thinking of greek life...
 

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go for it!
 

You are never too old for greek life! Several threads have been posted here at GC about this very topic. If you search the old threads, you will read that most people will agree that you should check out rush with an open mind. Good luck!

I agree with Cream, that you are never too old, GO for it and keep us posted !!

Don't worry about your age at all. I am 21 and I rushed this semester. As long as you will be at the school for a while there should be no problem. Hope you have fun during recruitment!

Anne Marie

Go for it! It's one of the better decisions I've ever made.

GO GO GO!
 

I was 25 when I started my Local! I am still very envolved in My Chapter and My International! Try the Alum thread and see those that are being initiated after they have Graduated!

We as Greeks always need people who want to be members of the Greatest Organizations in the world! Welcome to the GC Site, Look around, you will find many Freinds here!http://www.plauder-smilies.de/happy/xyxwave.gif

Also, if you want to find ANYTHING OUT, ask on this Site and You will have an answer back with in 12-24 hours! I guarentee it!:D

No way, you're not too old! We just bid a senior (she's got another year or two left).

YES! You should rush and also here is a thread of someone who is in a similar situation to you! :)

to rush or not to rush...
 

Thank you all SO much for all of your input. I am feeling MUCH better about the whole situation!! I will most likely lean towards the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, of which my boyfriends sister is a member. All of the Kappas that I've met so far are SUPER sweet, and seem like a great bunch. My only three concerns are these: Time (it will be my first semester at a new school, meaning clean slate as far as GPA goes, and I have to keep it as high as I can. I need to prove that I can handle going Greek AND my classes.) Two: Hazing kinda sorta scares the hell out of me. For one, I am 5' tall, and a mere 98 lbs. I don't drink(much), I might have had 5 beers last year total. Is this still a big deal?? Do many soror's do it? Three: Cost. I am living in an apartment, the cost of which is COMPLETELY out of my pocket. How much am I looking at as far as dues go? And, my junior and senior years, I would end up living in the house. DOes the cost of living in the house compare to living in a dorm?? Thank you all again SOOO much. You have no idea how much I appreciate all of this. :D

glad to see that there are MANY other students out there in my boat! makes me feel MUCH better! thanks guys ;)

a couple of vague answers
 

okay here's the deal.

my entire pledge class was 'old' out of the nine of us,
we had 2 who were 21
we had 4 who were 20
we had 3 who were 19

no one in my pledge class was a freshman, and one of the girls graduates this may (our one year anniversary)

as for hazing, NO SELF-RESPECTING SORORITY PARTICIPATES IN HAZING -- there is no purpose in it, besides causing harm to the new members and the chapter in general

grades - every sorority on my campus has study hall hours available to both new members and actives. kind of a set aside time to concentrate on your classes, after all that is the reason you are in college in the first place

money - this will be laid out for you plainly at your rush parties, so that you will know what you're getting into long before you sign a pref. card. I encourage you to talk with your boyfriend's sister, and see what she can tell you about greek life on that particular campus, as each campus has it's own unique 'shine'

=) okay i'm done now


PS - i LOVE your user name! DMB is awesome!

thanks jessica! youre 'vague' reply really did help! :D the more and more that members of the greek community reply, the better off i will end up being. thanks again to everyone. your encouragement is overwhelming. and yes dave matthews band is the greatest. ;) -kristin

Re: to rush or not to rush...
 

Congratulations on your decision to check out sorority life. As an alumna, I have a few words of advice for you...

First, go through Rush with an open mind. Just because you like the Kappas and your boyfriend's sister is one doesn't mean that Kappa Kappa Gamma is the only sorority for you. It very well could be -- but you should give the other groups a chance to impress you also! :)

Secondly, concerning hazing: No NPC sorority is allowed to haze. Their National Headquarters forbid it, as do the schools. So, please don't worry about hazing. There are enough stupid rumors going around campuses to scare just about anyone away from Greek Life -- but the vast majority of them are just that - rumors with no facts to back them up!

As for alcohol, drinking is not a requirement of joining any NPC sorority. If it was, then my chapter wouldn't have ever made quota! :D It's true that alcohol is going to be around at parties and such, just like it is at practically any non-Greek-related campus party. However, you do not have to drink if you don't enjoy it, or if you don't feel comfortable doing it. Trust me, whether your preference is Sprite or vodka, your sisters will be your friends regardless of what beverage you have in your hand.

