Wearing respectable clothing won't get you a bid, that comes down to who you know, where you're from, who you are, etc.

However, if you come to an SEC or other strong Southern school and try to get in the door at a party at a top house wearing a A+F hoodie and baggy jeans, you'll be laughed at and told to keep walking.

A) You aren't from the South
B) You're not in a fraternity
C) This thread is not for you.

Get over your inferiority complex and stop hating on things you know nothing about.

I agree. There are two or three posters who come running at the drop of a hat when anything is mentioned about Southern/SEC culture.

People from SEC greek life do have a tendency to let our disregard for the rest of the country show pretty plainly sometimes. Think about how people refer to the toughest sorority rushes, old row vs. new row, top tier, etc. We take a lot for granted about what Greek life is all about, and I'm sure it would make me mad if other regions dished it out as frequently.

On the other hand, I can't imagine arguing with someone from a different area about how they do things as much as happens either.

Yeah...it's definitely a different world, but people keep getting caught up in what's 'better'. Neither are better. I'm sure there are plenty of people in SEC schools that wish their chapter was more like a northern school, and vice versa. So..it's really pointless. Just because an AST chapter in Louisiana does formal rush with frills and has 200 people in their chapter and only wears sundresses to class (I've no idea if this is true about that chapter, I'm just making an example) doesn't mean they AREN'T MY SISTERS. So if someone wants to say that southern is better than northern, you're basically saying that the sisters [or brothers] in northern chapters are underneath you, and vice versa. And..that's not cool.

Well see, that's another thing. And I'm opening up a WHOLE new can of worms here and a LOT of people aren't going to like it. This mainly just goes for fraternities. Less so for sororities, but still does go on to some degree. Honestly, I don't consider our chapter at Northwest Central South Dakota State (just made that up, but you get the point) my brothers and I don't know anyone in my chapter who does. And it's not because they're from the North, it's because we don't know them. There is a chapter of my fraternity at another campus 5 miles away and we do not consider them our brothers. I think this is just an example of chapters at SEC schools being very independent of Nationals in most cases. I know most other fraternities at my school feel the same way. I hear some people on here talk about not doing something because nationals says they can't, etc and that's completely foreign to me.

I'm in agreement with this.

I think there's a value in being honest about how different expectations are so that people who go through recruitment out of state can do their best in the process if they want to or understand in advance that some chapters aren't really interested in them so they can focus on the ones that are.

Sometimes people get derailed by imagining the system that they think ought to be rather than the system that IS and that's in this thread from being to end.

This is a little sad to me, but I know that for some chapters it's true.

What I don't understand is why you all stay tied to the national group? Do you think you're carrying on the real traditions of the founders and it's the other chapters and that the overly PC folks and overly concerned about liability folks at the national level who have gone astray?

If I didn't really value the national sisterhood, I think I'd just want to be a local, not share the national traditions and symbols but ignore the bond. Can you explain?

THIS. It disgusts me that the PHC at Bama won't tell potentials they NEED recs...because they DO need them. If it wasn't for GC or other alumnae, many potentials would have no idea, and therefore no real chance of acquiring a bid. We as sorority women and fraternity men need to be REALISTIC about how rush is at our chapter so that potentials have the best chance to succeed.

For one going local would be more work for no real reason. Why go local when the only thing that would change would be the letters? 98% of people would be aware of who we still were if we were to change our letters but the other 2% would be left clueless. My campus has no locals so I'm not sure how that would go. Most of our money comes from alumni of our chapter, but there is some that comes from other chapters.

I think your very own question brings this little conversation full circle once again. I've really never thought about it till now (why we don't go local). I don't know what our founders core values where. We learned it during pledge ed, but I've long since forgotten it.

Words fail me.

Under the same conditions, I'd really want to be a local. I think it'd be less work and more freedom, assuming your campus allows locals. And you'd be completely free to use whatever membership standards you wanted with no conflicts with national policy, again as long as they weren't in violation of your school's rules.

I'll be honest: it would drive me crazy to be publicly affiliated with a national organization if I didn't value the affiliation.

You must have missed my point. We do all that anyways.

Yeah, but the hypocrisy would bug me and you'd be free of it.

I wouldn't want to publicly be in a group that wanted me to use standards that I felt not only free to disregard, but that disregarding them was essential to maintaining the membership I wanted.

It's just what I (and the rest of my chapter) have always known. Same goes for guys in other chapters on my campus (and other campuses). I honestly didn't know chapters followed what nationals said so closely (or at all) till I found this site.

Agreed. The restrictions Nationals puts on GLOs are just that - restricting. If I didn't value AST, I would NOT want to follow them.