Frequently...
It's been my experience that about 5% of all members will participate as alumnae, no matter what their collegiate experience was.

You've changed your ways, eh?;)

I realize this.

Please keep in mind that I am referring to officially sanctioned/registered recruitment functions. Perhaps it's the phrase "recruited while in HS" that gives such negative connatations. This is not dirty rushing and there are rules about what can be said/done. Honestly it's a positive thing.

These events are educational and often not limited only to one Univ. Typically they are hosted by alums in that area and actives are invited to attend. They are intended as positive Panhellenic contact as well as giving both actives and pnm's a way to get to know each other better than the 15 minutes allotted in the 1st round of recruitment. PNM's also get the opportunity to meet alums who they can then contact for help in securing recs.

These events occur all over the state in the larger cities and in the surrounding states. Off the top of my head I'm aware of teas that have been planned/held in Atlanta, Memphis and Nashville. Is it fair to someone coming in from say Texas or Calif? Not really, but attending one of these functions is not a pre-requisite to getting a bid. My chapter has extended a great many bids to women both both in-state and out that never attended any of these or even knew about them.

I think people were referring more to AnchorAlumna's scenarios than yours.

Getting to know HS women outside of formal rush? OK. Giving them chances to meet multiple sororities? OK. Telling a 16 year old girl she's got a bid "locked up" and thereby probably preventing her from looking at all the groups? Not OK. Taking her to fraternity parties? Definitely not OK.

These teas were definitely NOT Panhellenic-type teas...they were strictly 1-group recruitment events...hence the secrecy.

I doubt they told her she had a bid locked up, but from their actions, she THOUGHT she had a bid. That's usually what happens. I was a bad mother for not letting my high-school aged daughter go to fraternity parties. Hey! I was that age once...I know what goes on there!:p
(Oh, and I'm AnchorAlumna...AnchorAlum is from a different part of the country!)

AnchorAlumna, you are a wise mother!^^

lol. I fixed it. I always get yinz mixed up. :)

I don't remember the exact figure but Greek Life is making some changes in the system this year to insure that more women are placed.
Please, please get as many references as possible.

My apologies on getting a bit confused. We are indeed talking about 2 seperate types of events.

Some of the gifts I've heard of people getting are insane, too. As in, coach day planners in the sorority's colors and things like that. :eek:

All of this talk is laughable at best. The sixteen year old is probably someone's sister. I would say that maybe 1-2% of girls are recruited as juniors and 85% of those most likely have an in-house (biological) sister. The biggest gifts given this year were koozies and the chapter that gave those out was told not to do that anymore. Yes dirty rushing happens, but a lot of what has been said on this thread is about as true as Phi Mu's checking your calf muscles...

Checking them for what? :confused:

Hi everyone, thanks for the advice, I guess I'll have to work out my calf muscles before rush?? :)

I have another question, the only orientation I can attend is on philanthropy day. What time during the day are the recruitment activities? I'm assuming it's an all-day thing, and if I have to I can skip orientation because I really only need to register for classes. Also, what do you do if you can't come for a day during rush?

Based on what I've read here on GC, I'd strongly suggest against missing a day for rush. Set aside August 10-17 just for rush if you have to. If you can't, I'd suggest calling the Greek Life office listed here: http://www.uapanhellenic.com/recruitment.php

Rushing there is competitive enough as it is and many consider it very serious business. Missing any event or any of the days could possibly hurt your chances.

Do not miss a day of recruitment! We knew a great PNM who had to miss the first 2 days because she'd been overseas as an exchange student. Normally, she would have been in great demand but only one group asked her to come to that third day..she didn't even get a chance at the rest. She pledged for about a week and dropped out, feeling like she never got a real shot at the sororities.

Contact the orientation people and let them know about your conflict. If they can't help, then call the Greek office and tell them. The Greek office will probably work to reschedule your orientation since they know you cannot miss a day of rush. If neither office is overjoyed to help, call the orientation people every other day until they tell you there has been a cancellation that you can fill. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Sidenote: If you don't register until August, your choice of classes is going to be severely limited.

To my knowledge the recruitment schedule for party times has not been finally approved by Panhellenic yet. Typcally they start around 9am and end no later than 6:30pm. The later rounds usually start a little later, but end around the same time.

If a PNM must miss one or more parties you must inform Panhellenic. They will regularly update each chapter with an absentee list. Make sure you tell them why so they can pass that along too. There is no set Panhellenic policy on how to treat absentee PMNs. It is left up to each chapter to decide how to handle them.