Thirdly, academics is at the forefront of sorority life for most chapters. You have to maintain a certain GPA in order to attend sorority events, so studying is strongly encouraged. Many chapters even have set study hours for their members to help girls prepare for their classes, and it's pretty easy to find a sister who has already taken a class that you're about to get into who can help you out!

Finally, there are definitely costs to joining a sorority. Your pledge/new member period will be the most expensive, because there will be Initiation fees, badge fees, etc. My advice is to ask the sororities during Rush to tell you upfront how much pledging their particular group will cost, and how much you can expect to spend per semester on standard sorority events.

Dues vary from campus to campus, from chapter to chapter, and from sorority to sorority. For example, my dues were only $45 a month, but the DZ girls that I advise at UGA pay much more. The reason is that they have a house and a ton more activities to participate in each semester, so more money is needed to plan their events. Also, the majority of the time, living in the sorority house with their private meal plan is actually cheaper than living in a dorm or an apartment!

Something else you should take into consideration is that you'll have other things to pay for in addition to dues. T-shirts, professional pictures from socials and formals, and assorted sorority memorabilia are all things that you'll probably want to purchase. They aren't required purchases, of course, but you'll probably want to factor in those added costs when you're trying to figure out if you can handle the financial requirements that come with a sorority membership.

Please know that I'm not telling you any of this to dissuade you from joining a sorority. Quite honestly, I feel that sorority dues are pretty cheap when considering all the benefits that Greek Life offers! :) All I'm trying to do is make sure that you think everything through before accepting a bid.

Good luck with everything, and please keep us updated on your decisions!!!!

thanks!
 

thanks again to everyone who responded. any other pointers?? what can i expect during rush week? during recruitment?

Each campus handles recruitment differently. Some hold formal recruitment the week before schools starts in the fall, some just after during a (verrrry fullllll weekend), some spread it over several weekends after school starts, and some hold deferred recruitment either just before school starts back in Jan. or just after. So what to expect differs from campus to campus.

Check out the web page for the school and see if they have a greek life page. Sometimes you have to use the search feature and look up panhellenic or sorority. Some - for example:

http://www.union.arizona.edu/csil/greek/index.php (Arizona)
http://www.nmsu.edu/Campus_Life/Stud...tml/index.html (New Mexico State)
http://www.auburn.edu/panhellenic/ind2.html (Auburn)

have really extensive web pages with lots of information about greek life and some don't.

If you tell us where you'll be going, there may be someone from that campus or familar with that campus that can more accurately answer your questions.

Also, if you haven't already .. you might try reading through the threads from women who went through recruitment last fall.

Good luck!!

Ooooh, I love it when people ask these questions! :) I agree with everything that has been said--hazing is always blown out of proporting by the general public and odds are you won't have to give it a second thought; you do NOT have to drink; and your grades most likely won't suffer. My GPA has gone down slightly since last year, but that has nothing to do with my sorority...I think it's got more to do with the fact that I have 18 hours and a couple of really anal professors! If you should ever run into trouble with any of you classes, I guarantee there will be someone around who can help you. I learned that last semester when I had a brutal Accounting class and, as luck would have it, one of my sisters down the hall is an Accounting major and she helped me pull my grade up from an E to the class average, which was a C. :D As far as the other stuff goes, you really don't have to worry about being forced to drink or be hazed, so don't let that scare you!

Dues, for me, are the major thing. We pay $55.50 a month, but there always seems to be things coming up that we have to shell out more for. I've never heard of anyone from any other chapter complaining about this, though, so maybe it's just us. Really, the dues aren't that bad considering what all the money covers--we don't have to pay extra to attend our formals, we get a couple of fun date parties each semester, and we always have enough funding to do cool stuff for Greek Sing, etc. You should make allowances for little "extras," too, because everyone always ends up wanting t-shirts and cute little picture frames, window decals, and stuff. During your new member period, though, you'll probably get a lot of that stuff as gifts. Oh, and one more thing--most sororoties on my campus have payment plans where you can pay your expenses in installments...it's great.

