Alabama Rush and First Cuts: Predetermined?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by mikewozowski

i don't understand why you would say this, after all the "every chapter is a wonderful chapter" comments that are seen around here.

Originally Posted by Beaumom

I agree mikew...I enjoyed having sisters from all over the country.

Y'all are new. You'll understand soon enough where these comments come from.

[Beaumom]

I'm newish! But my D is a senior at Bama. And with the changing enrollment at UA I think some of the "top tier" houses realized they missed some great oos girls in the past.

This year Alabama has 240 National Merit Scholars and I would assume that Presidential numbers are up to. The Honors department at UA does a wonderful recruiting many OOS students. Many who are choosing to go greek.

So if the houses who only want girls from certain cities over look these talented young ladies that is their choice. It is only making the other houses stronger.

By the way my D is very very happy with both her greek and UA experience.

And now she is off to a even more selective academic process of getting into medical school!

[magnoliacurious]

For those who may be interested, the official University bid list has been up for a few hours!

[Hartofsec]

Originally Posted by magnoliacurious

For those who may be interested, the official University bid list has been up for a few hours!

Thanks!

Here is the link:

http://uanews.ua.edu/2012/08/ua-soro...-announced-13/

Congrats to all the girls and all the chapters!

As an aside -- for those interested in the outcome of jll's daughter's recruitment -- she continued to have a full compliment of parties to attend, evaluated and prioritized her options, and finished recruitment pledging her top pref choice. She is a delighted new member of great chapter. Thanks to her mom for letting some of us know... a happy ending!

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Y'all are new. You'll understand soon enough where these comments come from.

What are you thinking here? Are you going by which posters make the comments or that everyone eventually gets a greekchat tutorial in SEC elitist thinking?

It's true that chapters that focus on in-state girls from certain city miss out on great out of state girls, but it's also true that sometimes people decide that some of what makes them socially elite is only associating with their own group of folks. I think this is more prevalent with fraternity pledge classes than with sororities since you always make sure you get quota in sorority recruitment.

I don't think this is the way to go personally, but I would love to know if there's a correlation between return rates and percentage of out of state girls. I think there probably is on some campuses.

To be honest, since Bama is over 50% out of state these days, I think, I'd expect that all of the groups are opening up to out of state girls.

[magnoliacurious]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

What are you thinking here? Are you going by which posters make the comments or that everyone eventually gets a greekchat tutorial in SEC elitist thinking?

It's true that chapters that focus on in-state girls from certain city miss out on great out of state girls, but it's also true that sometimes people decide that some of what makes them socially elite is only associating with their own group of folks. I think this is more prevalent with fraternity pledge classes than with sororities since you always make sure you get quota in sorority recruitment.

I don't think this is the way to go personally, but I would love to know if there's a correlation between return rates and percentage of out of state girls. I think there probably is on some campuses.

To be honest, since Bama is over 50% out of state these days, I think, I'd expect that all of the groups are opening up to out of state girls.

As a matter of fact, according to my count from the bid list, only one Bama' sorority had more PNM's from Alabama than not!! And even the one was over forty percent out-of-state. I think they've been opening up to out-of-state young ladies pretty good lately!!

[magnoliacurious]

Originally Posted by Hartofsec

Thanks!

Here is the link:

http://uanews.ua.edu/2012/08/ua-soro...-announced-13/

Congrats to all the girls and all the chapters!

As an aside -- for those interested in the outcome of jll's daughter's recruitment -- she continued to have a full compliment of parties to attend, evaluated and prioritized her options, and finished recruitment pledging her top pref choice. She is a delighted new member of great chapter. Thanks to her mom for letting some of us know... a happy ending!

Sure thing, sorry I didn't think to post the link!!

[Hartofsec]

Something I’ve noticed for years, and again on this year’s bid list, is how few girls from Mississippi appear on the lists. I know a number of Greek girls from here (Alabama) who attend Ole Miss and Mississippi State (and we are also a less populous state), but have wondered why UofA doesn’t seem to attract more students from Mississippi.

Anyone from Mississippi who has some insight?

[ladybug12]

I could probably count on my fingers (and maybe toes) the number of women from Mississippi who went through recruitment at Bama this year...and the past few years.

