African American going through recruitment at Alabama?

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Have a seat.

As an NPC member who attended Alabama, YOU have a seat!

[Senusret I]

Y'ALL DONE MADE ORIGINAL SENUSRET COME BACK! UGGGGHHHHHH

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by Titchou

As an NPC member who attended Alabama, YOU have a seat!

LOL at assuming that the OP has a low GPA because she used "wanna" on an internet forum, while you have your modifier dangling all over the place in just this one sentence.

Sen is not, as far as I know, an NPC member who attended Alabama.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

LOL at assuming that the OP has a low GPA because she used "wanna" on an internet forum, while you have your modifier dangling all over the place in just this one sentence.

Sen is not, as far as I know, an NPC member who attended Alabama.

And that, too. LOL

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

LOL at assuming that the OP has a low GPA because she used "wanna" on an internet forum, while you have your modifier dangling all over the place in just this one sentence.

Sen is not, as far as I know, an NPC member who attended Alabama.

I only have an MA in English, but I didn't find the OP's grammar terribly atrocious. She also had strong word choice in her posts with her adjectives and adverbs. Much stronger than many other posts I've seen on GC.

The realistic answer is that there isn't enough data to give you an answer. To the best of my knowledge only about 4 AA women have ever gone thru at Alabama. One was actually1/2 AA and she pledged a group. The others either dropped out or were released. Grades and recs are necessary at Alabama so it's possible the remaining 3 were lacking in one or more of those respects - but no one will ever know as membership selection is private.

So, seeing as during those 4 years some 6,000 women total went thru recruitment, it's hard to say why 3 didn't make it to bid day. Too small a sample.

Also, Titchou...it's "through" not "thru." Or is it only OK for you to truncate words in your posts? The comma should also be your friend.

[mom3boys]

Originally Posted by amIblue?

I only have an MA in English, but I didn't find the OP's grammar terribly atrocious. She also had strong word choice in her posts with her adjectives and adverbs. Much stronger than many other posts I've seen on GC.

While words like "wanna, gonna, and thru" are common place in a casual environment like an internet forum, I believe the old adage is always true: Profanity is a sign of a weak mind and a poor vocabulary.

[Senusret I]

Originally Posted by mom3boys

While words like "wanna, gonna, and thru" are common place in a casual environment like an internet forum, I believe the old adage is always true: Profanity is a sign of a weak mind and a poor vocabulary.

[Oneperson]

Originally Posted by Yoquierotacobel

Hello! I was looking into recruitment at the a university of Alabama and saw a thread about race. I basically got the idea that an African American female going through npc recruitment at Alabama is a terrible idea and is setting herself up for disaster.

Let's go back to the original question.
The answer is: yes. The odds are that you will not receive a bid from an NPC group.
No sorority wants to be the second to pledge an AA. (A sorority pledged an AA in 2002, the year after the Melody Twilley blowup. That was a brokered deal, but it was a first.)
Why?
Because of the alumnae. Because of the way fraternities entwine with sororities and the whole mating thing. Because they're afraid no white woman will pledge the next go-round because of it.
If one of the "circle sororities" or "old row sororities" (UA folks will know what that means) pledge AAs, then everybody will pledge AAs. Might even fight over them. But those select groups will be the LAST to do it.
Should that scare you off? Maybe. But it's important for more and more and more AA women to sign up and go through. Because you can't pledge if you don't try. Because it will remain a problem in hiding if you don't sign up and go through. Because somebody's got to do it.

Flame on, brothers and sisters.

[Yoquierotacobel]

I wanna(WANT TO) thank everyone who took the time to read and post.

I am from a southern state so I am very familiar with recommendations. My sister is in a sorority but at a completely different school (not a southern school) and all of the counselors at my school went to U of A or UT Austin and are of course, in sororities.

As far as GPA & academics, I'm not sure if it is appropriate to post my information(GPA, extracurriculars, etc) on here so unless someone says it's safe or ok, I will not. The most I will mention is my GPA is indeed above 3.7.

My thoughts on recruitment at UA are that African American women are put off by the stereotypes, and as a result, few African Americans go through. And if an African American does happen to go through recruitment and gets cut, it's assumed because of race. So the cycle continues of there being no African American women. But in reality, so many females get cut because it's so competitive and it's impossible to say WHY a girl (regardless of race) may have been cut.

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by mom3boys

While words like "wanna, gonna, and thru" are common place in a casual environment like an internet forum, I believe the old adage is always true: Profanity is a sign of a weak mind and a poor vocabulary.

Why are you quoting me and citing the use of profanity?

Senusret =|= weak mind nor poor vocabulary.

Here's Titchou's post:

Since you didn't say anything about your GPA (must be well over a 3.0) nor that you have 2 recs for every house and since your grammar would lead one to believe that your grades are not at the appropriate level ("wanna" used repeatedly), I am assuming that you don't meet the basic requirements anyway....no matter the color of your skin. You've already outed yourself here if anyone wants to figure it out once recruitment begins.

In other words, the bitch had it coming. Her post to the OP was unnecessarily rude and judgmental; frankly, it smacked of fear that "the Blacks" might somehow sully the sororities at Alabama by daring to join. It was also vaguely threatening; she told the OP that she had already outed herself. Is that in any way a reasonable response?

I can do that, too.

[Yoquierotacobel]

Originally Posted by Oneperson

Let's go back to the original question.
The answer is: yes. The odds are that you will not receive a bid from an NPC group.
No sorority wants to be the second to pledge an AA. (A sorority pledged an AA in 2002, the year after the Melody Twilley blowup. That was a brokered deal, but it was a first.)
Why?
Because of the alumnae. Because of the way fraternities entwine with sororities and the whole mating thing. Because they're afraid no white woman will pledge the next go-round because of it.
If one of the "circle sororities" or "old row sororities" (UA folks will know what that means) pledge AAs, then everybody will pledge AAs. Might even fight over them. But those select groups will be the LAST to do it
Should that scare you off? Maybe. But it's important for more and more and more AA women to sign up and go through. Because you can't pledge if you don't try. Because it will remain a problem in hiding if you don't sign up and go through. Because somebody's got to do it.

