Highly selective schools GPA and recruitment
 

I see a lot of focus here on the GPA as a factor during Rush. But at highly selective schools ( in terms of university admission) almost every girl will come in with a very high GPA. So for fall recruitment that really couldn't be a factor. (E.g Michigan) Do those tend to have a less selective recruitment anyway. Or do they all delay Rush? ( e.g. Virginia . Vanderbilt) Is that coincidental.? Reading through these threads it appears there is a correlation and that's interesting. . Just wondering what you experts thought about it.

Borderline MS territory but when your freshman class average GPA is 4.2 woe is the girl with a 3.8.

Ahhh help a newbie out. I don't even know what MS means. Lol!

MS = Membership Selection.

What criteria is used to determine which PNMs are invited back to parties/rounds following Open House Round is private information; each sorority has its own criteria which are not discussed with non-members. And said criteria may not even be discussed with other chapters of the same sorority; it all depends.

Grades are #1, but there are other criteria. Honors & awards, holding an office in an organization, involvement in various organizations, personal connections within the sorority and, yes, looks, but that is way down the list.

Please don't forget personality, ability to hold a conversation, attitude, etc. :)

This ^^^ :D Yes, honors and GPA are fabulous, but we want girls who are likable and we'll want to be around. No, you don't have to be the queen of the extroverts, but be sweet and kind. There have been the special snowflakes with model looks and accomplishments who get dropped for having the personality of a gnat. :D

That makes sense KSUViolet. At a school like UTAustin you can't even get in without top grades. At schools like Stanford EVERYONE will have top grades and a killer resume.

I think there's general hope that students at highly selective schools will have the ability to balance academics with campus involvement.

My daughter was accepted at Michigan, but chose a highly selective school with deferred recruitment. Each sorority publishes minimum first semester GPA requirements in the recruitment booklet. I can't speculate on how individual sororities view HS GPAs during membership selection, but I suspect the first semester GPA is much more important...same for sophomores (very rare at her school) going through recruitment. I don't know the specific rationale for various schools' decision to have deferred recruitment, but the ability to see first semester grades and make sure a PNM is transitioning to college academic expectations would seem to be one factor.

I am amazed by what my daughter's sorority sisters have engaged in just this year: Miss America state pageant contestant, internships with Congress members and big name corporations, varsity sport athletes and cheerleaders, research projects, study abroad at Oxford and the London School of Economics, newpaper editor, campus organization leaders, etc.

THIS.

In my experience as an undergrad and advisor at UCLA, grades were never a major deciding factor for first-quarter freshman. Everyone had a stellar academic record. There were never any grade cuts for this group. And if for some reason a woman had a much lower GPA than the norm (honestly, anything under 4.0 was low), then there was likely some other major consideration on her resume - athletes being the most common exception.

Also - I've found that looking at GPAs for a group like this can be very misleading. A 4.0 for one student might be the same as a 4.9 for a girl who attended a different high school. It'll depend on the number of AP classes and the competition at each school. It's my understanding that many universities will look at class rank during admissions in order to help normalize those numbers, but we often don't do that during recruitment.

Last thing - as with almost anything, any piece of data can be used as a tie-breaker. I've said it before - many chapters need to cut a certain number of PNMs, and the differences between the PNMs invited back and those cut can be razor thin. Things like letters of rec, GPA, and anything on the recruitment application can serve as tie-breakers.