Is rush strictly for undergrads?
 

I just graduated with my bachelor's this year, and am looking at graduate schools. One thing I really regretted not doing in my undergrad was going through recruitment. I'm not really familiar with the technical sides of Greek life, so I thought I'd ask! I'd love to join a sorority, but wasn't sure if it is strictly an undergraduate organization.

Thanks in advance!

Assuming you're talking about NPC, the best way to find out would probably be to contact the fraternity/sorority life office at your school. Whether or not grad-school PNMs are common or even allowed is going to vary by university and by chapter.

Are you not a brother of Alpha Phi Omega? And now you want to join a sorority as a graduate student?

Her being an APO member has nothing to do with her wanting to join a sorority.

kaitapoul: There are some (not nearly all) NPC sororities that can offer bids to graduate students. However, just because they CAN doesn't mean that they WILL. If you are going to a flagship or quite traditional university, I honestly would not even bother rushing.

If it turns out you are going to a more laid back and smaller school with some NPC chapters that take grad students...I would still wait to see if 1) the Greek life there is like what you want - it may be 180 degrees from your undergrad school 2) you have time due to your studies.

Apologies to all- I've made some uninformed posts this morning. I've been caffeine-free for a couple of days- apparently this takes its toll on mind function!
Again, so sorry...

You may want to check out Alumna Initiation as a option. Not all NPC groups offer it, but some do. We initiated a graduate student 2 years ago at the campus where I help advise the undergraduate chapter. She worked with the undergraduate members as an advisory board member and participated in social activities/meetings with our local alumnae chapter. She's since graduated and moved to her new job location, but she'll be a Gamma Phi for life and can volunteer/participate wherever she lives.

Like WhiteRose1912 said, it all depends on the university. I'm going to be going to grad school in the fall, and I contacted the sororities on campus who let me know I was eligible for recruitment.

/lane swerve/

FYI to the red - This is a very taboo subject here on GC. :(

/lane swerve/

You can be eligible for recruitment. Whether you're even eligible for collegiate membership is a whole 'nother story.

Re-read what 33girl said.

[cringe]

Just because it's there doesn't mean it's always an option.

[/cringe]

What happened in that particular chapter is unique to THAT PARTICULAR CHAPTER of THAT PARTICULAR INTER/NATIONAL ORGANIZATION.

The OP's post sounds nothing like the woman to whom you are referring - someone with a certain level of interaction with the chapter/organization.

As someone who was initiated as an alumna, I have to say that memberhip in the alumna level in my NPC orgnaization is nothing like what undergraduate membership was like on campus (I pledged the entire semester (13 weeks) but I didn't initiate because I had to leave school early due to health reasons).


It sounds as if she is looking for the collegiate "sorority experience", and joining an org via AI is not going to give that to her.

Additionally, it should be noted that alumnae initiation is a rare honor bestowed upon exceptional women for very special circumstances. When such an occasion occurs, the sorority will reach out the possible future member, and not vise versa. It is not simply an "alternate route" for women who did not join as undergraduates.

I respectfully defer to members of other NPC organizations, but I haven't picked up on AI being a taboo subject on GC. In Gamma Phi Beta there is nothing taboo, or secretive, or unusual about AI. Feel free to explore our public section of www.gammaphibeta.org under Join as an Alumna. In fact, we publicly state that we offer AI as an alternate route to membership for women who did not join an NPC group as a undergraduate. I am sorry if I inadvertently stepped on anyone's toes.

This depends on the group. I think there are at least a few who invite women to contact them.

Why do you really regret it? It could very well be that your expectations do not match up with the reality of collegiate membership, especially depending on the culture of the school.

As someone with advanced degrees, I can't even fathom the desire to become involved with a sorority at that point in your academic life, both time wise and socially.

Good luck to you! Let me know how it goes. (Same for the OP, if your campus's sororities accept grad students.)

I think you are interpreting the word "taboo" in the wrong way.

It's more like - people on GC got sick of any Jane, Susie or Mary who didn't join a sorority in college (and often for really dumb reasons) being told that "there's always AI." It's not a consolation prize, it is a special honor. It is also not a substitute for collegiate membership and the activities you do as a collegian.

G Phi B's website is also pretty clear that coming in cold (i.e. AIing without knowing a soul or having any connection to anyone in the sorority) really isn't the way to go about it. There was a rash of posters on GC some years back who were "sorority shopping" - i.e. trying to AI into some group, ANY group, that would take them.

Also, there's a chicken and an egg thing with AI. A PNAI(?) may know that she would be an awesome adviser and do a ton for the local collegiate chapter if she were initiated, but she would have a hard time getting initiated without having a connection to the chapter first. On the other hand, being around as an adviser when she isn't an alumna is weird. So there's not really a smooth way to get a foot in the door without a personal connection.

Now...occasionally, you have a remote chapter with little alumnae support. In those RARE cases where they really need more local support for the collegians, a group could be open to a sort of "cold call", but I think most would still want to know why a PNAI had selected *that* group, and that she wasn't calling everyone.

Even so, I am surprised at the example upthread, as just-out-of-undergrad grad students are usually not good choices as advisers, because they are too close in age. Maybe if they serve a minor role on the advisory board it would be okay, but I have to think that most groups are like my own in that they pick 23-year-old advisers as a last resort.

I know this is often given as a reason for AIs, but IMO, a chapter that's that remote (especially if they're just beginning) needs women who have been involved with their sorority for a number of years...not those who have just being initiated without any collegiate Greek experience. Unless, of course, the women who do the real advising are doing so via the net/email and the newly initiated advisor is just a formality to clean the ritual catsuits.

