help!
 

Alright, I am a freshman at a community college and will be transferring to Ole Miss in the spring. I was accepted for the fall, but situations prevented me from going. I am so so worried about rush, though. Since Ole Miss doesn't do spring rush I'll have to wait until the fall and then I'll be a sophomore, and houses rarely bid non-freshman. My town isn't well represented at Ole Miss and I only know one person from my town and it's a boy. I know a few freshman, but I'm just not sure what the chances of me getting a big would be with all these factors kind-of against me. Any advice?

You're transferring in the spring. Use that semester to get as involved on campus and meet as many people as you can.

Also, you're not a member so you can't really say what the chapters (that is the correct term, not "houses." Houses are inanimate structures made of brick, cement and wood. Chapters are made of people.) do or don't do. Something may appear to be so looking in from the outside but until you're on the inside you really don't know if your assumptions are true.

33girl said it right!

OleMissGlitter, your pictures of the Bama houses and the DGs' thread about returning to Bama raised a question for me. The conventional wisdom about expansion at Ole Miss, I believe, has been that ADPi and ZTA aren't realistic options because they were previously on campus and closed, and PNMs would hold that history against a recolonized chapter of those groups.

But DG closed at Bama, and apparently there's multistate excitement about their return, students thinking about transferring, a DG tailgate and presence at Homecoming, etc.

So what makes the difference between these two campuses that have a similar Panhellenic reputation? Is it simply because the ADPi and ZTA departures from Ole Miss were more recent than the DG departure from Bama? Does the conventional wisdom about recolonizing at Ole Miss need to be re-thought? Or is there a real difference in the institutional memory, if you will, of PNMs at the two campuses?
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Cannabis seeds

DG left UA in 1978. The ADPi and ZTA chapters at UM closed in the late 1990s. WORLD of difference. Not only is it 20 years apart, but the UM chapters closed recently enough ago that you can probably still find info (newspaper articles, etc) on it online.

That's just touching on things that would be true of ANY school.

Exactly what 33girl said.

Side note: However, I will say ZTA has a very strong North MS Alumnae Chapter. They are a co-sponsor of Ole Miss Panhellenic's Care Walk. They are also strong at Mississippi State. Delta Zeta was here from '28-'53 so they might be a good choice, although I'm not sure what their alumnae numbers are like in North Mississippi. Alpha Xi Delta was here shortly from '71-'76. I believe they have a good number of alumnae in Memphis. The biggest challenge no matter which chapter was picked,(and this is all IF Panhellenic ever votes to open for extension) is going to be housing. Money for a competitive house is a must. Ole Miss is not the type of campus where a new sorority could say, "Well we won't have housing because we want to be different and PNMs will like us better because our dues won't be as high. It simple won't work." You could say that while the chapter is being established but a competitive house must be in the plans.
End side note!

The housing issue was what I have been led to believe was one of the reasons Delta Zeta was chosen to come to campus this next year. They have their own housing corporation and have guaranteed they will build a house (suitable land being found of course), and that may not have been financially possible for other groups who had expressed interest in coming to Idaho.

I think the housing (=money) issue plays a much bigger role in expansion than a lot of us would otherwise guess. With boatloads of cash even the most crowded campus could be cracked. But this is why we let (what I fondly call, and have lately become) the old broads make the decisions. They, hopefully, are more practical.

Thanks for the info. It sounds like it could be possible for these groups to return to Ole Miss in the long run, but not for another 20 years or so. Good luck to all of this year's PNMs!
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Ocean View Condo Pattaya

Any news on how recruitment is going so far at Ole Miss? Bid Day is Sunday, yes?

Here's what my son told me...

"We had convocation and they told us the rules. If we skip class to go to a party, we get kicked out of rush. If we trash talk the fraternities, we get kicked out of rush. We go to some parties tomorrow night."

I'm sure that's the kind of information you were waiting for, right.;)

That's all I heard from my son too! The daughters gave reams of information. The son, nada --and come to think of it, his dad was the same way when he moved our 4th daughter into her dorm. I wanted details and all he could come up with was that he saw 4 girls in matching Greek shirts who looked like the Front Four for the Falcons.

Love it! I'm sure he is having a blast!

thanks for the advice and explaining the difference between houses and chapters...

i am only going off what i have heard from other people at Ole Miss, not saying i know for sure. i just realize i have several factors going against me and was curious if anyone from Ole Miss knew the likelihood of me getting a bid.

Nobody but nobody will tell you the likelihood of you getting a bid. There are far and away too many variables, most of which can only be determined through the actual recruitment process. Go through recruitment, keep an open mind (be willing to take that last chapter) and see what happens. That's all you can do.

Well, since I started here with telling about my son, I won't move this over to Fraternity recruitment. And since boys don't tend to share too many details, the most I have to say is that he received a bid from his first choice, Sigma Chi. His roommate and 3 of his friends also accepted bids there.

3 down, one to go. Although #4 may be attending the College of Xbox and living in the basement until he's 30 if he doesn't shape up. :eek:

Congrats to your son & his friends.
Now just waiting to hear about all the lady New Members!:D

Congrats to your son!

Sorority Quota was 84 for freshmen quota and 9 for upperclassmen. AOII has 96 wonderful and beautiful new members! I missed Bid Day because I was out of town and it took longer to get back to Oxford! We had some bad weather on our drive back that slowed us down. Hopefully the nasty rain didn't ruin any of the chapters' bid day events.

ETA: Theta has 95 new members!

Good news, Glitter. What a huge new member class!

This is the first year they have had upperclassmen quotas. Panhellenic voted and added it to their rules about a month ago. I think they modeled it after Alabama and other SEC schools with upperclassmen quotas.

Huge Pledge Classes
 

Univ. of Mississippi is not the only university with large new member classes. This year Univ. of Arkansas NPC chapters had a quota of 101!

I agree. These classes are huge.

Great! I'm so glad to hear this. I remember Zillini in a Bama' thread highly recommending the upperclassman quota for any school with a very competitive sorority recruitment. And Ole Miss certainly qualifies there! I'm so glad Ole Miss is helping to level the playing field more for many fine young ladies!! I'd figured it eventually would. Congratulations to all who were able to find a new home today!!

Wow, quota was only about 50 when I was there. I really think it's time for some new groups on Campus.

Yes quota in 1996 when I pledged was 52!

Congratulations to AOPi. Lots of very close family connections there and several from my daughter's HS. She made another choice she and we are completely thrilled with but very excited about AOPi. By all accounts, they put on a TREMENDOUS rush. I can tell you the weather held off and it was a lot like a clean, sober, smaller Mardi Gras on campus on both sorority rows. Great, happy atmosphere. Lots of joy...even for dads. :)

I remember way, way back going over to watch the girls run to their houses if our bid day was over...and you know?...the guys still do that.

If, as someone mentioned, there really is a consideration of moving the Honor's College and/or whatever is in the old ZTA house to the old Law School it may be none too soon. As noted earlier, if the freshman classes continue to grow another sorority will be very much needed to accomodate all the interest. Those numbers noted above are absolutely staggering.

I'll also say quota addition is one of the best things to ever happen to rush at Ole Miss. I know it's been in place a while but knowing that you can go back to pref guaranteed a spot somewhere is a great thing, imo. I can tell the stress level on some of the girls was definitely lowered b/c of that.

Somebody explain upperclass quota to me. I rarely remember upperclassmen going through rush at all on the sorority side. Could be I just wasn't paying attention. Is it as simple as upperclassmen are just in a different classification of rushees and and that group has it's own quota?

We were there around the same time. I was there from 92-96.

No need to say more. :D Congrats to your son and his friends.