Hi! I’m committed to Alabama and I really want to join a sorority when I go, but I’m from the north and I have no family/friends with sorority ties so I don’t know much about how it works.
I’ve heard a lot of girls say that you should try to get invited to sorority teas. I have no idea how to go about doing that! Is there a specific way to go about it? Who should I contact?
Also, who is it best to reach out to for letters of recommendation? Should I try and email active members or should I be trying to contact alumnae?
Thanks for reading!
@bama21girl, if you put “sorority recommendation” in the search engine in UA forums, you’ll pull up a lot of threads that answer some of these questions. Here’s a recent one that may help:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-alabama/1840318-recommendation-letters.html
Being from outside the South is NO DETERRENT to pledging! Right now you should be asking among your parent’s friends, family, and acquaintances to find out who is a member of a sorority with a chapter at UA. Write down their name, contact into, and sorority. Ask them if they will write you a letter of recommendation in the spring. If you find one sorority alum, ask if she knows women in other sororities. And if they tell you that you don’t need a recommendation, please let them know that at SEC schools, you do! Around February or March, you will compile a packet of resume, photo, and transcript (unofficial OK) to give to these ladies for writing your recommendation.Give (or e-mail) each lady a packet and that will give them everything they need to write your recommendation.
As far as the teas, each year has seen changes in that, and I expect this year will see some more changes. Soon after Jan.1, there will probably be a form on the uapanhellenic dot com website to sign up for the teas or parties or whatever they have in 2017. This usually happens in March, but it could be in February. If you can’t come, do NOT worry! It is not necessary to come to previews in order to have a successful recruitment.
Right now, you can also prepare by thoroughly reading the recruitment section of uapanhellenic dot com, including the 2016 “Greek Chic” publication which should have a link on the site.
Another good resource is the National Panhellenic Conference’s site, thesororitylife dot com. UA specific info and tips can be found on sororitygirl101 dot com - the info is a little old now, but still valid.
And finally, please enlist your mom’s help, and send her to the Alabama Sorority Recruitment Moms on Facebook. This group exists to help moms through the process!
One slight deterrent might be that it’s harder to find sorority alums in areas where it’s less common, but I guess it can’t hurt to ask.
I second that it is more difficult to find sorority alums in certain areas. My D is interested in rushing and I was in a sorority up at my Northeastern school long ago. D and I have asked all of our friends, neighbors, at church, teachers, etc… and while there are many who were in sororities, we have yet to find anyone from one of the chapters at UA. We have enlisted H to ask around at his office – he is not fully on board and after asking a few of the women feels uncomfortable in his office climate. I will take care of asking around his female coworkers and the wives of his male coworkers at the holiday party. One of my coworkers has a daughter who was in a chapter represented but other than that we have exhausted all of our social contacts. I am not even sure that coworkers daughter will follow through since she will have a new baby at home in a month. In fact, they all seem shocked that rush starts so early and that recommendations are needed – up at the schools in that we are all familiar with, the earliest girls can rush is spring of freshman year. I have literally asked dozens of people and even put it out on facebook. D has already asked her teachers, all of her friends moms, and she asked at a girl scout leadership event. Not one lead on those recs. We are at least happy that D has the time to work on this since she is already accepted to UA. In the winter once she is certain of UA, we will contact the nearest PanHel alumni group – we decided that she will work on that over the winter holiday break.
Not easy. She hopes she can make the flight down for the teas once the schedule is set and details are put out (will require flights, time of work for me, and rental car) .
You do not have to have an alumna of a UA sorority chapter. The alumna needs to be a member of a sorority with a chapter at UA. For instance, an initiate of Alpha Chi Omega at the University of New Hampshire can write a rec for a University of Alabama student because there’s an AXO chapter at Alabama. But an initiate of UNH’s Alpha Xi Delta chapter cannot write one because there is no longer an Alpha Xi Delta chapter at the University of Alabama.
If you have an Alabama alum writing your rec, it’s nice, but no extra points.
Yes, in certain areas of the country it is not common for recs to be requested, but believe me, they are necessary in the South and at many schools in other parts of the country with competitive recruitments. And yes, there will be sorority alumnae who will tell you that they aren’t necessary. That’s why I’m here to tell you NOW - not next May - that they are! 
Many of these ladies have never written a rec and don’t know how. Direct them to their sorority’s website…or suggest they call their national headquarters. The ladies (and sometime men) answering the phone there are happy to help. Really!
@novicemom23kids Don’t give up, keep asking. You will literally find recs in the strangest places. We went to Italy on vacation the spring of my daughter’s senior year in high school, and the owner of the house rental we stayed in was in a sorority–at UA! She wrote my daughter a rec for her house. We also had great success with our local Panhellenic, and our daughter met with Panhellenic representatives of each house for coffee, get togethers in order for them to get to know her better. Keep asking, and post your need for recs on your personal FB page to get the word out. Make sure to join the Bama Sorority Moms FB pages to help with recruitment as well. Lots of great information there.
We have asked around and have found a few. How soon should you make the request online though? My dd was wondering if it was too early to put the request out on FB etc… Thoughts?
There is a Facebook group called University of Alabama Sorority Recruitment Moms: https://www.facebook.com/groups/alabamasororityrecruitmentparents/
I think after the holidays is plenty of time to ask via FB. Our timeline (in no way perfect) was to have a list of recommenders by March 15th. By Spring Break we had our packet design and contents ready to go. We sent packets to recommenders in mid April, asked for them to be sent in by June 1. Deadlines are really July 1 and July 15th depending on house, but we just asked for them to be in on June 1st. On May 15th, we sent hand written thank yous to all recommenders. It was appropriate, but also if someone had forgotten to send a rec in, they still had time. Most recs are now electronic, so you’ll need to think about a hard copy packet for a few recs, and an electronic version for most. Note that you will hear a lot of stories of people who start the process on June 1, get some recs, throw it all together, and their daughter still gets a bid. We just are more “planners” than others perhaps. We also had a big trip planned in May/June so I wanted to make sure everything was done well in advance of the trip and graduation festivities. The last four or five weeks of school become very “high school” focused as you have the last award ceremony, graduation, the last theater event or last music event or last debate or…We couldn’t focus on recs while all those high school things were swirling around. Of note, we did not go to Spring Teas. We had been on campus the weekend prior for the University Fellows finalist weekend, and could not return five days later. Spring Teas are a great introduction to sorority life, and great “practice” if your daughter needs help in maintaining a conversation, etc. However, they are far from mandatory. There were 2600 girls at recruitment this year–about 600 actually attended Spring Teas.
FYI, the Alabama Sorority Recruitment Moms Facebook group is only open to parents - no students allowed. AFAIK, there is no similar Facebook group for students. However, in the Class of 2021 group, there are a bunch of current sorority members who would love to answer a sorority-related question. You may see a student sorority rush group start soon.