Flame on, brothers and sisters.

I'm not aiming at any particular house because I have yet to know who I would fit in with and have a connection with. I know many girls go into Alabama recruitment with a particular house in mind, but I can't make the assumption that I would automatically click with the girls in the Old Row sororities. Even though, I might add, my sister is pressuring me into one of the Old Row sororities because she happens to be an active member of that particular sorority, but I am not bothered by her constant hinting.

I do very much appreciate your input.

[DubaiSis]

It sounds to me like you know what you're up against and will be as prepared as you can be to go through formal rush. Although OnePerson MAY be correct, this opinion might be outdated and overblown. Not to use President Obama as an example for all that is right with the world, but through the entire first election people said "but those southerners won't actually vote for him when they're alone in the booth." And clearly a lot of them did. And not just black southerners.

I do agree that if a chapter were going to take their chances on you, it would be one of the higher prestige chapters. The one or two who struggle for quota every year probably can't take the risk of becoming that house with the black girl.

I will be interested to learn how your rec writers handle your situation. Good luck!'

And just as an aside, have you thought about attending a school that would be more open to accepting women of color into all the social circles? I'm guessing that if it's this hard for a black girl to get into an NPC sorority she'd have trouble getting accepted into other groups as well. If you're not going to have as complete a college experience as you could somewhere else, maybe your dollars could be better spent elsewhere. I know it's about the education first, but there are a lot of good schools out there that you wouldn't have to worry about this.

[Yoquierotacobel]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

It sounds to me like you know what you're up against and will be as prepared as you can be to go through formal rush. Although OnePerson MAY be correct, this opinion might be outdated and overblown. Not to use President Obama as an example for all that is right with the world, but through the entire first election people said "but those southerners won't actually vote for him when they're alone in the booth." And clearly a lot of them did. And not just black southerners.

I do agree that if a chapter were going to take their chances on you, it would be one of the higher prestige chapters. The one or two who struggle for quota every year probably can't take the risk of becoming that house with the black girl.

I will be interested to learn how your rec writers handle your situation. Good luck!'

And just as an aside, have you thought about attending a school that would be more open to accepting women of color into all the social circles? I'm guessing that if it's this hard for a black girl to get into an NPC sorority she'd have trouble getting accepted into other groups as well. If you're not going to have as complete a college experience as you could somewhere else, maybe your dollars could be better spent elsewhere. I know it's about the education first, but there are a lot of good schools out there that you wouldn't have to worry about this.

Hello!
I have applied to Alabama(received acceptance), TCU(early action, received acceptance), SMU(regular application date, no letter yet), U of A(received acceptance). I am not 100% familiar with the reputation of these schools. I know they are very competitive, but both in my personal life and online, has race been somewhat of an issue/non-issue at 'bama and 'Ole Miss.

I thought about OSU but I'm not fond of the location.

I did go snooping through the photos on the sorority websites at SMU & U of A, just to get an idea of how diverse they are or whatever. I also did so for Alabama(which is why I'm asking for input) but haven't bothered for TCU. I chose to apply to these schools specifically for my intended major, but aside from academics I do want to be well rounded.*

After going through their individual websites, I REALLY want to be in a sorority, so I'm not sure if I should allow the possibility of not being in a sorority affect my decision for which school I attend.

[AZTheta]

^^^ OP: is U of A ARIZONA?

Oh - probably not, sigh. Whenever I see U of A, I immediately think of Arizona. Someone can correct me on this: I usually see 'Bama and Auburn written, not abbreviations like "UofA" for those schools. On GC I also learned that it's UT, not UTA or UT Austin. Let's see - what else? Oh yes! "Ole Miss" and THE Ohio State University (I still don't quite understand the latter).

Speaking of Auburn, how are the trees doing?

Anyway, at Arizona we don't have any "old row" or "circle"; and we have 11 (soon to be 12 as Alpha Chi Omega is returning in 2013) fine chapters. You can probably connect the rest of the dots.

There is another school 100 miles up the road, with a devil mascot, and they have sororities as well. They have much better shopping than we do in Tucson. But it's PHOENIX, blechh. Not much good to say about that, although I do have some GC friends up there, so it's not entirely hopeless.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by amIblue?

Here's Titchou's post:



In other words, the bitch had it coming. Her post to the OP was unnecessarily rude and judgmental; frankly, it smacked of fear that "the Blacks" might somehow sully the sororities at Alabama by daring to join. It was also vaguely threatening; she told the OP that she had already outed herself. Is that in any way a reasonable response?

I can do that, too.

Just so it can't be said that I skulked off in the night, I strongly disagree with this. First of all, I was not judgmental and rude. OP's original post was rather "loose" in language and information - loose enough to wonder if she had the required GPA and recs. Since sororities troll GreekChat to check out PNMs, any post one places here should be carefully considered. You can be outed in a few clicks of a mouse. Many people have been! If you don't want to be "outed", don't post it here. Many people here have figured out who I am. That's fine. And it needs to be fine with PNMs who post here also as it's going to happen to them.

Second, having a "black" in a sorority would not "sully" them in my opinion. I advise now on a campus that has had many - and in my group as well - and they've all been welcomed with open arms. You won't find anyone there saying otherwise. And we're just down the road from Tuscaloosa. Besides, if you knew me, you would know where I personally stand on this issue and the racist side is definitely not it!