Should I rush/pledge at mizzou?
 

Hey! I'll be a freshman at mizzou this fall and I think it would be awesome to be in sorority but I don't know if I should even "bother"..

I don't really know the "requirements" to join a sorority but here's some basic info:
In highschool I had a 3.8ish GPA & I was involved in a lot of clubs/activities.
In college I intend to be a Journalism (Pre-Law possibly) major.
I'm not a legacy & I won't be able to get rec letters (I'm from a small town where a lot of people didn't/don't go to college, so I'm pretty sure I don't know anyone who was in sorority)
I'm not a super-bubbly blonde, I'm brunette lol and I'm not saying I'm antisocial or whatever, I was "popular" in high school, but I guess the best way to say it is I'm more reserved with my emotions sometimes? like I don't act SUPER excited/happy/sad over stuff (I'm *not* trying to stereotype sororities, but recently people are telling me that I'm not the "sorority type" so I figured I'd mention it in case I'm really not the type or I will appear "blah"/"boring" to a sorority...)


Thanks a bunch ahead of time to everyone who answers..:o

ALSO, I'm sorry if you've heard this question a 100000 times (I did look over the other threads, including the one that said recs are required at big xii schools aka mizzou)

Please elaborate. What exactly is 'the sorority type?'

Good question, I don't know what they meant exactly

http://www.unnecessaryquotes.com/

Sorry, I just had to. :)

I'll give the OP the benefit of the doubt, she sounds super naive. kcprin, it sounds like "they" don't know what real sorority women are, aside from what "they've" seen on movies and TV. A sorority woman can be anyone. Short, tall, fat, skinny, smart, athletic, nerdy, quiet, blonde, brunette, black, white, green.... it doesn't matter. We are everything. You CAN get yourself recommendations, it just seems like you aren't aware how. Contact the nearest Alumnae Panhellenic group to you.
http://www.npcwomen.org/alumnae-panh...directory.aspx
http://stlpanhellenic.org/
https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=167932778292
info@stlpanhellenic.org
https://www.npcwomen.org/alumnae-pan.../advisors.aspx
This is all the info I could find doing a quick Google search for St Louis Alumnae Panhellenic. Do another Google search if there is another group closer to where you live. Ask your high school teachers, church members, etc. You may be surprised at what you can find. Don't say you can't get them without even trying first.
Then create a resume for yourself, highlight all of the awesome things you've done in high school, grades, clubs, work, volunteer, etc. And start doing this now! Don't wait!

kcprin, I sent you a PM. IrishLake gave you some great advice!

Without recs at a competitive school you will have little to no chance of securing a bid.
I would suggest that you read some threads on here about how to get recs and get moving.

It sounds to me like you're setting yourself up for an unsuccessful rush with an already prepared laundry list of reasons that it's "not your fault" that you had less than desireable results. After all, if you set yourself up with every advantage (recs, grades, clubs, wardrobe) and you don't get a bid, you could come to the conclusion that there might be something "wrong" with YOU, but if you don't set yourself up well, you can just blame the system.

Certainly your high school teachers went to college.

Sororities like all types of women, from brunettes to blondes, ignore the stereotypes. I thought I was not the sorority 'type' of woman and only went through recruitment to please my mom, turns out I was wrong.

You have plenty of time for recs, they are important but slightly less crucial than at other schools. So start asking around, and contact the nearest alumnae panhellenic.

You sound like you are scared to death of going to a huge school like Mizzou and you want us to tell you to forget it so you don't have to try and fail. We're not going to do that.

The "people" who are telling you you aren't the sorority type (or that you're not the big college type, or that you're too reserved, or any other box they want to put you into) are closed minded jerks who do not have your best interests at heart. The next time they say something like that to you, laugh in their face and say "it's really funny that you think that...I think I'd be great at [insert thing that they are telling you you can't do]."

