Grades
 

I just want to know my chances of being picked up with a GPA of 2.20?:eek:

Is that a High School GPA or a college GPA?
Look at the websites of the sororities that are at your campus, or at your schools Panhellenic website. I know you must have a 2.3 GPA to be initiated into Alpha Sigma Tau....different inter/national sororitites have different GPA requirements. Plus, the college or even the chapter can set a higher GPA requirement if they want.

The best source of info is your school's Greek Affairs office.
Good Luck!
PsychTau

Just to echo what PsychTau said.

For Delta Gamma, the GPA minimum is 2.5 but chapters might decide to set the requirement higher! It just depends what sorority too!

Personally, I think you should wait until you raise your GPA instead of going through Rush and getting cut due to grades. If you raise your GPA a lil, you can be selective and choose the sorority that is best for you!!!

Alpha Chi Omega's minimum GPA is 2.5 and at my school our college GPA is 2.75 to get in. I know most, if not all, chapters at the UA require at least a 2.5.

I believe Kappa's national minimum to be initiated is a 2.6. Our chapter minimum is a 2.8.

I'd try to pull your grades up first, honestly.

Chi O requires a 2.0 to be initated. I know my University doesn't check grades for rushees, since grades aren't a problem for chapters here.

Like everyone else has said - you should check with:

- Your campus Panhellenic Council. They may have a minimum GPA to rush, which may make you ineligible.

- The sororities at your school, on the national level. All have minimum GPAs required for initiation; AEPhi's is 2.0 on a 4.0 scale, and is among the most lenient out there.

- The sororities at your school, on the chapter level. Chapters can set higher minimum GPAs than their nationals specify. Chapters can sometimes also accept grade risks, so if you have a 2.2 and the minimum is 2.25 and they really like you, they can still invite you back.

If you are eligible to rush, go for it. Most, if not all, sororities have academic programs that will help you bring your grades up. But you should be prepared to be cut heavily for grades.

If not, use the next semester or year to pull your grades up, then try again.

Good luck! :)

here you're not allowed to rush unless you have a 2.7 wait to try and raise your GPA first. you'll probably be a lot happier that way.

Rushing as a transfer student...
 

I dont know if it applies...but if anyone remembered back on the first Sorority Life..one of the girls couldn't pledge because she didn't have a GPA at her school...her GPA didn't transfer over...(being concerned that I wouldn't be able to rush...) I am now here at my new school taking summer classes (i'm actually living in one of the sorority dorms--I'm on the Sigma Kappa floor hehe) so I would have a GPA here to start in the fall..I didnt really need the credits per se, but I wasn't familiar with the area too much and I wanted to get a couple classes under my belt and meet some people so the transitional blow come fall isn't rediculously insane! lol. What is the deal with transfer students and rushing? Any advice would be great! (going to be a junior technically...but I will more than likely be here for 3 years instead of 2.


Thanks for your help! 2Fast2Furious comes out today woohoo!!

It depends on how competitive your rush is...if there are hundreds of girls going through, you probably will get cut for grades, and you should just wait till they improve. If it is more laid back, that's a different story. We used to have lots of girls go through Meet The Greeks and the first round even if they didn't have grades, so they could get a look at the sororities. If you have a large rush fee to pay though, you might want to not do that.

transferring
 

RedFox, this may differ on campuses (regarding if you can rush with a transfer GPA) I would contact the Office of Greek Affairs (or whatever office on your campus handles the Greek stuff!) to see what they have to say.

Lots of people transfer to my school, and from what I know, some of my sisters rushed and joined the Fall semester when they first transferred, so it may definately be possible! :)

If you have 3 years left instead of 2, definately be sure you let them know during rush! That is a great positive for you! :)

Re: Rushing as a transfer student...
 

I think this really varies from school to school. For rushees, my chapter looks at their HS grades if they are a freshman, their grades from their last school if they transferred, and their college grades otherwise. I know other schools make transfer students have a GPA at that school, and more make ALL Students have a GPA at that school (hence deferred recruitment).

You could ask the Greek Life Advisor or one of the SKs about that - I'm sure they would know the campus specific situation.

Re: Re: Rushing as a transfer student...
 

At our school, this varies from group to group. We do it they way your chapter does GeekyPenguin - wherever their last gpa came from is what my chapter looks at. Some chapters look at all three, or a combination of the two. If there is some way for a girl to have grades, they count them! I really think panhellenic should agree on one way and stick to it! I think it is confusing to girls to get cut by one chapter for grades, while a second chapter with the same gpa requirement invites them back based on high school grades (when the transfer grades do not meet the gpa requirement). I think it sends a bad message to the pnm's.

In some cases, the national GPA requirement might be one thing, let's say 2.5. If the local chapter is having scholastic problems of their own, they might only want to take PNMs that have GPA's of 2.75.

Keep in mind that it often that PNMs with high GPAs may turn into NM or newly initiated sisters with low GPAs due to getting acquainted into the Greek lifestyle. That means the older members should (must;) ) keep their GPAs up to balance out the low GPAs of ALL the other members, new or old.


In most sororities, I'm not sure how fraternities work, you aren't told if you were cut due to specific reasons (grades or other reasons)...so you might just assume it was the grades if all other scores are terrific. My advice if it is 2.0, wait and raise it.. Based on specific circumstances, they may be able to make an exception.

unfortunately, you may be a grade risk the chapter can't afford to take. Or perhap COB might be a consideration since the pool selection is smaller.

I dont understand why universities would set a GPA minimum to rush while all the other sororities have a higher GPA for initiation. Well, I am not sure if the sorority GPA is for initiation or what. That is what I am confused about.

For my school, you have to have a 2.0 to rush, but why would they allow a GPA that low if every other sorority might require a higher one?? Do the sororities all allow a 2.0 that first semester if they get a bid, and then raise the bar the semester afterwards?

