U of Alabama NPC Sorority Preview Day
 

U of Alabama Panhellenic preview day is coming up. Saturday, March 27.
Looks like a great opportunity to learn more about the NPC sororities at Bama.

Quote from the web site (address below):

" Last year, over 1,200 prospective students and their parents attended the preview weekend, and we expect that number to grow this year. In addition to the preview day activities, many sororities will hosts teas and other recruitment events on Friday evening and Sunday morning for perspective members. "

Schedule, contact information, more at:

http://www.greeklife.ua.edu/panpreview.html

Just wondering: have any GCers experienced previous Bama preview days, and if so, was the experience helpful?

I've heard from many parents and PNMs that found it very helpful. PNMs get an opportunity to meet some of the sorority members in each of the houses and get a preview of what actual Recruitment is like. Parents also have the opportunity to find out info their daughters might not think of or be too nervous to look into (like how much does it cost, when can a member move in to the house, how much of a time committment is it to be a member, etc.)

Daughter is looking forward to attending preview day at UA. How many girls do you anticipate will attend? I hear sororities are huge at Bama, we are out of state, so looking forward to learning more.

SDT decided to reinvent itself as a smaller chapter rather than try to compete head-on with the other Panhellenic groups. This they do with national's blessing.

As Exlurker quoted above, last year there were over 1200 PNMs who attended. FYI about 1475 ended up going through Recruitment in fall then. With the economy improving though still struggling, the attendance number should hopefully provide an estimate of what to expect come fall.

As for chapter sizes, this past spring Chapter Total was increased to 225. Last fall Quota was 72 for freshmen and 5 for upperclassmen.

Regarding SDT, their numbers are significantly smaller than the other NPC chapters (varying between 15-25). Years ago they decided that the effort and expense required to participate in Bama's Formal Recruitment simply was not translating into pledge numbers. Therefore their time and money would be better spent on other things.

I would strongly encourage going to preview day. I have no conection to Bama, but I would assume there preview day with so many houses would run similar to the one at my school (whose campus total is smaller than Bama's quota lol). I attended SUmmer Preview (it was only pnms) and it only lasted about an hour and a hlaf, but I loved it and it really helped me prepare for recruitment. It allowed me not to be as anxious during the first day of recruitment and I felt like I already had a connection to some of the houses. Also some girls mentioned the fact that I had gone through preview and were glad to see me back. On a personal note, my favorite house on preview day ended up being the house I'm now a memebr of; I actually had to miss this house the first night of recruitment for class and had I not gone through preview I would of never put them down to go back to the second day and cut a house I had actually seen that night and would have never seen them during recruitment :( and would not be as happy as I am today.