are from the state of Alabama!</p>
<p>I had heard that the numbers were thought to exceed last years and that even with DG coming on the pledge classes were going to be large. I know that many of the sororities are working on ways to make the pledge classes feel smaller and more intimate so that girls are not “lost” in the “bigness” of it all. Got an email form my chapter alumni group this morning asking again (well begging) me to come and help with recruitment. They are needing alums to be there all week to help out. Am committed to helping at Mizzou but might see if I can do half and half. I would love to be at Bama for Bid Day again…what a phenomenal experience!</p>
<p>ahipimommy: what do alums do during recruitment week? I am so unfamiliar with how everything works. I am assuming at this point that there must be some type of computer program that gets entered with the PNM preferences for houses as well as with the houses putting in the names of the girls who they’d like to invite back.</p>
<p>What a huge logistical undertaking!</p>
<p>They don’t let us touch the computers (well me anyway and I really don’t want to ) and yes there is a program that does all of matching. Since I am not very computer orientated and if I try to explain it I will screw it up, I will stay away from trying to explain the entire process, but basically it all has to do with the number of girls going through, what type of return rate each house has and where they sit at capacity. For this reason some houses will have to make more aggressive cut that others early on and that’s why you have some houses that have pledge classes of 85 and others 130! I wish I could say that the formula and the process is flawless but unfortunately it’s not. It is however the best we’ve got for now and if girls really do maximize their options and keep an open mind they should find themselves on Bid Day with a bid in hand. I know there have been some instances where this is not the case but most of the time it works.
My job would be to serve and pour water on Ice Water Tea days (oh and pick up cups ). On Philanthropy Days it’s the same type of thing. On Skit Day it’s preparing the food served, serving and cleaning up and the same for Preference. some houses have their furniture brought in and “exchanged” each night and alums help with that as well but mostly we just help during the day with serving and clean up. It is fun to be there and get to see all the different girls come in dressed in all of their cute clothes! Two years ago at Mizzou i ended up kind of silently rooting for a girl who kept returning to our house and was so excited when I saw her name on our Bid list. Alums are not allowed to talk or interact with any of the PNMS. Because I hold an Exec position with my local Panhellenic I can “advise” if I need to but am pretty sure I won’t and am not sure I really want to do that. I know it is very stressful for the girls going through recruitment but it is also very stressful on the other side. One bad recruitment can really hurt a house! I told my DD last year to remember that the sororities are trying to sell themselves as well. It will be interesting to see how she reacts to being on the other side. She is in charge of new pledges so she has a vested interest in the whole process.</p>
<p>Ahpimommy thank you for sharing with me earlier in the spring. My OOS daughter is looking forward to recruitment. You are right that friends, neighbors, co-workers are so willing to help with rec letters. We just had the issue with many of them belonging to the same 4-5 sororities although we ultimately found 11 recs writers. My DD has been told that if she is unable to secure a rec that will not automatically mean a cut. Hope that is true.</p>
<p>GCBMIB - I am excited for your daughter! Greek life at Alabama is great!</p>
<p>I would prepare her that she might be automatically cut from the sororities where she doesn’t have a rec. It’s nothing against her personally. It’s just the reality that with 1700+ girls going through, the houses might not have the time or resources to try to secure a rec for a girl during recruitment. This might not be the case will all of the sororities, but it certainly could happen.</p>
<p>Can I ask a question? What is the difference between Greek Life in the South vs Northern Greek Life?</p>
<p>My dd is a soph at Iowa State, and is in a sorority, they have a great greek system, seems very traditional and very focused on community service and philanthropy. I think they get around 600 or 700 potential new members going thru recruitment. </p>
<p>Size wise Iowa State and UA are about the same size. Soooo what is the difference here? 1700 girls going thru recruitment is just amazing to me. I understand the process, I just don’t understand the huge popularity. Is it a cultural thing? What are the differences?</p>
<p>Just wondering…</p>
<p>Bama (and other Southern schools) have very strong alumni ties. In SOME circles in the South, it matters more, and will count for more, that you went to Bama and were in ABC sorority/fraternity, than if you went to Harvard. (This is why the stressing over ‘prestige’ etc on CC cracks me up! 80% of my HS graduating class went to UA or AU. Even those who were competitive for the Ivy League - they just weren’t interested… anyways…)</p>
<p>There are so many ‘legacies’ (girls who had moms/grandmoms/aunts etc) in sororities at Bama that the chapters could fill the pledge classes several times over with legacies alone. However, they also see all the great OOS girls and the pledge classes are a mix that reflect this growing diversity (more so at some houses than others… I shouldn’t say this but if you google 2010 UA sorority pledges and have time on your hands you can do an analysis to see which chapters are more AL heavy than others…and those which had pledges from northern states). Of course, this means some legacies get dropped by their desired houses which means they usually drop out of rush altogether - more fool them.</p>
<p>The alumni can put a lot of pressure on girls to pledge the ‘right’ houses, often without understanding how the composition of the Bama freshman class, and consequently the rush groups, have changed. They also sometimes don’t realise that the methods of working out how many girls return to each house has changed to encourage girls who maximise their options and to help each chapter make quota. I have to say that Auburn Panhellenic has some excellent information aimed at exactly this type of alumni/parent which is well worth reading…</p>
