<p>Hello, Heading to T’town tomorrow (Friday 8/17) with my mother for Bid Day and had some last minute questions:
Where can I park my vehicle? I heard something about the baseball fields. Will shuttles be running?</p>
<p>What should my expectation be regarding how long I may be able to see my daughter on Saturday. I know about half of the houses go to retreat on Saturday with the pledge class. Is she whisked away quickly?</p>
<p>We will be in town until Sunday afternoon and would like to pick up a few supplies and items for DD’s dorm room. I don’t expect to have time to do this until after we have said our good byes. Do you know if there is a way to deliver these items to DD’s dorm (RCS) with her gone? Will I be able to leave bags safely at the front desk? Will an RA be able to let me into her room?</p>
<p>Oh, I’m jealous! I know you’ll have a good time.</p>
<p>Last year when I was there for bid day, I parked in the lot on Campus Dr. just off University near Publix. I think it’s okay on weekends. I just walked along University and turned right down Colonial. Not too far, and I’m not in the greatest shape.</p>
<p>There was a luncheon at the sorority house, and there were pictures of the new pledge class being taken outside on the front lawn. My D ended up being taken out to lunch with a couple of juniors who took her under their wings, so we said goodbye at that point. She left on Sunday for the retreat.</p>
<p>I don’t know about access to the dorm. Maybe a roommate could help with that?</p>
<p>I will confess that I picked up D’s laundry and took it to a laundromat the Friday before bid day. She really appreciated that, because she had probably been wearing two sets of clothing all week. Now that I think about it, I must have seen her again sometime on Saturday, later in the day.</p>
<p>Warning: post from someone that has no idea how this works:</p>
<p>Is today the day that the girls all run out of the stadium and end up on the news? I remember that from last year- kind of reminded me of the running of the bulls in Spain. And no, I am not calling the girls bulls, but the way they all ran out of the stadium was like they were being chased by a dangerous animal- so don’t judge me!! LOL</p>
<p>Tomorrow is bid day. I think it happens around 10am. The girls are given their bids in a sealed envelope and have to sit on them in the stadium until it’s time to open them. Which they do all at once, and that’s when the noise really starts. Then they follow their new sorority sisters who carry signs and run to their new houses. It is quite a sight!</p>
<p>Ok to get every one ready for the real thing (like preseason NFL games) here is last year’s video link
scroll to the bottom of the article for the video</p>
<p>A PNM (potential new member) can only receive one bid. Not every PNM gets a bid. I <em>think</em> that at Alabama if the PNM goes to every party that is available to her all week and on the last day, Preference Round, she is guaranteed a bid. I’m sure Ahpimommy will correct me if I am wrong, but she is probably way too busy helping out with recruitment to even see this!</p>
<p>The week of recruitment is considered a time of “mutual selection” between the sororities and the PNMs. The reality is that it is heavily weighted toward the sororities. A PNM cannot attend a sorority party after the first round unless they invite her back. There are only a limited number of invitations the sororities can issue and only a certain number of parties the PNM can attend. Through this process, with the help of a sophisticated computer program, the matching up is done between PNMs and parties and then eventually between PNMs and the sorority bid lists. Both are based on rankings supplied by sororities and the PNMs themselves. </p>
<p>I’ve given a very brief summary of a much more complicated process. Also, my D did not participate, so much of what I write is based on my outdated experience as a collegiate sorority member coupled with tidbits that I’ve learned more recently as I’ve written recommendations for girls from our high school over the last 6-7 years. I’m sure my terminology is probably outdated. </p>
<p>Ahpimommy has a wonderful blog that explains the ins and outs of recruitment:</p>
<p>Reporting live from the event. At appx 9:30 am over 1000 young women will "walk"to The stadium where they will open their bids. lattelady wrote a very accurate account of the “process”. While girls being release were tough at the beginning of recruitment (these girls were released due to low GPAs. Most sororities will not bid a girl who has below a 3.0 GPA) the retention rate has been pretty high. lattelady is correct that if a young woman goes to all of the parties she’s been invited to including Preference and lists (ranks) all of the houses whose parties she has attended, then she is eligible for a bid.
We are expecting between 6000 and 7000 PNMs, their families and Greek men and women on sorority row between 8:30 am and early afternoon. If you are in the area you might want to watch. It’s a once in a lifetime experience! I have been lucky enough to have been here helping and have had a fabulous time!!!
I do have a blog (thank you lattelady) and have been helping many young women go through this process…I am very excited today to see where they find their letters.</p>
<p>awww, really? For girls that do not get a bid? I can see why it would be hard to not get a bid with all the excitement of the girls that do get a bid. </p>
<p>Ahpimommy- how many girls go the the whole process and do not get a bid at all? Because the numbers sounded like there may not be that many. And for what reasons do girls not get bids?</p>
<p>roughly 15% did not get bids, but this is mostly due to the women not maximizing their options.</p>
<p>not receiving a bid can be due to a few things. </p>
<p>being dropped in earlier rounds from all due to grades or some other glaring thing.</p>
<p>the woman not liking any of the invitations she still has as options. some of these will drop out of recruitment.</p>
<p>not maximizing options after pref day. if a woman has three options at pref time, but only likes 2 or 1, she can end up bidless if her name wasn’t close enough to the top of #1’s or #2’s list. if she lists all three, then she would likely get 3 in this situation, but if she is not high enough on #3’s list either, then she could be added by any of the three groups.</p>
<p>it is kind of complicated, to me at least.</p>
<p>BUT, if a woman sees it through and maximizes her options the whole way through, she should get a bid. it may not be with the group she wanted, but it will be a bid.</p>
<p>i think every group took at least 95 girls and one took about 140!</p>
<p>Bama does suicide watch at Tut every year. I don’t think it’s ever been necessary, but it’s such an emotional time that it’s just a precaution at a building that is very, very high.</p>
<p>which one took 140? that is way too many- how do you even get to know all of them-my niece pledged last year and she said there were 64 pledges in 2011- she said her sorority took 95 yesterday …
glad fraternity rush is much more laid back… DS will be going to Bama this time next year!</p>
<p>hlsess said: "which one took 140? that is way too many- how do you even get to know all of them-my niece pledged last year and she said there were 64 pledges in 2011- she said her sorority took 95 yesterday … "
How do you get to know them all? Same way you’d get to know 75, or 50, or 25 - by working together, learning together, having fun together.
According to my records, one sorority in 2011 took 69. The rest took different amounts, ranging from 72 up to 102, with the colonizing group bidding 224. Under the new RFM methods, quota is not necessarily a hard and fast number but rather a range.</p>
