Not accepting juniors??
 

Hi everyone, I hope from reading this someone can shed light on what I am about to say,

I was planning to go through fall 06 Rush but decided last minute not too because I was transferring to SHSU and everything was hectic and I wanted to wait one more semester, so I finally contacted the house that I was really interested in, and found out that they were having a get together at their house to meet pnm's. So I went and met alot of wonderful girls that I thought I connected with alot, everyone was so friendly and I left their house feeling that I would fit right in. I got a call later on the night saying that they weren't able to except me because they are really discouraged from rushing juniors, and she encouraged me to rush again in the fall, and saying that how all the girls liked me and said that I was genuine. Now I am not sure what to even do, I really like the sorority, but I honestly don't want to rush again and get disappointed again just because I am a junior. This semester is my first semester as a junior, so in the fall it would be my last semester as a Junior, can anyone shed some light on this, should I even do it, or should I just be content that I can't because of my classification??

That rush chair, or whoever spoke to you, REALLY needs to learn some discretion. She discussed membership selection with a nonmember which is a BIG NO NO.

There are no rules in ANY NPC group that say anything about class status - just that you must be 1) female and 2) pursuing an undergraduate degree.

Go for it next fall if you want, but I wouldn't expect anything from this group and quite frankly, you might be better off if they DON'T give you a bid.

Depending how competitive your school is, some schools accept juniors, like my school where we have a lot of transfers. Also some GLOs would prefer to Though don't be discourage by it. Chances are, if they called you this year, they might call you again next semester. If you have taken your time to meet the actives this past semester and they really liked you, then you may have a chance.

Go for it and you'll never know until you try, but also don't put your hopes to high then you won't disappoint yourself. Good luck! :)

If they don't want to accept a junior now, what will be different next semester when you are still a junior?

The situation seems pretty sketchy to me.

ETA - since when do sororities CALL PNMs? Even during informal rush?

If it was a party that women had gone to knowing open bids were being handed out, it would be nice of the sorority to call and tell them they didn't receive a bid - especially if there weren't a lot of girls there. It's like in formal rush where your rho chi calls you if you don't get a bid, which I presume was their thinking. In the OPs case though, the sorority was just sharing TMI. They should have just said "I'm sorry, but you did not receive a bid" and let it at that. That's the ONLY info any PNM is ever entitled to.

Oh, and as to what might change next semester? They might lose a lot of girls to graduation or transfers and be under the gun to get their numbers up.

Well, I don't know alot about how everything works, at the end of teh night they just said that they are going to make their decisions tonight and to stay by our phones. From what I understood, she said that they didn't have many slots open for alot of members to join this semester, and that in the fall, there are way more spots open and usually they are more open to juniors than it is in the spring. I am not sure what to do. There are 4 sororities on campus and this was the one that I really wanted, I liked everything about them, the girls, their philanthropy, just everything. I don't know that much about the other sororites, I'm jsut so lost and don't know what to do, it was such a disappointment when I got that call.

Umm, based on this description I honestly wouldn't encourage you to try again (at least with this chapter)... I can't imagine the reasons for discouraging bidding juniors would be any different in the fall, even if they have more spots to fill. Basically I don't know why they're telling you to go through recruitment again and saying things that are borderline secret, but I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. What they're saying doesn't make sense -- if they wanted to extend you a bid, it would have been far more beneficial of this chapter to do so during this recruitment period, at least financially.

I'm really sorry to say this but I think whoever you talked to was trying to "let you down easy." My best guess is that they really did like you and think you were genuine but for whatever reason they did not select you. It's kind of a cop-out but it's much easier for a sorority sister to say "Wow, we all really loved you and thought you were sweet buuuut you're a junior and we don't normally bid juniors...in any case, I encourage you to go through recruitment in the fall. We really liked you though!" than just straight up saying "I'm sorry, we did not feel that you were right for this sisterhood at this time."

In fact, at my school, sorority members were instructed to encourage disappointed women to go through recruitment again in the future...I obviously don't know exactly what was said between you and this member, but I wouldn't get necessarily read too much into her encouragement to rush again. It might just be a standard line they feed everyone.

But obviously you're the only person that can read the situation -- I didn't hear the phone call and I didn't get enough details from your description to tell one way or the other.

In any case, I'm sorry it didn't work out and I wish you the best of luck in whatever you decide to do.

You might be very right, She might have just said that to be nice and as a cop-out, I started to think about it and I guess in a way it makes sense that they would rush freshman or sophomores, they would rather have someone in teh sorority for 3-4 years than maybe 1 or 2. I don't know, but I am trying to contact the other chapters and see if they have held their spring rush yet. And thank you for being so honest.

maybe they get free juniors and want to pad their new member class?

what does that exactly mean?? free juniors??

