Alabama Recruitment 2016
 

The University of Alabama is killing it this year! Again, they will have the largest recruitment in the country. If I recall, there will be 20% more PNMs this year!
Is anyone (or their daughters) going through this year? Best of luck to all the PNMs

They were at 2884 as of this past weekend. I believe last year was 2600...so that's about at 10% increase - if I'm remembering last year correctly

Is it already Recruitment time again? It feels like just yesterday journalists were getting their collars sweaty over a rush video.

There were actually 2460 who signed up last year and 2423 who participated in Open House Round, as is pointed out at the school Panhellenic Association 2016 recruitment web site. So that's already an increase of more than four hundred over last year!! And I would feel sure that for the first time ever in school history and certainly since 1998 (when they posted records at the Greek Affairs site), they have never had a recruitment increase that large! To me, it's almost scary how big they are getting and could be if you know what I mean!!

Wow! My memory was off...as long as they continue to give the scholarships that they do as well as the football team continuing to win...this is trend will probably continue.

The huge new mansion-like houses they are building don't hurt either, I would think!!

We're leaving for Tuscaloosa in the morning to move my daughter, she's living in Tutwiler dormitory. My daughter is one of those 2884 PNMs and is very excited! Hopefully she'll have a successful recruitment and I'll be able to write her story to share with you. My fingers are crossed and my husband will have the wine chilled daily...I'm hoping my nerves (and heart) survive.

Three words: Ho. Ly. Cow.

That's more than the size of an ENTIRE FRESHMAN CLASS at my school - men and women.

The South is a whole different world.

* Northeast girl here

Yeah, tell us about that third point! And Alabama is one of the top two or three leaders of that world, I'd say!

I'm guessing there will probably be around 100 that will fall out - they are going to another school, or they haven't paid their recruitment registration fee yet, or they've changed their mind about going through...plus the few that register to move in early and start their partying.
And yes, there will be a very small number that will sign up on Friday, the day of Convocation.
But the chapters are bracing for huge new member classes. Which is SOP for them.

Best of luck to Alabama_Daughter, Alabama_Mama_2! Roll Tide!

Does anyone know how big the Freshman class is total? I realize that not all the PNMs registered for recruitment are freshmen, but I would imagine most of them are, and I'm just curious what percent of the total class is signed up. Good luck to everyone!

Holy cow. Any plans on expansion? Aren't the sororities already nearing 400 members?

All but three of the sororities participating in recruitment either already are 400 members or above or are fifteen members or less away from there according to the greek fall 2015 grade report.

Updated information (always good to be current, right?): the spring 2016 grade report shows different numbers than what you reported for the Fall 2015 semester. I'm sure we all know reasons/explanations for this!

Regardless, these are huge chapters.

Hope I'm not going down a rabbit hole here, yeah those are the most current numbers, but similar to many schools reporting their high point of enrollment which is the fall semester as their "enrollment" and not even bothering to mention their lower number spring enrollment, I thought the most recent high point of membership for GLO's would be what most people would most want to know. To me, only for schools like Miami University of Ohio that have their recruitment in the spring semester and thus have the higher number of members then would the spring membership figure be the one you'd be most interested in. But I guess everybody's different! But like you said, we can all agree that Alabama has huge Panhellenic sorority chapters!

It seems most fair and accurate to report the recent and current numbers, rather than selecting what you (or anyone else for that matter) determine to be "what most people would most want to know." If people are that interested in NPC enrollment, as reported to the Greek Life Office, they'll go to the Alabama web page and then do the research (like I did!).

What the chapters are starting with in August 2016 in terms of numbers is what I'd be interested to see. And there is no way to get that information at this time (at least not from my searches).

Back to the thread :-)

Well, just for fun...figure roughly an average of 80 members each graduating/leaving after spring.
Then take 2800 PNMs (less 84 that won't show up at Convocation tomorrow evening), divide by16 (ADX is not an NPC group and SDT does a separate recruitment) - 175. But some will be released altogether, some with take themselves out....figure 150 NM classes.
I'd say a majority will be at or over or very very close to 400 by next Saturday afternoon.

