Is 21 too old to pledge?
 

2 of my roommates and I are looking into joining a sorority next fall. i turn 21 in 2 days. they will be 19 and 20 by the time they pledge. i want to join because i want to be the first person in my family to join any time of greek life. i will be a junior and at my small school you arent allowed to pledge unless you are in your 2nd semester of your freshman year so i doubt many pledges will be 17 but am i too old though?

I'm 20 and I pledged. It really all depends on the school you go to. But I'd try it out anyway. It'll be a fun experience.

It's honestly going to depend on the sorority and campus. My chapter had several older pledges during the course of my four years -- the oldest one I recall was 23. Women rushing at 19 and 20 was quite common, but that was my school back then. You won't know unless you try, so give it your best shot and best wishes to you!

If you are at an SEC school or other really traditional Greek system (Big 10), you're probably in for disappointment, but there's no loss in trying regardless.

If you have the opportunity to informal rush this spring, I would do that instead, even though you won't get to see every chapter.

I dont go to an sec school I go to a small college thats now adding another school too it and I also plan on transfering after next year. Would that be an issue.

Without knowing which college, it's hard to say. No one is going to stop you from participating in recruitment if you plan on transferring, but you may want to consider whether you want to participate now or at the school you transfer to.

You plan on transferring after your senior year?

re: transferring. Sometimes sorority members who are initiated and in good standing with their chapter can affiliate with the chapter of their sorority at their new school. There is usually some paperwork involved, but there is no guarantee that the transferee would be allowed to affiliate.

Thank you! I was wondering that too.

No after my junior year. I will be a junior in the fall. I transfered schools before this school and a lot of my credits didn't transfer so I was a freshman twice.

But won't you again lose a lot of credits, transferring after your junior year?

Possibly but i transfered from a community college before and this time ill be transfering from a university so I hope more credits will transfer

You may not have as great of a chance if you are a junior and you tell people you'll only be at school for a year because you will be transferring. But give it a try.

I might wait until you've finished transferring (especially if you're not 100% sure yet where you are transferring). If you rush now you may end up pledging a house that doesn't have a chapter at your new school, and you'd be potentially shut out of rush at your new school (since I think you're bound to one sorority for a year after you pledge). A close friend of mine was in a similar situation--pledged one sorority at her old university, where she had enrolled after community college, but when she transferred out of that university and to another one without that chapter, she had to de-pledge and rush a different NPC house at her new school. It ultimately worked out great for her but I think that's the exception rather than the rule.

Sort of...

If you are initiated, you may not join another NPC sorority at all. Ever. If you are initiated, and you transfer to a school where there is no chapter of your sorority, you are granted alumna status. If you transfer to another school where there is a chapter and you do not affiliate, you are granted alumna status. (It is up to the member to petition to transfer to the new chapter, and it is up to that chapter to allow you to affiliate.) If you affiliate, you are then a member of the transfer chapter with all the rights and obligations of a collegiate member.

If you accept a bid from a sorority, but you drop out of the sorority for any reason before initiation (even transferring to a new school), you may not rush/accept a bid from another sorority until the next school year. In your friend's case, it appears she was not initiated so she was simply bound to her bid until the new school year. Even if her new school had a chapter of the sorority she pledged at the old, that chapter isn't bound to honor her bid; it's only valid for the university where she pledged. Otherwise, we'd have PNMs shopping for colleges to join sororities if they could simply transfer their bids.

Has this section of the Green Book changed since October 2010?

Because this came up on GC before, and AGDee cleared up the details:

It's possible that rule has changed, but that was the info I found from searching the forum...

Good points! I was mistaken: so that if a pledge transfers to another school, then she may rush at that school right away because the MRABA is not binding at another school? Even in such a case, if the same sorority is at her new school, that doesn't mean they have to take her because the pledge has been broken.

Also, I think the general consensus is that there is a calendar year restriction is only applicable to the next formal recruitment-- so it needn't be a full 12 months. Can another person confirm? I feel like this has come up before and there is a green book provision for it. (But in OP's case it's N/A if se is transferring.)

ETA: I guess we're now way off track from OP's question, but good to know nonetheless!

Not necessarily... Don't "hope." Figure out how much more time and money you'll be spending by transferring than by staying put. I know that has nothing to do with your original question, but do the homework before you make the leap. Otherwise, you'll be paying for it (literally) for years to come.

A pledge can leave School A and sorority XYZ on Monday and (providing her credit situation is okeydokey) begin School B and get a bid from Sorority PQR on Tuesday. If a chapter of Sorority XYZ is at school B, they owe her absolutely nothing. She is tabula rasa as far as Greek life is concerned.

This has been a Green Book rule for forever (unlike the "next formal rush period" BS).

A lot of the major schools (especially state schools like university ofs etc) have transfer equivalency charts. Or talk to the registrar. Or the admissions office of the potential new school. There are quite a few options to see how things transfer.

I wouldn't consider transferring for your senior year to be a good idea. Most schools require you to take a certain number of upper class credits (300 or 400 level courses) at that particular school even if they are willing to accept most of your current credits. If you are going to have the school's name on your diploma, the school will want a certain percentage of your total coursework to be completed there. Be sure that you investigate this thoroughly before you make the leap. It could end up being very costly and time consuming for you.

I wouldn't necessarily agree- unless you've transferred, and then you'd know what it's like. I transferred halfway through my junior year. I had 78 credits, and they allowed for the transfer to take place as long as I had under 80 credits. That being said, they definitely didn't all transfer. I had to go an extra semester, plus take summer courses my first year at the new school. In the end, it was worth it, but there's still a lot to consider.