University of Alabama Fall 2014 NPC Sorority Recruitment
 

Inspired by Mary Poppins’ posting of Ole Miss fall 2014 dates:

Fall Formal Sorority Recruitment at The University of Alabama is scheduled for Friday, August 8, 2014 - Saturday, August 16, 2014.
Fall Recruitment Schedule
August 8 Convocation
August 9 Open House Day I
August 10 Open House Day II
August 11 Philanthropy Day I
August 12 Philanthropy Day II
August 13 Skit Day I
August 14 Skit Day II
August 15 Preference Day
August 16 Bid Day

For more information please see:
http://www.uapanhellenic.com/2014-fa...cruitment.html

Panhellenic Preview Day is long over.
Spring party weekend is done.
Looking forward to the long summer of writing recs!

From the UAPanhellenic 2014 Recruitment page:

What was the Profile of the 2013 Sorority Recruitment Applicant Pool?


For fall 2013, a record 2,113 women registered for formal recruitment and 2,081 participated in the first round of recruitment known as Open House. Of those women in the Open House Pool, 563 were from Alabama and 1,518 were from Out-of-State. Of the 2,081 women in the Open House Pool, 11% (195 women) did not complete the process, of which 83 withdrew, 109 were released and 3 participated in bid matching but did NOT maximize their options. Of the 1,894 women receiving bids, 531 were from Alabama and 1,364 were from Out-of-State, for an overall Open House Pool Match Rate of 91%. The National average for women receiving a bid during formal recruitment is 79% of the Open House Pool.

• Average Cumulative High School GPA: 3.62
• Average ACT Score: 25
• Average SAT Score: 1085

2014 Recruitment info and registration:
http://www.uapanhellenic.com/2014-fa...cruitment.html

Other important dates:

No Contact: May 1 - Aug. 16
Letters of Rec. Due: July 15
Late Registration: July 16 - Aug. 4
Recruitment Workshop Week: Aug 2-8
Online Recruitment Registration Closes: Mon., Aug. 4 @ 5:00 pm
Onsite Rec. Registration: Fri., Aug. 8 @ 5:30 pm at Coleman Coliseum
Sorority Convocation: Fri., Aug. 8 @ 7:00 pm at Coleman Coliseum
Formal Recruitment: Aug. 8-15
Bid Day: Sat., Aug. 16 @ 10:00 AM
1st Day of Classes: Wed., Aug. 20
Costa Greekfest: Sat., Aug. 22

http://www.uapanhellenic.com/main.html

Just heard they are expecting between 2,100 and 2,200 this year...about 100 or so over last year, so that sounds much more reasonable that some of the wild figures I have been nearing.

They have 4 days between when rush ends and classes start? What happens in that time lapse?

I would assume pledge class retreats, pledging ceremonies, etc and the normal beginning of school activities!

Kentucky (UK) is similar in that bid day is on a Friday with the first day of classes being the following Wednesday. Starting on that Friday is "K Week" which is an introduction to life at UK for all new students.

Everybody's right - new member retreats, sisterhood retreats, might even go home for the weekend if home is not too far away. Oh, and fraternity parties!;)

Not that I think it's a bad idea, it just seems odd that they would pay to live in the dorms, leave home so much earlier, etc. for 4 uninterrupted days of partying. Is it always like this? I've never noticed it before.

If they move in early for recruitment, there is no extra charge for the dorm. Heck, there are girls who sign up for recruitment just to move away from home early.
Recruitment is not the only thing going on. There are 3 or 4 programs for students where they go out and work on a Habitat House for a week, or do leadership skill exercises, or go whitewater rafting.
And remember that the rest of campus is moving in that weekend.

That's so much better than what my campus does where pref is the night of the first day of classes and bid day is the 2nd day of classes.

I was under the impression this was fairly common. Well, maybe not all the partying, but Recruitment ending before school began (for schools with Fall Recruitment). I know UW's (Washington) Recruitment ends over a week before school starts, with some of that time taken up by school sponsored activities for Freshman and the rest taken up by sorority activities.

It was like that "back in the day" (early 90s) for me at Arizona State

It has always been like this as far as I know. It's really not 4 (?) days of uninterrupted partying, however. The campus (other than those groups who qualify for early move-in) is mostly moving in over the weekend. This gives them 2 days before the start of classes on Wednesday.

It also seems like it's good for the university to spread out the move-in days and relieve congestion.

I wish my University had done this. Freshman move-in was obviously the week before because of Welcome Weekend and Orientation things. Everyone else was mandated to move-in the SATURDAY and SUNDAY before school started. It was pure chaos. Too many cars. Not enough carts. Nowhere to park. Only like TWO staff members available to check-in an entire upperclassman dorm, which = super long lines for keys and stuff.

I remember being SOOOO HAPPY when I moved into my sorority house because it meant I had multiple days to move in and could do it like 3 weeks before the other 25,000 students came back and crowded the roads.

Alabama 2014 Fall Formal Recruitment Guide
 

U of A Panhellenic 2014 Fall Formal Recruitment Guide now available online:

http://issuu.com/alabamapanhellenic/...052583/8685533

Link to U of A Panhellenic site and other dates/info:

http://www.uapanhellenic.com/main.html

Why don't they hold convocation after rush if they have four open days? I am most familiar with convocation being a formal event. It seems odd to attend in shorts and a t-shirt per the recruitment guide. Is it a regional thing that convocation is informal?

Convocation for NPC recruitment at Alabama is essentially a large meeting for PNMs that covers info for the upcoming recruitment week -- like schedules, procedures, Rho Chis/rush groups, recruitment shirts, etc.