Expansion is having to wait until all the sorority house construction is completed. Not Alabama's choice - there's just no place for a new group until all the houses are replaced.
Phi Mu and Kappa Kappa Gamma are in new houses this week...Pi Beta Phi is under construction...I think Kappa Alpha Theta and Alpha Omicron Pi are the only ones left now. So maybe we'll see another group come on campus in 2017 or 2018.

Fingers crossed! ;)

and the groups that would have the most backing to build a house have elected not to submit packets the last 3 times Alabama has been open. We'd all love Sigma Kappa and Alpha Xi Delta back but no movement on their parts so far. I've heard rumblings of Tri Sigma but nothing there either.

Okay, fine, as I said, everybody's different. I was just trying to give a quick, easy answer to the OP, and thought what I gave would stand out the most. And I guess I looked at being that interested in NPC enrollment across semesters and doing the research the opposite way. Again, just my opinion.

Anyway, I hope AnchorAlumna's answer helped you out a lot. She knows a ton more about this stuff than I could ever hope to know!

I've been hoping that after the whole racial/The Machine (or whatever it's called) kerfuffle settled down that Alpha Xi Delta would take a fresh look. Any campus where we would have to build a $5 million house is more than I can imagine us taking on, but if there was a house left that could be purchased, I could potentially see that. And maybe after South Carolina is on solid ground.

Buying one of the old ones and just remodeling it would be the kiss of death for a new chapter there. You are either going to have to go in to compete - or not come.

Completely agreed, which brings me to a question I've occasionally wondered about: after all the current sorority new houses are finished, is the university going to tear down the old ADP and AGD houses or leave them up for any new sorority that wants to have them?

JMHO, perhaps a group will come on, stay in one house while the other is torn down and replaced.
Perhaps SDT will take the smaller house and return to Sorority Row. Or jump in and participate in recruitment again.
Again, just speculation.

I believe they will continue using them as "swing" houses for groups - fraternities and sororities- building new houses.

I thought Theta's house was relatively new. My niece lived in it and I could swear it was only a couple of years old at that point.

If I'm not mistaken, the Theta house was built in the mid-'70s. I think they did a pretty substantial renovation a couple of years ago, though.

Add Delta Zeta to the list of houses still to be built.

Theta was originally built in the 1960s - I arrived in 1970 and they had been in the house a few years already. Both Theta and AOPi (next door neighbors) were both extensively renovated just a few years ago.

True, but they're building right now!

I read that they had an architect; have they broken ground? Exciting!

Yes, I think they knocked down the old house right after finals. I'll get a look later today.

If I recall correctly, it's more like $12 million dollar houses. But I don't care, I still want to be back.

Meaning no disrespect, because the stories are fun, but am I the only one hoping you'll instead ask her to write her story and share it here?

The day Tri Sigma colonizes at Bama is the day that this LSU Tiger clutches her pearls and moves to Tuscaloosa to be the house manager! :p I'll probably be 70. KSUViolet06 and I will be roommates.

I wonder what the amortization is on a $12M house. I know the fees to live in at Bama are VERY high. But can a house be paid for in 50 years?

Here's the link to the Alabama recruitment booklet. There's a chart with maximum and average costs.

http://www.uapanhellenic.com/greek-chic.html

The lists of party times and number of parties per round is very interesting.

Couldn't find a calculator online that would handle over $9,999,999. But that amount at 3.5 % interest (UA bond money rate that was in effect 4 years ago) over 50 years divided by 400 members comes to about $88 a month per woman.

Wow! 90 pages!

Thanks. I was good at math in high school (got a perfect score on that part of the ACT) but man oh man that withers if not used. So it is absolutely a reasonable investment. Thanks for clarifying that for me.

I have a rec girl at Bama who started recruitment today. I cannot even imagine the crowds at parties. The actives certainly have their work cut out for them!