Why would you advise legacies of that? I don't think anyone should go into the pref round assuming she is a sure thing.

I know of an instance where a legacy of your group attended pref and was not given a bid to your group.

Yeah, I do too - and you'd think they would have learned by now with all the fallout they've had to deal with. Hopefully it won't happen there this year. But it is policy and printed and everything for the world to see. We don't consider that private information.

And why do you think ICS has a place for that in the software? For those groups where you are required to place them on the first bid list. Otherwise, ICS wouldn't program for it. And that's how you find out that they really didn't flag her. You can see what they put in ICS. So saying they did when they didn't isn't a good thing to do.

This is not true for all groups, including my own. If you can find a public statement that Phi Mu automatically puts its legacies on the bid list before any other PNM's attending their preference parties, I will eat my words, but until then, I don't think anyone should be making blatant statements.

ETA: To be clear, I agree that this is not a secret guarded the way actual MS details are guarded, I'm just saying that I don't think that PNM's should make the assumption they are a sure thing, and I don't think anyone here should make statements that may lead a PNM to make that assumption.

Tri Delta what? :)

I'm not sure which comment you are responding to...

The one before it. Someone put a screenshot on here a couple of years ago of the Tri Delt page that said that legacies at prefs don't have to be on the first bid list.

I didn't say it was true for your group. I just said it's true for many that I know about....I didn't single out any group other than mine. And the option is there in ICS for those that do. Why do you think they'd include it in the program otherwise? Don't put words in my mouth....

Interesting.

That's definitely a change from my college days.

But I've been out of the national level loop for quite a few years so that's possible.

You said the following:

I see nowhere that you qualify that to mean your group, or some groups, or anything else. I read it to mean "any group on a campus using ICS".

Now, I realize after further posts that I was arguing "it's not public for all groups" and you were arguing "it's not private for all groups", and obviously, both of those things are true at the same time, so mea culpa for mis-reading you.

All that said, I want to underscore this point, that I am sure we both agree on:

Even if a group publicly states that legacies are placed at the top of the bid list, no PNM should ever take that to mean that she is guaranteed a bid to her legacy group by attending that group's preference party.

I think that being OOS may or may not make a difference on a case by case basis. While most chapters may have eliminated attaching a stigma to OOS PNMs, it is still hugely advantageous to have someone who knows you pulling for you in the chapter. So, in that respect, an individual PNM from OOS may have a tougher time. (In other words, she may not be cut because she is OOS, but just because no one knows her personally and there are other PNMs who they know better.)

Well, that's a differant scenario not based totally on being OOS...

My group's policy about legacies on the bid list is available pretty openly on the web, and I've seen other groups policies published in recruitment guides, I'm pretty sure. I certainly don't mean that all groups have their policies out there for the whole world to see, but it's probably not MS private level info for many of them.

I agree that you'd be wise never to count on it since we can all think of examples of chapters that don't follow their own groups' policies, but for many you could know what to expect.

out of state
 

Aumom and titchou, I am not a sorority mom so when my daughter wanted to do this is was excited. As a concerned mom about her chances I looked at numbers etc and was happy to see that the out of state to in state ratios are great. However, in finding out what to do and finding rec's we were told that there is a skew towards in state including GA LA and MS. We are from the North so it concerned me that my d would be released. We were told which Sororities did not favor out of state. I did actually count last years pledges. There was an undeniable difference in some of the sororities. I did see that the overall ratios were still great and my d went in knowing she would not be invited back to some just because of her home location. She is very happy with her three remaining sororities. So in the end hopefully it will all work out as it should be. As a note another girl from our town went to two of the same sororities as my d.

AND, Thanks so much to everyone for all the very helpful information on this blog. Good luck to all the girls tomorrow.

I am excited to be going to Auburn's Bid Day for the first time to help with all the festivities!

As is my group's policy. It took me about 15 seconds to find a description of it, and a link to the actual policy. The description was written directly to the legacy. Clearly then, not MS.

My hometown, in Florida, is a MAJOR feeder to Auburn. Being OOS wasn't a liability for women in my town as it would be for a young woman from Connecticut or Idaho. Apparently it's gotten even more popular in light of the fact that Bright Futures and OneFlorida has made UF less of a shoo-in the way it used to be. It's probably the same for the Atlanta suburbs, among other places.

Some chapters skew towards a particular state, town, high school or region. This is a fact at many schools, even those outside of the SEC. One simply has to look at the bid lists to see it. It's human nature to give the benefit of the doubt to those you already know or know of. That doesn't mean OOS PNMs can't receive bids at some schools. It does mean their options may be more limited and keeping an open mind is even more important.

As far as legacies are concerned, I am personally uncomfortable about public conversations discussing their appearance on the bid lists.

Firstly, I think it's important to recognize that policies may vary between groups, both with whether the legacy is automatically on a bid list as well as whether a group has chosen to make that information public.

Secondly, I've been seeing a disconnect regarding legacies at some of the chapters I advise and it's coming from the alumnae side. PNMs are coming into recruitment misinformed about their legacy status, believing that certain relationships make them a legacy when they don't. The worst part is that it's their alumnae relative that's misinforming them. We're also not receiving legacy forms when we should because a growing number of alumnae seem to believe actives are psychic and should know snowflake is a legacy. We don't hear from the angry alumna until after snowflake's been released and she wants to know why we dared to do it.