Unless things have changed since...oh, last week...orientation is 2 days. The orientation people are NOT lenient (sp?) about missing any parts of the day for recruitment. They have actually been annoyingly strict about it in the past...You may just have to bite the bullet and come during June or July or be ready to have fairly heavy cuts during BOTH philanthropy days because you will most likely be missing parties on both days...

Not only is it not good to miss part of rush, but you will be basically screwed if you register that late. I know it seems silly as far as travel expenses, but get the earliest date possible. My best friend is a freshman at Bama who went to the tenth orientation (also honors) and her options were severely limited. she ended up only taking 12 hours that semester... including band and oboe lessons. she told me there weren't even any language classes left other than urdu...

claire,

my daughter goes to samford(in birmingham) & we made two trips in the summer from naples-one for orientation in the early summer and one to move her into the dorm in august. we will making similar trips for our son this summer. it's worth it to do two trips.

orientation is important-it is at orientation that you will meet the kids you will be attending bama with for the next 4 years. believe it or not, in that short period of time you might make a good connection with someone you meet. you have one more chance to familiarize yourself with the campus and the town before classes begin. and i can promise you that the sorority members who are orientation leaders will be checking out all the pnms. they will do it discreetly, of course, but i know they will be letting their sisters know to be sure to "check out clairedelune from orlando-what a cutie!!"

more importantly, you register for classes, and as aopirhodelta pointed out, the pickings are going to be slim if you wait until right before school starts to register for classes-they don't hold spaces in classes open for late registrants.

there are enough pnms going thru recruitment at bama that the sororities don't need to cut pnms who miss a day any slack-and they won't. there are at least a dozen other pnms waiting to jump in your spot. your chances will be greatly minimized if you have to skip a day of recruitment.

As stated above, not registering until Aug will severely limit the choice of classes available even being in the Honors program. Classes fill up quickly and there are simply no other ones to choose from. This could have long term consequences for your major if you are not able to get into some of the pre-req classes you need.

For Recruitment, missing parties/rounds is a decision a PNM must make for herself, but should do so with a realistic understanding of the consequences. It is a huge risk. Since there are many other Orientation dates available, questions will be asked why a PNM decided to knowingly wait until the last one that falls in the middle of recruitment. Questions like how committed is a PNM to joining a sorority and to her education because she waited until the last Orientation to register?

Also keep in mind that chapters are only allowed to invite a certain number back. The competition amongst PNMs and the actives pulling for their favorites becomes more intense with each round. Not attending could be viewed as an easy/automatic cut if no one knows the PNM well enough to fight for her. Chapters will ask themselves why should we take a chance giving one of our limited invitations to Skit Day/3rd round to a relatively unknown PNM when there are sooooo many others we know better and have just as strong resumes? It might not result in being completely dropped out of recruitment, but the options will be limited.

i personally know girls at other schools(fsu, uf, georgia,samford, auburn and even fl. gulf coast u.) who had to miss a day of recruitment and that had devastating results on their recruitment outcome. they all had legitimate reasons for missing(orientation for a special program they were participating in at school that was only held on that day, illness, etc.) . each pnm was cute, sweet, well thought of in her town and at her former h.s., a good student with a lot to offer and each had recs. each girl notified panhellenic which in turn notified each chapter, so that everyone was aware of the reason for the absence. it didn't matter, and you really can't blame the sororities. each day they have to eliminate a few more pnms from their invitation lists, so an absence(no matter the reason) is an easy eliminator.

it really comes down to the fact that you need to be present in order to get to know the members and for them to get to know you. don't handicap yourself by scheduling your orientation during recruitment.

you can fly direct from orlando to birmingham on southwest, which usually has pretty good prices. it takes about an hour to get from birmingham to tuscaloosa. if you are have a summer job and are worried about asking for time off, most employers understand that a new student has to attend their orientation and as long as you give them ample notice(at least 2 weeks, but more is better), won't have a problem with you being gone a few days.

trust us-we know of what we speak!

Or you might develop a crush on someone that lasts for quite a while, until you see his picture many moons later and see that he got fat. :p I'm sorry, did I make this about me?

At any rate...I forgot about the whole not getting classes concept if you don't go through the earliest orientation you can. I went to maybe the 6th out of 12, and there were already LOTS of classes that were full. Oh, and even for my teeny school, ours was 2 days long. I can't imagine a big school like Bama would have a 1 day orientation. I agree w/ everyone else - go to orientation/register in July, get it out of the way, and then you can concentrate on rush!

Last year, I actually had a girl in my Rho Gam group who missed round 3. She got 9 of her top 10 for round 2 and 5 of her top 6 for round 3, which figures because she would be a good fit almost anywhere. All 6 for round 3 were very desirable, strong chapters. She only got one preference invite, to a strong chapter, but she did have someone who really wanted her to join in that chapter. Fortunately for her, it was her favorite, she went to their pref, ranked them, and got a bid.

HOWEVER, do not bank on being that lucky. If you don't have people fighting for you (which I will assume not since you said you don't know anyone there), even with a girl that would otherwise be desirable to almost any chapter, and especially at a school as competitive as Bama, it could be a death sentence to miss a round.

Even putting aside the issue of recruitment (which is hard to do at Bama!), registering so late for classes will screw you, regardless of being in the Honors program. If there are even any sections left of the classes you need/want, they will be the sections no one else wanted to take. Do you really want to be stuck in a Friday night calculus class all semester? Register as early as you possibly can. It's not like you live in Alaska and truly can't make the trip.

I think we will end up going to the orientation in the summer, you guys win, so I thank you all for giving me some good debate points =]

But you must admit, the money going towards two round-trip flights from Birmingham to Orlando, one maybe two nights in a hotel plus a rental car could have gone to a super sweet rush outfit, haha.

Nobody is trying to "win" here. All people are doing is giving you advice. Advice that will help you get the classes you want/need as well as put you on an even playing field with the other 1400+/- PNMs. You don't want to go into a highly competitive recruitment already at a disadvantage.

But you must admit that a "super sweet rush outfit" won't matter much if you don't have any parties to wear it to.

whoa...those comments were taken way out of context. I meant that you guys made your points and attending orientation earlier in the summer is a much smarter choice than attending a few days before school starts, even if it does cost a lot more money.. money that could be spent elsewhere instead of two trips for my parents to Tuscaloosa, that's all.

I don't think zillini meant any offense, everyone here is tensing up and sweating just thinking about you missing a round or two of rush for orientation...it will be, in no uncertain terms, the kiss of death for you.


We know of what we speak! :)

Be SURE to keep us updated this fall - we will be rooting for you.

I believe you can stay in the dorm for FREE as part of your orientation.

Yeah, we've looked into that, but airfare on Southwest round-trip is around 430$ for two people and we'll also need a rental car for three days. It's so ridiculously expensive, and I haven't even started paying ridiculous fees for stuff in school :eek: ! But I guess I can look forward to a more relaxing week entering freshman year.

keep watching the fares on southwest. from time to time they have special internet only fares.