Texas A&M Rush as a Sophomore
 

Hello everyone on GC. I have been reading lots of threads on here but never decided to post until now. So here is my situation that I hope you can all help me with...

Last fall I went through rush as a freshman. The process was so overwhelming to me since I have no family members that are greek, that I dropped out in the middle of rush. I had my favorite house still asking me back, and my third choice as well. Some of the other houses that were my "top picks" did not invite me back however. I realize now though that through that whole process I was trying to be the "perfect rushee". I look back now seeing how much of a cookie cutter I was, and understanding why I was cut. After getting accumulated to college life and joining some other organizations, I realize now that I really wish I would've gone greek when I first rushed. I understand that next year If I decide to rush again, that it will be difficult because I would be a sophomore.

I thought that background information would give you more about me. I hope you don't bash all of what I just said though!

Now for my questions: How do you think sororities view re-rushers? Would they even remember them? Also, do you have any non-blunt advice that you could give me? I say non-blunt because I've seen some people on GC get pretty antsy and I would prefer not to have that if at all possible! :)

Thank you so much guys! :)

i don't think that too many pnms are remembered from rush one year to another, at a college that has lots of girls rushing.....unless the pnm does something to make themselves memorable(good or bad).

if you have not already done so, get involved on campus with an organization that interests you and/or is in your major. do some volunteer work. make sure you have a good gpa, or study hard and bring it up. get recommendations lined up and sent off in a timely fashion.

So, in other words, you want rainbows and sunshine and someone to hold your hand and tell you that it will be alright, and you'll get a bid to your top choice...

Sorry, not gonna happen here.

You asked what we think. Here's my thinking on your questions:

You are going through recruitment as a sophomore. There are numerous threads on GC that address that topic. You likely know the status of sophomore PNMs at your school. That's the bottom line. You've already answered your own question, in all honesty.

Each chapter will maintain its own records re:recruitment and that is not something that anyone can give you information about in the global sense that you're seeking. Can't comment on how chapters (other than my own) view re-rushers or whether or not you'd be remembered. For some chapters, no big deal; for others, kiss of death. Sorry.

Advice: what FSUZeta said in her second paragraph. Your recruitment outcome will be your own individually, and you do have some influence over the factors she listed.

(And I think you meant "acclimated" instead of "accumulated" ;) )

Sorry for busting in... My qualification to answer this is pretty limited, so just take this for what it's worth & if these girls say I'm wrong, listen to them instead.

Don't lie about having gone through rush before. You don't have to shout it from the mountain tops, but don't deny it. Assume they know. If you assume it'll come up, you have time to prep a few responses. You can VERY effectively spin the reasons for not having taken a bid before. Just don't outright lie to people. They may see a lot of rushees, but they aren't dumb.

In the meantime, and in addition to the advice above, make friends with people. Go to fraternity functions & philanthropy events. Sit by and talk to greeks in classes. The advantage you have now that incoming freshmen don't is you can network with people. That and you know a lot more about the orgs and rush process. Some things may be working against you, but others are more in your favor if you make the most of your opportunities. Take the glass is half full view of it, cause the alternative doesn't do you any good.

Beat me to it. :cool:

You have already been given your best shot at joining a sorority at A&M. As a sophomore, your choices will be much more limited and you will need to go in with a very open mind.

This was actually spot on. :) See, busting in is good.

When prefaced with a comment about busting in, stating a relative lack of qualification, and deferring to people who the conversation is directed toward, then sure busting in can have it's place.

I'm going to caution you not to hang out too much with the Greeks at your school for the simple reason that you will make a fool of yourself at a party or a bar where they are present. The lower the profile you maintain the better.

If you happen to make Greek friends in the course of your daily life through classes or organizations you join, then those are good contacts. Don't just start going to Sig Ep house parties or LXA's Watermelon Bust in the hope of making connections with sorority girls. It will backfire.

As others have said, you need to make sure you have recs and know coming in that you are going to have far fewer options than you would have as a freshman. Go in with an open mind expecting heavy cuts and stick it out through the end. Here is the thing about sororities: every campus has their top, middle, and bottom chapters. Realistically, every chapter has 50-150 members, and you can't find a niche in ANY group that size then, no, sorority life is not for you.

As a sophomore, consider that you are rushing to join the Greek System and get involved with Greek Life. Take the bid from the chapters that are available to you if you want to experience sorority life because you will not get your pick of the litter second time around. I would actually suggest this to any freshman, too. Seriously, if can get along with a group of people, then you can be comfortable in any sorority. Unless you're overly opinionated or have an over inflated sense of self. Take advantage of the opportunity to be a Greek if the opportunity presents itself.

Huh??

I don't think dnall mentioned parties at all.

