A classiness so conspicuously absent from your post that I have to wonder if it exists only in your imagination.

LOL at the corn dogs reference. Corn dogs are good! Wish they sold them at Tiger Stadium. Anyone that thinks they are insulting LSU fans with that phrase needs to be more creative. You aren't bothering us at all.

I love corndogs too!!!
I can understand your parents concern about tuition. It is very hard to pass up TOPS. I also understand your statement about being around the same people that you went to high school with. Sometimes you want to branch out and meet new friends. That is why my daughter chose to go to LSU instead of UL with most of her graduating class.

I also think that people have a very romanticized view of Ole Miss. We see it as a place where the girls are prettier and the men are all gentlemen. Lucky for you the the poster from Ole Miss proved that false!!!! I have never heard people describe LSU as a classy place, I don't think we even aspire to be that. If you think that going to Ole Miss is going to make you into the perfect person you might be disappointed. Of course we can't make that decision for you and only you know your true feelings. I just know that if it was my daughter I would ask her to think very carefully about what you could do to make yourself happier where you are. Sometimes your unhappiness has more to do with you than where you are. You may get up there and be just as miserable if you don't fix some of the personal things that might be making you unhappy.

Schools all do have very different personalities. If you spend some time thinking about what you are looking for in a new school and came back to us, you might get some really interesting options to consider. Major, size, level of conservative vs liberal, male-female balance, housing, arts, weather, party atmosphere, whatever your gig is.

But I would hesitate jumping ship from one huge southern school to another thinking it is going to be anything dramatically different than just further away. It MIGHT be, but maybe not, depending on what you're looking for.

I do kinda understand what she's saying, it's one of the many reasons why I didn't go to Penn State, because it seemed like 3/4 of the college bound kids in my class did. Plus even with that many people, you know you are gonna keep running into that person you couldn't stand.

But throw the quitting pledging in and yop, I agree with your assessment.

33, when I went to UCSB, there were only 13-14K students. We either lived on campus in dorms (pretty much what freshmen did) or in apartments in Isla Vista (sorority and fraternity houses too). There were others from my HS there but I never ever saw them! I hardly saw anyone from the sorority either. I was too busy going to class, going to work, going to the library, blah blah blah. And I walked uphill five miles in the sand each way to get to campus, too.

That's why I'm puzzled, but I don't pretend to know what college life is like at LSU. Although I do like tigers. But corn dogs, not so much. It's the texture.

Well, bless your heart. I am sorry that you have lived such a charmed life that you haven't seen the "other" side of Oxford. I have family in Pontotoc so I can assure that that "fights/passed out/puking kids" are just as prevalent (on a pro rata basis, of course) in Oxford as in BR (where I also have family). I'm busy thru football season but am glad to give you a tour after that. I won't even clutch my pearls.

Do you have any friends at Ole Miss already? If so, it might be worth seeing if you can visit them and get more of a feel of the school outside of the Grove experience or large organized events. Mardi Gras break is a little short, but that might be an option (unless you're planning to do something in Louisiana for Mardi Gras, of course!) or perhaps during your spring break at LSU, since Ole Miss generally has their spring break earlier. It might be really helpful to talk to an academic adviser at Ole Miss to learn about what your major looks like there, too, beyond trying to feel out the social climate.

Ole Miss is smaller, but it's still a big school compared to many others. If you're in a larger major and not in the Honors College, it can still feel very large. That said, it's also a school that can feel super-small. I was there in a different context, but when I would walk through campus there, I felt like I always saw someone I knew and could never be anonymous. Even if I wanted to go to Walmart for cold medicine when sick, I still felt pressure to wear something nicer than sweats because I *knew* I would see someone I knew. (I usually went to Walgreens and then CVS after it opened so that the odds of seeing someone when I felt terrible would be lower, even...) Oxford is definitely a small town, and that brings its own set of challenges.

I agree with the other posters--you have some soul-searching to do before deciding to transfer, I think. Good luck!

I love you!

Ole Miss and LSU were very different 30+ years ago. There is more in common between the two in terms of academic rigor and research now. Ole Miss is now 17,000+ students in a small town that is struggling to handle it's new traffic and new non-student year-round residents. The NPC Recruitment is highly competitive, read the threads. Check Ole Miss out before you jump from the frying pan into the fire because the grass is always greener on the other side. It might be right for you but then it might be awful too.

Mary Poppins
Ole Miss Alumna

I understand Beth. Her story is akin to my story.

I attended a very large high school. I adored high school, but it seemed everyone from every graduating class went to the large university. I liked the people in my class, and I would have liked the large university. However, since I would encounter them in a lot of core classes, the dorms, dining hall and social activities, I was afraid of High School 2 - the Sequel. I chose an out-of-state university as much on gut as academics. (Fortunately, my gut was having a good day!)

I am posting in segments because I keep hitting the dang delete button accidentally in a long post. Continuing:

It is not about choosing the wrong sorority but about choosing the wrong school. You could stay at LSU, but there might be a void. You probably won't transfer from school to school because that's tiring and expensive. The Ole Miss grads on this site can speak specifically to rectuitment there, but from what I understand it can be difficult in the absence of an upperclassman quota. Alpha Phi will be colonizing and looking for great sophomore women as well as freshmen. If you presented yourself well at LSU, get good grades and maintain a good reputation, you can be a good candidate. Nothing is assured though.

Instead, look at Ole Miss as the school whose vibe spoke to you and the opportunity to meet new people. If you decide to attend, embrace it and the things that follow (sorority or not).

I would just keep in mind that the sorority members at Ole Miss have friends in sororities at LSU. So they talk. And they might just talk about you and wonder why you dropped your sorority before initiation. So just keep that in mind. LSU recruitment and Ole Miss recruitment are both tough. If you transfer you will be a sophomore so that might make it a bit harder for you as well.

I'm from New Orleans and I'm an Ole Miss alumna. I don't have any problems with LSU. It's a wonderful school and their Greek system is wonderful as well. (Personally I just look better in red and blue!)

So keep this all in mind. Best of luck.

Are you going to finish your first year at LSU or transfer next semester? If you transfer for Spring semester, you will have a good chance of meeting girls who are in sororities and that could help you have a better rush. Remember though that lots of things will be the same because they are the things that are really part of you that you bring into any new place. If you are really trying to just get away from something instead of going toward something, you might not be any happier.

Wherever you go, there you are.

There were two parts to my post. The first was poking fun at a 100+ year rival, which some here recognized and some didn't. The second though is that there is a qualitative difference between the cultures of the two schools as it relates to drinking in particular, which may be of interest to the OP.

At LSU drinking to the point of staggering/passing out, whether at Tigerland or at a tailgate, is looked at as the normal course of business. People freely walk around with beer and liquor bottles. That's LSU's choice, but it does send a message.

In the square and in the grove that doesn't happen with nearly the same frequency, even after adjusting for population size. Of course the kids drink, and many get quite drunk, but getting out of control is the exception rather than the rule. Yes, there are places you can go in Oxford to find that environment, but they are not the focal point of the social scene. My comparison was specifically between Tigerland and the Square.


Particularly in the grove an Ole Miss student becoming uncontrollably drunk is not considered cool, and when you do see that in the grove it is much more likely to be the visiting team's fans. Another tailgating contrast can be seen in the way guests are treated. A visiting fan in the grove is likely to be invited into a tent and treated like family. A visiting fan on the LSU campus will be taunted with chants of "Tiger Bait" and have ice (if they're lucky) thrown at them. Another choice.