No spirit groups at Ole Miss. But I think there are enough clubs and orgs where a young woman can find "something else to do" besides joining a sorority. I know some of the new Residence Halls do have interest groups who are very active on campus and in the Oxford community. I do think a young woman can survive socially at Ole Miss without being a sorority.

Are the new residential colleges succeeding in providing an ongoing social community for their non-Greek students?

Has she thought about enrolling in summer school? If she did well it might help with grade worries and would also lighten her load for fall and spring.

Yes from what I have heard they do provide that for non-Greek students. Of course there are Greek freshmen infiltrated in all of the halls on campus. But you can survive if you get involved with other groups.

Bluebell4, that's a great idea too. Summer School can help your grades and that could be an option. Plus that's another way to meet sorority women.

Not changing the subject but continuing the flow of necessary information.

What to tell overconfident PNMs
^^^This is an excellent thread, cannot speak more highly of the information it contains.

My daughter knew of four girls going through rush this past year with less than 3.0's. One of her friends had a 2.9 and ended up pledging Pi Phi. Another of her friends had a 2.7 and pledged her mothers sorority, she was cut from every
sorority other than her legacy house. The two other girls she knew both got cut completely out of rush (one after philanthropy round and the other after skit), however both of those girls pledge ADPi.

I'm not sure how it will go next year with ADPi and whether or not they are willing to take grade risks again.

With few exceptions, I don't think grade risks do well, even if they are special snowflakes in all other areas. If she does decide to go through recruitment, she needs to keep her options extremely open and be prepared for brutal cuts.

Because of ADPi colonizing this past year, they removed upperclass quotas. I believe that most sophomore dropped out before rush even started and went with ADPi.

Will they be bringing the UC quotas again this year?

Rush at Ole Miss is not for the weak. What trumps grades at Ole Miss are connections to members of one of the houses/some legacies. Recs are great but recs from Ole Miss alumni hold much more weight and are definitely worth seeking out. An active alumni is even better.
PNM with great grades, great resume and recs to every sorority but no connections can find themselves with a short invite list very quickly during rush. Rush at Ole Miss happens much earlier than rush week.
The trick is to remember EVERY sorority at Ole Miss is great. Each house is a place to call home for over 300 young ladies. Register early, get recs, letters of support and try to find someone to speak for you in each house. With a low GPA and no connections you won't have much luck.

And Auburn! And Bama! And Georgia! Etc.

Welcome Stellastar1

Not Arizona. She'll get dropped after Open House rounds by most, if not all, of the chapters.

Suggest she spends a year at minimum in college working on that GPA, sorority should come second. Her HS grades suck. She will likely get a bid as a sophomore at some schools, especially if she's behaved herself freshman year, and made friends in chapters, and achieved good grades (3.0 or better).

Good luck to her.

More updates to Post#1 coming soon.

If it's that important to her, I would advise her to get a solid year of community college under her belt and then go to Ole Miss. She can rush on her CC GPA, right?

Her other choice is to go somewhere that isn't Ole Miss or in the SEC, where the sorority recruitment process isn't that intense. At about the same ranking with more chill recruitments are:

Illinois State, Kansas State, Arizona State, Colorado State, Missouri Science and Technology, Washington State.

There are Chapters at Ole Miss that do not pledge sophomores or have not done so in recent memory. Also there are Chapters that if they cut you your first recruitment then you are cut in every subsequent recruitment from those Chapters.

By the way, I'm told that there will be no Upperclass Quota this year. That may well remain the same for 2015 when Alpha Phi is scheduled to colonize.

Initial post has been updated and due to an upcoming meeting may or may not be additional changes.

Here is AOII's new website...not sure why the ole one is still showing up....
http://aoiinubeta.airset.com/

Very nice website!

Thank you! Going to try and update via my iPad. Fingers crossed.

What I can't wrap my mind around is the fact that this girl has it ALL except for grades and no one in her extensive Greek family pushed her relentlessly to get her grades up so she would have a shot at Greek life?

Of, if they did push her relentlessly and she didn't respond... Then she doesn't sound like a good grade risk to me.

How can you grow up in that culture with those kinds of influences and not take the GPA seriously enough?

Trideltasallie makes an excellent point! My girls were reminded all the time of the importance of keeping their grades up! Sounds to me like this girl may need a few years in a junior college before giving a big state school a go. My girls both have distractions every single night of the week, without strong study skills they would be in serious trouble!

Hey you guys! Quick question, as I am securing recs I am realizing that finding two for each sorority may not be the most realistic thing for me as I do not know many sorority alumnae. Will one suffice or will I face cuts because I have less than two?

My daughter went through recruitment last year at ole miss. She was told by a local Panhellenic rep (who was an Ole Miss alumnae) that she would need one rec for each house (preferably from an Ole Miss alum) and at least 3 to 4 letters of support for each house. IM NOT KIDDING! She followed their advice and had a great recruitment. I'm not sure what happened to the girls who didn't get the same advice. Recruitment at Ole Miss is not for the weak! You have to want it BAD!

What exactly is a letter of support?

A "Rec" is a standardized form that is filled out by an alumnae. Each sorority will have a specific form that can usually be found online. One standard Rec form for each sorority is all that you need as far as recs go.

A "Letter of Support" is written by an alumnae on her own stationary that is a bit more personal than a standard form.

We provided each letter of support writer a stamped envelope addressed to the rec writer who attached the support letters to her rec before she submitted to the appropriate person. Resumes, transcripts, test scores, and pictures are also submitted along with the rec.

I have to say that a rec + 3-4 letters seems like overkill, even for Ole Miss. Mary Poppins can correct me, but I really think that 1-2 recs and 1-2 letters is really plenty. Of course, it is more helpful if the recs/ letters are from Ole Miss alumnae.

