Greek life at Purdue??
 

Hey everyone

I have a friend going to Purdue (in Indiana) in the fall and she is interested in looking into Greek Life there.

Are any of you from there or know of thier Greek Life dynamics?

Re: Re: Greek life at Purdue??
 

Yes, it does. I have a friend there who's a SDT, and I've only heard good things. I odn't know much else, but I've always gotten a favorable impression of their greek life.

Wish your friend luck for us! :D

to both- thanks for replying! i'll check that link out!

I found a rush thread from last year's rush there and #s wise it sounds like they had about the same #s of PNMs going through for 15 houses as my collegiate school. At my school, when girls register, they're told often that recommendations are completely unnecessary and that rush is pretty casual.

However, we all know at some schools-it seems more important in the south....that it is VITAL to have recs and dress can be very important. i would feel AWFUL for my friend to arrive-esp being an out of state student and start rush feeling completely unprepared.
I was wondering how competitive it is to get into a house there and how important reccomendations are, and anything else in particular to prep for rush.

I talked to my friend for a long time today explaing to her the benefits of rushing and how the mutual selection system works etc. of course I can only tell her kinda vaguely bc alot of things are school specific.

One interesting thing to point out about NPC recruitment at Purdue this year is that they have moved to a first semister date when they have had deferred recruitment. Recruitment this year starts 9/4/04, so this year will be a change for everyone.

I have no information to add, but I just want to say that I'd love to hear anything that anybody knows . . . My little sister is going to be a senior in high school this year, and as of right now her first choice school is Purdue. I think I've pretty much convinced her to rush (despite the fact that she was anti-Greek before I joined my sorority -- yay for changing minds!).

Purdue Panhellenic's set of FAQs for this fall's formal recruitment is in PDF (Adobe Acrobat needed) at:

http://www.purdue.edu/greek/reports/...itment_faq.pdf

As to recommendations, the FAQ page says they are not required by Panhellenic but some sororities use them.

Actually, of course, some sororities (not all) have national policies stating that a woman must be "sponsored" (or some other word indicating a recommendation of some kind). In theory if a sorority chapter is really interested in someone, it will manage to get a recommendation or "sponsor" for her. Now, on planet Earth, if there are hundreds of women going through recruitment -- and if, as at Purdue, the timing and details of the formal recruitment process are new to everybody this year -- a sorority may not have the time and energy to put into tracking down a recommendation or going through a special process to make sure someone is "sponsored."

So my guess is that it would be a good idea to try to get recommendations to as many of the Purdue sororities as possible.

Hi! I'm new to this whole posting thing, but I saw your post about Purdue's Greek system. I'm going to be a sophomore at Purdue in the fall and joined a house last semester.

Purdue's recruitment page is: www.purduegreeks.com
That has some useful information in the sorority recruitment section. If you have any other questions I'd love to help!

:)

I know I'm probably going to get reamed for this, people saying I should know better and what not, but I'm going to ask anyways. I've already asked one girl I went to UIFI with from purdue, but she hasn't gotten back to me so...

I have a friend who I work with, who is going to be going through formal recruitment at Purdue. She is a freshman and from Nebraska so she has no idea about any of the chapters, and she was super excited about deferred rush b/c she felt she would get a chance to know the houses. She knows tons of people in the Nebraska Greek system, so she's familiar with the process and knows she wants to go greek (and she'll go no matter what). However the new fall rush schedule has her totally freaked out, because she doesn't want to fall into a house whose reputation is something she isn't.

She is very intelligent about greek life and has told me that while she knows she would love the girls and her chapter no matter what she doesn't want to find out that the reputation of a chapter is something not compatable with her or her goals. She's given me examples of how she would be upset if she had come to UNL and been placed in certain chapters there. She comes from Lincoln's "old money" HS so reputation is very important for her and her family.

If any one could give me an honest, fairly unbiased rundown of the reputations of the sorority chapters at Purdue through a Personal Message, please, please do PM me ASAP. I promise I will filter the information and not list many specifics when I tell her what I've gotten.

