Jobs and Sorority Life - Is it possible?
 

Once again, I am posting a thread in this part of the website, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't belong here. If anything, it would probably belong in the Greek Life section, but.. I'm not greek yet so I would feel awkward posting it there.

Anyway, I am in the process of locating a better job (the one I have isn't giving enough hours. ]: ) and it got me thinking, how does work and sorority life cohabitate?

I've heard from many people (including people at my school) that the first semester of sorority life is the most time consuming. It's hectic and stressful and there are new member meetings and serenades and outings and all that jazz. But what if you have a part time job?

Will that harm your chances of
a. getting a bid?
b. making it to initiation?

I'm just curious. If I stick around on Greek Chat long enough, you all will realize that I'm pretty much a kitten: too curious for my own good.

I would estimate that 80% of my house had a job.

I had two jobs through most of my sorority career, held offices, got good grades, went to almost every event and had a social life. If you work at it, you will learn great time management skills. My biggest pieces of advice is to limit your time on social networking sites, limit TV watching and get a great planner.

Heck yeah, it's possible! Just about every girl in my house who had transportation had a job. When I first pledged, I was working at Wendy's, then got a job at Kroger about three weeks later. It was perfect - 15 -16 hours per week, never past midnight and the head cashier liked me, so he scheduled me around my sorority activities :D. I left there to do my required internship summer between junior and senior year, then worked at JCPenney until I graduated. I was also a journalism major, which is very time-consuming. But my sisters were very understanding; work was considered a legitimate excuse to miss an activity, although you were expected to be at chapter meetings if at all possible.

ETA: Hang in there, Aeryelle! I wish we'd had GC (heck, the Internet!) when I was in college. Life is so much easier now in some ways ...

I have a job and pay my own dues, as do many of my sisters. TOTALLY POSSIBLE! :)

Most of my friends in college had jobs and were greek. These jobs ranged from being tour guides on campus and working in the bookstore to being part time office help at doctors' office and waiting tables. Many girls in my chapter tutored at the local elementary school too. It's totally doable, but learning to manage your time will be important to balance everything.

Like others have said, it's totally possible. You do have to be realistic and realize that your job will probably cause you to miss a few events here and there. As long as you have decent time management skills, it really shouldn't be problem :)

Aerylle, seriously? I was about to make this exact same thread! haha twin :rolleyes: but thank you so much for the advice GC! At my school's Greek Q&A, they said that they "highly discourage pursuing employment during the new member period." It's so good to hear that women have held jobs and stayed involved in their chapter :)

Totally agreed! I had a job last year and time management is so crucial. Between chapter meetings, socials, classes, homework, extra curriculars, and work there is little time for messing around.

Also:
a) no it shouldn't harm your chances of getting a bid (it might even give you conversation topics during rush!)
b) you should know when initiation is far enough in advance to make any changes you need to a work schedule

a lot girls in sororities have jobs. most of my friends.
check out working on campus. i know for me that is easier than working off (like I did freshman year) because you might be able to get set hours every week & if not I feel like they are more flexible.

You should have plenty of time to request off of work for initiation

Most of my chapter had jobs. Some girls had a harder time than others, depending on how many hours they were working and how good they were at scheduling. Get yourself a heavy duty planner, and check it daily. The sorority should give you at least two weeks notice for events so that if you have to take off work you'll have time to ask off. Girls in my chapter that were working a lot of hours every week tended to try to show up at all required events, and made extra events secondary to their job. I recommend you do this. You will probably feel slightly left out during your new member period because you won't be around your pledge class all the time, but I'm sure there will be other girls in your new member class that are working, too. Make friends with them so that you don't feel alone in scheduling your job and sorority into your school schedule. You'll be fine, a LOT of Greeks work to pay their dues and other expenses.

Aerylle-lots of sorority girls have jobs during college (including myself). It wouldn't be the first thing to advertise during rush (don't say "Hi, I'm Aerylle and I have a time consuming job!") but if they ask about your involvement, mention it (something like "I was involved in this club and that club in high school. I want to continue my involvement with that club in college but I also have a part time job. Being involved in high school has helped me learn to manage my time so neither activity should affect the amount of energy I put into being a sister.")
Just let your sisters know ahead of time if you're going to be missing an event.

Good luck!
PS, ditto the planner. I've been out of college for years now and I still refer to mine like a bible.

Pretty much every collegian I've known has had significant extracurricular involvement outside of the sorority (sports, clubs, resident life assistants, etc), and the majority I've known also have had a job, research assistantship, or internship. Some girls even had more than one part-time job, because they were paying their own dues.

There is lots of good advice in this thread (co-sign on the planner -- I use Google's calendar, because I can sync it with my iPhone and always have it within reach), but I especially like what Pirouette said about how to frame your time commitments in a positive way if the issue comes up during recruitment.

I worked, held offices in my sorority, was in campus governance, double major and honors in college. It is all about making priorities and managing your time. I actually ended up working the EARLY morning shift (5am-8.30 or 9.30am most days) because it paid an additional hour just for dragging your butt out of bed. Then I put myself as "flexible" so I could come in if someone needed coverage. If I could cover, awesome, if I couldn't, I'd pass. While I had to miss some sorority things because of commitments (was on the staff of the paper so I occasionally had to cover events during sorority things), I never, ever missed a ritual, and I'd opt out of whatever it was and find coverage for it if it fell on a ritual (or recruitment!) activity.

