<p>Hi everyone, I’m planning on attending Alabama in the fall and rushing and I have multiple questions about the process.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Where do you find recommendations once you’ve found all you can from family, friends, people you know, etc.?</p></li>
<li><p>Does what you wear/how you look play a part in the process? (Be honest, and I’m not talking about being “unattractive” I’m talking about what you wear to rush and how you do your makeup and hair)</p></li>
<li><p>Is attending Preview Day essential? (I live in Maryland, going down in January to visit and probably can’t make it back down in February because of fight costs)</p></li>
<li><p>Does it matter if you’re from the North and don’t know many active members?</p></li>
<li><p>What if you don’t get a bid?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m only a dad of a freshman girl who went through recruitment this past fall so…</p>
<p>1-You can contact your local sorority alumni associations. You can also find individual chapters that have local chapters. These can be good resources for recs. Use Facebook and other social media to find recs as well.</p>
<p>2- Yes, appearance, dress, hair and make up play a part in the process. The UA Panhellenic website has a guide to help you dress appropriately for each round. Be conservative and classy.</p>
<p>3- my D did not attend preview. I think it’s great if you can but not essential.</p>
<p>4- Lol, when did MD become the north? And no, it doesn’t make that much difference. Some houses do discriminate a little and only want girls from AL, but for the most part it isn’t an issue.</p>
<p>5- if you maximize your options you have a 90% chance of getting a bid. Be open to every house.</p>
<p>I posted this last night on the other thread.</p>
<p>Mom of a D in her second year at Alabama and she is in a sorority.</p>
<p>Here is what you need to do starting now:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Find recs for each sorority at Alabama, 2 each is best. If you get more than 2 for one house, take them! Someone wants to write a rec for you, GREAT! Ask your parents friends if they were in a sorority, teachers, your friends moms, everyone you know!</p></li>
<li><p>Post this on your FB and your parents change the wording and post on their FB as well:
“Sorority help needed
I will be attending The University of Alabama next year. I plan on going through formal recruitment in order to join a sorority. I am needing 2 Reccomendations per house at UA.
If you, your mother, grandmother or close family friend were in a sorority and would like to write a Rec for me it would be greatly appreciated.
Please let me know soon and you can private message me or email me at <a href="mailto:abcdef@abc.com”>abcdef@abc.com</a>
Thank you for your help"</p></li>
<li><p>Keep a good list of your potential rec writers with which sorority they were in, phone number, email address and mailing address.</p></li>
<li><p>Keep watching the Alabama Panhellenic site to see when registration opens and register.</p></li>
<li><p>If you can attend Preview Weekend at UA the weekend of February 28, do so.</p></li>
<li><p>If you have not, get your housing deposit submitted asap.</p></li>
<li><p>Join the UA students FB for your class. Find the roommate finder and connect with other future students there. Could even find others that plan to rush and potential roomies moms might write a rec for you.</p></li>
<li><p>Work on your resume and rec packet info. These need to be mailed to your rec writers by the end of April. Be considerate of their schedule. Don’t give it to them at the last minute. What is needed and how to word the resume can be found online.</p></li>
<li><p>Find your local Panhellenic for alumni. See if they have a way to sign up for PNM’s (potential new member). They often have workshops for PNM’s.</p></li>
<li><p>Clean up your social media!!!
If you would be embarrassed for your grandmother to see it, it should not be on there.
Yes, be a prude in a good way. No pictures of alcohol, smoking, drugs, etc
No reference to such either.</p></li>
<li><p>Move in for PNM’s is a week earlier than everyone else in order for recruitment to be completed before the first day of school.</p></li>
<li><p>Bid Day is on the last day which is the Saturday before classes start. All girls still in recruitment will be taken inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. You will receive an envelope with your bid inside. Then you will go find the actives from that house with the letters and then as a group will run to your house. A light meal, info and such will be done all dependent on what each house normally does.
If you receive a bid and all is good, your family agrees to pay the dues, you agree to the rules, etc, you are in.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As for Preview Day, my Sophomore D says that it will be run differently than previous years. She was told that the girls will not be visiting the individual houses. That they will have all their events at Bryant Denny and that each house will have a booth and only a few reps to talk with and meet the girls and their moms. I don’t think anything has been put out officially so it could change. I think a lot of the actives are not happy about it because they use preview as practice for the freshman and it allows them to get info and meet girls that may not already be on their radar. I’d wait and see what Panhellenic puts out about preview before deciding if it is worth it to attend.</p>
<p>RE 3: I know precious little about anything panhellenic, but I always think it is a great idea to attend preview-type events of any kind, <em>if</em> you can swing it in terms of time, money, distance, effort, etc. It will give you an idea of whether this is something you really want to pursue…it will give you some additional info that you couldn’t get elsewhere…and it never hurts to make a great (first) in-person impression with the people who make decisions about your pursuit.</p>
<p>I’m also a proponent of killing two birds with one stone: can you consider changing your Jan visit plans to be in Feb instead? </p>
<p>aeromom - I can’t visit any later because of their housing application, if you apply for housing after Feb 1st you can’t choose your own residence hall, housing staff assigns it for you, and I want to be able to choose my own. </p>
<p>MSUBAMAmom, my D has heard the same thing regarding Preview. They are wanting to make it less “all about the Greeks” and it would be any group that wants to have a booth that day. </p>
<p>We attended Preview 2 years ago and it was a great experience. It helped ease D’s mind as far as kind of what to expect for rush. She also met her future roommate at that time. They both had already picked each other and knew that each would be at Preview and planned to meet. Went great! Confirmed in February that both wanted to be roomies with each other. </p>
Recommendations are a must for certain sororities. I second the notion of having your parents post it on facebook etc. Get the word out, you’d be surprised how many people you and your parents know who are Greek.
Ask around with your friends parents as well. If I’m writing one rec, it doesn’t really take much more time to write another rec for a friend of a friend.
Please make sure that when asking for recs that you give the person writing a rec a photo (Alabama Panhellenic gives you the details of what is needed) and also a digital one too. Some of the sororities only accept online recommendations through Nationals. Make sure your resume is up to date and easy to read.
Clean up the social media. Girls at Alabama will check you out on social media. Trust me that pictures of you drinking, smoking or morally questionable dress or actions will cause you to be cut from certain sororities. If you have inappropriate words, jokes, videos etc on your social media delete them. They can also cause you to be cut.
Go through rush with an open mind. I think in some ways it is much easier to go in as an outsider and not gunning for a certain sorority because you have four generations of family members who have been in that sorority. That’s a lot of pressure. You might not fit in there!
If your grades are good, you are dressed in clothes which fit you well and are modest (not too short, tight or low cut) and are able to carry on a conversation you will be fine. It seems that of the 10% of the girls who are not placed during rush, most are cut due to grades. If you have below a 3.0 your choices will be very limited. The ones who drop out are the ones who are stuck on a certain house and drop out if they are cut from that house even though they have other sororities still inviting them back. There are very few girls who are cut completely from rush.
My daughter went in from out of state. She knew no one and had a great rush experience. She’s very happy with her choice. She had a positive attitude from day one and went through the process with an open mind.