Contact your alum panhel ASAP and also every teacher you have ever had (including the male ones - they may have met their wives at a fraternity/sorority mixer!). You CAN get recs on your own.

I just want to quote this because it's advice we often overlook. Asking the MEN is just as important as asking the women.

(and hopefully you didn't go to a Catholic school)

Why?

Um yeah, why?

I think she's thinking that Catholic school means all nuns, no men, no sorority women as teachers. That, or the fact that not all Catholic school require their teachers to have a college degree.

But Catholic school =/= mandatory segregation of girls and boys. There are definitely schools I know of that were co-ed.

The first part. I don't think many nuns/priests were in sororities and fraternities.

Not so true these days. Most Catholic schools have more lay teachers than nuns. Back in my day, it was rare to have a lay teacher in a Catholic school. Not so much now.....

Many of your friends may have mothers who were in a sorority. if the mother went to college, ask her what the Greek Life was on her campus. She just may begin to tell you her sorority experience leaving the door open for you to ask for a recommendation.

Talk to your school counselor. When my children were in HS, we were told that the counselors had lists of teachers/staff who are sorority members just for this occasion-- they can send you to that person for the necessary recommendations. Be sure to give that person a copy of your resume so they can include the information on the form. If you don't give them the information, they are not going to look it up for you (grades, class standing, school activities, etc.). Make sure your resume is accurate. Mention you were on the local youth council if you were, but do not say you were an officer if you were not.

You have to take the bull by the horns. If you don't do the work, no one is going to do it for you. Someplace buried in all of the GC messages you will find a reply about my own experience back when your mother was still very young. I too am not a legacy of any house. I have a mother who rather destroy my self confidence than build it up. I was not popular in school. I only went through rush to get away from my mother a week early. I had all intentions of going through the first day parties in order to stay in the only open dorm, drop out that night and spend the rest of the week at the beach. I ended up finding my home, pledged, and have since gone on to be President of my alumnae chapter 3 terms, and on our National Leadership Team. Legacy is not a guarantee someone will get into a house!

DaffyKD

In all of my life, I have never heard of such, but I guess they may exist somewhere.


You'd be surprised especially if they did not take Holy Orders until a bit later. Our current associate pastor is a Pi Kappa Alpha.

Indeed, I am surprised!

One more thing to add, here. A good number of sorority alumnae have no idea what a rec is or how to write one, and it wouldn't surprise me if you encounter that in a less-greek area. Someone wiser than I can perhaps throw out some ideas on how to address that?

I went to co-ed Catholic HS in the 80s (well, from K-12). There were only three nuns teaching at the time, two priests, and one Franciscan brother. The rest were lay teachers - male and female. I think that there was a pretty even distribution of male to females teachers, as well. I don't think that there was a single teacher who did NOT go to college. I don't know how many may teachers have been Greek, but a decent number of graduating students from my class went Greek.

I went to a co-ed Catholic high school for 13 years (graduated in 98), and in all of those years, I had nuns twice and a lay person once, and all went to 4 year colleges. Everyone else was a normal teacher. Some weren't even Catholic. I think the that same school right now, there aren't any nuns or lay people teaching. I also have never heard of Catholic schools hiring non-college grads. Not in recent years, at least. Too much competetion for teaching jobs. We had one high school chemistry teacher for one year who had an MBA, but not a teaching degree (he was horrible and only lasted a year).

As an aside about nuns and priests not going to college and being greek.... dont' assume about anything. We have a visiting priest who has 3 biological children. He was married for 30 years, he became a deacon in that time, his wife died so he wasn't permitted to remarry. He figured why not go "all the way" and become a priest? He felt the calling and was ordained at the young age of 62.


/wowwayofftopic

Whaaaaaaat?????? Really?

That's cool.

AnotherKD, there MAY be one nun teaching in the grade school. Like 1st or 2nd grade. If she's still there, she's gotta be pushing 80. The last nun left the high school about 4 years ago.

[QUOTE=AnotherKD;2064840]Whaaaaaaat?????? Really?

