International Students and Big Greek Systems

[Nanners52674]

I've been following a thread on another site where a big discussion is taking place about recruitment at at the big schools (SEC, Texas etc...) and how their rec "required" recruitment that starts before school is unfair to international students and does not accommodate them if they wish to go Greek

I admirably know next to nothing about these systems, so I'm interested to hear from the in the know parties about international students at these schools and how they fair in recruitment? Do they even go through recruitment?

[ChioLu]

At UCLA, we have many international students go through Recruitment. Even if they are only at the university for 1 year. That's their Study Abroad. If the SA (Study Abroad) international students go to pref, they are QAs.

Last year, Chi Omega had new members from 4 other countries, & they were 4-year students (not 1-year Study Abroad students).
I believe every chapter -- there are 11 + AGD colonizing this fall -- has more than 1 international student as a member.

Granted, Recruitment doesn't start until a couple of days before classes, after Freshman orientation, after the big welcome party (Bruin Bash) and UCLA is on the quarter system (school doesn't start until late September), so that probably helps.

[33girl]

If you're motivated enough to figure out how to do all it takes to study in another country, you're motivated enough to contact an alumnae Panhellenic and ask them for help securing recs. Know what you're getting into before you jump into it.

[Titchou]

On campuses that have a lot of international students, like USC and UCLA, you'll see a good number of them in GLOs. It's not unusual there and many groups have ways of getting that "required" rec in these types of situations.

[Football Fan]

It is not unusual for sororities at Southern California to have international students in their new member classes. Many of these are newly enrolled freshmen who have graduated from "American" schools in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan. My guess is Canadian students are the most likely to join Greek chapters followed by Australia and New Zealand.

SC has 17 international alumni clubs. The university has strong ties to Pacific Rim countries. The largest number of international students enroll from China, South Korea and Canada.