Unique Rush Situation
 

Hi Y'all,

I have a bit of an unique situation and would love some advice. While in high school I participated in a program that allowed me to earn college credits while in high school and graduated with one year completed. After.. graduating I went to college for a year and had to take a break last year due to complicated famly issues. Now, I have transferred universities and would love to pledge a sorority.

This is really my sophomore year of college considering the time I had to take off. However, I have roughly 53 credits because of the classes I took while in high school. Should I consider myself a sophomore with my 53 credits or consider myself a junior? I am asking because I know not rushing my freshman is going to severely hurt my chances of getting a bid. Rush at my school is very competitive. Also, I have heard that being a junior would actually help me out as they do not count as part of the quota but rather are just extra additions added on to a previous pledge class.

Does anyone have any advice??? Thank you!

You only have to ask a question once on this site. It will seen by everyone regardless of what category you used. But on the other hand, this is a great post, so bumping it to the top is cool.

So since recruitment is coming up VERY soon, I have been reading a bunch of GC threads and recruitment stories, even now in the early hours of morning! Some of the stories use the phrase "rushing hard", as in, "this house was really rushing her pretty hard". I don't really understand what that means. I tried searching for this, but 'rushing' and 'hard' appear a LOT in GC! LOL. If you could help me out that would be wonderful!! I hope you all are having a wonderful night/morning! Thanks a bunch!

Usually when a girl is in the midst of a conversation at a rush party, it's just a conversation. But sometimes they will press very hard for either information as to your interest in them, or in trying to convince you that they're for you. Sometimes the rushee won't even notice they're pushing, sometimes she'll know and will be pleased at their extra interest, sometimes it's creepy and you just want outta there, and sometimes it's breaking rules.

They might bump several girls onto you so that the most possible girls meet you and you will hopefully make the "connection" with the right girl that will bring you back. Or they might single you out with the one girl who they think will be your perfect match and have her sell you on how awesome the house is.

If it's done well you should not notice, but feel a warm fuzzy walking out of there. If it's done poorly you can feel like you just got assaulted.

This is the sort of thing you don't need to worry about. Go in, try to make friends, not win points, not try to count how many members the other rushees are talking to, not listen in on other people's conversations to see if they're having a more intense conversation than you. You can torpedo your experience by focusing too much on all that crap. There is no sign that you are in/not in/loved/hated. Meeting the president doesn't necessarily mean anything. Being first, 10th or last in line doesn't mean anything.

Get some sleep! Get plenty of fluids, turn off the chatter in your head and from others, and just have a good time.

Thanks so much! That was everything I wanted in an answer and more! In other words, the perfect answer. Good advice, too!

Please make T_witter private as well. It is just as easy to look up a PNM there as it is on FBook. Tweeting about how drunk you get on gameday is just as bad as posting pictures of it.

Something to add about ICS/Recruitment Registration information:

1. Fill out the WHOLE profile. Your name and picture does not provide accurate info.
2. About your picture, if you are going to include one, make it of yourself without other people in it. In normal clothes - not your prom picture, not in your halloween costume, not in super hootchy going out clothes, not in your pjs. If you don't have one, have your friend take a picture of you somewhere nice on campus. Also, along the line of pictures: do not include alcohol (I can't believe I actually had to write that!). Your HS portrait is fine to use.
3. Do not provide an artsy picture of just your eye or some other part of your face.
3. Don't lie about your GPA on the application. The school provides your real GPA. Saying you have a 3.9 and really having a 2.8 is a big deal.

However, most of the mavens around here suggest you leave off any legacy affiliations.

I'm not talking about legacy affiliations. I believe that is up to the individual PNM to decide if they want to list them. I'm talking about the registration form itself- Where it asks you what your hometown is, any clubs or activities you belong to in both college and HS, any interests, extracurriculars or hobbies.

bump as it seems to be missing off the first Sorority Recruitment page for some reason.

Bumping as well since it doesn't seem to be stickied anymore. :(

I also wish this were still stickied. Not only that, I wish that it could be stickied at the very top of all the stickies.

There are lots of interesting and helpful threads that are stickied in this forum, however, what adpiucf did here is absolutely tremendous.

Please reconsider.

Good stuff.

Bump because of spam storm

I know that when I started filling out the ICS, I didn't know that I needed to have the exact GPA, and I couldn't remember my exact cumulative GPA (Like for example, a 3.23 versus a 3.27.....neither of those are close to my GPA.), so I had to guess what I'd remembered. As you know, you can't "save it for later." which was strange.

