I'm beginning to think that's all that some do. Several years ago, we knew a metro Atlanta girl who registered at Valdosta and she was cut immediately by everyone for grades. Turns out that her GPA was far below the minimum and it was on her application. Why did they even let her register?

see, this is what we are talking about. i don't see how this could not leave a bitter taste in this girls mouth, and how embarassing for her. it would be so much better if panhellenic had simply posted the lowest minimum required sorority gpa as the required gpa for enrollment and mentioned that other sororities may have a higher gpa requirement, or at the least, sent her check back with a letter explaining that her gpa did not meet the minimum requirements, but they hoped that she would consider informal recruitment in the spring(if any chapters did that) or rushing the following fall.

Yep. It's one thing if the rush fee is relatively low or nonexistent, but if it's at a school where it's like $100 or over, that's just irresponsible on the GL office's part.

But here's a question - are there ever chapters who are hurting for numbers and will take on grade risks and that's maybe the explanation for why the GL office would do it this way? (Of course taking a bunch of grade risks when you have to work extra hard to get your numbers up is a pretty freaking stupid idea, but that's another story.)

I don't know but this girl had a 2.1 in high school and probably no one would even risk that?

(She flunked out of Valdosta right off.)

oh, thanks for reminding me - I was thinking of deferred. But a HS 2.1?? Yipes!! I agree, there would have to be something spectacular about her to grade risk that!!

Our Recruitment Team tells PNMs at our first meeting that if their GPA is below a 2.3 they WILL be cut, as that is the lowest GPA that any chapter on campus will take. If they want to go through to meet the girls, that's fine, but they know up front that they will not be getting a bid until the next semester if they can make some good grades during their first semester.

HELP!
 

I'm a bit worried about this too. I am rushing as a sophomore this fall so I'm assuming that the chapters will be using my college GPA (3.0) rather than my high school GPA (3.7). I go to a UC and I'm afraid that my college GPA will be lower than most PNMs since my high school GPA won't be used. I don't know if I'm actually freaking out more than I should, but is this an issue for me?

Totally agreed. At W&L we had deferred recruitment and you had to get a minimum 2.0 in you fall semester freshman year in order to go through recruitment. Yet all five sororities had a minimum GPA of 2.25 and one was higher (2.33 I believe). So anyone who registered with below a 2.25 was sure to be cut unless the chapter really, really wanted them. I never understood why they didn't raise it to 2.25. I think it was because they wanted parity with the fraternities, which regardless of national rules would pledge anyone above a 2.0 and would in some cases try to "underground pledge" people with below that (eg send them through the pledging/hazing with the winter pledge class and officially register them with their nationals and the school during our short 6-week spring term at the end of the school year).

Only your college GPA will be considered. Sophomores at the UCs don't face the same stigma as schools in the south so you shouldn't freak out. :)

I remember one girl that went through recruitment as a Sophomore that every house wanted. I picked her up the first round and knew I wanted her as my sister-daughter. She was adorable, bubbly, athletic and was really involved in several organizations.

It wasn't until it came time for voting that night that I realized her GPA was 2.3. Not only did we cut her after the first round, most other houses did the same. I was so bummed out.

She ended up pledging the house across the street, whose minimum GPA was either a 2.2 or a 2.25. It was so hard when I would run into her after that because I couldn't say to her, "Gawd, we really wanted you so bad but your grades sucked"

at the chapters i have advised, we take into consideration that there is a difference between hs gpa's and college gpa's. basically we have higher expectations for the true freshmen rushing than for the established college girls, although we want girls with commendable college gpas(at least a 3.0) and an activity or 2. hopefully your sororities feel the same.

Thanks for the feedback. I had an upward trend (2.8 last semester, 3.3 this semester) this past year. The only reason why my GPA was really low during my first semester was cause of one class. If I had not taken it, my current GPA would be at 3.2+ or so. Should I even mention this in my recs at all? I don't want to ask for sympathy, I just want to explain my situation in case it gets misunderstood.

Where did she mention Irvine?