GPA Question *tricky*

[EGAOPi]

You don't have to worry about providing your high school transcripts at this point. While your grades in community college are good, you also need to take into account that each school sees ALL college grades, so that includes community college AND the grades you earned in your state college. The Greek organizations get your academic information from the school--since they will have your records and go by ALL earned grades in college, they will see it all. However, it depends on how your current college calculates your GPA. It will likely be an average of all classes and if your state college GPA was below a 2.0, which is traditionally what it would have to be to be placed on academic probation, it could be very difficult for you to be extended a bid. That's not to say it's impossible, but it could be harder for you (especially considering your class standing, as well).
I know that advisors and financial aid can be hard to work with, but we all have to go through this. It's annoying, but sometimes you just have to work things out on your own.
As far as the struggle with finances and grades, focus on those before you go Greek.

[KSUViolet06]

It depends on the school's policy which GPA they will consider.

Panhellenic will have a minimum required GPA to participate in recruitment. But each individual sorority will have different minimum GPAs (that they will require you to have in order to receive a bid). For example, Panhellenic might require a 2.0 to rush, but XYZ sorority has a minimum GPA of 2.5.

Sororities take their academics very seriously. Every sorority on my campus always competed to be "#1 in grades". Sorority GPA requirements are often nationally required (and non-negotiable). So they pretty much have to cut anyone who is under their GPA requirement, even if they are stellar in other areas. And even if they have the option of taking a "grade risk", they won't because it would jeopardize the sororities' overall GPA.

Bottom line, your grades are really important (in recruitment and in school in general). Low GPA is one of those factors that will get you cut faster than anything else.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Panhellenic will have a minimum required GPA to participate in recruitment. But each individual sorority will have different minimum GPAs (that they will require you to have in order to receive a bid). For example, Panhellenic might require a 2.0 to rush, but XYZ sorority has a minimum GPA of 2.5.

How is the Panhellenic minimum set? Does the campus Panhellenic GPA requirement equal the lowest GPA requirement of all the chapters? So to use KSUViolet06's scenario, would there be at least one chapter on campus with a minimum 2.0 GPA requirement? Frankly, it does not seem fair that Panhellenic would allow a girl to rush with a lower GPA than what is required by at least one chapter.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by TSteven

How is the Panhellenic minimum set? Does the campus Panhellenic GPA requirement equal the lowest GPA requirement of all the chapters? So to use KSUViolet06's scenario, would there be at least one chapter on campus with a minimum 2.0 GPA requirement? Frankly, it does not seem fair that Panhellenic would allow a girl to rush with a lower GPA than what is required by at least one chapter.

It depends on the school. My school required a 2.5 to go through recruitment.

But that doesn't mean that at least one sorority HAS to have that GPA. The national GPA requirments of all the NPC sororities on my campus are all AT LEAST 2.5 to start with. Then we all chose on our own to make our GPAs even HIGHER in our local bylaws (NPCs can choose to make their GPAs higher than the minimum required by their HQ).

So as of 2006 recruitment, the Panhellenic GPA requirement to rush was just a 2.5, but the LOWEST individual sorority GPA was a 2.75. So yes, girls would sign up with a 2.5, but be released by all chapters for grades because they didn't meet any of the individual sorority GPAs. I've never really thought that was fair, but that's even more of an incentive for girls to be sure they have high enough grades.

[FSUZeta]

the fsu zeta webpage states that their minimum gpa requirement is a 3.0. most of the other fsu sororities have the same minimum, while a few others a lower gpa as their minimum.

i would hope that if a sorority makes a statement which they publish such as," blah blah chapter of abc sorority requires a minimum gpa of 3.0." that that truly is what the minimum is. i am not privy to the details of membership selection at my chapter anymore, since i live 7 hours away and am not able to assist during recruitment. i do know that gpa at or above the minimum, activities and honors, service, recs., friendly, outgoing personality and pleasant, well put together appearance would be plusses for a pnm at fsu and any other campus. on most campuses a girl would have to be really extra, extra special for a chapter to be willing to take a grade risk. the lower the gpa, the greater risk the pnm would seem to be.

i agree ksuviolet....i think it is rotten when the gpa required to enroll in recruitment is lower than the lowest gpa required by any of the campus sororities. i think that it is very misleading to pnms. panhellenic gpa requirements should be set at the lowest acceptable gpa of the campus sororities.

[UGAalum94]

I agree that Panhellenic shouldn't do that and it's another instance of how the official word can be misleading.

I just wanted to clarify that I didn't think chapters were deliberately misleading about the minimum, but that in actuality the average PNM who didn't have other strengths to offset the GPA might need a higher GPA than the minimum to avoid being released.

A great girl with a great rec, lots of activities, and who girls in the chapter knew could easily get a bid with with the minimum GPA. A great girl who didn't have a rec or know girls in the chapter, maybe would need a higher GPA?

I take the minimum to be as low as the chapter could go with someone they were willing to take a grade risk for. But that it's lower than average and what they'd really want.

[AchtungBaby80]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I take the minimum to be as low as the chapter could go with someone they were willing to take a grade risk for. But that it's lower than average and what they'd really want.

Exactly. You put it very well.

[TSteven]

GPA seems to play a much more important role in NPC membership selection (recruitment) than IFC/NIC rush.

What I have noticed with IFC/NIC is that the GPA to rush (if there is one) is usually the same as most of the fraternities. If I recall correctly, the NIC Standard being 2.3 to pledge. And yes, some campuses have a higher GPA to rush/pledge. Regardless, I would guess (hope) it would be the same GPA needed to rush and to pledge. In other words, the lowest chapter GPA would be the minimum required GPA to rush.

Which may explain why on most campuses, the all NPC chapter average is usually higher than the all IFC/NIC chapter average.

To be clear, this isn't to say that academics isn't important. For the most part, most chapters pledge men with a higher GPA than the minimum. Yet by keeping a lower GPA requirement, the chapter can still pledge those men that are "blue chip" (i.e. activities out the wazoo, popular, legacies, athletes, etc.) but do not have *as high* as a GPA as perhaps others do.

My guess is that this works for IFC/NIC because there is no quota or totals.

[AChiOhSnap]

Originally Posted by EGAOPi

The Greek organizations get your academic information from the school--since they will have your records and go by ALL earned grades in college, they will see it all. However, it depends on how your current college calculates your GPA. It will likely be an average of all classes and if your state college GPA was below a 2.0, which is traditionally what it would have to be to be placed on academic probation, it could be very difficult for you to be extended a bid. That's not to say it's impossible, but it could be harder for you (especially considering your class standing, as well)

I'd go as far to say that, due to your class standing and age, the way USA calculates your GPA is going to be crucial in how competitive you are during recruitment. Your GPA really has to be stellar. If your GPA ends up being, say, a 2.6, that's only going to hurt you when you're competing with 18 y.o. PNMs coming out of high school with near perfect GPAs. Like, really, REALLY hurt you.

I will say that my chapter looked at the transfers' college GPAs very critically. If we were to bid a transfer, we wanted to know that she had the skills and drive to do very well in college. If she had a low college GPA (i.e. anything below about a 3.0) it was an enormous strike against her.

I'm sorry to sound discouraging because I know you're excited about recruitment...but it looks like you've got an uphill battle ahead of you. Best of luck to you, I hope everything works out.