It also depends on how your chapter calculates/counts attendance for things. I know for my sorority and chapter we have to attend 85% or more of the mandatory events for us to stay in good standing. If we fell below this for two months, we are put on a sort of probation status. Therefore we had a decent amount of leeway for being able to miss things once in awhile (i.e. too much work one night so you'd skip chapter and just read the minutes) without having any issues. New members follow the same system (although as a NM you do have more mandatory events because of your NM meeting), but again, I can only speak for my sorority and chapter. Most sororities do allow some wiggle room though, because they do understand that collegians are busy women.

Also worth noting is that for some mandatory events you could still receive full points if you told the secretary at least 24 hours in advance. Valid excuses were sickness (which could be given less than 24 hours in advance, obviously since sometimes you wake up sick), any tests or exams, and of course family emergencies, etc. Half points were given for work (since we are always told at least 2 weeks in advance about it), unless we were told less than 2 weeks in advance, in which case work received full points. Things like exam reviews were determined on a case by case basis. But yes, in short, it is completely possible to have a job and be in a sorority, just manage that time well. Your sisters will be understanding, but you need to be responsible too. Best of luck with recruitment.

Many, many college students are working and going to school these days. most of them are great at time management, or are becoming good time managers and time management is the key.

at some point in the present semester the officers in the chapter i advise make up the calendar for the upcoming semester, so girls are very aware of what is going to be when. they realize that some things will be added and that some things will change, but it gives them a good enough idea of when required things are going to occur, that those who have jobs can work with their job supervisor when he/she makes up the work schedules so they do not have to choose between missing work or a mandatory event.

my daughter held one on campus job her sophomore and junior years and two campus jobs her senior year and it worked for her.

I recently got a tablet laptop so I'm using that as my planner. :]

Thanks for the advice. I'm already starting to limit my internet usage (Lol @ how I have youtube open in one tab, and I'm typing this in another).


Thanks! I'll try! Ha ha. How often are chapter meetings? I mean, it probably varies by chapter but.. on average?

Yeah, that's what I need to work on. I never had to do that in high school so it was never an issue (not that I was bad at it, I was actually very good. Did my homework as soon as I got home and was finished before dinner. Then it was "play" time then off to bed.) but now with college and an amazing first job opportunity coming up, I'd really hate to let one ruin the other.

Lol! That's so funny! Looks like great minds think alike, eh?

A. I thought that it would be a great conversation starter as well, I was also just concerned that they might be hesitant to extend a bid to me since I might have to miss some events.
B. Oh, good. :] Nothing worse than having to call out of work so late in the game. ]:

The only problem with working on campus is at my school at least, the hours they give are so minimal. Like, under 10 a week. Living on my own (well, away from the 'rents at least) in an apartment requires more than ten hours a week. ]:

Thank you very much for your kind words of advice. I will remember this when the time comes. :]

Also do remember to pace yourself. Your first semester of college can get hectic since everything is new. So if you join a sorority, maybe make that, work, and school your main three priorities until you feel like you have a stable schedule and aren't feeling too overwhelmed. Then you have time to add in other activities if you'd like without feeling lost. (That's not to say you shouldn't check out clubs on campus, just maybe stay in the shallow end for the first month or two at least). It's worth it to make sure you've found a way to balance activities that keeps you from getting too drained before you start adding new ones.

I know this isn't directly answering your question, but I feel like this would be good to know (if you don't already, not to be patronizing or something)

You know, if an off campus apartment is too burdensome, you could try living in college housing. I know dorms might not seem like the best option (to some people anyways), but they do provide a good option if you can't work as many hours as you need to to pay your rent. The cost of the dorm goes on a student loan (most colleges have a cost of attendance that includes a required housing budget), so might as well take advantage of that so you can fully enjoy campus life. That's just my advice. Also, some campuses have university owned apartments that are also covered by financial aid and loans (that's where I'm living right now!).

It's probably too late for this anyway, but living in a dorm also only gives you 1 room to clean, unless you're lucky enough to have your own bathroom or a suite, which saves time cleaning; you end up eating in the caf, which saves times on cooking and washing dishes; and you're on campus, which saves time commuting. As an added bonus, it makes it easy to meet people on campus right away.

And to add to this, I learned very early on that it takes maybe 10 or 15 minutes a day to keep your room clean, but if you let it go, it takes hours to get it straightened up. Maybe it's my OCD evil twin talking, but I know I feel MUCH less stressed when my room is clean and I know where everything is. If you're going to be leading a hectic life (and believe me, it's hectic), anything you can do to reduce your stress is worth it! Especially if it only takes a few minutes a day!

Dorms/College apartments are actually more expensive than what I'm in right now. I mean, I don't have to cover the entire rent by myself here, like I would in college housing. Trust me, I looked into it. :]

Right, that is good advice that I will take to heart. :]

I was actually thinking that this would be the best way to go since the job I'm looking into actually told me, "The first few months you feel like you are drowning, then after that you start floating no problem."

I think I'll be able to manage school, work, and Greek Life no problem since I am taking some pretty easy classes this semester (to ease myself into college life).

All of this is true, yes. But it all adds up.

Housing: 5,000 minimum
Food: 1,000-2,000
Total: 6,000-7,000

Apartment rent (for entire year): 1,200
Food: 1,000
Travel: 100-1,000
Total: 2,300-3,200

Oh I've gotten the cleaning the house bit down. I clean as I go. While the chicken bakes, wash dishes. While the potatoes cook, clean up after the dog and cat. While the dishwasher goes, run the vacuum. :]

But I agree, a clean house/work space TOTALLY helps de-stress.