Sometimes in formal rush, juniors and seniors are not counted in a sorority's quota number.

So if they aren't counted, doesnt that mean that they can have as many as they want ( juniors that is ), or as little??

Yes. That is IF the school does it - not all schools do.

I see, well, maybe they just didn't want juniors for some reason, I don't know. It was a great sorority and I will see if the others have held their spring rush yet, I guess that will determine if I do it again in the fall or not.

Perhaps someone from SHSU can shed some light on whether or not your school has "free" juniors (as many juniors as they want are accepted) or an upperclasswoman quota (allowed to accept, say, 3 upperclasswomen who don't count against the freshman quota). Obviously, whether or not there's an upperclasswoman quota isn't any guarantee of anything, but it could better inform your decisions.

If there was a junior quota, you might feel more encouraged to try again. I think that a junior quota would actually be a plus to going through formal recruitment if you were so inclined. But like 33girl said, not every school has an upperclasswoman freebie system in place. Either way, formal recruitment is still a long way off. With or without a junior quota, maybe you'll decide that you want to try your luck with this sorority again or maybe you'll meet some women from another sorority and find a connection with another group. Who knows. I say take this semester and the summer to examine what you want to do. No need to commit to anything today. :)

That's very true, I am not in a hurry for it, I just thought it would be a great way to socialize and get out there. I jsut found out that the particular sorority only rushed girls who are sophomores and freshman, so I guess that she was being truthful when she said about not rushing upperclassmen. Anyways, thank for the reply's, I think that they made the blow not so harsh :)

i am no expert on "free juniors" but as i understand it from speaking to others who have had experience with campuses that have "free juniors" there will be "X" amount of juniors that each sorority can take which would not count in the quota. for instance, quota is 38 and each sorority can take 2 free juniors, so they can end up with a new member class of 40. i have never heard of a campus where sororities could take as many juniors as they wished.

perhaps the chapters membership pyramid is out of proportion and that is why they were not able to offer bids to any juniors in the spring? there really could have been a legitimate reason, which we are not privy to.

I'd let it go. Re-rush during formal recruitment if there is an opportunity and get involved with activities at your university (you are bound to meet sorority women and new friends this way). Rejection is never pleasant, whether it has to do with a sorority, a boy, a job, etc., but at least they called you and gave you a seemingly legitimate reason, which is somewhat reassuring that it isn't a personal "defect," you know? Technically, you aren't supposed to know why you didn't get in, per 99.9999% of sororities' membership selection processes are known only to the membership, but at least they did call you, which some never do and leave you wondering what is happening! I wish you the best and hope you clear this hurdle. Be happy-- you deserve it!

Ask someone in the Greek Life office if your school treats juniors differently during rush in terms of quota.

If they do, then the group may have been sincere about your rushing in the fall.

I'm going to try to explain something; other folks please correct me if I'm wrong.

In general, it's good for the overall numbers of the group to be evenly divided among the four classes. It's good to know that you won't ever lose a big section of your group to graduation at one time.

So, wanting folks to be involved for four years is part of why groups like freshmen, but making sure that the group doesn't end up with too many of its members in the class of '08 is part of it too.

If the group you were rushing is doing spring rush because they didn't bid to quota this year during fall rush AND fall rush is usually mostly or all freshmen, then for the sake of balancing the classes, ideally they'd want to pledge girls who will graduate in 2010 this spring to fill that class.

So, your being class of 2008 puts you at a disadvantage.
If your school count juniors in the regular quota, then you will still be at a disadvantage next fall.

But if juniors are free or count separately in fall rush, then offering you a bid doesn't take a freshmen slot. Being a junior wouldn't hurt your chances as much or at all in such a system.

Did I understand you correctly that all the groups do informal or is it just some of them?

This is GOOD ADVICE. Your Greek Life office should also have stats for how many juniors were offered bids in past years.

I agree about contacting the Greek Office at my school, only to know that I have sent them 2 e-mails and I haven't heard from them, and no one answers the phone. And to another question that someone asked, I am not sure if all 4 sororities had spring rush, I just know of the one I went to that they had it.

I don't know your campus, but you might bettter luck going live in person. Email and the phone can be really easy to ignore, particularly when someone asks for information that they haven't actually prepared.

Just as an example, a while ago I sent an email to the office of Greek Life at my old school to ask what campus total was these days, and I never heard from them at all, and I was asking for a piece of information that they would have had readily on hand.

If you go in person, they may be more ready to help. My impression is that matching women to groups really makes them happy, and they'd want to give you helpful info. if they can.

very true, I might do that..