Now for my personal 2 cents. With a recruitment this competitive, a PNM better have a darned good reason for missing a party/round. I'm talking about something that is unavoidable, unable to be rescheduled or scheduled for another date/time, and incredibly important. Even though the party times aren't yet set in stone yet, they are always roughly the same every year. The dates have been announced since early spring. This allows PNMs, and chapter members for that matter, plenty of time to arrange their schedules to attend.

Well I hope my excuse is valid, lol. I'm coming with my parents from Orlando and it really is stupid to fly over for a day for orientation in July, then drive back in August for move-in week/Rush. So, we'll make one trip and arrive the 10th, the day before rush week starts. The 14th is the only orientation day in August, so it cuts right into recruitment, but logistically, it makes wayy more sense.

Basically, I only need to be at orientation to register for classes. I'm going Honors so the classes can't be totally horrid, and I'm coming in knowing exactly what I want to take for each semester and I'm not picky about class times.

I am aware that when you only get to meet with the girls for a few minutes a day, missing one day is a big deal. I'm thinking that if I just go to register and come back for recruitment it shouldn't interfere or that hopefully I won't miss anything? When do activities on philanthropy usually start?

Is there any way you could register online? Maybe you could see your academic advisor and tell him/her what you plan to take (assuming those classes are open and everything fits) and you could just register yourself when you get to Tuscaloosa (or maybe before when you're still at home)?

If you can afford/are free that weekend to go to orientation in July, I would go. Orientation is fun! You meet so many people, become acquainted with the campus and its amenities and facilities, and of course, register for classes. Do you not spend the night? I thought orientation would be boring and stupid and pointless so I put off registering for it, but I had a great time at my orientation!

I'd call Panhellenic and your academic advisor about this and see if something can be resolved. I would not recommend missing any part of recruitment if you can avoid it. Your philanthropy round chapters can't guarantee you an invite (it would be unfair to the other PNMs), but there's no guarantee you'll be cut (unless Panhellenic considers it unexcused).

Unless things have changed since...oh, last week...orientation is 2 days. The orientation people are NOT lenient (sp?) about missing any parts of the day for recruitment. They have actually been annoyingly strict about it in the past...You may just have to bite the bullet and come during June or July or be ready to have fairly heavy cuts during BOTH philanthropy days because you will most likely be missing parties on both days...

Not only is it not good to miss part of rush, but you will be basically screwed if you register that late. I know it seems silly as far as travel expenses, but get the earliest date possible. My best friend is a freshman at Bama who went to the tenth orientation (also honors) and her options were severely limited. she ended up only taking 12 hours that semester... including band and oboe lessons. she told me there weren't even any language classes left other than urdu...

claire,

my daughter goes to samford(in birmingham) & we made two trips in the summer from naples-one for orientation in the early summer and one to move her into the dorm in august. we will making similar trips for our son this summer. it's worth it to do two trips.

orientation is important-it is at orientation that you will meet the kids you will be attending bama with for the next 4 years. believe it or not, in that short period of time you might make a good connection with someone you meet. you have one more chance to familiarize yourself with the campus and the town before classes begin. and i can promise you that the sorority members who are orientation leaders will be checking out all the pnms. they will do it discreetly, of course, but i know they will be letting their sisters know to be sure to "check out clairedelune from orlando-what a cutie!!"

more importantly, you register for classes, and as aopirhodelta pointed out, the pickings are going to be slim if you wait until right before school starts to register for classes-they don't hold spaces in classes open for late registrants.

there are enough pnms going thru recruitment at bama that the sororities don't need to cut pnms who miss a day any slack-and they won't. there are at least a dozen other pnms waiting to jump in your spot. your chances will be greatly minimized if you have to skip a day of recruitment.

As stated above, not registering until Aug will severely limit the choice of classes available even being in the Honors program. Classes fill up quickly and there are simply no other ones to choose from. This could have long term consequences for your major if you are not able to get into some of the pre-req classes you need.

For Recruitment, missing parties/rounds is a decision a PNM must make for herself, but should do so with a realistic understanding of the consequences. It is a huge risk. Since there are many other Orientation dates available, questions will be asked why a PNM decided to knowingly wait until the last one that falls in the middle of recruitment. Questions like how committed is a PNM to joining a sorority and to her education because she waited until the last Orientation to register?

