That is definitely different than early fall rush when freshmen come in with no concept of sorority life and no prior experience with the chapters on campus. Sounds like deferred rush can be quite different. Though, I really have to wonder if you wouldn't "discover" great reasons to stay in any particular group you might join. It's the human condition to make lemonade when life gives you lemons!:rolleyes:

suicide
 

I think it really depends on the individual school, the number of sororities there and what the PNM's motivation is to go through recruitment. My school allowed us to attend 3 pref parties and I liked them all enough to rank them (I think there were 9-10 sororities). My daughter just received her bid this week. There are only 6 sororities on her campus and the Greek system is very small --maybe 6% of the students. She could attend 2 pref parties and did. Even though she really liked the girls at both, she felt such a greater connection with one, that she decided to suicide. Since so few kids are Greek, she decided she'd rather not be Greek than be with her 2nd choice. This might be way different at some of the schools with really strong Greek systems. where a PNM would be happy anywhere just to be in a sorority.

This is more along the lines of what I meant by advocating SIP, not so that everyone should do it. But those who can not see beyond it. When it comes to recruitment there are so many girls who have no idea what they are getting into (at least at my school) no matter how hard you try to explain mutual selection, "open mind/open heart", "sisterhood is in every chapter" it is just not going to work out if they can't see beyond that and they can end up dropping like flies during new member period from all groups costing big sisters money and wasting so much effort that could be better placed no matter how much you coddle and baby them.
If someone believes in the deepest depths of their heart that it's ABC or DEATH then they should probably go with that cos there is nothing anybody but ABC can do for you after that if that's how you are going to look at it. I personally didn't do it because I knew I could be happy anywhere, but not everyone can. I hope I didn't come off as rude or whatever, but these girls are out there and I just want to better explain my point. And that is why I feel that SIP may not always be a bad option.

The problem lies in PNM's getting too far along before "keeping an open mind". Often, PNM's have a ton of options, so they just ignore a group on their list that they don't really like. When it comes to pref night, that group is on their list along with one they like, and they want to SIP, because they have not been giving the other group a chance all along.

I totally agree! These women MOST probably don't even know anything about the other chapter to know if they wouldn't fit in. I know how young girls think...they pick one group they like and then only pick up on things they don't like at the other groups. If they were looking for things they didn't like with the group of their choice they'd more than likely find just as many, but they only see that group through rose colored glasses. (I am speaking in general, of course!)

I ranked 2 out of the 3 chapters I visited for preference. Looking back, if I had ranked my third choice and matched with them, I could have been happy, but I couldn't see that during recrutiment. Probably the biggest reason I didn't rank them was that I was preffed by someone I hadn't met before, so the party didn't compare to the other two.

I suicided, but only because I knew there was only one group that was right for me, and it so happened that the rest of the chapter felt the same! (i'm a sap - sorry:p)

However, when I became an executive member of panhellenic, to keep rush numbers up, we strongly discouraged it. However, I still feel that if you feel strongly about one group, and could not see yourself elsewhere.....it's what ya gotta do.

Sometimes it is for the best even if it doesn't work out. I suicided because I was only sure about one of the chapters I went to on pref night and didn't get a bid but I was able to do informal recruitment and ended up really liking a house I'd cut much earlier in formal recruitment and joining there.

Normally I'd say to avoid it, but there are reasons I can understand for doing it. For example, one of my suitemates went through recruitment freshman year. We had four sororities at the time. At the end of days 1 and 2 (mandatory invites), she had ranked 1. ABC 2. DEF 3. GHI 4. XYZ. On day three, she was cut by GHI, but her ranking stayed the same. On pref night, she got invited to ABC and XYZ. Although XYZ had been her bottom choice the entire week, she had not been able to release them, and they kept inviting her back.

She suicided ABC, and when her RC called her to tell her ABC did not offer her a bid, but XYZ did, my suitemate was able to honestly say that she would rather not be Greek than be an XYZ. (She joined DEF the next year).

If there is somewhere that you have throughly disliked all four rounds, and you cannot cut them, I can understand SIPing.

Not true...unfortunately recruitment counselors aren't always schooled in the correct rules of recruitment. I'm sure she was told to discourage SIPing as much as possible, and she thought scaring a girl would do the job. That being said, SIPing is not a good idea....if she doesn't get the bid, it wasn't the computer's fault, it was hers for not leaving herself enough options. The sorority she is SIPing may not want her as much as she wants them...that's why it's a gamble.

computers do not kick out girls who suicide- another urban myth.

panhellenic is the one that uses the computer program. all the sororities submit their lists to panhellenic by a certain deadline, panhellenic enters the data and the computer spits out the invitations.

I am a pledge at the University of Alabama, and I suicided along with one of my roommates. It worked out well for us, thankfully.

rolltideuofa07,


You might want to edit your previous posts--GC detective squad is frighteningly astute.

Eh, I was going to say something, but nevermind.