It's pretty obvious the OP is going to rush, no matter what excellent advice is given to her on GC. I hope she appreciates the efforts of seasoned pros on the forum who have used their valuable time to offer their insights.

I must be clueless. I have no idea what campus she is talking about (please don't out her in thread) but I can't imagine any traditional campus choosing a new member with anything close to a 2.5 HS GPA.

To the OP: I know that you truly want to participate as soon as you can. But are you willing to risk having one or two choices (maybe) this semester, when you could be patient and have many more options in a semester or a year? Most likely, there will be chapters who will participate in spring recruitment. This might be a better option because you will have a higher GPA and some campus activities under your belt. Wait a year and you could be the sophomore that a strong recruitment getting your top choices back. Sometimes good things come to those who wait.

Someone's gotta be the 5%.

If you decide to go through rush, do it in the sense of going to the casino for entertainment and knowing the house is going to win anyway - not in the sense of OMG I AM GOING TO PLAY BLACKJACK AND WIN ENOUGH TO BUY A NEW CAR.

This.

As a member of a chapter that had a hard time recruiting during formal rush, please understand that smaller chapters do still have member selection policies. I can speak from personal experience that we did release PNMs for a variety of reasons, including grades and the rude remarks some girls made about us "having to take everyone." Please don't think that chapter size guarantees you a bid. (Sorry if that veers too far into MS.)

Sorry to butt into this thread, but I know it is hard to take the advice of a bunch of people you do not know on the internet over your mother's advice and her friend.

But please consider this. I can't speak for every campus, but I know where I am from, if chapters did not meet specific academic requirements, they lost privlidges. Houses WANT to maintain high grades for many reasons, for example they don't want to lose privlidges, or not be allowed to have any social events. So with this in mind, I would think most chapters do not want to take grade risks because it puts the entire chapter at risk. Why would they risk their social calender for a single grade risk, when they can take another PNM with great grades.

Also you mentioned 95% receive a bid, well my guess is out of the remaining 5% who did not receive a bid, the majority of those women were released due to grades..

Might I also add that a lot has changed in the Greek world since your mother went through. It is often hard for alumnae to accept that things are not the same as when they were collegians. Women often aren't given bids just because they are legacies anymore. Grades are a lot more important. The quality of PNMs (which your mom would have called rushees) has improved. The numer of PNMs has increased from when your mom went through recruitment, as well. RFM didn't exist until ~7 years ago and has changed the game. Mothers that don't keep up with current practices don't realize they are giving bad advice.

Thank you.

Precisely and accurately stated, cannot be improved. emphasis mine.

Exactly. I come from a chapter that, when I was active, never had more than 19 members. We still had PNMs to which we didn't extend bids (for many reasons, grades included).

20+ years ago, I was a PNM. Coming into recruitment, I had tons of activities, including National Honor Society, band, chorus, student government, and drama awards. I had spent the summer before entering college studying language and culture in the Soviet Union. I showed horses on a national level, including having gone to a couple of national finals for my sport. I was a legacy. I also had a 2.99 GPA overall thanks to one bad semester my sophomore year (I was gone showing horses a lot that year). I would have been in what we now call the "yellow zone".

I was dropped from recruitment completely after the 2nd round.

I am happy you have the confidence in yourself. But, speaking from the perspective of someone who was in a similar situation, I seriously wish there had been a Greekchat to tell me to wait a year, get comfortable in school and get those grades up to stellar, where I knew they could be.

Yes, it did work out for me in the end, but it was not a route of would have chosen to take, looking back with the experience and wisdom I have now.

I agree with what everyone else is saying, esp MissouriIvy. I also came from a smaller chapter, and we dropped grade risks all the time. We also dropped people who went around talking about how they weren't worried because we'd "take anyone."

You seem like a nice enough girl. This really is the exception to the "rush as a freshman" rule. Get on campus, focus on your studies, and make friends with sorority girls. Join clubs and be social (once you have your classes under control). Become known (in a good way, not in a "that girl" way). And good luck!

This. I went through recruitment as a freshman at UGA. I had a 3.6 GPA, lots of activities, clubs, hobbies, recs for 11 out of 17 sororities, 2 or 3 for several of them (I should have had more, but hey, I had some). I dressed appropriately and, IMO, looked cute. I was polite and had lots of good conversations and some lame ones. I was also a legacy to one house and knew girls in several others. I didn't have a bad HS rep. I only got invited back to 3 houses for round 2 and I was dropped completely after that. I'd say I was at least in the proverbial lime greenish section and it still didn't work out for me during formal recruitment.

You know what I did, though? I studied, joined some clubs, made a few friends and eventually signed up for informal spring recruitment where I found my home (not my legacy). Recruitment with your GPA and no recs at an SEC is almost certainly going to end in heartbreak. Why not wait? Give it time, work hard, get involved, and sign up for spring or fall later. We are NOT trying to be mean. We're trying to help you.