Well, now I'm hijacking, but I think that an adviser from a very different type of school can be just as clueless. Hopefully, in that case, HQ keeps a very close eye on things. There are some things that require a physical presence, though.

In any case, I don't personally know of an instance where someone has stepped in as an adviser, but my chapter did AI someone who jumped right onto our house corp. That's obviously different, because the skill set is a whole other thing, but even in that case, she was the mother of a alumna and someone well-known in the community.

I'm the one who usually gives this as a reason for AIs because of our chapters in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. People who go to college there rarely stay in the area and it is definitely remote. When I first began to oversee these two chapters, one had an AI who was serving as chapter advisor. I don't think she was the CA when she was first initiated as an AI. I think someone else was CA, she was initiated, started helping and eventually ended up the CA. She is also a VP at the University. The current CA there is her daughter, who was initiated into the chapter as a collegian. The current CAs daughter is now a collegian in the chapter! How is that for succession planning? lol. I agree with what you said and think it works best when someone is the chapter advisor and she finds women who want to help and trains them properly so that eventually they could take over.

At our other chapter in the UP, I have an advisor who is advising, as you said, over Skype, email, etc. It has helped them tremendously and is better than nothing but we do need someone local to sign checks and do other things up there. The current advisor gets up there a couple times a year to see family and for work, but it isn't the same and we can't pretend that it is. We're looking at ways to select some women up there to become AIs to be advisors. That said, it wouldn't likely be grad students. We'd like more continuity than that in this case.. women who are settled in that area.. who work at the university, own businesses in the area or who are personal friends of the current advisor.

Pretty much all the advice you've been given here is spot on, but I'd like to add something. While there are chapters that may accept a graduate student, please don't take this as a promise that they will. Furthermore, I would implore you to think really hard about what you would get out of joining a sorority while beginning graduate school. It may be one thing to regret that you did not join as an undergraduate, but now that you do have (I assume) four years of college under your belt, it may not live up to what you expected. While you may only be a few years older than the girls, please keep in mind that there is often a huge difference in mindset between recent grads and the more traditional 18-19 year old freshmen/sophomore pledges. Think really hard about how you will handle being the new girl, if you do pledge, among the typical college freshmen...it may be something that you don't want to do.

I say this not to be mean or discouraging, but I am coming from the perspective of a fairly recent college grad who is also currently a graduate student. FWIW, I pledged as a freshmen at my school and graduated in May 2011, before heading straight into law school. Just shortly into law school, when I met a friend of my stepbrother's who was pledging another chapter of my sorority, I realized how big a difference just a few years makes. While I don't want to generalize, I will say that in most cases, it's unlikely that you'll really feel like you fit in with a bunch of women in the undergraduate mindset. I'm not saying that they're irresponsible or immature, because I know how driven, responsible, and all around wonderful most undergraduate sorority women are, but do keep in mind that there is a strong chance things just won't click.

Someone said that you should think about balancing pledging with the demands of graduate study, and I agree 100%, but I should also warn you that it is likely that you have matured to the point where it just might not be beneficial for you either. You may honestly feel like you don't have that much in common with 18-21 year old typical undergrads, and there is a good chance you won't. Graduate schooling in general varies from the undergraduate experience in more ways than just being a higher volume of work. It will likely cause you to grow up in ways you didn't expect...I know that I am vastly different than I was before a year of law school, and it wasn't just because of the intense schedule. So while joining as a grad may be possible, and I wish you the best of luck, I urge you to think about what you would really get out of joining at this point.

Thanks for the thoughtful responses. I asked because I was simply curious if it was strictly undergrad or not. I know in reality I probably wouldn't try to join as a graduate student, it was just a thought that crossed my mind. :)

I am a brother of Alpha Phi Omega, which I joined my junior year of college. I just graduated this year, am 21 years old. I transferred schools after my freshmen year, which was a school that was 90+% Greek, and recruitment was during the semester, to a big public school where recruitment wasn't advertised to transfer students and was held before school started. By my junior year, it seemed to be too late. I see the sisterhood of the sororities and all the great things that come from Greek life, and always told myself that if I had the chance to go back in time that I would have rushed and hopefully joined a sorority.

Again, I know it's not realistic to try and join a sorority as a graduate student, I think that Greek life is great and it would be awesome if I could, but I know it's not realistic. :)

Thanks for clarifying!

I'd also like to point out that you may find what you are looking for in your graduate program. By the end of my first year of law school, I was pretty surprised to realize that I had made a really fabulous group of friends...it's a bit of its own sisterhood, in a somewhat different way. It's quite likely that you will find something similar, and I hope you do!

Whether or not it's realistic depends on you, your program, and your campus environment. During my time as an undergrad, we had two graduate students go through formal recruitment, and both placed into sororities. They had no problems and loved the experience.

Coming from a chapter who did do it - I have (all from my graduate program) 2 grandlittles and one great grandlittle who managed to successfully navigate recruitment and membership as graduate students. (There are probably more and I'm just aware of them).

It wasn't impossible and they managed very well and all of them are very appreciative of the opportunity and took a lot away from it. They are all still involved in some way as well.

Most chapters on my campus really don't take them to be honest, even if they are able to accept them. Which is a shame because I've never had any be a bad members -they have great GPAs, realistic attitudes and goals, and always pay! :)

I just want to offer the other side.

Thanks for sharing the other side WhiteRose and BabyPiNK. I'm not going immediately into grad school (it will probably be next year), because I am participating in the Disney College Program this fall (and hopefully spring). I'm hoping to get accepted into Syracuse University's broadcasting and digital journalism program. I will contact the greek life offices there and see what they say,out of curiousity!