Ahhhhhh! :D

That’s the exact opposite of what I am trying to say! I WANT you to care MORE about their grades, personality (currently, not a year ago), campus involvement, blahblahblah and LESS about the fact they depledged an organization last year. Are you seriously kidding me when you say there are diminishing ROI for making new friends, mentoring a young women or ANY of the other benefits of joining our organizations? I’m not saying Suzie Sorority should get a bid to the most competitive organization at the most competitive school in the country. I am saying that every organization from Chi O to AEPhi should at least give her an equal opportunity. If she doesn’t fit your organization because of her personality or grades, fine – drop her. But you’re not even giving these girls a chance because they didn’t give you a chance first. Straight talk with them, the chances are slim but if you get involved on campus outside Greek Life, meet members of different organizations, do study hours and keep your GPA up, etc those are ways to stand out at recruitment. I’m no better than any other member on this board or in my organization or Greek Life anywhere and I have never claimed to be. I would love this to open up to a discussion, but the same women who are discouraging PNMs are making the chances of a true discussion impossible.

P.S. I know I'm wordy. I also know most people who are going to comment on this will be more worried about my word count than my message.

P.S.S. to Shirely, since your still an active member and might read this, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE what you said in that quote! Sorry you had to get dragged into this though.

So you want sororities to consider somebody who already showed lack of commitment, and will be there for less time then a stellar freshman?

Reading all this, I get what you are saying. But one thing is being left out here - hard as it is to face - but a sorority is also a business. Sorry, folks, but that's the plain, unvarnished truth. As one of our former International Presidents said "Delta Gamma runs on love and money." All things being equal, the scales tip in favor of the one who will be there the longest, investing her time, money and talents in the chapter.

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Exactly. Having once offered an opportunity to join a sisterhood an organization would be foolish to extend themselves for someone they know 1.) wasn't interested in them and 2.) has a proven record of dropping out rather than someone who doesn't have those two strikes. There are too many well-qualified pnms who don't have this baggage - it's a competitive system. A freshman who can offer 4 years of commitment and who hasn't proven to be a quitter is of COURSE going to be more attractive to a GLO.

That said, ClosedMinded, you shouldn't assume you know how much weight is given to individual aspects of sorority membership selection. You are making the assumption that you do - and you don't.

k_s, your image isn't showing.

i hereby demand back my time wasted browsing through this thread.

We have given them a chance the first time they rushed. They didn't meet our criteria then for whatever reason and they won't meet our criteria the second time around after quitting another chapter. Unless something has dramatically changed. Like they cured cancer.

Cliffnotes:

ClosedMinded thinks that we're all meanies for telling sophomores who rush at SEC uber-competitive recruitments that they're going to have a hard time getting into a chapter, especially if they went through all/part of recruitment last year and didn't like the results.

She'd like us all to advocate for different MS criteria and raise Totals so that we can pledge sophomores and juniors without having to unfairly cut them just because of their class standing.

She also refused to listen to any of the rational rebuttals we've provided, and thinks she knows what's best based solely on her own highly unusual experience at a "very competitive New England/Mid-Atlantic recruitment".

That's about it.

This made me LOL.

I'd really love to hear where this "very competitive New England/Mid-Atlantic recruitment" is. Mid-Atlantic might be possible, but New England? Really?

1) You're making assumptions about our membership selection procedures. Maybe every sorority member here always pushed for the underdog to receive a bid. You don't know, so stop trying to make us sound like we're out to get the girls who didn't take the "easier" road on their way to receiving a bid.

2) You didn't exactly approach this in the best way. I don't know why you're so surprised that people here are confused and/or mad at you.

3) It could have been a rational discussion if you offered to have one. Instead, you're still saying that certain members here (who you fail to point the finger at directly) are discouraging PNMs from rushing.. Which is bs. Again, sorry we tell PNMs the truth.

Actually, no.. I'm not sorry.

Dartmouth. Although if that's the vantage point she's coming from, she has NO clue what she's talking about (i.e., from what I've read, Greek life functions are open to everyone, not just Greek members). She lso fails to see that it's the administration, not the actives, keeping things "exclusive" by refusing to allow as many sororities as a Northern campus with a large amount of Greek interest could maintain. (That is...Northern schools usually have 15 chapters of 70 each as opposed to a Southern school with 7 chapters of 250 each.)

I would too! I grew up in New England, and I can't think of even one school that's "very competitive". I never heard anyone talk about Greek life EVER while I was growing up. I graduated from a high school that had nearly 4000 students, and I can only think of MAYBE 5 people I know who joined a social GLO.. And all but one of them are guys.

Greek life just isn't "a way of life" up there.