I know our sorority(my home chapter and I've been an advisor to another)advisors would tend to look at
where you went to high school. Is it known as a hard school?
Definitely get the letter.
If it makes you feel any better, I had a 2.5 GPA coming in ( I went to several different high schools- one which was well-known for being hard). I also have a
very hard time with math. In fact, I flunked Algebra I, and I was in gifted class! I had a lot of bad Math teachers. I made all A's my senior year, and I still had that crummy GPA. Growing up, I never had to study at all and did well on scholastic aptitude tests. I think when I got to high school, I just didn't really know how to study until I got to senior year.
I was cut from one of the top sororities (I hope just because of that!
- spots were competitive there so I'm sure they have to ultimately decide things with GPA's), but had a great rush otherwise. Yes, I know Ole Miss is more competitive than my school, Southern Miss.
The good news was I made a 4.0 my first semester and for other semesters after that! Yay! Well, until I met my hubby.....
Anyway, I ended with a 3.3. I know my niece is at Ole Miss right now, and she's been breezing through it after her hard AP load at a Jackson private school. High schools are really hard now, if you are taking honors classes, AP classes, or the hardest - International Baccalaureate classes. Her GPA went up a good bit from high school. Maybe yours will too with hard work.
So, I'm
not a fan of the ridiculously high GPA's as a requirement, simply because I've been in that position. Also, sororities have study halls which you don't get if you are an independent. So it would not be a surprise if your grades go up when you get on campus.
You just need to be working diligently once you get there.
I think the whole picture of the potential new member needs to be looked at. Was there a divorce during high school years? Was a parent ill with cancer? Hopefully, through your recommendation letters (also known as sponsor forms), the person writing them will know you well enough to get the reason for your poor grades- a learning disability- across.
I also saw on the website that they will look at your ACT scores as well. That could be really helpful because many will be high in reading and extremely low in Math (my situation but back then they didn't look at all that) or vice versa. It becomes pretty obvious that there's a learning problem when you have a big discrepancy like a 25 on the Reading section and an 11 in the Math section!
A lot of people think incorrectly that there is all this help now in schools for people with the milder learning disabilities and there just isn't. As a former teacher plus having a child with mild autism, most of us do not know how to deal with LD children. That's why LindaMood Bell does so well, despite charging 20K for their services. For people with ADD, it's basically Ritalin or some other drug and
that's it.
Many people have this and will be sympathetic.
I wish you good luck! I know that being in a sorority helped me in so many ways- my grades and just encouragement from sisters. They saw good things in me and developed them- things I couldn't see for myself.