Complicated GPA Question!
 

Hi my name is Christine and I will be going through formal recruitment at my University this Fall. I will be going through rush as a Junior (I'm on the 5-year-plan, so I will still have a full 3 years to enjoy the sorority experience). I am a transfer student, so I did not attend this school from the time I was a freshman. I have attended a community college and one other university out of state.

Greek life at my school is not huge, there are around 9 fraternities but only 4 sororities. The GPA requirement for rush at my school is a 2.5 and there is only one chapter on my campus that has an individual requirement of a 3.0 to receive a bid.

My cumulative GPA is a 2.7. Not great but I'm working on it!
I actually have a question about GPA and I know that it varies by school.

A lot of my really good friends are initiated sorority members at other schools and they have all told me that sororities look at your Cumulative. That's expected. I have looked at both the greek life page for my university and the individual chapter websites and they all say something along the lines of the GPA requirement having to be a 3.0 from high school or a 2.5 in your most recently completed college semester but they never mention anything about your cumulative. I also read somewhere online (and of course I can't find it now or I'd link it) that if you are a transfer student, they only look at your most recent semester because when you transfer schools, your GPA does not transfer, it starts over.

It isn't vital for me to know because I still meet the minimum requirement for recruitment and the minimum requirement to receive a bid from at least 3 of the 4 chapters on campus. BUT my last couple semesters have been in the 3.25 - 3.75 range, even though my cumulative is not fantastic so I was curious.

I have contacted my greek life office twice to ask them about it. The first time I called, I spoke with a fraternity member who unable to answer my question took down my phone number and e-mail address and told me that he would would have one of the sorority members contact me with more information. I never received a phone call or an e-mail, so I called the greek life office a second time, this time I spoke with a sorority member who had no idea, could not answer my question at all, didn't try to find someone who could answer my question and just told me that she was sorry. So my greek life office has been oh-so-helpful. I also talked to a sorority member who did NOT work in the greek life office who is an active member and she doesn't even know what the minimum GPA requirement is, let alone whether they look at your cumulative or your last completed semester. You would think members of greek life would know these things . . .

If anyone has any information on this subject, it would be much appreciated. Whether it is on what is looked for in general, if you have ever heard of them only looking at your most recent semester, how it works if you are a transfer, etc.

THANK YOU!

~ Christine.

Does your Greek life office have a faculty advisor or paid staff member that you can ask?

The only times I have tried to contact the Greek Life Office I have never received a faculty advisor. When I spoke to the fraternity member, he put me on hold to ask around the office if anyone else knew and no one had any idea (I don't know who was in the office at the time, if it was just other members of greek life orgs or if there were any faculty around) . . . I have even e-mailed the greek life office three separate times in an attempt to get an answer with no reply from anyone. I don't understand why they are so untimely and uninformed.

I suppose I can try calling them again. I'm just afraid I'm going to keep getting the run-around.

Count on them looking at your cumulative GPA.

I would walk down to the Greek Office to find out, otherwise i would say assume they'll look at cumulative.

With all due respect, Victoria, you are not a sorority member, and it is considered poor form to give advice to PNMs (no matter how benign) on this site when you have absolutely no experience in this matter.

Find out who the Greek/Sorority Adviser is on your campus. Ask to speak to that person ONLY. Don't just ask whoever answers the phone. If it takes going to the office, do that.

FYP.

Membership is for a lifetime!

Can you go to the office in person?

Sorry, I know it's for a lifetime. I guess I should have been more specific. I was just referring to how many active years I'd have as a collegiate. My bad.

That is what I'm counting on. I'll be down at campus sometime around the end of May / beginning of June to meet with an adviser, so I'll see if I can go to the Greek Life office while I'm there. Seems going down there in person is my best bet! I also just found out through a friend that they hold recruitment information sessions in June for girls who are interested in going through. So I'll see about registering to attend that.

Thank you for your information!

No need for sorry, I just have this *thing* about lifetime membership :D Our NPHC members really have this down, and I think we NPC members can take a few pages from their book.

Hope you will find a home, and you'll go on to enjoy a lifetime of sisterhood! It's worth it. Good luck to you!!!

Thank you so much! I'm excited! :)
Maybe I'll be back on here by Christmas as a newly-initiated member! If I am, I'll be sure to post where I end up.

I don't think that sounds right because you could have a horrible GPA in previous semesters and be on academic probation but still rush if you somehow managed to get a 2.5 that one semester. So many people come here that seem like they are grasping for straws and trying to game the system and those really low minimum GPAs and poorly worded pages seem to kind of encourage that.

It seems to me that minimum GPAs for rush are set ridiculously low so most people don't feel left out from rushing and are allowed to go through even if they have no chance of getting a bid with a GPA that no one is going to take. Even if the chapters at your school have published minimum GPAs that are less than what you have right now, it doesn't mean that that is what they will take.

You should probably spend some time getting used to being at your college and studying and making sure you can get a decent GPA before you rush because being in a sorority is very time consuming and can be very distracting!

That makes a lot of sense. That's why I was asking. I'm not trying to "game the system" or anything, I'm honestly just curious. I'm not too worried about my GPA. I have a cumulative 2.7 but my GPA for this current semester is a 4.0 and that will raise my cumulative even higher once this semester is over. If I do not receive a bid because of my GPA, then I'll just increase it and re-rush.

I guess I should also point out that the greek system at my school is not highly-competitive. I know that at schools where the competition is really high, your GPA can make or break your chances at getting a bid. I had a friend who went to a school in Texas where the sororities would not take any girls that had under a 3.0. Then again, I have a friend who is a sorority member at a different state school where I live and she scraped through with a bid and only had a 2.6. I'm still going to go through and like I said, if I don't get a bid because of my GPA then I'll work harder and try again. It won't be the end of the world. I feel like I have read so many posts on here, where greek-chat members almost seem like they are discouraging people from going through recruitment because their GPA is not as high as it should be. I do understand that there are a lot of people on here seeking information because they want to try and sneak through the system with crap grades. It's all so unfortunate . . .

