Is there an age limit?
 

I am not from any sorority (since i am a guy) but i've read about this in another thread within this forum and majority of the people agree that there isn't an age limit in sororities BUT almost all of those who are in sororities are in ages of 18-23 and it's hard to start getting involved at the age of 24.

It all depends on your school and how selective Recruitment is. Some schools have Recruitments that are so competitive that it's very difficult to be anything but a first-semester freshman and receive a bid.

Im going to Missouri State University in Springfield,MO. I don't know too much about how selective they are so if anyone can shed some light on it, I would be appreciative.

It's Missouri State.

You shouldn't have a big problem.

Oh, Southwest Missouri State, I think you will be okay. Now, if it were somewhere like Mizzou, you should think twice.

I'm not from Missouri, but I go to school there, and although I don't know anyone who goes to SMS I have sisters and other friends who do. From my understanding, they're not that selective, you probably have a chance.

LOL!

It just depends on how well you can handle taking direction from women that are younger than you are. I was an advisor to my group this semester where the median age was 19. It was hard relating to them sometimes.

I don't believe there are age limits on being able to go through recruitment, but in all honesty the older you are the less likely it is to get a bid.

I was a recruitment counselor last year for formal recruitment, and we had a 27 year old who went through and ultimately joined a chapter. She was great, and found a great home with the sisters of that chapter.

Go for it - you'll never know until you try it!

Although being in a sorority is a great thing, I'd ***REALLY*** think about it before deciding to join. I'm 22 and an alumna. I can't even imagine being active now. Like anything else, it is what you make of it, but at 24 do you really want to be hanging around with 18 and 19 year olds? Have a 18 year old bring you up on standards because she saw you out having dinner with your boyfriend while you were supposed to be doing XYZ? Do you want to be the oldest person at the formal? The oldest person at the Kappa Sig philanthropy week/party? Are you ready to deal with the 'just right out of high school' BS that goes on, on a semi-regular basis? I know I wouldn't.

There's someone 47 years old who signed up for formal recruitment this year, so it definitely can be done.

I hate to dissapoint you, but that isht never stops! :p

Sara - I would look around at the Greek system and see if there are other people who pledged when they weren't 18 year old freshmen (although I'm pretty sure there are). If the chapters have good retention rates, you should be able to find other people to relate to - you aren't chained to your pledge class for your entire sorority career or even during your pledge time. It completely depends on the school and the chapter if you would feel comfortable. And like another poster said, you need to be able to take direction from women who are "sororally older" than you, if not actual age.

[QUOTE=33girl] I hate to dissapoint you, but that isht never stops! :p [QUOTE]

True, true! However... I've had MUCH less since I've been out of school/greek system.

I agree with this. Are you really going to want to hang out with 17, 18, and 19 years olds and play flip cup and beer pong with them?

If I were over 21, I would not pledge a collegiate chapter of a sorority. Yes, you deal with this type of immature drama in the workplace and in school over your entire life... but joining a sorority is a voluntary committment to involve yourself in the drama of 18-21 year olds, their hookups, cat fights and general immaturity (with a few shining exceptions).

However, that is your choice to make. As long as you are an undergraduate student, you fit the profile and may go through recruitment. From there, your GPA and attributes will be on display for the sororities to evaluate and for you to see if it is a good fit. Good luck with whatever you decide!

I joined Delta Gamma at an SEC school when I was 22. I do not for a minute regret that decision. Yes, some of my sisters play beer pong. But that doesn't mean I can't relate to them. They certainly don't play beer pong every night and we definately go out without playing beer pong. I am amazed that some women on here seem to think all anyone under 20 or 21 wants to do is drink and engage in drama! Yes, we have a good time downtown, but we have a good time doing just about anything. Yes there is some drama, but, as someone who's been through it before, I view it as an opportunity to shape the chapter's attitudes on honesty and gossip. Actually, I plan on running for office under that premise.

Sara, don't let anyone here talk you out of participating in recruitment (though if I were you, I would not go through formal!). You're the only one who has the opportunity to meet the girls and to determine whether or not you'd want to be friends with them. Some women on here are stereotyping sorority women as poorly as GDIs do. Give sorority life a chance, but do give it plenty of thought.

Good luck and keep us posted!

You guys are kidding? Only teens play drinking games where you all are from? I was at a party just a couple of months ago, they were playing all sorts of drinking games. The youngest person at the party was 23.

No, not necessarily. But we make the conscious choice not to "party" with those kinds of people past a certain point. I have plenty of friends in their late 20s through 30s still acting like every night is Spring Break. Those are people to hang out by the pool with or occasionally shop with-- not people I'd care to be around 24/7 because that isn't my lifestyle anymore.

Again, it's not a game of who is mature or immature-- just the kind of atmosphere you find fun or right for you. There's generally a leap in the way you think once you hit 22/23 that separates you from the younger students.

Some older PNM's may also find themselves the victims of similar age bias on the part of the sorority members... some may find that they are as old or maybe older than some of the alumna advisers.

And there is the age factor... If I were 24, I would not want to be taking my marching orders from a 19 year old who was preaching sorority etiquette at me in new member education, and then that same person hypothetically asking me to go on a beer run with her for my super over-the-hill ID. It's a bit different to be older in the workplace and taking similar direction from a superior who is a bit younger-- the age lines blur as you get older, but the young adult years are still a little too close for comfort.

It's not all about drinking. I'm 22, I drink, I occasionally play drinking games,and I have since I was 17. I'm not warning her about the drinking. I'm just asking her to really think about it before she does it. The maturity difference between an 18 year old and a 24 year old is/should (be) a large one. I wouldn't, at age 22 pledge a sorority if I wasn't already a member. I don't have very many things in common with an 18 year. I doubt a 24 year old does either. You can make friends, be invloved, volunteer, ect... without being greek.