Since move-in is also happening for many on this day, the dress is very casual.

Squeal
 

What time is Squeal on Saturday?

10:00 AM

Squeal
 

What time is Squeal on Saturday?

Still at 10:00 AM.

:p

Just some observations on the "Greek Chic" booklet, as a PNM mom, active NPC alum, and local APH officer (I mention all those just to point out that I have 3 slightly different perspectives on the book):

- I always love Bama's guide best. I wish other schools took a literal page from this publication. The financial info, map, parents info and move-in/parking info all in one place, along with fashion do's/don'ts is so very helpful.

- That said, I hope it was distributed to PNMs before now? Late July is pretty late to be getting this info, at least for the PNMs I know who are rushing or have recently rushed at UA. I'm guessing it is just now getting up online?

- The note about how "letters of support may be common in Texas" was funny to me; before I got more involved in the last few years with SEC recruitments, I'd never really known LOS to be a big deal, much less be common here.

It has just been published online and it is my understanding that it was delivered to the printer several weeks ago. I agree that this is very late -- hopefully all registered PNMs have received a copy by now.

I also hope PNMs have read the 2013 version and other presentations on the Panhellenic site before now, since some of the info in the 2014 Recruitment Guide, especially info on recs, for instance, may not be very useful at this point considering the time remaining.

I apologize in advance if this is explained in a million other threads, but I figured I'd ask here since the Greek Chic 2014 booklet is linked here.

On page 21 it says "Only Potential New Members who maximize their options and list ALL of the chapters they attended during the Preference Round are guaranteed to receive a bid for membership during formal recruitment."

I want to get this straight (and word this question correctly :rolleyes:). If a PNM makes it to Pref Round in three houses, and maximizes her options by listing all three, there is absolutely no way that she will be cut from any houses? Or basically making it the Pref round a chapter is saying that they want that PNM in the fold?

Once again, I apologize if I sound clueless! Coming from the NPHC side of the house, I'm very interested in learning this process as I would love to work in a capacity with Greek Life someday. I am hoping to help with recruitment at the University I currently work at this fall, so I can see how everything works.

That guarantee means that if a PNM is invited back to at least one house for Preference Round and lists all sororities whose party she attended in some order after Preference then she is guaranteed a bid from at least one of the houses she listed. If she does not appear high enough on any sorority's bid list to match normally, she will be placed at the discretion of those doing the bid matching in one of the groups that she listed. This is called a quota addition and is sometimes why you see that groups take a number over quota during formal recruitment. Each campus differs on how they place quota additions-some place the PNM with her first choice, some place her with the group that has the lowest total, etc.

The policy is meant to discourage girls from Intentionally Single Preferencing (ISP), or not listing all the groups whose parties they attended. A PNM who was dead-set on XYZ and was unwilling to consider a second or third option might reconsider only listing one group if she is told that she is not guaranteed a bid if she only lists one or two groups. Note that this policy is not mean to punish a PNM who was invited to less than the maximum number of parties she could attend: for example, a PNM who was only invited back to two parties out of a max of three would be guaranteed a bid from one of those two groups since she couldn't list a third.

Bid matching is a confusing concept that a lot of people don't fully understand, so you don't sound any more clueless than many:)

ETA: you asked whether making it to Pref round meant a chapter wanted a PNM. This is correct to some extent. All PNMs who attend a pref party with a group must appear somewhere on their bid list, with the exception of very special circumstances like a PNM slugging the active in the face during a party (purely hypothetical!). How the chapter sorts their bid list is up to them, but any PNM who attends a pref party could theoretically receive a bid from that group.

Basically, you are correct. Keep in mind though, if Penny PNM is a rude you-know-what or they find out at the last minute that she was close friends with, ;), the whole debate team, then she won't get on their list. But that's a rare happening. What maximizing your options means is that you will be placed with one of your pref groups if you attend all parties for which you have been slated and list all the ones whose pref you attended on your bid card (MRABA). But it may be your last choice.

Okay, I got it! Thank you clemsongirl and Titchou!
After all of the posts I've read on here, I think I have a good understanding, but that threw me off a little bit!

This made me LOL.

This also depends on how many rounds were before pref (i.e. sometimes at smaller schools pref IS the only invitational round) but that's not what we're talking about here. :)

This was one of the main reasons for implementing RFM. Some chapters would keep inviting back women they had no interest in up to and including pref just so they could brag about having an overflowing room that was sometimes 5-6 times the expected number of quota. The women of course thought they were wanted and threw their eggs in that basket...and were sorely disappointed. If your history shows that 90% of the women at your pref rate you first and quota is 100, you can't invite back 600 women anymore.

When and where did this happen?

Not at Alabama that I know of -- we wouldn't have had the room or actives to accommodate 6x the expected quota on pref night.

I'm reading the post numbers as being hypothetical and artificially large probably to emphasize discrepancies in party attendance. Though not Bama, I can speak to one school where back in the day attendance was extremely lopsided to the detriment of the smallest chapter. But I don't want to detour there --- back to Bama! : )

Yes.

Yes - and it was not that long ago or far away. Go count closed chapters from just before RFM?

What am I missing?. Did it really say (p23 and p35)women who graduate from high school before December 2014 are considered upperclassmen?

But I don't think those chapters closed because stronger chapters were inviting 5-6x the quota of PNMs to pref and filling rooms with scads of girls they never intended to pledge.

Chapters that closed were probably struggling with numbers even earlier in the week. RFM keeps these chapters on PNM's lists where pre-RFM they may have been dropped earlier-on by PNMs.

It really did.

This should read December 2013, but apparently this error was missed in the proofing.