At Ole Miss, a rec + 3-4 letters would be "a start." ;)

As I've said up thread, the number of documents you use for recommendations or letters of reference per Chapter is dependent on the individual Chapter's requirement for PNMs. Also I said two should be considered the minimum necessary. However, if it's just not possible because of there not many Alumnae around for a particular Chapter it's just not possible.

Ask each woman who is doing a rec for you if she knows someone else in her group who could do one for you. And also ask them for members of the groups you don't have yet. Greek women know other Greek women.

Also ASK friends! When I was going through one of my friends had an older family friend who was in a GLO that I did not know anyone from / did not have a rec for, and vice versa…I had a cousin in a GLO that my friend didn't have a rec for…. by asking and making introductions we both secured the recs we didn't have!

Just wondering, are letters of support as easy to send along with recs if the recommendation is done online?

Not something that you need to be concerned with. The alumna will handle it :)

Absolutely better to have Ole Miss greek alum recs for Ole Miss recruitment. It is also worth the time and effort to find someone willing to contact an active alum or member of each sorority to speak/write on your behalf in each house. You need at the very least two recs and personal letters of support are always helpful. Keep making phone calls and tapping every resource you can think of to contact. Your local Panhellenic is a great resource. Register as early as possible for recruitment!
Recruitment at Ole Miss can be heartbreaking for great young ladies with great grades, lots of activities and no connections. To maximize your choices try to get support in each house!
There are houses at Ole Miss who take grade risks with alum recs and support. But you really need to work hard to get the proper support. It is important to remember just like any other SEC school, with larger numbers going through recruitment and with lesser number of established houses, Ole Miss recruitment is rough! It is hard work and harder if you do not come from a greek family. But it is NOT impossible to end the week with choices and find a great home! Even for out of state girls! Important to keep an open mind about each and every possibility! Don't listen to any "tent talk"! Every sorority at Ole Miss is great! Recruitment at Ole Miss is all about preparation and anticipation!

Not diminishing the importance of preparation ahead of time -- just a little perspective on the scary impression of it all. The Ole Miss stats for receiving a bid are actually pretty favorable compared to some other schools.

According to stats posted on this forum for 2012*, around 90% of the PNMs who attended first round received a bid:

"Of the 1250 participated in first round
50 released from system prior to bid matching
71 withdrew prior to bid matching
1129 participated in bid matching"

(and note that 71 PNMs withdrew during the process -- only 50 were released)

For the purposes of comparison -- during the same year at Bama (2012*), about 86% of PNMs who attended first round received a bid -- stats:

http://greekaffairs.ua.edu/documents...r2002-2012.pdf

(note also at Bama there were more withdrawals than releases)

Does anyone have the stats on the number of OOS PNMs participating in recruitment at Ole Miss? At Bama OOS participants now exceed 50% as I recall. Just wondering -- the girls I have known from my city and state who went through recruitment at Ole Miss received bids -- and they would all be OOS. I don't know any who were released (thankfully!).

With those numbers in mind and when you get stressed, just repeat over and over again... At least I'm not rushing at Indiana... At least I'm not rushing at Indiana... LOL! :D

Seriously! At least at Ole Miss and Bama (and other SEC schools it seems), more PNMs means larger pledge classes -- not more releases!

Do OOS students attending Ole Miss tend to be more academically qualified than in-state?

Do schools keep track of this information? I would think that at least some do, but searching online has yielded no results for me, whether I search for Ole Miss or any other school. I just looked for this info for about 10-15 different schools; big and small, southern and northern, and I'm coming up empty.

If schools do keep a record of GPAs for in-state vs. out-of-state students, it doesn't appear as though they release that information publicly, which is probably smart. I could come up with a few reasons why it'd be a bad idea to do so.

DB- I don't know if "academically more qualified" is exactly correct, but in-state students are automatically accepted if they meet certain GPA or if they meet a certain GPA and ACT combo score marks. Out of State Students are admitted if they meet a certain GPA/ACT score which is slightly higher than the GPA/ACT combo of the instate students. So in theory your freshman class could be comprised of 3 students.... 2 in-state - one who had an overall GPA of 3.75 yet bombed the ACT with a 10, and one with an overall GPA of 2.55 yet a better ACT of 17. (this would make an instate combined GPA of 3.15 and a combined ACT of around 13)-- Then you have your OOS who had an overall GPA of 2.8 and ACT of 22. So you see, unless you are a firm believer in standardized test as a predictor of future success (WHICH I AM NOT!) the OOS student is not necessarily "more qualified academically" than the in-state students... just did better on their ACT's... and has a higher GPA than "half" of the in-state students.

BTW- getting things back to recruitment--- ONLY in-state student A. with the 3.75 GPA would stand any sort of chance during sorority recruitment. :-)

Okay, I was more or less asking if OOS students tend to "look better," academically, to the chapters than in-state students. It sounds like the answer is not necessarily.

I know the past couple of years, Ole Miss had more OOS freshman students than in state. I don't know if that translated to more OOS students going through recruitment than in state. Same with the question of being "academically more qualified". OOS may be more qualified than some in state students but those in state students probably aren't signing up for a competitive recruitment.

Okay so I've been busily securing recs through personal connections and alumnae associations and there are about two organizations that havent emailed me back and I not sure if I will be able to find these recs personally. One of them actually emailed me back asking for my resume and picture but never responded after I sent those so I was just wondering what you guys would suggest I do? I don't want to seem pushy and make it seem like I feel like I'm entitled to a rec but I also want to find out whether or not a rec will be sent for me to that chapter.