<p>I am a OOS student from the Midwest who knows little about the process of joining a sorority. I have already been accepted to Alabama and have applied to the Honors College. If I decide to attend Alabama I plan on rushing a sorority, but the whole process seems pretty confusing and I don’t even know anyone involved in Greek life at their college since it doesn’t seem to be as popular here in the Midwest as it is in the south. </p>
<p>I’ve read up on the basics of recruitment at Alabama and I understand there are phases of rushing and pledging, but that’s about it. What steps should I take before getting to campus? What exactly is preview day and is it important I attend? And I hear I’ll need letter of recs? When do I send those in? I feel like I’m at a disadvantage being OOS since I know basically no one who’s ever been in a sorority- teachers and friends of my parents included… Any advice is appreciated!</p>
<p>Bump! I have similar questions about this!!! Except I’m planning on going from Midwest to South Carolina. I think it’s all similar though because they’re both in the south! BUMPPPP</p>
<p>I am a current UA student and am from Iowa! I also didn’t know much about the rush process before I came here. Direct message me and I can give you some advice. If you don’t have enough posts to message me, you can ask direct questions here too</p>
<p>Komm, being out of state at Alabama is no big deal. 60% of the students are OOS, and that pretty much extends to sorority members. However, you do need to bring your A game to recruitment. Go here uapanhellenic.com/main.html and read, read, read. Click on “recruitment” and scroll down to the “Greek Chic” tab. This is the “magazine” that all potential new members receive in the mail right before recruitment. You can read it now for lots of info.
Another good place for info: thesororitylife.com.
And another: sororitygirl101.com.
This forum has several helpful threads, too, as does greekrank.com.</p>
<p>If you can possible come to preview day, it could be very helpful to you to learn about recruitment and sororities and make a quick visit to all the houses. However, it’s not mandatory and it will not hurt your chances later if you can’t come.</p>
<p>Recommendations are written by sorority alumna to their chapters at Alabama recommending a girl for membership. All the chapters at Alabama want them and your chances of pledging are higher if you have them.
It’s a little to early to start requesting them, but you and your parents can start asking around to find out who is in a college sorority. Keep a list of who and what sorority they’re in - maybe even get phone numbers, too.
Think you know no one in a sorority? Ask your teachers at school. Ask your mom’s friends. Think about girls who are a little older and are in sororities at college. Even your dad can ask his friends, because men have wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters who are sorority members.
And if someone tells you that recommendations aren’t necessary, they aren’t at many schools, but they are at Alabama.</p>
<p>Make the very best grades you can.
If you aren’t already involved, get involved in some activities - clubs, sports, volunteer work.
And research! Research! Research!
Best of luck to you and Roll Tide!</p>
<p>Southlander, my daughter is not planning on going Greek, so this is more of a general question. What if someone really does not know anyone who has joined a sorority? Up here at many schools in the MidWest, it is not nearly as prevalent as it is at Alabama. I am thinking about students who may be first generation college students. They may not have access to adults who have gone to college, yet alone been part of the Greek life. Do sororities look at that type of thing when making decisions?</p>
<p>NaperMom…there are many active Panhellenic groups who are willing to help young women who are going through recruitment not only at Alabama but across the US. I would suggest looking to see of there is one in the particular that a pnm lives and reaching out to them. Another suggestion I give girls is that they reach out to the local alum group of the college or university they are going to attend. For example Alabama has a very vibrant group in the Chicago area and I know for a fact that it contains sorority women as well as parents of young women who are current members…great connections here. Pnms should as their teachers at school, women at their church, parents friends, co-workers…anyone and everyone. I thin that they will be surprised how many greek women are out there. I know that it seems like they aren’t out there but you would be very surprised…you just have to start asking and looking. It’s interesting because sometimes it has a snowball effect…you find one woman , who then knows another and so on and so one. If pnms google the various sorority alumnae groups around their area they can also reach out to them for recs. When doing this make sure that your resume is is in tip top shape (remember a sorority resume is different form one you would use to apply for a job). Offer to meet with the sorority woman. Many of us write tons of recs for young women we don’t personally know but I will not write a rec for a girl if I have not spoken with her on the phone or skyped and have seen her resume prior to writing the rec.
The days of receiving an automatic bid because you are a legacy are long gone. I helped/spoke with over 150 young women who went through recruitment at Alabama last year…all but 1 received bids and many were first generation greeks.