There were a ton of girls rushing at Baylor this year that are sophomores. It's not frowned upon, but it does make it a little harder to get in. Here we have a point system (not sure if it's the same at A&M) and freshmen are worth the least amount of points (just one) and sophomores are more. Each chapter has a minimum amount of points and a maximum amount of points and if you take a bunch of sophomores you can't get as many girls. So there's that. However, you do have an advantage because you know the school better, and you've had more opportunities to meet girls from the sororities on campus. There isn't anything wrong with rushing as a sophomore.

This is very specific advice that really probably only applies at Baylor and a handful of other schools. In fact, some schools have "free" sophomores that don't count AT ALL against your Quota (I don't know if this applies at A&M). Also, while there's nothing "wrong" as rushing as a sophomore, at some schools, it's pretty well downright useless.

Please do not give advice unless you are sure it applies. Also, check dates of threads before you post - I noticed in another thread, you answered a question that was 6 years old. That person is probably no longer in school - or if he is, he's probably a doctor.

I did mention parties. I know what you're saying, but I tend to disagree.

You assume she's going to make a drunken fool of herself at some party and gain a negative reputation that will hurt her. There is that chance, and it would hurt her.

No one suddenly gains class because they're concerned about a standards cmte. If she's going to make a fool of herself, that's who she is and who she would be in or out of a sorority. If she is a classless drunken fool then sororities should know that so they can avoid her.

There's also the opposite chance. The chance she can make a lot of friends among both guys and girls. So that when she shows up for rush she has several actual friends (not acquaintances from class) in a couple chapters, and guys from fraternities rec'ing her to their friends and gfs in sororities.

This is A&M though, so it's a really screwed up social dynamic. The Corps takes the best guys, so fraternities suck like a podunk state college and sororities are more like a 1st tier university. Most sorority girls will not be at fraternity parties there. It's below their social class. There are some spirit orgs and Corps events she can go to instead that might be better for networking.

http://rlv.zcache.com/there_you_go_a...26q0yk_400.jpg

Lots of people on GC don't take kindly to these sorts of blanket statements. Just to let you know. Sorry, but that's the way we do things here...

Hey this is the ATO forum and you shouldn't get... oh.... wait.

But he's right - to a point. That's how A&M's culture is. I probably would not go so far as to say the fraternities are like podunk state though. But, there does seem to be a greater pull towards the Corps than the fraternities.

And at A&M it is impossible not to get involved in some group / club and not meet people. A&M likes to claim that they have over 400 recognized student orgs, so it is impossible not to get into something. So, the chance of meeting and interacting with sorority members through different orgs is very possible.

I'm not referring to the A & M comment, I'm referring to the "fraternities suck like a podunk state college" coment.

I think he was specifically referring to fraternities at A&M, and not anywhere else since this thread is about A&M.

Well, saying something sucks "like a podunk state college" implies something bigger than one school, however had he not shown a propensity toward making broad sweeping "Greek Life in any way but the way I like sucks" statements, I might agree with you.

If you read what he said in the context of this tread, and knowing the dynamics of the Corps and fraternities at A&M, he is really not too far off.

To make a broad statement about all fraternities at every school, yes, he is way off base. But, we are not talking about all schools here, just one - Texas A&M.

I went there, I know the campus culture. I still am active through my sorority's undergrad chapter there, so I am still aware of the campus culture there.

As they have said, no one at all said he was off base in his assessment of the Corps vs. fraternities at A&M. He said:

Quote:

Originally Posted by dnall (Post 2032471) The Corps takes the best guys, so fraternities suck like a podunk state college . . . .

It's a figurative form of comparison called a simile. The comparison made is that fraternities at A&M suck in the same way that a podunk state college sucks.

What 33girl and then DF objected to is the use of "podunk state colleges" as the target of the simile, as it implies that podunk state colleges are an appropriate and perhaps even obvious yardstick of suckage. People who went to podunk state colleges might disagree with the use of that particular yardstick.

If instead he had said "so fraternities suck like Justin Bieber," then all would have been well. That is, unless some Beliebers found this site and highjacked it.

Then it is left up to the reader as to what they consider to be a podunk state college. I'm sure some who attended the Ivies,like one of my ex-boyfriends, he went to Harvard, considered all of his state schools in CA as podunk.

So, it is relative as to what one considers podunk. What may be a 'podunk' state college for one, may be the best school ever for another.

Then they they do suck to that individual person. There are universities in Texas that I absolutely did not consider attending because I thought they were just that - podunk! They sucked to me, but to those that attended, I'm sure that university was the best thing going.

Maybe the simile was offensive to some, but the intent is still the same. As you said, some may have gotten offended at the Justin Bieber comparison, but not me. ;).