Let's see, about recruitment week...well, you can expect to be really tired, but you won't notice it because you'll be so excited. :cool: Seriously, I thought being a PNM was better than doing recruitment as an active.

thanks guys! i will be attending bowling green state university in bowling green ohio in the fall. anyone there now??:)

BGSU has a good greek life web site:

http://www.greekbgsu.com/

If you haven't checked it out yet ... that's where to start....

i am reading a lot about recommendations--which would be helpful to get--during rush? who would be a good person to go to for one?? i will be looking into my boyfriends' sisters soror. could she write one? or would that be defeating the purpose? what types of things would be appropriate to include in one? thanks!:D

Alumnae need to write the recs. An active collegiate can speak well of you to the chapter, but only an alumna of the sorority in question may write an actual recommendation for you. (At least that's how it works in my GLO.)

The person who writes the rec will need to know things about you such as what type of extracurricular activities you participate in, what your hobbies are, what your major is and how your grades are, and basically what type of person you are.

Hope this helps! :D

My bf's sister attends BGSU and says it is a great school. Good Luck! If you need any information just let me know and I can ask her.
ZLAM!

is your sister a member of a sorority at bgsu?? if you can findany inforout for me --good and bad---it would help so much!! thankyou!

I have a friend at BG who loves it, she's in a sorority there (can't remember which one though, last time we talked was before I was in AXO, so I didn't pay attention to the letters..;)), and my sister just took a campus tour and LOVED it (she's graduating next year). I don't know if she's even thinking about greek life, but I'm hoping I won't be the only one on either side of the family who went greek, and she's a legacy now, so she has no excuse! :D Seriously though, it won't hurt to go through formal rush, even if sorority life ends up not being right for you, you'll meet a lot of awesome women. Besides, you may be older, but you're still entering your first year there, so I don't think age will be a problem. I rushed when I was 20 and really regret not doing it sooner, but I was a junior at the time. Also, would you want to be a part of a group where they didn't want you solely because of your age? If people are going to cut you because of that, you don't want to be associated with them anyway. Good luck with whatever choice you end up making, you'd be a great addition to any chapter!!

Re: GO GO GO!
 

You're never to old! I was 24 when I started my group. Age doesn't matter at all. Just go for it!:D

ALL of you girls and guys that have responded THANK YOU SO MUCH! It's really great having so much support in an area that I'm not-so-familliar with. I can only hope that I end up having sisters like you at BG :)

Just wanted to give my 2cents. I also rushed late (I'm in my 2nd quarter as an initiate and about to be 22). I go to the University of Cincinnati, but am originally from NE ohio, where are you from?

Anyways, drinking is not an issue, and neither is hazing. Hazing does not exist, and if it does, that group is not good enough for your membership. Drinking is not mandatory, and not necessary. In fact some of our most positive and influential members drinking little or nothing. It allows them to represent themselves to the best of their abilities without alcohol interfering with their judgement.

And joining late has its perks and faults. First the perks. Though I have heard rumors of sororities not offerning bids to older girls, I didn't have any problems. I joined several student organizations in the last year, and they all sited my age for the reason I was offered membership to these orgs. Typically the older a student gets, the less involved they become. These groups were all impressed that I had taken the stance that I had taken from my university and community for three years, and that it was time I started to give something back for future generations.

Additionally, being older allows you a little more perspective on the situations you will encounter, and allows you the ability to not react to strongly to stuff that seems big to freshman, but then can be seen to be minor as you get older. Age brings wisdom and maturity, and both of these traits can be used to benefit your chapter and your life. Each of our chapters have achieved greatness through the hard work of our predecessors, hopefully you will be able to continue that tradition in any chapter. (As a side note, I gotta hype my campus and chapter!!!).

The one strong downside to joining a little later in life is that is a bit difficult to fit in at first. Your pledge sisters will be 18-19, and the bulk of your chapter will be <21. I didn't go to fraternity or house parties anymore (yeah bars!), and I didn't live in the dorms. So bonding took a little more work, and a little more time. But overall it was a great experience. I knew my experience would different from my pledge sisters when I walked in the door, and so everytime I got discouraged, I just remembered that everyone around me was a wonderful person. Some of us were just at different places in our lives.

Hope all works out great for you. If you decide to go XO (we have a chapter at BG), then let me know. Otherwise, I wish you tons and tons of luck. :)

XOcrlstln