Educational Bama Recruitment Story

[BamaMom12]

My daughter went through rush fall 2012 and I thought I would share her rush results with everyone. It should give those participating in the upcoming rush an example of how it works.
For Open House she visited all 16 sororities (8 on Day 1 and 8 on Day 2). At the end of Day 2, she voted/submitted her 4 least favorites.
My daughter had her own personal ranking of 1-16. This ranking started after visiting the second house and continued throughout the first two days. It was beneficial to her so she wouldn’t “forget” where the sororities stood in her mind. She listed #13/14/15/16 on her ballot at the end of day 2.
At the beginning of Day 3, she had been invited back to the maximum number of houses, which was 12. According to her rankings, these houses were no longer in the picture: #6, #7, #15 and #16. Thus, two houses she wanted to visit again released her (#6, #7) and her two least favorites (#15, #16) she “dropped”. Her top 5 were still intact.
For Philanthropy Day she visited 12 sororities (4 on Day 3 and 4 on Day 4). At the end of Day 4, she voted/submitted her 4 least favorites. She listed #9/10/11/12 on her ballot at the end of day 4.
It is important to mention my daughter had started a clean ranking slate from 1-12 and her rankings did change from the original 1-16 rankings. For example: #1 was still #1, #2 was now #3, #3 was now #2, #4 was now #8, #5 was now #4, etc. Thus, she started this second round of visits with an open mind and fresh opinion.
At the beginning of Day 5, she had been invited back to the maximum number of houses, which was 8. According to her new rankings, these houses were no longer in the picture: #1, #2, #8 and #12. Thus, three houses she wanted to visit again released her (#1, #2, #8) and her least favorite (#12) she “dropped”. Thus, her top 5 were no longer intact as her first and second choice, at this point, were out of the picture. However, #3, #4, #5 and the five others were still in the picture.
It is important to mention she was more excited than disappointed at this point. Although two favorites were gone, there were still favorites in the picture. And, she was having an excellent recruitment.
For Skit Day she visited 8 sororities (4 on Day 5 and 4 on Day 6). At the end of Day 6, she voted/submitted her 5 least favorites. She listed # 4/5/6/7/8 on her ballot at the end of day 6.
Yes, she kept an open mind, started another clean ranking slate from 1-8, her ranking did change again, and it was a tough decision to narrow down to only 3.
At the beginning of Day 7, she had been invited back to the maximum number of houses, which was 3. According to her rankings, these houses were no longer in the picture: #1, #2, #3, #7 and #8. Thus, the top three houses she wanted to visit again released her (#1, #2, #3) and her two least favorites (#7 and #8) she “dropped”. She was delighted to be invited to 3 preference parties and liked the 3 remaining houses, #4,#5,#6 and was willing to accept a bid from any of them.
Preference Day went well and it was another tough choice ranking the remaining three sororities. Yes, her rankings changed again. This time, she voted/submitted her ballot in order of preference (favorite to least favorite).
On Bid Day, she received her first choice and was extremely excited.
My daughter told me this past spring that the sorority she is in, is the place she needed to be. She isn’t sure how “the system” works, but she adamently stated, “it works”. She truly loves her sorority and it is a great fit for her. She will live in the house beginning in August for her sophomore year, and to me that says it all. As for how her sorority ranked in her mind during the entire process, here you go: Open House rank #8 (of 16), Philanthropy Day #6 (of 12), Skit Day #5 (of 8), and Preference Day #1 (of 3).
I encourage all the PNM mom’s on here to let your daughter make up her own mind and encourage her to keep an open mind. I emotionally supported my daughter through the entire process, but told her ultimately it was up to her because she would be the one living with the decision and it was her happiness. I would also prepare my daughter of the possibility of being released if her GPA is not 3.0.
And for what it is worth: She is an OOS student, entered Bama with a 3.6 GPA, had female relatives who were legacies write recommendation letters and it did not influence anything, had three sororities in which no recommendation letter was written (because we couldn’t find anyone to write one), thus not received and it did not influence anything (because she continued to get invited back) and, most importantly, she comes from a long line of Roll Tide fans and her mother, yours truly, is an alumnae. ROLL TIDE ROLL! History does repeat itself! Except for the fact that I was GDI – LOL.
And finally, I know there are many members on this site that do not like the terminology of a PNM “dropping” a sorority and would probably like to take up stance with me for using it. However, my daughter did “drop” sororities during this process. To have her put her least favorites on a ballot to never be seen again is considered dropping. It happened too many times during the process for it to be a “mutual” decision.
Thanks for reading and I hope this was helpful.