Can I join a sorority??
 

I go to an all women's college (College A) and the school will not allow sororities on campus because the school is already so diverse that they don't want any more division between the girls on campus. I have always wanted to join a sorority and from my understanding I have to be a student at a college/university to join a sorority. My school allows cross-registration and I did it my freshman year and I was officially a College B student, I just wasn't a full-time student. If I took one class a semester until I graduate at College B, do you think that I could join a sorority at College B? Or is there a way that I could get in contact with the President of the Collegiate Panhellenic Council at College B and ask if I could join a sorority while being a student from College A? Don't know if this means anything but my college is only 6 minutes away from College B so I could go to all recruitment things and fully participate in rush activities.

Please don't suggest transferring because that is out of the question. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

No.

You have to be a full time student to go through recruitment and remain an active member of a chapter.

Do any national sororities allow cross campus memberships? Some years back several fraternities began to allow cross campus membership in certain circumstances like one school having a Greek system and a close by school either not having a Greek system or having only a very few chapters thus offering an extremely limited choice. This usually takes place where there is an existing policy of cross registration for classes or very close proximity of campii. Tulane/Loyola in New Orleans comes to mind where the schools actually share some campus facilities and they are literally next door neighbors. The practice, as I understand it, is on a case by case basis, the national HQs must approve, and while the schools do not recognize the other school's chapters as official university organizations they seem to turn a blind eye to the practice so long as insurance matters are covered for the cross campus members. I gather that most of the Tulane chapters will consider a PNM from Loyola and at least one Loyola org accepts Tulane students. There is one local sorority that draws from Loyola, Tulane, UNO, and Holy Cross. Of course that one is not under the panhel rules.

So, is this pretty much a fraternity thing or do any national sororities do likewise?
(Note: I use the terms sorority and fraternity as general descriptions for simplicity sake. I do realize that several GLOs are womens fraternities).

^^ Yes, some do.

The rules will differ between NPC, NPHC, MCGLO and local organizations.

One must be a full time matriculating student at a particular university in order to participate in NPC recruitment and to accept a bid and maintain active collegiate membership. This is an NPC requirement.

NPC sororities?

I'm thinking this is one of those instances where we want to be careful to be specific, or else the OP and some others might be confused. As was recently noted in another thread, not all fraternities are NIC fraternities, and not all sororities are NPC sororities.

It's my understanding that some (all?) NPHC orgs have city-wide chapters that serve more than one campus. Other orgs may as well. And some fraternities may allow students attending a nearby college to pledge, like dekeguy describes.

But I'm pretty sure CGers in NPC orgs have said in the past that only full-time students at the school where the chapter is chartered can join chapters of NPC orgs. And since the OP mentioned the "Collegiate Panhellenic Council," I'm guessing she's asking about NPC orgs.

ETA: Cross-posted with thetalady and Greek_or_Geek.

dekeguy asked if any "national sororities" allowed it. Some do.

Agreed. Greekchat obviously has many threads that go off on tangents, but there are some cases where these tangents will only serve to confuse the original poster as well as others who will come along later. They don't understand the different acronyms and all they see is that "YES!"

To the OP:

There are two universities in our city, my school (U of M) is much larger than the other (U of W). My sorority (Alpha Gamma Delta), as well as the other two (Alpha Phi and Alpha Delta Pi) all have students from both universities. However, all three organisations (meaning international headquarters) made that decision. It is not in any way common, but you might want to email College B's panhellenic to find out if it is a possibility. The worst thing that happens is they say no.

Yes, but he also referred to "PNMs", which makes it weird, because I'm pretty sure no NPC group is allowing this (as he mentioned in his example), and I don't know of any non-NPC groups that use that term.

Loyola and Tulane both have their own Greek systems so that's not a good example.

Check dekeguy's wording. If by "national sororities" and "fraternities" dekeguy is only talking about NPC and NIC (fraternities that are only NIC), then the answer is "no" for NPC.

If dekeguy is talking about national sororities and fraternities, in general, NPHC fraternities and sororities are examples of conferences and councils in which GLOs have city-wide chapters, core chapters, and/or allow members from particular schools to affiliate with a chapter at another school. Generally speaking, the school has to be approved by the "GLO governing bodies" to allow members from a particular school(s). The administration of all of the schools must also agree with this. It generally cannot be a thing that the current chapter members decide completely on their own.

There are women's colleges, for example, that see the campus as one big sorority and therefore do not allow students to become members of sororities elsewhere. Therefore, sororities will not include these colleges' students in their potential pool of aspirants. In the relatively rare cases where a student at these particular colleges wants to pursue membership at a neighboring college or university, the GLO chapter must be permitted to accept that and the student's college must accept having a student who is a sorority member at a neighboring school. Whether or not that is allowed will depend on the circumstances. For NPHC aspirants at these particular women's colleges that do not want sorority members as students, these aspirants are almost always going to become alumnae chapter applicants OR eternal aspirants.

Exactly. Yet another reminder that if you are talking about a specific conference or council, do not frame your comment in a general manner.

:) As for confusing the OP or other PNMs/aspirants, these college students can handle reading our comments and corrections (when applicable). That is part of the research, discussion, and learning processes of being a college student as well as GLO aspirant. They can handle being perplexed and doing what they need to do via the Internet and in real life to figure stuff out. If they cannot handle it and cannot do what they need to do to figure stuff out...well...I weep for college education and the future of all of our fraternities and sororities.