Again this is a favor I'm asking for from the GC community, so that I can help out a great friend who will be a great representative of any sorority chapter. She would be an absolute lock for any of the "best" chapters at Nebraska, and I know that if she were going to UNL, she would get her #1 choice - she's that awesome.

are you saying basically by rule some sororities will only have women who have had recs on thier bid list and those without recs are automatically cut?

if so, my friend should try to get a rec to all chapters if possible if she is serious about rush, correct?

and i know there are posts about this but honestly, how can you ask someoen who doesn't know you to write you a rec? I feel that a rec is a voucher for someone's character and if you can't back it up it is worthless. Personally, I think the system of giving "points" to PNMs for having recs or only considering those with recs is ridiculous. I think selections should be made by WHO the PNM is as an individual.

and to a degree i have the same opinion on legacies...just bc a woman is a legacy of a house does not mean she will be a good fit for that house. I understand that it is out of respect for the woman's mother/grandmother to give extra consideration for a PNM who is a legacy. in my opinion, to require that a legacy must be on a bid list is ridiculous. I know several women who joined thier legacy houses because they knew they were going to get in and because those houses had particular reputations. However, when they realized later on that they did not fit in, they left.

Another situation, one of my friends is a member of another chapter on campus. My friend told me that the policy for her house on our campus is that legacies MUST be on thier bid list if they make it to preferences. we had a PNM going through rush who was cut from every house but her legacy house and 1 other. Neither house were houses she wanted, and unfortunately the chapter she was a legacy to did not have the best opinion of her due to how she acted towards them during rush. fortunately for that chapter, the woman dropped out of rush so that chapter was able to have a woman who WAS a great fit for thier house in thier pledge class who might have otherwise been dissapointed.

Recs could never hurt you of course, but I know at Purdue its not a HUGE deal if you don't have any. I didn't, and I got my first choice. Not having a recommendation isn't going to keep you from getting a bid from any house.

And as far as wanting to know the reputation of certain houses...a girl can easily figure it out during recruitment. Not to be stereotypical...but sometimes you can just tell. And at purdue, many times you can tell what the reputation is like. I wouldn't worry about falling into a place with a reputation that isn't like your own. You'll be able to get a feel for the house when you go. I didn't know the reputation of most of the houses when I went through, and I figured things out pretty quickly about what houses I belonged in and what houses I didn't.

Beta, with her being that far from home, is the reputation really going to matter?

If she's as smart as you say she is, I have confidence she'll figure out on her own which ones she doesn't fit in with. But I'd also warn her not to buy into stereotypes either. I asked a fraternity guy what the girls were like in the sororities right before rush because I didn't want to join a bunch of snotty chicks. I was told, "Well one is bitchy and one is fat." So I asked which one was which and he told me, "It changes every year."

Quality gentleman. I ended up making the choice best for me, and I supposedly joined the "fat" sorority. Like I care if a few (and I might add, it's only a few, which singles out those poor girls and REALLY pisses me off) of my sisters are a little overweight.

In short, stereotypes are full of it.

Beta, I would have you advise your friend just to go through rush with the idea of getting to know the houses, and if she feels comfortable with joining one she should go ahead, and if she still feels apprehensive, she can always drop out. I know it sounds unlikely, but the reality is that at almost any school, you can tell as much as you need to know about a sorority from rush. Sororities that have a lot of trashy girls don't just pull out their cashmere and pearls and keep their legs shut for two weeks of rush. ;)

I was worried about the same things that your friend was worried about when I rushed, but by the end of the first round I could tell more or less what was what -- and my opinion hasn't changed that much in the two years since I joined. I was pretty much dead on.

Also, I would be worried about taking advice from anybody on GC on what sororities are like what simply because there is no such thing as "unbiased" advice. What one person thinks of as the "dorky" sorority might be another person's conception of the sorority that is completely living up to their founders ideals, what somebody might thiink of as the hot sorority might be somebody else's "b*tchy sorority," one person's "fun" sorority might be another's "trashy" sorority. It would be unfortunate for your friend to write off a house that might be perfect for her just because of the rep that one person claims them to have.

Basically, what I'm saying is that every girl worries about the same thing your friend worries about, but 99 times out of a hundred, the rush process allows her to extract the information she needs. And on the off chance that she ends up joining a house that isn't for her, she'll realize it during her pledge period and can depledge and rush again the next year.

My organization happens to be one of those that says no woman can be given a bid without a rec, but I have no idea how strictly that is followed or what happens if it's not followed. However, as was already said, it's the responsibility of the CHAPTER to get a rec for a woman if they want to bid her and she doesn't have one. TRUST me, if a house wants you and they are requred to have a rec, they will get one for you no questions asked. It will just happen.

The local Alumnae Panhellenic is the best source for getting recs.