Maybe she meant they don't do a very good job of teaching.

The Catholic girls' HS I went to (in the 60's) mostly had nuns but had a couple or 3 lay teachers - all female. ALL the nuns had at least a master's and at least 2 had PhD's(one had 2 PhD's!)...Very educated bunch....

And oddly enough, it was in Missouri!

The Catholic high school I went to had only a couple nuns, and they were mainly in the counseling dept (talk about useless). The school didn't require that you had a college degree, however that was sort of like recs not being *required* at Bama...just because it's TECHNICALLY not required doesn't mean much.

Titchou, AnotherKD is familiar with the high school I went to. ;)
All of the nuns were excellent teachers, with the exception of one (and I forgot to add her, so 3 nuns and 1 layperson, technically). She didn't beleive in dinosaurs, or evolution. I got kicked out of 9th grade religion class for arguing with her over the existance of fossils, she thought they were all a hoax.

Its basically ALL lay teachers now, at least at the schools in the Archdiocese I came up in. Usually the religious people teaching would be monks or nuns, but it is so SOOOOOOO rare to see that anymore. And as far as I know, ALL Catholic schools (around me mind you) require a college degree and some individual schools require a teacher's license from the state. And I know PLENTY of Catholics who are greek.

One nun in grade school - K-8, and one in high school, one priest in high school. Most Catholic schools have lay people teaching (which just means non-clergy/etc) and while they prefer Catholic teachers it isn't a requirement.

College degree was required, but not necessarily in education. They got a lot of retired public school teachers. Also several of the priests at SLU were Greek, the one who oversaw the Greek dorm was a Delta Sig and would attend some of their events.

what do you mean, "exactly"? ;)

also, thanks everyone for the help...I'm going to work on trying to get rec letters and I believe I'm going to rush whether I do or don't just for the awesome experience :)

So who IS teaching? It's a self-study program?

You have a sense of humor- I like you.


Um, I would interpret her as saying that the teachers, since they aren't nuns or people without degrees, consist of people that have gone through college, gotten their teaching degree, and are now teaching. It just happens to be at a Catholic school rather than a public school. No, it is not a self-study program.

Sorry for the confusion. I'm a lifelong Catholic and we use the term "lay person" to mean anyone who is non-clergy. It has nothing to do with obtaining a degree. So a layperson, to me, would mean someone who was not a nun, etc, regardless of their degree status. A college-educated trained teacher who was not a nun would still be called a lay person. So I was confused by who exactly that left. Apparently, this Catholic high school uses the term "lay person" a bit differently than the parish I've been part of for 20 years. Sorry about that!

Except, of course, that a nun is not clergy either; clergy = bishop, priest or deacon. ;)

I think the group of people you're trying to describe would be lay (not clergy) and non-religious (not members of a religious order of monks, friars, nuns or sisters. Clergy can be religious or secular.)

Goodness, yes. Sorry again. That's what I meant. But either way, if someone said that there were no nuns and no lay people teaching in a school here, we (at my parish, at least) would not know who was left, really.

And just to be clear, I truly wasn't trying to be snarky or anything. I just didn't know what exactly we were talking about. I'm very interested in education, and specifically parochial education, so I just wanted to see what all this meant. I even created a username after lurking on this board for years just to ask the question. :-)

It's cool, I sensed no snark. ;) (and welcome lurker!) Yes, what AnotherKD said. We had nuns who taught, one priest who taught an advanced theology class (I didn't take it), and one woman who was a self-described "lay person." She was divorced, had a daughter, so couldn't become a nun. But she took a vow of celibacy and poverty anyway, so I guess that's what defined her as "lay." I don't think many (if any) of the other teachers would consider themselves lay people. Just teachers. :)

If they were Catholic they were lay people. The other individual was also a lay person but was using the word wrong. The laity is just non clergy/non religious and refers to everyone who sits in the pews so to speak.