I hope that doesn't bite me in the behind. It's not like saying "4.0" when you have a 3.0...but I still feel a bit uneasy about it.

bump

If it's that close, it (most likely) won't matter.

When I filled out the ICS for my school it asks for GPA so I provided what I had which inclued all 4 years, all classes. The school officially reports to Panhellenic the Core GPA which is a little different.

Saw this today and instantly thought of PNMs and freshman in general:

http://mashable.com/2012/09/04/stude...edia-warnings/

this is great ! i heard something about rec letters? is that required to rush at all schools?

Here you go:
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=112718

Recs are never REQUIRED to go through recruitment, but it is an unwritten requirement at some schools due to the competitive nature of those schools' recruitments.

A bid without a rec?
 

Does anyone have any experience with PNMs at SEC schools (UGA) receiving a bid without having secured a rec for herself? Is it truly a rare event?

No - that is not necessarily the case that she is a saint. Because recs arent required to go through recruitment some women will have an alum (a friend of their mom or a secretary from school) write a rec on their behalf but never know it.
The problem at the super competitive recruitments is that you can't count on that for every chapter and it is often better to have a letter from someone who knows you well.
To put your best foot - and have a chance at all the chapters - forward at UGA you should try to get at least one for each chapter.

Thank you! My daughter has only secured half of her recs and it is unlikely she will secure all 17 in time for recruitment. Last year, 1100 out of 1400 girls accepted a bid at UGA. Of the 300 who did not accept bid, many received a bid but chose not to accept it. Surely not all the girls had a rec for every sorority? She is completely open minded and happy to consider all the houses, so I'm hoping that the handful she does have will be enough to secure 1 bid! She knows she is at a disadvantage and prepared for anything. We will know just how disadvantaged in 3 weeks' time!

I have written recs for women who didn't know it (including one woman who pledged at UGA).

Did someone ask you on her behalf or did you simply provide a recommendation on your own because you knew she was rushing?

There are quite a few variables here. One is some sororities by their inter/national bylaws require a recommendation, no question. At less competitive schools they will find an alum to make some phone calls and get it done. At a UGA type school, they REALLY don't have to do this because there are so many girls who have done the tedious work for them. Does it still happen? I'm 100% sure it still happens that a chapter will find a woman to write a rec so that they can check that box for a girl they love. But to rely on that is risky, and that's what people are saying. Also, I believe that whether or not the various chapters absolutely require them is member selection material and therefore secret. I'm also 100% sure that girls get pledged without having recs to some or even all of the chapters. I'm not a fan of recs as a general practice (I think recommendations should be reserved for personal references, not for any Tina Denise or Harriet who comes along), but if I were going through rush today, I'd make sure I had them. Why handicap myself over something I can prevent?

/ETA I'm on my high horse this rush season asking for people to let us know after the fact how rush turned out in comparison to their recommendations. All things being equal, how did cuts go relative to the recs you went in with (that you're aware of anyway). That won't answer all questions, but it will give us an inkling.

The latter. She was an absolute SUPERSTAR, though.

On the topic of a rec getting written for you that you didn't know about, this is how I got my Kappa rec. There was a woman that I had grown up knowing in my church who was six years older than I was. I had not heard from her since she left for college. I didn't know she was a Kappa until I saw her again at the beginning of my sophomore year when she was advising the chapter at recruitment. Guess who wrote my rec?

I'm sharing my story to say that it can happen that a PNM can have recs she doesn't know about, but I would do everything I could to secure recs to as many chapters as possible at an SEC school. Things don't always work out so serendipitously.

Hahaha I love that! It sounds like someone needs to stop listening to gossip. This sounds completely untrue!!!!

From official RFM report at UGA. 1399 women registered for recruitment. 1128 women matched for bids. 27 unmatched. 54 released from the system. 90% placement, pretty darn good stats,IMO.

So obviously some voluntarily withdrew from recruitment as well...but not in large numbers....

And to translate some of those numbers, the 27 unmatched didn't maximize their options and got zilch. 54 of 1399 got cut, less than 4% (I'm assuming some of those were for grades which can't be helped by the system). 190 dropped out, or 13.5%.

I would say UGA is doing it about right! Some girls are just not going to accept anything but special snowflake status and some will have just been overwhelmed by the process.

Thank you for those detailed numbers. I obviously worded my previous post incorrectly and I can understand why I was questioned on it. Sorry about that! I'm new to this world and new to the lingo. I'm glad we ultimately got the facts!

With the massive numbers and the daily list making, the time to get a rec for someone who didn't have one in the system is scarce.