Okay, I'll try to make this easy...

At the university, students must have a 2.0 to RUSH period (because any lower and you probably should spend more time studying anyway).

ABC, DE, and FGH all require 2.0's to "pledge"

IJ, KL, MNO, and PQ all require 2.5's to "pledge"

and RST and UV require a 3.0 to "pledge"

Usually, that minimum is the whole sorority min (all sisters must maintain at least that GPA to stay in good standing).

So if you had a 2.55 GPA and you wanted to RUSH, you would automatically be dropped form RST and UV because your GPA isn't high enough. And IJ, KL, MNO, and PQ might take a close look at you to figure out if they can risk taking you since usually the first semester in a sorority isn't the best for one's grades...but they can take you if they want because you do meet the requirement.

Remember, sororities compete for highest GPA on campus...I know at my school at least it's very competitive!! We love to have bragging rights about best grades (which right now DG does!! yay!).

Also, to my understanding, each chapter can set whatever minimum they want, as long as it is or is above the national set one. For example, DG nationally requires a 2.5 to "pledge", but at my chapter, if you are coming from High School we require a 3.0 high school GPA, or a 2.5 University GPA.

Just by the way, our chapters average GPA is right around a 3.2 (last semester).

I know at the University of Arizona, at least, that is not the case. None of the sororities here maintain that sort of policy (including Delta Gamma). If it were true then there would be far fewer sorotity women walking around campus, sad to say.

When I rushed at my previous university, I knew nothing about sororities. I didn't know there was an emphasis on GPA; I didn't even know there was a required GPA. I didn't even know until after rush that I would not have even been able to join anything because of my GPA. I would have been crushed if I had signed my bid card and had not received a bid, only to find out that I didn't have the GPA requirement. (I didn't sign a bid card.)
At MTSU, the minimum to rush is 2.5. That is the minimum for at least 2 sororities - I don't know what the others are. I know one is lower, but I chalk it up to they are giving you a lesser chance to be cut because of grades by setting it higher than the bare minimum. I would think that would cut back on the disappointment that some may experience by being cut heavily for no reason other than grades.

I would definitely check with your school's policy on grades to rush. in canada, no one is allowed access to your grades except you, so sororities can't even factor your GPA in.
i can't even imagine letting something like grades affect whether or not you join a sorority, especially since some schools are harder than others. (ie. a C at university of toronto- considered an ivy league school- would probably be a A at most other schools in Ontario!!) i'm sure this is the same in the states, no?

Yeah... here at Lawrence, the joke is that the Dean will bust you for grades before any of the sororities will.

Well as far as some universities being harder, you must remember that all the girls rushing and all the actives are part of the same university and got in to the same university. The GPA for the chapter might just be lower, or the rush requirement might be a little lower according to university grading being harder. In any case, everyone is on the same scale. I know that here, where the freshman class profile lists a 4.2 (on a 4.0 scale) as the average HS GPA, so we want girls with high GPA's so we can be confident that they can juggle sorority life, academic life, and their own social lives...and possible work life!

As far as students rushing that are currently students, we require them to have 2.5's. That is below the all woman average on campus (3.01)...with anything below a 3.0 in our chapter you have to do study hours, etc.

Guess grades are important here...maybe they aren't as important at other universities.

At my school to be able to rush you have to have a 2.0.

But i know for Sigma Kappa you have to have 2.7 from HS and and 2.5 from college. There may make execptions sometimes if you GPA is under the requirement. I will again stress MAY MAKE THE EXECPTION.

This is just my opinion, if you want you don't have to rush this fall, you can always rush the following semester so that you can work on improving your GPA, if you think that it is too low.

I wish you the best.

One heart, One way

I'm curious as to what you guys do about our scholarship requirements then, because this seems like you could take a whole new member class that doesn't meet our standards.

hey GeekyPenguin,
i'm not sure what our chapter does in terms of int'l scholarships, i think int'ls was making amendments for the Canadian chapters, but i'm not sure of the details. but the scholarships given out within our chapter- if you want to be eligible for the scholarship you have to hand in your transcript.
that way it's voluntary, if you want a shot at the scholarship, they must make the choice of whether to give up the privacy of their grades.

Oh, I wasn't talking about scholarships, but scholarship in general. What do you do about our rules for minimum GPAs? I know IHQ makes a lot of exceptions and changes for you guys, which is good, because you're going off of a totally different base than we are.

These our the national GPA's, but for our chapter, it is a 3.0 for HS and a 2.8 for college. As was stated before, there are always exceptions, but for the most part, at our school, this is not unreasonable at all. Grades are very important and there are few chapters that are willing to take someone who may become a potential "grade risk," mainly because that grade risk can drag the chapter GPA down much farther than it might be. But like I said before, there are always exceptions, and usually, if you do pledge, the scholarship chair will work closely with you to make sure that you make better grades.

see, the point I am trying to make is that it would be nice if all sororities had the same minimum gpa requirement. That way, the school GPA requirement would correspond with the sororities on campus. I think its not fair for the university to say "you have to have a ___ gpa to rush" and then in reality most sororities have a higher minimum. That is not really fair for the rushees, and gets more complicated. Anyhow, that is not reality. My question now, is.....

What is the sorority minimum for each sorority? I have searched the national webpages of some, but I wasnt very lucky. I know it varies from chapter to chapter, but the national GPA is the minimum that is allowed.... so if you are in a sorority and know the bare miniumu, it would help some of the rushees, just so they know (me included).

Kappa's is a C+, which at my school is a 2.25.

ETA: Whoops, that's from college-- we have a deferred recruitment. I have no idea what it is coming out of high school, but my guess is somewhere in the B range.