SDSU?
 

Whats the recruitment experience at San Diego State like? I have a friend who is interested in joining a sorority. She's going to start taking classes there this summer, she's active duty navy, on shore duty right now - will be there at least until the end of 2009. She's 25. I checked out the panhellenic website there, and saw there were quite a few sororities for her to checkout - however - whats the culture like? As a 25 year old, will she be one of the ones who's laughed at and passed up, or will she have a decent shot? It also looks like they do Spring Formal recruitment? Is there an opportunity for COR, or anything like that?

Thanks.

It's Fall Formal Recruitment. There's usually Spring Informal Recruitment due to the way they set total every year. At almost any school the greeks are the party people of the school. State has a rep as a party school. You can imagine what the rep of the greeks are on campus.

Will she still be on active duty or is she getting out of the Navy? Would she be willing to live in house with the majority of the girls being 18/19?

I think her choices would be severely limited at State but if she's truly interested there's no harm in going through Fall Recruitment.

^^^Yes, State's a party school. I don't know if they finalized "Sorority Row" yet, but they finalized "Fraternity Row" before I graduated.

And the young ladies are 18/19 that join a Sorority... I don't know which ones who would ameneable to older members. I think SDSUchelle (I think?) joined at SDSU? You may want to PM her.

She would still be active duty until December 2009. Are new members required to live in the house? I dont think she's technically a freshman, I believe she's got enough transfer credits that she's a sophomore. She's really interested in joining, but I dont think she's given thought to living in a house - she has her own apartment out in town. She knows there's alot involved - she's asked me alot of questions since she knew I was in a sorority and now that she's going back to school, she wants to give it a shot. But she's concerned about her age more than anything. If she were stationed on a ship that frequently went out to sea, there would be no way she could do it, but since she's got a shore duty assignment right now, she can do pretty much anything.

The SDSU Sorority row project has been shelved. There is one new NPC group on campus...not sure if they have a house, and I think the campus may be open for expansion soon so there may be an opportunity to join a group that is a colony next year. Formal recruitment is in Sept, after the start of classes and it is really geared to new freshmen, sophomores and junior transfers from CCs. There will be NPC groups that will probably have at least a few spots to fill in informal rush in both the Fall and Spring. There are also many different multi-cultural sororities on campus. A 25 year old who has served in the military probably wouldn't relate all that well to the majority of NPC groups where the average member is 20-21. But that doesn't mean she should not pursue membership if she's truly interested. The people who work in the Housing and Greek Life office at SDSU are terrific and will answer all her questions!

I joined ADPi at SDSU but I did open recruitment and only looked at ADPi so I can't be any help. :-/

I agree that being older, her choices might be limited (unfortunately)

I believe most chapters base live in requirements on sorority class standing as opposed to college class standing. Even if she was a 5th year by the college standards she'd still be a 1st year by the sorority's standards and could be required to live in the house. Two nearly universal ways to get out of that is to have an unbreakable lease locked in before she joins or she owns her home.

With affordable student housing near campus at a premium....I don't think most of the chapters at SDSU have to require members to live in...the houses are not that big...they had huge pledge classes there last year...like 65+ or something...I'd guess that every available bed is reserved and there are waiting lists to move in.

A girl in my pledge class was 25 (and a legacy to our chapter). She never truly fit it with the rest of us who were 18 and 19 year olds. After initiation when activities were no longer mandatory, she never came around and really didn't have any friends in the sorority. I think she was probably uncomfortable being so much older than the rest of us but had wanted to join anyway. She ended up transferring to a school in the Midwest the following year; no one that I know of has talked to her since.
If your friend wants to give recruitment a shot, best of luck to her. But I think she should seriously consider if she will fit in with younger girls.

I was 23 when I joined. That's why I'm asking about the speccific campus culture. Some campuses, it's not strange at all, where as on other campuses, older girls will be eatten alive. I'm getting the impression that with as many sororities to choose from as there are, and the "party" atmosphere that was described, that SDSU is more of a traditional school, rather than a commuter campus with alot of non-traditional students. From what I've seen and heard, commuter campuses, or even campuses with housing, but lots of non-traditional students, tend to be more flexible with age and class standing, whereas, at an SEC school, you're pretty much doomed if you arent an 17 or 18 year old freshman taking your very first college class ever....

Same thing happened when I sat on EC as an advisor. One of the senior girls convinced her roommate to rush and pledge, and at this time Flo was about 25. While she was great during her NM Education and got along fine with her NM class, she did a total 180 once she was initiated. The girls she hung out with in the chapter were all graduating and she had no reason whatsoever to stay active with the rest of the chapter. She gave us hell because she wanted to be granted alum status even though she technically wasn't eligible for it, but in the end it was easier for us to just give it to her we didn't have to put up with her crap.

I think navane would be another good person to ask about your friend's situation.

I remember a sister at ASU joined when she was 23-24. I wasn't a member of the ASU chapter (didn't affiliate), but I met her (ironically) 9-11 and we got to talking. She was a sophomore at the time, like I said 23-24, and went through formal recruitment. From what I remember, I think she had a pretty good formal recruitment. From what I vaguely know about ASU formal recruitment is that most PNM's are Freshman, very few are sophomores and even less are juniors.

I personally say she has nothing to lose by going for it. She just needs to be herself and if the chapter likes her, despite her age, than even better.