<p>I feel strongly about this important issue at W&L. It has a very negative impact on an otherwise great school. My daughter is now a junior and has always been very happy and popular in any setting. She along with a number of other girls are making the best of things but the heavy greek only social situation is far from ideal. The freshman girls are at the mercy of a few upper class girls who have far too much power to decide who will be in or out socially for their college years. Sadly my daughter selected W&L because she has always enjoyed a balance of a great social life along with outstanding academic performance.</p>
<p>The “tear” in Tear Night rhymes with “air” not “ear”. When all the PNMs are gathered together the day after Prefs, they are given sealed bids. They do not open them until everyone has their envelopes. When given the okay from Panhel, they tear open the envelopes to see their new home.</p>
<p>@parentconf: You do not need to join a certain sorority to be socially “in”. The beauty of W&L is that the Greek Life participation is so high, making the membership a lot less exclusive as compared to a school where it might be 25-50%.</p>
<p>Motherdear -</p>
<p>Actually, Tear Night has nothing to do with sorority rush, and that’s not how girls’ bids work. Tear Night is the night after sorority bid night - the girls all know which sorority they’re in. Tear Night is the boys’ bid night. Since boys can get more than one bid, they go to their new fraternity and tear up the bids they’re not taking.</p>
<p>Girls’ bids are delivered by their rho gams, on their hall. They open the bid and then meet their new sorority about half an hour later and go to the house. There is no alcohol allowed during bid night, or until 5:00 on Saturday. So Tear Night is when girls celebrate with their new sorority, and go to the fraternities to see where their male friends ended up pledging.</p>
<p>My daughter just completed the rush in Jan at W&l. The whole process is the most unusual rush program I have ever heard. The informal rush which goes the whole fall term and is extremely stressful. I would never have supported my daughter going to this school if I had known how bad the rush program was. I was very involved in my sorority both in college as well as after college and always encouraged my daughter to rush. But this program is flawed. Each sorority makes an effort to pledge friend groups and if they don’t like your friends they will exclude you. Also, by the end of the fall term the sororities know who they want to pledge so really the rush in Jan. is just a process. The problem occurs when the same sororities rush the same girls and don’t take the time to get to know other girls and they don’t make quota which happened this year. I think the whole process can be improved. The interesting thing is if you want to pledge you can, but it may not be where you want!</p>
<p>I was wondering as a freshman what is the minimum gpa required by the sororities? Does each have a different minimum?</p>
<p>This information will be given to you by panhellenic during freshman year. One of the current students may have slightly more up-to-date information, but as of 2 years ago, Panhellenic GPA was 2.0 (this is what you HAVE to have to be eligible for rush), but most or maybe all of the sororities required a 2.5 (and some may be 3.0).</p>
<p>I have to say something about rush. I just completed the process, and honestly could have been completely happy with any of my final three houses. I have friends in every single sorority, and LOVE the one I was fortunate enough to pledge. Great advice- get to know as many upperclassman as possible, and go on the fall rush dates when invited. When invited on a fall rush date, I was always asked to bring friends. I would walk up and down my hall asking who wanted to join me (even if I didn’t know some of them very well). I always took friends with me and kept an open mind with all groups. I went on rush dates with 5 different sororities. I thought the process worked well. Maybe I was just lucky!</p>
<p>There is a fraternity or sorority for every personality type from the “partier,” to the athlete to the quiet ultra serious student (some of the houses cover a couple of those). You can’t get too wrapped up in a perceived social pecking order however. Some houses there self-select themselves as “better,” but really, there are many viable alternatives. Some kids get too focued on joining the “cool” houses. Then they are upset when they are not asked. Interestingly, the “cool” houses may be well-connected on campus, BUT the many more “regular” ones are the group that actually support the school in a variety of ways. The biggest financial gifts ever to be given to the university have come from people who were in those “regular” houses. The recruitment process is a “life lesson” for things like job hunting, finding a spouse/partner, joining a club, etc. We get rejected many times along the way but get some added charater along the way even if it does not feel great when it is happening.</p>