Posted in my intro! potentially rushing as a junior??
 

I introduced my problem in my introduction but didn’t explain my situation as much. I am a sophomore at Georgia Southern University and have been wanting to rush since before I graduated high school. I wasn’t able to rush what would’ve been my freshman semester because I left for army basic training and AIT. I came back and started school in Spring 2019 and couldn’t rush due to my GPA. I haven’t tried Spring Recruitment because it limits my chances to 3 sororities on campus. I still want to rush Fall 2020 recruitment and I know I’ll have the GPA for it but I’m afraid sororities won’t want to take me because I’ll be a junior then. Do you think recommendation letters could help me out? What would your advice be to stick out?

P.S. I also know that the weekends I have drill with the national guard could count as community service hours for the sorority


The sororities we have are
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Chi Omega
Delta Phi Epsilon (but they have their own recruitment process now aside from formal recruitment)
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Phi Mu
Zeta Tau Alpha

Community service hours? That has nothing to do with getting a bid from an NPC group. Also, how many weekends will you have to be gone?

As someone stated in the other thread, it’s likely that the groups who will take a junior would be the same 3 holding rush in the spring (unless you know tons of sisters in one of the chapters) so your best bet is to go through informal rush in the spring.

33girl- National Guard is one weekend a month. lil_p- all the groups require recs so you should get them for every group.

I've only seen recruitment work out for a junior one time and that was basically because she had SO many people in the chapter pulling for her (nobody could ever understand how she didn't get the bid freshman or sophomore year) - as a junior it becomes not just who you know but literally how many "who you know." They have got to be after you from the inside. She went through formal rush like everybody but everybody knew that it was this one group that was going to take her or not.

That said, I don't know the Georgia Southern greek environment. But i would get recs regardless and get to know sorority women.

May I ask your age? Rushing if you are 20+ years old will be another tough issue to overcome.

I’m 19! I turn 20 in March so I’d be pushing it

I've never heard of anyone counting Drill as community service. It's not really volunteering- you get paid to go to Drill.

OTT, I have no comments since I wasn't in an NPC sorority. I joined at one month from 21, just getting back from AIT, though.

I would say go for it, but do secure as many recs as you can, which is what I'd say regardless of your year in school. When you say your GPA wasn't high enough to rush before--was it not the minimum required to register for recruitment? As a general heads up, the minimum required to register is often far lower than the sorority averages, so if you're still on the low side, you may suffer big cuts right away simply due to GPA. For a rough example, your school's Panhellenic may say you need a 2.5 to rush, but many houses will be looking for a 3.5 as a minimum. My daughter goes to South Carolina and I would say is in a "middle" house as far as their strength in recruiting. They can/do take a couple of Juniors each year, but those Juniors will have high GPAs and activities/etc. Back in my day at Florida, it was the same--we'd take maybe 2-3 Juniors a year, but they needed to be stand-outs. I wish you the best of luck, but I'd strongly encourage you to at least take a look at the houses during Spring Rush--get your name out there as far as showing interest and see if you connect with any of those houses. As someone else posted, they may be the houses you'd have the best shot at, anyway, as they are the lower recruiting houses/in need of making quota.

First of all be honest with yourself and ask yourself: do you want to be in a sorority or do you only want to be in a certain sorority? Your answer to this question will inform what you will do.

Personally, I would want to be in a sorority--any sorority. Because I know that the experience of being in a sorority (whether they have their own recruitment process or not) is pretty similar across the board.

The thing is, rushing as a junior will put you at a significant disadvantage due to your age and the number of years you will have left at your university. Realistically speaking, I don't think that you can afford that if you really want to be in a sorority. IMO it is highly likely that the chapters who would consider giving a Junior a bid during formal recruitment are the same ones who are holding informal recruitment in the Spring--so you are only hurting your chances and losing out on a semester of sisterhood bonding by waiting to go through in the Spring (both of these are pretty significant reasons to rush ASAP). In all honesty, if you really want to be in a sorority, you need to go through ASAP and be open to all of the sororities on your campus.

So with that being out of the way, I think that you should do informal recruitment in the Spring. Make sure to include DPhiE in the groups that you are attending. Most times sororities that have their own recruitment process are smaller, however this can have distinct advantages (being closer with your sisters, better chances at leadership opportunities, you have more of a say in things including the direction of the chapter). DPhiE is a NPC sorority and will give you all the benefits of being in a NPC sorority.

That's kind of it--I wish you good luck!

P.S. Oh I guess in terms of general recruitment tips, you should make sure you have everything together and work on conversation skills. Strike up small-talk conversations with people you don't know but run into over Thanksgiving, when you're back on campus, and over Winter Break. It'll help.

This link may help as well: https://www.totallytailgates.com/sor...ersation-tips/

I think D Phi E has their own recruitment because they are still colonizing.

From my understanding, DPhiE colonized at Georgia Southern in 2012. The chapter seems to have been reorganized more recently, so it doesn't look like a full-on colonization, more like a change of direction.

As you contemplate recruitment, consider the time commitment to a sorority. Will your drill requirements conflict with required sorority events? I'd hate to see you miss out on some of the benefits while getting hit with fines for missing mandatory events.

This post caught my attention because I joined a sorority in my fourth semester! Not quite a junior, but I was 20 at the time, so older than any of the other girls I knew rushing. It was the best decision I ever made! Totally changed my college experience for the better.

A lot of people may try to discourage you rushing because of your age, but I want to encourage you to give it a try. The worst thing that can happen is that you don't get in- and if so, no loss, because you weren't in a sorority before. The best thing that can happen is that you can join and become involved in a wonderful org that will give you best friends for the rest of your college career and beyond.

The other thing I want to say is, and this is just my opinion, you will have better luck in the spring. Spring rush gives you more of a chance to show your personality. In the fall, you will be competing against hundreds of other freshman, and you may get cut on many houses on the first day due to your age alone. But during the spring, it is easier to get to know more of the girls on a personal level and they won't be doing big blanket cuts for everyone of a certain age, gpa, etc. This is just in my experience, at my school, however I do go to a big SEC university and I think it is similar in many places in the south!
I also think there is a big difference between rushing as a junior and a sophomore, and I agree with other posters who said that the same sororities doing spring rush will be the ones that would be most willing to take an upperclassman anyway.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you!

Oh also, it looks like Georgia Southern doesn't require letters of recommendation for formal or spring recruitment. However, if you know sorority women, recs wouldn't hurt.

NO school anywhere "requires" recommendations to participate in rush. But many sororities who extend bids DO require those recommendations from their alumnae per their national policies. You don't know which organizations require recs. Perhaps yours doesn't, but you don't know who does. Please be careful that you do not potentially damage a girl's recruitment by offering inaccurate advice.