I have 4 hometown girls that are rushing at UA this week and have heard from 2 of them each day. One of the girls got all 14 invitations back for Philanthropy round and the other one got 13 invites. I haven't heard from the other girls personally, but they are doing well, or so I hear through the grapevine, haha. They receive their invites for Skit Day at 9:30 this morning. Good Luck to all PNM's and their parents!

Me Too.

Waiting to hear about skit day and cuts after Philanthropy like all of you. I just found this website yesterday and posted on Auburn's thread not finding Bama. I am not sure I understand the ins and outs. Does being out of Alabama and not known by recruiting chapters hurt?

That's been my experience too but I guess it would have been fun to see what other parties your crush was attending.

Violetpretty's comments to you on the Auburn board are on target. As long as she had alums send recs on her to their sororities, being unknown and out of state is not necessarily a bad thing. Alabama has a huge influx of out-of-state students thanks to Dr. Witt's push to increase enrollment (and thanks to Georgia's Hope scholarships).
Added emphasis: keep an open mind, go to all the parties, don't worry about how many invitations you get. And remember that Alpha Phi will be colonizing in a few weeks, too. ;)

Very true. My daughter is from out of state and did not know a soul going into Bama Rush. She found a home and loves her sorority. She had strong recs from our college town.

Following this thread the past two days...just want to say good luck to all those who are going through. And to parents, things happen. Sometimes great girls get lost in the crowd of 1500 others and fall through the cracks. Being on the other side of rush is also difficult and can be excruciating. Each girl dropped is a decision made by a hometown. And each drop is not taken lightly. As for the cutting system currently in place at UA for the past 3 years is a difficult numbers game. The higher the return rate is for the house, the greater the cuts. Houses must identify "Tops" or RTP's early on. The biggest cuts happen after philanthropy and after skit. Just be prepared. Often massive cuts after skit day, because those girls coming to pref all have the opportunity to be on one of your three bid lists. Once again good luck.

I'd be careful saying that -- you can't assume this is the case for everyone.

What does that even mean?

I heard from my daughter a little while ago. She got invited back to her top 7 so she was VERY happy. She did say there was a lot of talk about the number of cuts made and some tears. But there was not much time for moping around because they started skit rounds immediately.

Heard from my daughter this morning! She tried to scare me and said that she only got 2 invites. I told her that was ok...it only takes one! But she then texted me back and said that she got 7! She also mentioned that three of her friends got 5 invites back..so that seems to be the norm.

Certainly, the role of hometown connections/locality can't be discounted. Not only are these chapters making huge cuts at this stage, they also have a vested interest in bringing in girls who will stay connected and loyal to the house as local alums.

Please know that I am not saying that women from out of the area cannot be loyal alums--far from it. But there is indisputable value in a person who is from the area, whose family roots are in Alabama, and who could be a contributor to the chapter someday, not only from a financial perspective, but also in terms of the alumnae network and advisory boards. I don't think that the collegians think this far ahead of course, but the mindset for getting the local girls sorted out geographically and certain towns represented in the new member class does go along with this idea of keeping it regional, and then, from certain regions preferably.

I definitely saw this going on at LSU with many of my classmates from HS. They all tended to get into the same 4 houses.

I was surprised yesterday when I was at Auburn. My son's roommate said that sorority girls were calling him asking him about certain girls going through rush that were from our hometown and state. He politely gave them no information as he didn't think it was appropriate....

Wow...several posts treading into Membership Selection territory.

You'd think people would know better... :rolleyes:

Just heard from one of my Bama girls. She's going back to 5, and is not sure but thinks the others are going back to 5 or 6. What is strange to me is that the houses she's going back to are random...all over the spectrum. I just told her (and told her to tell ALL of them) to smile, be themselves and everything would shake out the way it needs to be.