@33girl - Your use of the word gauche made my day!

An example was a girl with a significant health problem one semester. If you took that semester out and redid her GPA, it was much higher. All the other indicators were there - dance team, SGA, active with her church, etc. Based on a good rec. and meeting her, the girls took a chance. She ended up president.

Couple of years ago I wrote a letter of reference on just such a girl from my parish church. Not one chapter here carried her beyond second round. She was and is cute, creative and academic, active hands on volunteer, with lots of friends. Heart breaking.

THat's fine. As long as the school is up front about chances with low GPA's. They just should not be in the business of deciding who meets ANY qualification for membership.

They are up front, and as far as I can see, they don't make decisions regarding membership qualifications. Did not mean to give that impression.

Here's a link to The Bond, which is provided to all PNMs and is available on line. On Page One, lower right hand corner, you'll find information about GPA requirements. If a PNM with a GPA < 2.8 decides to go ahead and go through recruitment, that's her choice. But she's informed at the outset that there is a minimum GPA for all chapters.

http://arizonagreek.orgsync.com/org/pan/registration

This! And forget just the application fee.. There are house round casual clothes and preference dresses to be bought!

At many schools, there would be no harm in going through recruitment with a low GPA. At others, however, I'm sure there are girls who are spending hundreds of dollars for just a chance to be in a chapter. If you give PNMs no warning, that's a very quick way to potentially build a list of girls who resent sororities and everything they're about.

Exactly. I didn't know what a rec was until I came to GC a few years after I graduated. If my chapter received one, I'm pretty sure we wouldn't have known what it was, or what the hell to do with it.

You have such a good and informative web site. On the academic page http://arizonagreek.orgsync.com/org/pan/racademics All 11 Chapters require a 3.0 from HS. I think that is smart to include that information. That way if a PNM goes through with a 2.8 from HS she knows she got released for grades and not some other reason.

That's the truth and I don't know why so many people here get bent out of shape when it gets said.

Mutual selection only really exists for the top PNMs and the top recruiting chapters.

Too true!

What's wrong with looking at it this way. I invite people to my home. They just don't show up for parties - they're invited. So, we invite PNMs to our chapters. They "accept" or "decline" based on their rankings of us. After all, a bid is an invitation to join. We invite; they accept or decline. It is mutual - but we're the ones having the parties...so we get to say who's invited.

Ask the 1990s. It's their fault. LOL.

I think it's a misguided attempt by women who have been out of college for FAR too long to attract different kinds of women than the ones who have traditionally been members and stop their orgs being tagged as the "snobby old-girl network." Not that attracting different kinds of women is misguided at all, but making them think it's going to be easy peasy lemon squeezy is..."it" being rush, or sorority membership/Greek life itself.

The plain fact of the matter is, not everyone is cut out to be Greek - some people not at certain schools, and some people not at all. But in a college culture where calling a building a "dormitory" instead of a "residence hall" apparently hurts the building's feelings, it's par for the course.

ROFLOL