Also keep in mind that chapters are only allowed to invite a certain number back. The competition amongst PNMs and the actives pulling for their favorites becomes more intense with each round. Not attending could be viewed as an easy/automatic cut if no one knows the PNM well enough to fight for her. Chapters will ask themselves why should we take a chance giving one of our limited invitations to Skit Day/3rd round to a relatively unknown PNM when there are sooooo many others we know better and have just as strong resumes? It might not result in being completely dropped out of recruitment, but the options will be limited.

i personally know girls at other schools(fsu, uf, georgia,samford, auburn and even fl. gulf coast u.) who had to miss a day of recruitment and that had devastating results on their recruitment outcome. they all had legitimate reasons for missing(orientation for a special program they were participating in at school that was only held on that day, illness, etc.) . each pnm was cute, sweet, well thought of in her town and at her former h.s., a good student with a lot to offer and each had recs. each girl notified panhellenic which in turn notified each chapter, so that everyone was aware of the reason for the absence. it didn't matter, and you really can't blame the sororities. each day they have to eliminate a few more pnms from their invitation lists, so an absence(no matter the reason) is an easy eliminator.

it really comes down to the fact that you need to be present in order to get to know the members and for them to get to know you. don't handicap yourself by scheduling your orientation during recruitment.

you can fly direct from orlando to birmingham on southwest, which usually has pretty good prices. it takes about an hour to get from birmingham to tuscaloosa. if you are have a summer job and are worried about asking for time off, most employers understand that a new student has to attend their orientation and as long as you give them ample notice(at least 2 weeks, but more is better), won't have a problem with you being gone a few days.

trust us-we know of what we speak!

Or you might develop a crush on someone that lasts for quite a while, until you see his picture many moons later and see that he got fat. :p I'm sorry, did I make this about me?

At any rate...I forgot about the whole not getting classes concept if you don't go through the earliest orientation you can. I went to maybe the 6th out of 12, and there were already LOTS of classes that were full. Oh, and even for my teeny school, ours was 2 days long. I can't imagine a big school like Bama would have a 1 day orientation. I agree w/ everyone else - go to orientation/register in July, get it out of the way, and then you can concentrate on rush!

Last year, I actually had a girl in my Rho Gam group who missed round 3. She got 9 of her top 10 for round 2 and 5 of her top 6 for round 3, which figures because she would be a good fit almost anywhere. All 6 for round 3 were very desirable, strong chapters. She only got one preference invite, to a strong chapter, but she did have someone who really wanted her to join in that chapter. Fortunately for her, it was her favorite, she went to their pref, ranked them, and got a bid.

HOWEVER, do not bank on being that lucky. If you don't have people fighting for you (which I will assume not since you said you don't know anyone there), even with a girl that would otherwise be desirable to almost any chapter, and especially at a school as competitive as Bama, it could be a death sentence to miss a round.

Even putting aside the issue of recruitment (which is hard to do at Bama!), registering so late for classes will screw you, regardless of being in the Honors program. If there are even any sections left of the classes you need/want, they will be the sections no one else wanted to take. Do you really want to be stuck in a Friday night calculus class all semester? Register as early as you possibly can. It's not like you live in Alaska and truly can't make the trip.

I think we will end up going to the orientation in the summer, you guys win, so I thank you all for giving me some good debate points =]

But you must admit, the money going towards two round-trip flights from Birmingham to Orlando, one maybe two nights in a hotel plus a rental car could have gone to a super sweet rush outfit, haha.

Nobody is trying to "win" here. All people are doing is giving you advice. Advice that will help you get the classes you want/need as well as put you on an even playing field with the other 1400+/- PNMs. You don't want to go into a highly competitive recruitment already at a disadvantage.

But you must admit that a "super sweet rush outfit" won't matter much if you don't have any parties to wear it to.

whoa...those comments were taken way out of context. I meant that you guys made your points and attending orientation earlier in the summer is a much smarter choice than attending a few days before school starts, even if it does cost a lot more money.. money that could be spent elsewhere instead of two trips for my parents to Tuscaloosa, that's all.

I don't think zillini meant any offense, everyone here is tensing up and sweating just thinking about you missing a round or two of rush for orientation...it will be, in no uncertain terms, the kiss of death for you.


We know of what we speak! :)

Be SURE to keep us updated this fall - we will be rooting for you.

I believe you can stay in the dorm for FREE as part of your orientation.

Yeah, we've looked into that, but airfare on Southwest round-trip is around 430$ for two people and we'll also need a rental car for three days. It's so ridiculously expensive, and I haven't even started paying ridiculous fees for stuff in school :eek: ! But I guess I can look forward to a more relaxing week entering freshman year.

keep watching the fares on southwest. from time to time they have special internet only fares.

Go Phi Mu at Alabama!

My cousin is one and she absolutely loves her chapter!

^^^

No shameless plugs, please. :)

Try one of those internet plan ticket places. I love priceline and usually never fly without buying my tickets there. I can usually get a $430 ticket for about half. I would tell you parents about it cause the only catch is that ( i think) you have to be at least 25. And Orientation at washington state university included parents sleeping in the dorms, do other schools not do this?

goodluck

Exactly.

none that i know of.