Would you support raising the minimum GPA for freshman PNMs?
 

I was just speaking to my sister over the phone and she mentioned that she thought that the minimum GPA for NPC sororities was too low, she really likes that Kappa Kappa Gamma raised their minimum GPA to a 3.3 to join and thinks that the other sororities should bump up the GPA minimum for freshman, I agreed with her and so I am posing this question just to ask if you all would support bumping up the minimum GPA or what you think of the GPA requirements currently.

Just conversation fodder!

(The reason I ask this is because her school is very legacy based and she is in a very popular sorority there at the University of Texas, they had a PNM go through with a 1.9 GPA when the minimum required for her sorority is a 2.5 and her sorority voted to “let it slide”, at what point do you think letting things slide sets one up for failure and how do you think sororities should respond to grades and GPA)

In our sorority, there is no room to "let is slide". It is cut and dry. The minimum GPA established by the chapter's by-laws dictates what is permitted. As an adviser, I have seen legacies (unfortunately once a daughter of a personal friend from my chapter) come through just a sliver below our minimum GPA and she was cut. It needs to be included in the by-laws as gospel.

Recruiting members who will be productive students who have time to devote to chapter activities is critical. It doesn't do anyone any good to recruit pnms with poor GPAs to have them drop out of school or be prohibited from participating in social events because their GPA is sub par. Far better to recruit women who can manage the demands of class and sorority participation simultaneously.

I would sooner support universities instituting a minimum GPA to rush. Schools want to be so inclusive and as a result, let many, many girls rush who should not be encouraged to rush, at least not as freshmen. We have all seen the university Panhellenic pages that specifically state that there is no minimum GPA to rush, so girls happily sign up. They don't seem to understand the disconnect between the university's statement and the reality of sorority minimum GPA to be eligible for a bid.

This.

DoeofDenmark, NPC sororities are autonomous. The sororities are free to run their organizations as they see fit:to decide what minimum GPA requirement their chapters have, when initiation will be held, etc. As Thetalady suggested, it would be far more helpful for each college panhellenic to set a minimum GPA that has to be met in order to rush. It seems quite mercenary to allow everyone to sign up and pay a fee to rush, when often the chapters have higher GPA requirements than the min GPA required to sign up. Those low GPA girls don't have a chance to receive a bid.

The problem is, that would be going down the autonomous member selection slippery slope, same as panhellenics cannot say that women must have recs to rush at schools where you are in actual practice cut almost immediately without them. In the OP’s example...that’s entirely the sorority’s prerogative. If they want to give someone on her way to flunk out land a bid, they can.

Plus since women are coming from all different schools, the university would be opening themselves up to accusations of reverse discrimination- as we all know a 4.0 at high school A does not necessarily connote the same level of education and skill as a 4.0 at high school B.

Of course if they didn’t permit women to rush until they had an actual university GPA that might help :) since everyone would be measured with the same yardstick.

I just looked at the Greek Life page for the school I attended. They have a spreadsheet listing the minimum GPA for first year freshman for every chapter on campus. The minimums run from 2.5-3.8. The NPC chapters are on the higher end vs the other councils on campus. For fall 2019, the school received 94,000 applications which means they have a wide variety of student from which to select, so the majority of their new freshmen will meet the minimum requirements set by each chapter..

DaffyKD

(The reason I ask this is because her school is very legacy based and she is in a very popular sorority there at the University of Texas, they had a PNM go through with a 1.9 GPA when the minimum required for her sorority is a 2.5 and her sorority voted to “let it slide”, at what point do you think letting things slide sets one up for failure and how do you think sororities should respond to grades and GPA)[/QUOTE]

How in the world did someone with a 1.9 get admitted to the University of Texas? I have known of girls with outstanding grades and involvement who were rejected.

here's my thought: the PNM is a sophomore. That's her college GPA.

Don't know how far into this discussion we all can go, b/c it's membership selection. My opinion. Ciao!

And NPC is NEVER going to advocate or support moving all recruitment to 2nd semester or 2nd year (sophomores).

Exactly, hence the :) . Oh well!

How in the world did someone with a 1.9 get admitted to the University of Texas? I have known of girls with outstanding grades and involvement who were rejected.[/QUOTE]

AZtheta was correct, I am sorry! I forgot to mention that she was a second year and went through recruitment.

At my school, we do have a minimum GPA to go through recruitment, but every single chapter has a higher standard than the university. Average chapter GPAs at my school range from 3.35ish upwards to 3.8ish.

My chapter has increased our new member GPA requirement every year since I've been here, as have many of the others. For reference, we are a deferred school, so these are all college GPAs. I believe the highest standard this past recruitment was 3.0.

I agree with thetalady that it would be good to raise the university minimum. I see a lot of girls above the university min., who think they are fine going in, that get grade dropped and don't understand why.

3.8? I would expect that would make the sorority more exclusive than Phi Beta Kappa...

That’s high school GPA.

This. I call shenanigans. I know girls with a 3.6 (and then some) out of high school who have not been admitted. With fall recruitment for UT, we're not talking about their college GPA, we're talking about their HS GPA, and I just don't buy that someone was admitted with a 1.9. It's gotten so impossible to get in these days.

For those who don't know the situation...read this blog post: https://www.theparentsdean.com/blog-...GGp38mnllcauAI

Adding - just saw the part about 2nd year. Even with that being a separate quota...I'm not convinced.