ucla fall 2008 recruitment
 

hi,

im a 21 yr old incoming junior transfer student at ucla. im planning to rush this fall. do you think i have a good chance of getting a bid even if i am an incoming junior? is it too late? i hope not. i really want to be part of the greek community.

thanks. :)

Some of my friends are members of what is considered one of the most (if not the most) competitive sorority there and I believe they took one or two juniors last year. That being said I'm also fairly sure that there are very few (if any) sororities that will take more than that. So I think the answer is is that you have a shot but you should prepare for the worst and also prepare as if you were rushing at a school much more competitive than UCLA.

No one will be able to tell you what your chances are. It simply is not possible for any of us to do so.

If you really want to be a part of the Greek community, then rush. Just make sure you're prepared for whatever result comes your way. You're not Greek at the moment, so what have you got to lose?

yeah im also going through recruitment at UCLA and im so excited! i have a question about recommendation letters. i read somewhere on this site that you can have currently active members of a sorority write you a letter... is this true? for example can my friend who is in XYZ at University of Whatever class of 2010 write me a letter?

It depends on the sorority. Some allow actives to write recs, others do not.

that was really helpful, thanks so much!

We do too!
 

Alpha Phi accepts recommendations from collegians... we are not listed in that thread :oso I just wanted to make sure you knew!

Bruin08 - UCLA Panhellenic will be having TWO quotas this year: one for freshmen and sophomores, and a separate one for juniors (and seniors, if any decide to go through). This is the first time that the campus Panhellenic has decided to try this method with the hopes that more juniors will be matched with their top choices.

Mahdian - In my experience (and I can only speak for Gamma Phi, not the other chapters), UCLA does not get very many letters of recommendation from women coming through recruitment. I would say 10% of PNMs have them, max. Check with your friends who are currently in their chapters, they should know about their specific organization's policies, but it's ALWAYS a good idea to get them if you can!

LAblondeGPhi- everything you said to both Bruin08 and I was very helpful thank you so much! i have a few friends/people i know in each sorority so ill definitely be contacting them directly, or the greek life office. as with the letters of rec., im guessing that even if they dont weigh very much its still helpful for the chapter to get to know me beforehand anyway..?!

Hi Mahdian,
It's not that letters of rec don't weight much, it's more that getting them is not absolutely essential for your success at UCLA. At some southern schools, if you don't have at least one letter (sometimes two) for each chapter, you're chances go downhill fast.

Go ahead and get the letters, they will definitely help you.

Good luck!

So with this new quota method, will it be harder for sophomores than for juniors rushing to be matched to their preferred choices?

bruin08 and mahdian, good luck! please do share your recruitment stories when recruitment finishes (save it as a word document and post after bid day). I have heard from WGRAC that UCLA is doing a few things different in regards to recruitment and I know that your story will seriousily help future bruins and bruin transfers!

what does the new quota system mean for juniors? i know how it works for freshman.. so will there be a set number of juniors as well? and if so, around how many?

This.

I just added you!

Also, to the OP-- recs are certainly not the norm at UCLA! If you can get them, great. If not, don't worry about it.

In addition, while some UCLA chapters have a preference for underclassmen, I can assure you from personal experience that there will be other chapters where YOUR age and year in school will not be an issue.

Enjoy recruitment!

So this question is about UCLA specifically.. So I know most if not all incoming freshman have very impressive GPAs... and I understand that a lot of cuts during recruitment are based off of grades. What would be considered good/impressive for a second year at UCLA. I mean, I had over a 4.0 last year as a freshman but I have to admit college is a bit harder than highschool.. lol.. any insight would be great. Thanks!

Really, every chapter will choose their members differently. I would guess that because UCLA is a very competitive school to get into, there would be fewer cuts based on grades than a school with a wider range of GPAs. I don't know, maybe chapters really do split hairs and only take girls with at or above a 3.9?

If you're a sophomore going through at UCLA and you have a 4.0 college GPA, that is fantastic. It's definitely one pitfall you have avoided as a sophomore. Wait, maybe I'm not reading this right...how can you have over a 4.0 in college? I've never heard of weighted GPAs in college. Does UCLA weight GPAs?

Oh I apologize about the way i phrased that... What I meant was as an incoming freshman that was my GPA.. but since I am rushing this year as a second year, I no longer have that high of a GPA... now it's more like a B+ average. So, I was just wondering if that is considered good since I am in college and it is harder to get a 4.0 in college than it was in high school. Hope that made sense. :)

Funny that you should quote that because after taking to my friend yesterday that's completely incorrect!! In the past (every recruitment up until now) that was how it worked (chapters only giving out 1 or 2 bids to juniors) but apparently this year there is a new quota for juniors and seniors, so even the most competitive houses will likely be taking more than just 2. I think it's tough to go in as a sophomore and will likely remain tough...kind of ironic that maybe you have better chances rushing as a junior than a sophomore! Although obviously I'm not a UCLA expert by any means, just relaying what my friend told me.