Know why? Because those people typically/often get released after the first round, and come back here and blast or blame us/the system/whatever, when it was THEIR own fault!

NPC sororities were founded on scholarship. The whole social aspect came into play a few decades later. Suggest you read Bound By A Mighty Vow for insight on this turn of events in sorority history.

Speaking for myself, I'm honest about it: if a poster has a shaky GPA, pledge the library. Save $ and heartbreak/disappointment.

The people who are so heavily invested in pledging a greek organization and then come here and bash people when they get cut are the people who should NOT even be going through recruitment in the first place. It's such a classless thing to do. It's probably a good thing they got cut.

I think it would be a big mistake to assume that non-competitive means easy to get a bid no matter how marginally you meet requirements. We can't really talk a lot about details here because those are private, but there is a lot more that goes into membership selection even at the puniest and least competitive schools. Also you need to realize you might not be interested in the houses that might be willing to take a chance on your GPA. Just because a school is non-competitive doesn't mean there aren't super picky chapters that everyone wants.

You also need to understand that rerushing with an improved GPA is not necessarily a successful strategy. At a lot of schools, even the non-competitive ones, your first time can be your only real opportunity.

I don't think anyone here is trying to be mean or negative, it's just that so many PNMs think they are different and that important things like GPAs won't matter then are crushed by getting dropped. I think it is best to know beforehand what can happen and be prepared. Good luck!

I've never heard of a school going by the prior semester GPA, only cumulative from high school as a first semester freshman or cumulative college if you're a college student. I agree to count on cumulative. After all a cumulative GPA takes the big picture into account, instead of a lucky or poor semester. Either way, your grades are your grades. Don't worry about something you can't control.

If any sororities go by semester GPA, that's a membership selection matter private to their own organization.

Go through recruitment and see what happens. You really don't have any control over this other than to get super grades! Good luck and keep us posted. The thread in my signature may be helpful.

Thank you! I get the warnings that everyone seems to be giving but it's not like I go to an SEC or anything. On my University's greek life website they post the averaged grades for each semester both for the active members and new members for each organization. The sorority averages are all around 3.0 exactly. The active member averages seem to range from 3.0 - 3.2 and the new member average for all 4 sororities is a 2.6. So I'm not super worried!

I think the other reason people tend to are less likely to encourage PNMs with low GPAs is because of the commitments required by sororities for new members time and GPA. Pledging takes a lot of time and if a PNM is already struggling academically, it is hard to image they will thrive with added commitments. Then they don't make grades and either can't be initiated or are on probation/bad standing with the sorority which definitely is rough.

FWIW, my school was not/is not anywhere near SEC competitive and GPA could make or break a PNM. THey would have to be steller in another area to make up for a low GPA if it was over the minimum. Academics is a huge component to sorority life anywhere because you are required to be student. In fact, it may be more important in some of the smaller campuses than at SEC campuses.

Also, just because the active GPA is at a point or the new member average is at a certain point, doesn't mean that the GPA they are looking for isn't higher. Many (I'm tempted to say most) freshman have a higher GPA than they do their first freshman term. I know my transfer GPA was a ton higher than what it was my first term as a member. Also membership selection requirements may be much higher than what the numbers suggest. Just saying...

Good luck. Read the thread in Adpiucf's signature. Let us know what happens.

I believe it means cumulative AS OF the last semester. So if you're in the middle of a semester when rush happens, the current semester's grades don't count.

But I'll give you the statement is really badly worded.

And regarding competitive, if you're the one going through, it's competitive. Almost every girl gets cut from at least one or two chapters, and even if they weren't a favorite, it still feels like rejection.

I understand all the risks. I understand that just because the semesterly GPA is lower doesn't mean that's what they'll be looking for. I understand that individual sororities may have a higher standard, I know for a fact that 1 of the 4 orgs at my school requires a 3.0. I understand that sororities look at many other factors besides just GPA. I am well aware of all the risks involved when rushing with a GPA under a 3.0. I'm not worried about it because I know girls both at the University I am attending and girls who are attending other Universities in my state that have all received bids with GPA's under a 3.0. 1 or 2 of them having barely a 2.5/2.6. I'm not trying to say that my school has lower requirements or that it's going to be "easy" to get a bid because I go to a non-competitive school. I'm not investing my entire self-worth and college career into getting a bid, so if I get cut from my favorite house or if I get cut all together and don't receive a bid, it isn't going to be the end-all, be-all. I really want to be a member but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen and there might be a next time. My only question was whether it was cumulative, which I got the answer to already, so thank you for that.

Blahhhh. Sorry, I get tired of hearing the same info regurgitated at me again and again. I get it. I'm not going to come back on here and rant if I don't get a bid. Hahaha.

I will be rushing in the fall, it's the week before school starts in August. So I'll let you all know what happens!

Don't take repeat info posts personally; often, people will post in a topic that's already been answered just to add their input and perspective. Unless it seems like you're not getting what people are trying to tell you (which doesn't seem to be the case here), it's usually not directed at you and more to benefit general discussion. :)

This sounds almost just like my own situation a couple of years ago. Of course, it varies by school and you should verify with your school's Greek Life Office STAFF (not work-study employees), but as a student with an established college GPA, they looked at my cumulative GPA and my previous semester's GPA. Both needed to be 2.5 or higher (to avoid several terrible semesters and one stellar one to bring it way back up). Each organization as well as the school will also have minimum semester GPAs to keep as an active member.

I hope that you figure it all out and enjoy the recruitment and new member processes! Good luck!