This is a key point. No way am I gonna tell it here, but at Texas in my day there was a choice series of events with someone who dropped during pledgeship and went somewhere else the next year. What happened gave a lesson for years to come in the perils of picking up a pledge who dropped out during pledgeship at another chapter.

Neither is an ideal option, but generally I think a second time rushee is FAR better off having dropped out of rush than having quit during pledgeship.

I am not sure if this is still the case but when I went through rush you could suicide but if you did not get your choice chapter then you were not allowed to snap bid to another chapter (you had to wait 1 calender year before being able to be free to rush again). Basically it seemed like they tried to punish you for suiciding. I had some friends that did suicide and luckily they ended up with their #1 choice. I rushed with several of my friends and being juniors -it was our last chance to join.

FWIW I don't know how pledging then dropping would effect chances on that campus but on mine it didn't seem to be a big deal. I can think of several people who did just that, though I don't know that any were juniors.

It's not that I think i'll have better results this time, but I know I'll be better prepared and know what to expect. I do expect to have to work harder, but hopefully the harder I work, the more it will end up paying off.

Also, I know I was not the only girl to drop out on Bid Day. I understand that I have to wait another year now, but during this year, I hope to focus more on school and other extracurriculars.

The only way that's going to happen is you becoming Paris Hilton, or someone similar. Sorry, darlin', but your time has passed like a carton of eggs few days after the expiration date. (No umbrage extended.)

No, the other way is for recruitment numbers to go in the tank, AND during this year she makes close friends with, say, 15 sorority women who are in the right houses. Then she would stand A CHANCE. However, with recruitment trends in the south as they have been lately, I don't see that as an actual chance.

And god forbid this struggling chapter does a drastic improvement this year and becomes a contender. And don't think it can't happen. There are a lot of girls who had to make cuts early in recruitment who might be more than willing to COR the bad house because they know that more than likely this is their only chance because they're freshmen and sophomores have virtually no chance there.

Find a better person than Paris Hilton - being busted for cocaine posession is not an attractive quality in a PNM.

But...but...it wasn't hers...someone just put it there. Wah.:rolleyes:

Sadly, I bet she'd get a bid somewhere because she's famous but god almighty I can't imagine what a risk management issue she'd be.

Question for the GC experts....
 

My daughter just finished recruitment, successfully.

She enjoyed the recruitment process but in the end called me in tears saying she felt forced to suicide. She never thought she would be faced with this decision, it was a tough decision for her to make.

She cut one house all three rounds and still ended up being invited to their pref party. If this house had not been on her pref list she would have "maximized her options", but she really felt she was not a match for this one group.

I understand this is a mutual selection process, but cutting a house 3 times and still having them show up on pref night does not make it feel very mutual to the PNM.

Could the process maybe be modified so that if a PNM cut a house 3 rounds they don't have the option of inviting her to pref. My daughter lived through the suicide process but had she not gotten her bid she would have eliminated her options for snap bids, COB etc.

I am new to Greek Life in general so I could be misunderstanding the process - interested in the opinions of those that have more experience.

Thanks.

First, congratulations to your daughter on recruitment! I hope she is very happy with her new sisters!

Yes, you are misunderstanding the process, and it stems from the use of the word "Cut". The PNMs aren't really cutting chapters, they are ranking them. It's too bad it's not explained better, but I often read here about girls who think they "cut" a chapter because they ranked them last, and are then offended when the chapter issues an invitation to the next round.

What happened was that your daughter was not invited back by one of her higher ranked chapters. Panhellenic (via their computer program) filled her party schedule with one of her lower ranked groups. They do this because it benefits the pnms and the chapters to have full dance cards, and many minds are changed (on both sides) when there are return visits and second or third looks.

It's too bad your daughter was tramatized by having to re-visit a chapter that put her in tears, but those were the two chapters that wanted her to attend their pref parties.

Kat,

Thanks for the explaination, that helps. Ranking is a much better way to view the process and would likely lead to less PNM confusion.

My daughter wasn't traumatized by returning to the pref party - she was traumatized (maybe not a good word for tears after an exhausting but exciting week) by having to suicide. She had heard about suiciding and just never thought she would be in that position. She was very excited to visit and re-visit all the houses. Unfortunately the one she cut three times was just not a good fit....really nice girls, but not interested in the same things she was. My daughter kept saying how nice they were and how welcome they made her feel, but the activities they enjoyed were not the activities my daughter was hoping for.

I would venture to say she would have had a perfect recruitment experience if she could have put all of her pref parties in rank order - instead she felt she really didn't fit one chapter and therefore had no choice but to suicide.

Maybe she didn't have to suicide.....

She was invited to 3 pref parties and thought that she had to do an "all or suicide" on her card. Since there was one house she didn't fit, she thought the rules were that she could then only suicide. She would have happily accepted a bid at either of the other 2 houses.

I am 99% certain she could have listed both houses.

Also, if she had suicided and not received a bid, although she wouldn't have been eligible for snap bids, she would have been able to COB with any Panhellenic Sorority. I think you said she would have been ineligible for COB. That would have only happened if she hadn't suicided and had then declined a bid.

AOEforme - thanks for the information. She will be shocked to know that she could have listed both houses - she did get a bid from her first choice but had she listed two she might not have felt so much pressure on bid day (available from 10-3 to receive the dreaded phone call that notifies you that you do not have a bid).

Thanks again.....