Oh oops that post was meant to quote the 33Girl post when she quoted me, not on top of my game today.

Yeah.. I am definitely keeping that in mind. I know it's tougher when you're an upperclassman. It's a bit nerve-wrecking, but I hope it goes okay.

From what I know of UCLA, I don't think you'll have much of a problem as a sophomore. And your GPA will be fine. I doubt UCLA chapters make many cuts due to grades. UCLA's greek system is in no way like Alabama's or any other large, entrenched greek systems talked about on here. It's an old system, but UCLA is overall not a greek oriented school at all.

this thread has been so helpful thank you all so much for your advice and thank you bruin08!

now!! i have another question for you all- and im not sure youll be able to answer it but i might as well give it a try. i have a question about pref night... so after you rank your sororities: abc def ghi, and you turn in your card, i get confused. i understand that there is a list each sorority has that ranks members, but im confused as to howwwww the computer goes through the girls. because obviously if its alphabetical, then the people towards the end of the alphabet get the short end of the stick because most likely most chapters will have made quota by then. it seems like whatever order you do, even random, it ends up unfair?! maybe i just have the wrong idea about how this works?

Just as you rank the order of chapters you want, Panhel generally requires a ranked bid list of PNMs from each chapter. The order is usually neither random nor alphabetical but dependant upon selection sessions by each chapter. The almighty Panhel computer then bid matches the chapter lists with the PNM lists to find the most beneficial match on each campus.

The way the lists are made will vary by sorority to sorority and is secret in general BUT rest assured it will not be random at all. It is preferential order. The first list, which is quota, is the girls the sorority would ask for first (so if quota is 20 and they invite 50 girls, the 20 they like the most will go on the first list in no order in general). The girls will usually be in alphabetical order on THAT list because even if your last name is Zyllman or Zxylophone or whatever you will still fall within quota. The next 30 girls will be ranked from 21 to 50 in preferential order. How this order is determined is secret but trust me, it works. Nobody in the chapter (except for usually the Recruitment Chair and the Recruitment Advisor) will know who is where on the list.

APhiAnna - Your explanation is a good one for the "A & B List" method but be aware that some campuses require only one list of pref night PNMs in rank order. Either way, both the chapter and the PNM submit their ranks and bids are matched by Panhel.

Would love to hear how UCLA recruitment went this week--# of girls rushing etc.. I hope you share your stories!

there were over 800 girls registered for recruitment for 11 houses... pref and bid are tomorrow!!!

wowza, 800 girls. I still cant believe they are doing pref in the morning. Cocktail dresses at a non cocktail hour???

I know there were 3 ladies in here going through recruitment at UCLA. I hope all the advice that was provided to you will ensure us a recruitment story! or even an update of which chapters you all went to and where you ended up!

It looks like quota was 45...something like 29? or so freshmen, and 15 or so upperclassmen. Can anyone else confirm on those numbers?

I don't know any numbers, but a possible point of information: UCLA takes an enormous amount of transfers from SMC, WLA, Pierce and the like. Therefore they must have a disproportionate amount of juniors rushing. (At least, when I transfered from USC they did) So, you may see fairly high numbers in terms of upperclassmen getting bids.

There was a very positive article in the Daily Bruin (yesterday?) about sorority recruitment. Also something about tearing down the Hilgard houses (those aren't sorority houses, they just happen to be on Hilgard) to build more updated student housing, but something that will blend with the neighborhood.

snaps to UCLA! (I'm still waiting to hear about the PNM I wrote a ref for. will post when I hear the news...hope it's good!)

According to a report on our InCircle, the Gamma Phi Beta chapter took 49.

It's my understanding that the 3 Hilgard houses they're tearing down used to be sorority houses and I thought one of them was Sigma Kappa's old house.

624 Hilgard (not one of the ones being torn down) belongs to Alpha Gamma Delta.

Does anyone have a picture of 624 Hilgard? I can't find one ANYWHERE!

If you can't find any still photos, you might do a Street View on Google maps. It won't be the greatest image, but it will be something. I know that Hilgard is one of the streets included on Street View.

I did and I actually found it but I don't know how to save the image.

Try taking a screencap (on a PC, it's alt, printscreen; on a Mac, it's command, shift, 3) and editing it down in Photoshop.

Hope this helps!