It probably has to do with out of state tuition costs and excellent scholarships offered to in-state women to try to keep them in Mississippi schools. I personally know of several women who turned down scholarships to out of state schools due to better money offered from Mississippi universities.

[amIblue?]

I've often thought that the increase in OOS students at Alabama is directly correlated with the return to a successful football program with Saban and the increased national media exposure. There's no better advertising. Schools typically see an increase in applicants following a national championship, and y'all have had two in the last three years.

[MaryPoppins]

Mississippi's population is just under three million and it has the lowest per capita income of all 50 states. According to the 2010 Census, there were about 76,000 teenagers in Mississippi from ages 15-18. Almost half of those were boys, right about 1/3 of those would be 18 in 2012, but only about 50% (at most) of the female cohort graduated from high school. Based on my lawyerly math skills this would mean roughly about 6,333 college aged women who might be eligible for recruitment. With the low income rate and the need for low skilled work not all of them will go to an undergraduate program. Also not all of them will go to a school with a Greek system or have the money to devote to Greek life. Mississippi has one of the highest military enlistment rates in the nation. Now, only 1 to 4 high schools in Mississippi make the national "best of" lists depending on which list you pick. This means the students eligible for recruitment in out-of-state schools maybe an even smaller pool than one might expect.

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by amIblue?

I've often thought that the increase in OOS students at Alabama is directly correlated with the return to a successful football program with Saban and the increased national media exposure. There's no better advertising. Schools typically see an increase in applicants following a national championship, and y'all have had two in the last three years.

That helps, but the fact that Georgia, Florida and other states offer their students free tuition is one of the big reasons.
It's great that they get free tuition (paid for by lotteries), but that means the in-state schools now have their choice of students...thus they can be pickier about the GPAs they'll accept.
Which means they fill up their freshman classes with higher-achieving students...leaving those with lower grades (and sometimes only slightly lower) out in the cold, and forced to attend an out-of-state school unless they want to go the private school route.
At the same time, UA has been offering free full rides to National Merit finalists, and other generous scholarships to high-achieving students. The newer dorms appeal to freshmen...nice recreation centers...honors college...and so on.
Add to all that - a sluggish economy means fewer jobs, so more people staying in school longer.
In the long run, I doubt the growth will continue. Things will slow down eventually.

[magnoliacurious]

Originally Posted by amIblue?

I've often thought that the increase in OOS students at Alabama is directly correlated with the return to a successful football program with Saban and the increased national media exposure. There's no better advertising. Schools typically see an increase in applicants following a national championship, and y'all have had two in the last three years.

Well that certainly doesn't hurt, but I remember that Bama' was getting a big increase in out-of-state students during the mediocre Mike Shula years too (2003-06). In fact, this year's increase in sorority recruitment signups was just two more than the previous (I assume) record numerical increase in 2006 - I've read the Bama' Greek Affairs Sorority Recruitment statistics online from time-to-time. I think the main thing was that Dr. Robert Witt really did a good job as President of the University recruiting, including out-of-state students. As I said earlier, he really was the Alabama greek system's best friend!!

[AGDee]

It's also crazy cheap for OOS students compared to other schools. Makes me wonder just why the University of Michigan costs so much.

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by AnchorAlumna

That helps, but the fact that Georgia, Florida and other states offer their students free tuition is one of the big reasons.
It's great that they get free tuition (paid for by lotteries), but that means the in-state schools now have their choice of students...thus they can be pickier about the GPAs they'll accept.
Which means they fill up their freshman classes with higher-achieving students...leaving those with lower grades (and sometimes only slightly lower) out in the cold, and forced to attend an out-of-state school unless they want to go the private school route.
At the same time, UA has been offering free full rides to National Merit finalists, and other generous scholarships to high-achieving students. The newer dorms appeal to freshmen...nice recreation centers...honors college...and so on.
Add to all that - a sluggish economy means fewer jobs, so more people staying in school longer.
In the long run, I doubt the growth will continue. Things will slow down eventually.

From my time as an SAT prep tutor in Atlanta, I can testify about the impact the hope scholarship has had on how difficult it has become to get into UGA. Many of my students listed Auburn and Alabama as their target schools. Similar cultures to UGA, etc.