Sophomore Recruitment LSU
 

Will be rushing as a Sophomore @ LSU. Very nervous because what I have read/heard, as a freshman it's very competitive. Curious as to how it will be as a sophomore. My hours may reflect I'm a Sophomore, but I have changed my major,therefore, I am a Freshman in my field of study. Are there quotas for sophomores? What are the GPA requirements? Are all sophomores recruited as that, sophomores, or recruited by where they attended HS? I ask, because as I understand and have read regarding freshman recruitment, there are quotas by "region", i.e. large city- BR/large city - NOLA/large city -Shreveport (etc.)/out of state/small town/etc. and each sorority can only take so many from each region. As I am from a small town and know many freshman from my area and other small towns that will be rushing and that limits the girls taken from my region. Thanks!

There is no such thing as limiting the number of pledges from different regions. If that could be proven sororities would be in a huge amount of trouble.

There is no quota from towns but some sororities do have a lot of girls from certain areas because friends recruit friends. So when you look at the sororities it does seem like ABC is all girls from Baton Rouge, and CD is from Mandeville etc. But there are girls from all over the state and out of state in each sorority.
My daughter was from a very small town with only two girls from here high school that were involved in greek life at LSU and she did fine.
I do not know about grade requirements for sophomores but I do know grades are very important that for all the sororities so I would think a 3.5 at least would be required.
My daughter was a Phi Mu and she has said that did take a sophomore or two each pledge class but they were already friends with a lot of girls.
Hope that helps a little, if you have any other question you can ask but she graduated a few years ago so I might not have correct info for the current situation at LSu

There will be a freshman quota and an upperclass quota. All sophomores and above are in the later group. Which one you fall in depends on how many hours LSU accepted. That will determine which group you fall into. The higher your grades, the better off you are. And the chapters are not required to do an upperclass quota. That's optional to participate in that.

LSU did not have an upperclass quota when I worked with them a few years ago. Has something changed?

It's a sometimes thing. It's not required. I think a lot of campuses do it when they have a lot of upperclassmen going thru.

Thanks for the input and information.

Another question, what is the cut off date all recs need to be sent to each sorority? One rec is required, is it better to have 2? Or does it really matter, as long as you have 1 rec?

I went to the LSU Panhellenic recruitment page. There is a lot of information there. Here's the link:

http://students.lsu.edu/panhellenic-...ty-recruitment

Hope that will answer many if not most of your questions. As for the number of recs, I will let LSU-familiar folks respond. Generally speaking, two (2) is a good number to have for competitive recruitments.

Good luck!

But you replied to her like there was an upperclassman quota at LSU...which they have never had.

At LSU, Ole Miss, and Auburn there are no upperclass quotas. As a sophomore, this PNM will need to have stellar grades and college activities to compete with all of the freshmen who have stellar grades and high school activities (and connections with sorority women on that campus will also help no matter a women's classification).

Alabama has an upperclass quota but some chapters choose not to take advantage of it.

Believe me, I am in favor of upperclass quotas, even if it is only 2-3 spots. Especially for campuses that have large numbers of students transferring from community colleges.

Ole Miss has a tiered quota now so they are an entirely different animal.

I am not an expert but I do not believe LSU has an upperclass quota. I have never seen it mentioned on the Greek life website and my daughter has never mentioned it. She did say tha they always took a few sophomores each year and maybe she just didn't pay much attention to the ends and out of it all.

You are correct. Ole Miss used to have an upperclass quota but eliminated it a few years ago. Fall 2016 was the first year to use the variable quota system. I am not sure if it will be used again this fall.

Mississippi State also used the variable quota system this year.

I know that Arkansas has used this system for 3-4 years.

All of these campuses have recently added 2-3 NPC chapters on campuses that have 250-400+ women in each chapter and have large sorority houses. I think that the variable quota has been well used to help some chapters build their membership numbers. I am pretty sure that it has to be voted on year-to-year by the College Panhellenic Counsel, so it is not a permanent system on any campus.

Out of curiosity, when do they have to make the choice to use it? Can they wait till after rush starts?

They do it before recruitment starts. But I guess they could decide to do it during though that could be confusing to all.

Curious if it is appropriate to list cousins on my resume that are current/alumni fraternity/sorority members as I don't have aunts/uncles that are former members?

Any suggestions to make my resume stand out?

I hope by "former" you actually mean alumni. As long as their memberships were not terminated, they are still members.

My apologies, yes alumni of a fraternity/sorority. Also, if cousins are current members in good standing.

LSU does not have an upperclass quota, at least not in the last two recruitments. Interestingly, last year they only had 75 women drop the process, and only 38 women were totally dropped for a 97% placement. Only 29 women went unmatched. With those stats, I would think your chances are better than at somewhere like Indiana, but surely your chances go up when you make sure to keep an open mind and consider all of the groups.

I would list any close relatives who are members of a fraternity or sorority. My cousin listed me (she joined DG). It shows that your family supports Greek life.

Google "Houston alumnae Panhellenic". They have a good recruitment resume sample on their website.

For recommendations that I write, I ask the PNM to list a few fun facts about themselves at the end of the resume. It creates talking points in recruitment and might help with matching you to a current member who has a similar interest or background. Try for things non-school related that aren't already listed on your resume. For example, my fun facts would be:
1) distantly related to Elvis. 2) tested for Mensa when I was in junior high school. 3) maternal grandparents lived 2 houses down from (gangster) Pretty Boy Floyd's safe house in Tulsa (safe to say, they never asked to borrow a cup a sugar). Last year, I saw a fun fact on a resume that said "went to mermaid school and I am a certified mermaid". She was matched at a sorority to a member who also had a love of mermaids!

Thank you for your advice. I will take a look at Houston's Alumane page. I think the fun facts is a great idea. Again, many thanks!