I think that definitely speaks to the fact that a woman pledging a sorority when she is above the usual 18-19 pledge age needs to look carefully at the groups she is considering joining. I'm sure we can all think of groups at our alma maters that were known for their nightly partying, as well as groups (like notyouraverage's) where the girls have a good balance between sorority, parties, academics, and outside friendships. If I were to be rushing now (at age 22), I would definitely be evaluating the maturity of the women rushing me in a different way than I did at 18.

During rush my senior year, I remember meeting an awesome 21-year-old girl during rush who was concerned about the issues (drinking, drama) that people are bringing up here... she was transferring from another school and wanted to try Greek Life, but didn't want to spend the next 2-3 years dealing with teenagers' drama when that was all she'd had to deal with for the past 2 years at her old school. I thought she did an excellent job asking all of the right questions, making sure to see whether she would be comfortable in our chapter. I'm sure that she did the same thing at the other houses, and that made her decision easier (and she was sooo excited when I picked her up on Bid Day!).

I agree. There's no way I would be able to tolerate being a social greek at my age. I barely did at 19. But, I was really just making a comment about the drinking games.

I've always found the age limit discussion on GC pretty interesting. I have a couple of questions.

Are your schools located in the city or in rural areas? Commuter or residential?

Many people keep mentioning 18 and 19 year olds. What happens to the 20-24 year olds? Do they drop out once they hit their 20s? I think the average age of social Greeks where I attend are 20-22. Seeing 23 to 25 year olds are more rare, but not unheard of. Hell, seeing undergrads from 23 to 25 isn't unheard of period, regardless if you're a greek or not. There's also less segregation between freshman, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and grad students.

I wonder if there's any correlation between locations/types of schools and age limits.

I agree with Adelphean and adpiucf. The comment I made about beer pong and flip cup was meant to show the age and taste differences among people. Hell, I was 22 when I graduated, and at times I could barely relate to the girls in the sorority that were freshmen and sophomores.

Next year when I'm rushing for a fraternity (at SDSU) I'll be 22 years old junior student (i might have to go for more than 2 years though). I wonder if I'll be able to get any bids. I'm not very picky and I'll apply to all 16 fraternities my school has. It'll be disappointing if i can't get one single bid.

It would be an interesting study. I think all of those things would play into it, and then some. It would be hard to control for campus culture/tradition for one thing. In general, I'd expect that you'd find out that those schools with a heavy majority of undergraduates between 17-23 would see very few women over freshman classification pledging a sorority. If your average undergraduate age range is more in the 19-25 age on campus that skewed more urban or commuter, then "age range" may not have as much of a bearing for recruitment.

Would you consider SDSU a commuter or urban school?

Well let me be the bearer of good news! I am in a sorority called Beta Sigma Phi - where there is no age limit to join! I am 33 and just joined two years ago! We are an international sorority that is not affiliated with any university. If you are interested in more information you can check out the website www.betasigmaphi.org if you want to learn more.

I don't know why people make a big deal of hanging out with people who are several years younger than them. I wouldn't mind hanging out with 16-17 year olds and I am 21. I find younger people to be more fun. :)

You're a man. Maturity levels in men from 18-23 don't fluctuate as much as women in the same age range.

Ummmm maybe you are right.

I've seen quite a lot of maturity change from 18 to now (22). Same goes for just about all of my friends.

Currently I feel a lot more mature than i was when i was 18 but i still wouldn't mind hanging out with an 18 year old.

I do not know enough about SDSU to answer, but there are plenty of folks from California around here who might know.

I do not know of any sorority that has an age limit to join. One of my lil' sisters joined Sigma at 22 years old. She was a junior and decided that she was finally comfortable enough with her academics that she didn't need to study as much so she finally had time to join a sorority. She loved it and had two great years. She even held several chairs. She never once had a problem with someone younger then her having more authority then she did. She did often laugh though that her big sis was 2 years younger then her. She always felt comfortable coming to me with problems.

That being said there was a 47 year old non-traditional student who went through recruitment one year at my college. No sororities offered her a bid. I spoke with several women I knew in other sororities the general reason for not offering her a bid were that most sisters felt like she would never be someone who we would feel comfortable with competely being as some of parents were her age. I don't see that being a problem in this case.... 24 is not that big a difference.

I think you have to learn to separate that. Yeah, maybe I'm 24 and Patti's 19 and she's telling me my rush outfit isn't right, but I'm not going to let that come between a friendship (or a beer run). She's doing her job, not getting on me personally. If you get all hung up on little things like that it doesn't really matter who is what age.

For the (ahem) older posters...was this stuff as big of a deal when the drinking age was 18?

We had a guy who returned to college after being out of school for twenty some years. He had attended Beloit for one semester and then dropped out. He decided that he wanted to complete is college education and so he came back - mind you Beloit is 99% residential. He lived on campus and got involved in the fraternity he pledged his first semester twenty some years ago. It ended up being a great situation. Beloit was 1200 people, so some weren't really sure about his presence, but by the end of the semester he had found his place and the age thing was as noticeable as it had been those first couple of weeks.

He was a great influence on his group. They were a little...unrefined... before he got there and by the time I left, the house was cleaner, they were more active in the greek community, they really essentially came around a lot and I think in large part it was due to someone who knew how to make decisions.

Granted he was 40 something and the OP is 24 but it can be a great experience. You will have to put up with crap that is annoying but 24 year olds are not THAT different. If you want to do it, go for it and have fun. You might regret it if you never try.