My not-so-perfect rush story

FSUZeta · #1 07-26-2007, 04:48 PM

[QUOTE=tld221;1492062] i cant imagine that year to year, chapter A would get SO many transfers from schools B, C, and D that it would change the "chapter dynamic" each year. QUOTE]

but it truly can. i have heard of women who wanted the prestige of being in ghi sorority because that sorority had great chapters in that particular state. savvy pnms who know that recruitment at the state universities is ultra competitive, and the ghi chapters are hard to get into, will go to schools with less competitive recruitments and less prestigious chapters of ghi sorority and pledge with the full intent of transferring so that they can affiliate at the prestige university chapter.

it's not so much that it hurts the chapter that the girl wants to affiliate with as it hurts the smaller, less prestigious chapter who just lost a member that they really couldn't afford to lose numbers wise. it might create a problem where the less prestigious chapter has to constantly participate in informal recruitment to replace the transferring members.

transferring students in no way affect the numbers of the chapter they are coming into, except that they raise the membership by "x". a chapter can be 50 members over campus total and they are still allowed to accept transfer sisters.

and as to voting on whether to allow sisters to affiliate or not, i would imagine that most sisters who seek to affiliate and are members in good standing would be invited to do so. i don't think it is right to force a chapter to accept someone anymore that i think that a member who transfers should be forced to affiliate.

UGAalum94 · #2 07-26-2007, 05:09 PM

I have no doubt that some folks would really go to one campus to pledge and then transfer, but my guess is that the campuses that they would pledge at have that problem generally. They'd lose members to the big state U every year whether the girls did it deliberately or not.

For example, UGA has gotten kind of freakishly hard to get into compared to how it was when I went there. Other than Georgia Tech* and Georgia Southern where people go and plan to stay, most other four year schools in Georgia have a pretty big group of students start one place and go elsewhere.

If anything, it seems to me, having girls who joined a less prestigious group because they planned to transfer would help the chapters on the first campus rather than hurt them because they might attract more girls based on the GLOs overall reputation. (Now if your rate of girls transferring was a lot higher than that of other groups, FSUZeta is obviously completely right, but it doesn't seem to be that big a problem that I know of, but of course every situation is a little different.)

*Tech is equally hard or harder to get into. It always used to be harder, but I think since Tech applicants are more self-screening they don't have to reject as many these days.

And I'm certainly not trying to say that everyone applies to UGA and when they don't get in, they start somewhere else. The majority of kids pick their schools based on where they actually want to be, and there are plenty of good schools. But I suspect the retention rate of students at four years other than Tech, UGA, and Georgia Southern is lower to start with, so the affiliation policies aren't as likely to cripple groups as it might initially seem. Florida may be a whole 'nother story.

adpiucf · #3 07-26-2007, 05:34 PM

I know plenty of people who don't get into UF/UCF/FSU on the first go round and transfer "up" after a year or two... others may transfer "down" depending on circumstances (majors, environment, etc).

As for Greek transfers... I can't speak for other chapters, but we got a few petitions each fall and spring.

LOVEinZTA · #4 07-26-2007, 07:14 PM

Just a few points to make before I write up some more

LOVEinZTA · #5 07-26-2007, 08:28 PM

Getting to know you...

ZTA72 · #6 07-26-2007, 08:46 PM

oh my goodness, what a wonderful sister you are. My daughters were telling me about some affiliates at their chapter and it just broke my heart what they had to go through.
Thank you for this wonderful thread.
Zeta love,
ZTA72

Katmandu · #7 07-27-2007, 07:51 AM

LOVEinZTA, what a delightful story all the way around! You are an amazing young lady, and Zeta is lucky to count you among the crowned. I found your affiliation story as interesting as your rush story.

When I was a collegiate, we had one sister affiliate from another in-state university when she changed majors. It was pretty rare, (the only one in about ten years, I believe) and very low key. She came to dinner twice, chapter twice, we loved her, and voted to affiliate her. I think most of us were shocked that we actually had the option to say "yes" or "no", and I don't think it would have occurred to any of us to deny her active status. She affiliated during her Jr. year and she became one of my very close friends during senior year.

I can't imagine going through such an extended process, but people transfer schools more now than they did back then--witness 11 sisters affiliating in one year!

Thanks for sharing your story. I absolutely loved it and what a wise lesson for anyone who transfers and wishes to affiliate. (lots of lessons for the chapters as well).