Good luck, Bamagirl. It will probably be more difficult to go through rush as a junior, but you won't know what opportunities may exist unless you try.

Like others have said -- keep your options open, and work on rounding up those recs. And remember (as others here have also said) to treat every invite as an opportunity -- it only takes one.

All the best!

This ^^^ cannot be overly emphasized, at Alabama, or other notorious tent talk schools!

bamagirl, I know I've sounded harsh about your chances, but we have a lot of Prospective New Members come here and declare they will totally pledge their choice because they have wonderful 3.0 grades and are cute and were homecoming queen. Well, 60% of the other PNMs have 3.5s or better and were also homecoming queens. I'm exaggerating, but so many girls don't understand that they are one of MANY well qualified PNMs.

You need to know it will not be super easy for you...but it is possible.

Go into UA recruitment determined to only accept 1 of 5 or 6 sororities = you're toast.
Go into UA recruitment prepared with recommendations, good grades and activities, dressed appropriately, determined to meet new friends in many houses, enjoy the parties, be pleasant to your hostesses and participate in conversations, unconcerned about sorority reputations (and you shouldn't be - all UA chapters have outstanding women and leaders) = high chances of a successful recruitment.
I wish you the very best!
RTR!

That number originated from my ass, since you asked.

And yes, they were great opportunities. Those upperclassmen selected were probably also head and shoulders above the average Bama female student and vetted back and forth and upside down. Greekdee's post didn't really convey that.

If I used a little hyperbole, it's because people often don't get the point unless you do.

All the more reason they may be looking for women with higher grades.

Can you supply us with those statistics? Number of upperclass women, by class, who went thru the process vis-a-vis the number who actually were offered bids?

That's what I thought.

The actual number of total PNMs from both recent colonies, who participated in formal recruitment, then joined a colonizing chapter, was 304 of the total 438 new colony members. I think that there was a lot of opportunity for upperclassmen to join these chapters, since colonizing chapters want and need new members outside of freshmen and sophmores.


Yet you didn't attend Bama (or any other competitive SEC school), your GLO doesn't have a chapter there, you don't write recs for PNMs there, and don't know girls who joined either of the most recent colonizing chapters.

I do. And I know that the girls selected were great girls, though to state that this process is 3x more difficult than FR, and that these girls are turned inside-out in such a manner, is tantamount to uninformed tent-talk.

Greekdee's post conveyed exactly what needed to be conveyed. I wish there was such an opportunity upcoming for transferring upperclassmen like bamagirl. I think we still need more chapters to colonize at Bama (just my opinion -- especially considering the continued large size of the pledge classes).

One way or another -- I'm sure bamagirl would be happy in any of the chapters there -- and I hope she pursues the opportunity. There aren't any bad choices at Bama!

Do you know how may of those 304 were upperclassmen (including sophomores since they are also considered upperclassmen)? And why not include all who participated in the colonization process instead of the number who also participated in formal recruitment? Does that skew the stats?

Perhaps you can help with that -- do existing chapters pledge more juniors, for instance, than colonizing chapters?

I certainly didn't think so, but perhaps you can provide some stats from your own chapter's recolonization there. I'm willing to be educated.

I don't agree. It made it sound like it was an "easier" option. (FWIW I don't think that was greekdee's intention, but it did.)

If you want to blow sunshine up everyone's twat 24/7, you're on the wrong site. Maybe you need to go assist your chapter at Alabama with recruitment and tell them to give bids to all the women you "support" on here.

If I knew, I would have posted the information. But I'm not on the recruitment side these days. Since you had partial stats, it appeared that you might be privey to such information.

Look, we're all just trying to make the point that "colonies seek out women of all grade levels, but they are by no means taking everyone", right? That's the important part for PNM's.

But if I wanted to swap not-so-classy insults with someone pulling uninformed advice out of unmentionable places, then I’m on the right site? ;)

I just don't see a disagreement here -- no one said that a colonizing chapter takes any upperclassman. Opportunities for upperclassmen were more abundant during a colonization than in FR with existing chapters at Bama, and I imagine on other SEC campuses as well.

We could extrapolate a little from the numbers posted in the reports found here:
http://greekaffairs.ua.edu/resources.cfm

For the most recent colonization at Bama, for instance –

In Fall 2011, 221 girls were pledged in the colonization. In Spring 2011, 10 more NMs were added, for a total of 231.

In Fall, 2012, 92 girls were pledged, and the total membership at close of Fall 2012 is reported as 261.

So that leaves 62 girls who potentially graduated within those 3 semesters. These girls would have been seniors -- and maybe juniors on their way to an early graduation -- when they pledged during the colonization or sometime thereafter (check my math, just in case).

All chapters have some girls move, transfer, drop, etc, of course, but there are probably a lot of graduating upper-upperclassmen among those 62.

Your numbers are off. The question wasn't how many total were pledged. The issue is how many upperclassmen were pledged - and are generally pledged - in a colonization. You are trying to extrapolate something for which you do not have enough information.

Once again, do you know the class breakdowns? Yes or no would be appropriate answers for the discussion you joined. The rest is not germaine to the issue at hand. Thanks though for the math tutorial.