While process may seen “larger than life” and a daunting one if girls are organized and start looking for recs early they should find at least 1 rec per house.<br>
There’s lots of help out there for the first generation greek pnm…they just have to diligent and look for it.</p>
<p>Thank you for clearing that up for me. I did not consider the local alumni networks as a potential source of people to contact. I thought that people had to “know” them, like when a teacher writes a recommendation, with in depth knowledge about the person. I really don’t think that my daughter has any interest in the Greek life. I was just curious how a person who has not had the advantages of having parents that are college educated, and the network that accompanies that, would break through that “glass ceiling” of gaining entrance to something that is not a part of the experiences of many first generation students, when one needs to tap into that resource. I have learned something already today, and it is not even 9am local time. :)</p>
<p>A suggestion for recs is to look for area alumni. Do searches on the Internet. I found so many recs for my daughter on Facebook. I searched the sorority name and then I searched our county or town name (Kappa Delta Alumni or Kappa Delta Broward County Alumni)
Ask your area UA recruiter. Our number one supporter and lady that got 6 recs were thanks to her.
We are also out of state and only knew one person associated with UA. Ask teachers and members at your church.
You can always reach out to each sorority headquarters for help.
The rec process took two solid days and about 50 emails/messages so my suggestion is to start early. (And not 2 weeks before the deadline like we did)
If I am not mistaken recs can be sent in starting the first part of May.
Since we were in the same boat as you were last year, feel free to message or email me.</p>
<p>Ack! I’m sorry - I posted a link to a website notorious among Greeks.
I should have typed greekchat.com. Under “sorority recruitment,” there’s a long list of helpful threads.
If you visit that rank place, hold your nose and don’t believe most of what you read!!</p>
<p>Don’t even look at that rank site! I did once and within minutes was outta there! No useful info at all!!!</p>
<p>Post in your FB and have your D also post on hers inquiring if anyone’s mom, sister, aunt, grandmother, best friend, etc was in a sorority and you are looking for recs. Post every few weeks to make sure all of your friends see it. You won’t believe how many of your friends were in a sorority or their relative/best friend. Also, have your D email
all if her current and former teachers and tell them she will be attending The University of Alabama this coming year and majoring in _______. Thank them for setting her goals and all they have done to set her on this path, blah blah blah. Short and sweet, though. Then she can tell them she intends to rush and is needing recs. I bet several of them were in a sorority, or their best friend or roommate from college was and they are still good friends, etc. </p>
<p>If, like us, you are from the Midwest you may have to educate local alums to the process at UA so they understand that your rec request is serious. </p>
<p>Few of DD’s rec writers understood before she explained - the ones who did were either UA sorority chapter alums, had been to several national conventions as undergrads and had seen the hard core SEC chapter reps in action, were alumni volunteers with years of service and recognition awards, or alumni who had or currently hold positions with the IHQ (regional/province director level, etc.).</p>
<p>My current UA sorority girl was in nearly the situation. No one in my immediate family had sorority connections, but we found recs through other family, friends and friends of friends. My daughter put together a rec package for each potential rec writer which included a resume, transcript and photo. The resume listed high school sport involvement, work experience, club participation, volunteer work, honors, highlighted her academic achievements (GPA, APs taken) scholarship awarded, potential major at UA and career goal. Nearly every UA sorority requires at least one rec and a minimum 3.0 overall high school GPA. Be aware if a rec has to go through national HQ (Chi Omega I think is one), it can take over a month to process. Maybe someone else knows if there are any others like that. The process sounds overwhelming, but it is very doable with a bit of planning and spreadsheet!</p>
<ol>
<li> The recs must come from a member of a sorority in good standing that has graduated. You only need recs for the chapters that are at UA.</li>
<li> Must be from a sorority that has a chapter at UA.</li>
<li> They send out a small magazine of sorts called Greek Chat just before Rush starts. The individual chapter/house may have a parent info packet they hand out on Bid Day. I was at Bid Day and received one from my D’s house that day when we signed in. Some have said they did not receive such but it is most likely because they were not at Bid Day.</li>
</ol>
<p>The Greek Chic booklet came the day before we left for move-in, so was essentially useless for learning about the process. Go look at the 2013 and 2012 versions (just google “Greek Chic 2013”) - the book is updated each year for the names of the recruitment chairs and things like that, the rest is basically the same from year to year. You will learn about rec’s, get information about each chapter on campus, what the Recruitment Week entails, and what type of outfits the girls wear during that week. It’s a very valuable resource.</p>
<p>The Bid Day packet won’t help someone trying to figure out what they have to do before the end of the school year. Google sororitygirl 101 to get information from a veteran parent about the whole process.</p>
<p>No! Not at all. No worries!
Most of them come after graduation, when you can give them a complete transcript. But it’s fine for them to go ahead and send them to their UA chapters. The members will know what to do with them. It could even give you half a step up for Spring Preview/parties.</p>