Oh good grief. The point is no one was commenting at all on his statement about A&M, so there was no particular need to defend his statement about A&M. That being the case, your responses defending what he said about A&M were irrelevant to what 33girl and DF did take issue with -- the statement about podunk state colleges (or Greek life at those colleges). That's all.

Please for give me. I forgot the unwritten GC rule - that whatever MC says is right....

I'll post a 'sticky' on my computer so that I'll remember next time....:rolleyes:

LOL

GC is serious business.

Really? Huh. My wife would certainly take issue with that. I don't mind admitting when I'm wrong and have done so lots of times.

Even when it's not that serious. And here, it's not that serious.

Okay, so why are you splitting hairs over one's interpretation of what one would consider "podunk", since that seems to be the offensive term here.

I got the "drift" of what he was talking about. I was just trying to give a little background info on the campus culture of A&M. I think some people just read waaaay too much in his off-handed comment. ;)

I don't read it as "podunk" being the offensive word here. People here know if they went to huge schools or a podunk school with 12 people in your entire chapter. But had I been in one of those chapters, I would still be damn proud of it and not want someone to say that I and my greek system sucked because I just happened to be at a smaller school.

I'm not. All I said was that 33girl and DF were criticizing his reference to podunk state schools.

They were not saying that he was wrong about the culture at A&M, they were criticizing the way he said it. So a defense of what he said about the culture at A&M wasn't addressing what they were complaining about. I was just trying to get everyone on the same page. My yardstick of suckage and Bieber references were simply attempts to keep it light. If they failed in that purpose, I apologize for generating more confusion.

As for reading too much into his statement, as DF indicated, that's a carry-over from another conversation elsewhere in GCLand.

Believe me -- I do take your word for it that he's right about A&M, and for the most part I don't care who considers what school podunk.

And I'm particularly glad we agree about the Bieber. ;)

It also bears mentioning that the Corps, for good or ill, has become an increasingly smaller percentage of the student body.They comprise only 3.4% (1,740 in 2010) of the student body. Of course no fraternity will ever be able to compete with it in terms of local history and campus culture, but the Corps lifestyle is not appealing to many fine young men, who do find a home in a fraternity.

I agree, but people still do.

[QUOTE=MysticCat;2032583]Okay, I didn't know that.


So, I guess that you don't care either that he cut his hair. :p

Only if it means his 15 minutes are up.

Ok. I think we're both on the same page, then. My advice was to get involved with clubs and orgs, but what I didn't explain was that OP is likely to make sorority friends doing that and that will lead to socializing with them outside those orgs (same goes for classes).

LOL, Corps events. My mother wouldn't let us go to them in the seventies because she got groped at a Corps event in the forties. Her friends reported similar occurrences.

I wonder if things have changed?

Oh my dear Lord...

This isn't t-ball where everyone gets a trophy. Greek life isn't perfectly equal everywhere you go. Like everything else in the world, it's better in some places than others. That doesn't mean if you aren't at the very top of that ranking that you or your chapter or your college or whatever we're talking about is terrible, it just is what it is. Most people accept that and make the very best they can of it.

I didn't go to a tier 1 university for my undergrad, and greek life there reflects that. Both the University and greek system there have grown and improved exponentially since I was there, but neither will ever be in the same universe as something that might be considered a pinnacle university/greek system/etc.

That doesn't mean that I, my chapter, my greek system, or my university are or were worthless. It just means we accept where we are on the totem pole & try to make it better.

I'm very familiar with the A&M greek system. VERY clearly my comments were directed at it. It is a VERY unusual place. If you can imagine sororities from a tier 1 university/greek system, the corps filling the role of fraternities from a tier 1 university, and the IFC fraternities being like the ultimate frisbee club... that's about what it's like. A lot of sororities there, both as orgs and individuals, do not associate at all with fraternities or anyone in them. There are notable exceptions, but on average that's how it is there.

Hence, when I tell this girl she might consider putting herself in some social situations where she can network with sorority girls and with guys that have pull with sorority girls, at A&M, most fraternity parties don't fit that bill.

Can we please quit dissecting every word of every sentence trying to find fault where none is intended or exists.

But this is what makes GC GC. How else do you think most threads easily reach 20 pages. :confused:


;)

What the hell is this post about?

^^^^^

I think it's about how some people took offense to the term "podunk state college" and how some of us (me included) went on this tirade about what podunk means.

Honestly, as one who rushed as a sophomore, the best advice I can give is this: keep your head down and your grades up. Don't go around being a drunken fool in public (this means AT ALL not just at Greek events; you never know who's watching), and focus on your classes. Get involved in other orgs and try for leadership positions. When you go through recruitment, I suggest not even bringing up your previous recruitment. If someone asks, make sure you know how to handle it. How are you different now than a year ago? What makes you a better PNM/person/student now?