<p>In junior/senior year of high school, we would go to Bama games and hang out with older girls we knew from HS/church/soccer/camp/etc who were sorority actives. The chapters would host teas in Bham and other major towns to tell us about Greek life. This helps the actives get to know potential rushees and vice versa, but also does a lot to make girls think that they are a shoe-in to certain houses, which most definitely ISN’T the case</p>
<p>I guess I would describe it as very ‘traditional’… there are some aspects that haven’t changed in a long time… but I think it really only matters if you are from those social circles to start with. It was also one of the reasons I am glad I went OOS, as it put a lot of pressure on my sister during rush, despite our family not mixing in those circles, she had still heard all the chat from high school and her friends…</p>
<p>My OOS incoming freshman daughter is participating in Rush next month. I had no experience with Greek anything (from New England and went to college in Portland OR in the 70’s) I found the Preview Weekend really helpful. Have had great luck with most of the rec letters but still have a few outstanding. The local PanHellenic person said she would take care of it but now I’m getting no responses to my emails. Thought I would put this out there in case any alums would be willing to consider writing a letter for my daughter for Alpha Gamma Delta, Alpha Omicron Pi, Alpha Phi, Kappa Delta or Delta Zeta. My daughter has a good GPA and was very successful, social & happy at her private girls boarding school. I know she will have a great sorority experience but want her to have the benefit of rec letters for every single sorority to ensure the process works for her. Thanks so much if anyone can help!!</p>
<p>My sorority is one of those…pm me for a rec.</p>
<p>My sorority is one as well…pm me and I will rec a rec:0. we need to do this ASAP as they need to be into the houses by Monday!</p>
<p>GCBMIB…It is true she will not automatically be cut because she doesn’t have a rec but…with 1700 girls going through recruitment it would definitely be REALLY important to have at least one for each house. What ones are you missing? PM me …let’s see if we can find the others.</p>
<p>I hope this is not a dumb question, but can girls who are still in college give recommendations or is it only alumni?</p>
<p>Girls who are currently actives in sororities at Alabama cannot write recs for girls going through recruitment at Alabama. As for girls who are actives at other universities it kind of depends on the different sorority houses…some accept recs from college girls and some don’t. If that is the ONLY person you can find to write a rec then I would say go ahead and have them do it but really it is better to have a rec from an Alum, even better to have one from an ALum who knows you personally and even better if that Alum is from Alabama.</p>
<p>That makes sense…thanks so much. My DD is a member of one the sorority’s that were mentioned and I thought that maybe she could do a rec for the poster. If she really needs one, please don’t hesitate to PM me and I will ask DD to do it ASAP. She would be more than happy to help.</p>
<p>I have seen the numbers on the sorority side, but how many guys get denied frat bids each year and what are the typical reasons?</p>
<p>I don’t think numbers are held centrally for fraternity rush, especially not in the way that they are for sororities. As rushees can choose which fraternities to rush, rather than having to visit all of them, as with sorority recruitment, and as several of the more ‘traditional’ chapters rush over the summer, I am not sure how this data would ever be collated.</p>
<p>As men don’t rush all the houses, men aren’t typically cut from all the houses. A guy might rush four chapters and not receive a bid, but this could be that he chose the four wrong houses in terms of personalities and interests of the current members. If he had looked at another four houses, he could end up with several bids. </p>
<p>Those more traditional chapters who rush over the summer do tend to recruit from particular high schools and hometowns, where current members will already know many guys and be on the lookout to rush them… eg they will get invites to parties over the summer. Some spots might be reserved for any guys coming through formal IFC rush, but the majority of the pledge class will have been sewn up by then. I think an OOS guy only targeting these ‘old row’ chapters is setting himself up for difficulty, unless he already knows the guys or immediatelyclicks with them. I would encourage a guy from OOS to consider a wider range of chapters to rush and NOT listen to all the nonsense about ‘old row’ etc. Quite frankly it really only matters to freshmen, and MAY matter IF you are from certain social circles and want to remain in those circles after graduation… and anyways, being in a chapter full of guys who all know each other from high school/camp/church would be SO dull (in my mind at least!)</p>
<p>a couple parents on this forum have sons who pledged fraternities and these were not your ‘typical’ frat guy types. There are LOT of fraternities at UA and they all have different personalities and have different types of guys in them. As fraternities are not bound by the same rules as sororities, and can give out as many/few bids as they like. they tend to be smaller and therefore do have a distinct personality - this is different to the sororities, which are so huge at UA, that there are many types of girls in each house</p>
<p>If your son in interested in rushing, he needs to think about what kind of fraternity experience he wants, what kind of guys he likes to hang out with, and where he thinks he can contribute and grow. Guys can also rush in sophomore year with minimal consequences (NOT the same for sororities) so this is also an option. </p>
<p>I think guys in general are much better at seeking out the houses where they feel they might fit and ignoring the gossip, than girls are…</p>
<p>Bumping this thread up. D left this morning to be with her chapter for work week. </p>
<p>Good luck to all the girls both actives and PNMs. Over 1700 girls are registered for recruitment, another record year.</p>