Georgia Recruitment

[SWTXBelle]

We've discussed just this topic before - I can't find the thread - about whether or not you should list legacies. I think there was a feeling that the thing to do is NOT list your legacies on the general panhellenic forms, but of course DO let the legacy chapters know (via legacy introductions/recs). We always LOVED to poach legacies - but our system is not that competitive (nothing like UGA!)
I'd be really impressed if, given the number of pnms going through the system, any of the houses really remembered her and her legacies. It's tough enough to remember the girls as they are going through rush!

[carnation]

What I can't figure out...I've known several moms who send their daughters into competitive recruitments, planning that their daughters will pledge their legacy chapter and ignoring warnings of those in the know who tell them that if it's so important that their daughters be an ABC, they'd better try to rush at a smaller college. We've seen moms go ballistic when their daughters were cut by their highly competitive legacy chapters (those with maybe 4 times the number of legacies that they can pledge) when the daughter could have easily pledged the so-important legacy chapter at a smaller university.

And yes, I know that the important thing is the daughter's education but let's suppose she's going to be an education major, which most universities seem to offer. If it's so important that the girl be an ABC, what's the difference between her going to Huge U with 30,000 students and Smaller U with 15000?

There's a mom a town over who sent her younger daughter to a huge university, planning that she would join ABC since mom and older sister had done so at other schools. Younger daughter was cut right off by her legacy group. We have not heard the end of this from Mom for 4 years.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by carnation

And yes, I know that the important thing is the daughter's education but let's suppose she's going to be an education major, which most universities seem to offer. If it's so important that the girl be an ABC, what's the difference between her going to Huge U with 30,000 students and Smaller U with 15000?

I see what you're saying here. I think alot of the issue with moms "ignoring the warnings" is that some moms don't just want their little girl to be an ABC, they want her to be an ABC at THEIR school. It is more important for her to be a Big Southern State U ABC than it is for her to be an ABC at all. They want their daughter to have the same experiences as they had as a member of that chapter.

For example, my friend is a Chi Omega legacy. She could've gone to school here in OH and pledged Chi O at any one of them. But her mom is an SEC school Chi O alumna and insisted that her daughter go to THAT school and be a Chi Omega.

[hollywin]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

I see what you're saying here. I think alot of moms ignoring the warnings is that some moms don't just want their little girl to be an ABC, they want her to be an ABC at THEIR school. It is more important for her to be a Big Southern State U ABC than it is for her to be an ABC at all.

Some moms maybe yes. Others no. In my case my daughter chose her school from 4 she was accepted to. I was not devastated that she was cut by my sorority, my comment was that I felt bad actually that her strong legacy hurt her chances with the other 16 sororities.

My daughter approached rush with a very open mind. She new going in that being from out of state she would not know anyone in the sororities.
She knew it would be tough. While my sorority experience was wonderful it has been a very long time since college. Things change. All this mom wanted was for her daughter to be happy !! Rush was hard. Getting cut from all but 1 after the second round does hurt your self esteem . As a parent, many of you will find, seeing your child hurt is the most difficult thing you can go through.
Like I said my daughter has joined many wonderful organizations and is loving UGA. She did hope that she could enhance her experience by being in a sorority. If this is what she wants I will support her in every way. We come from a large family of greeks and she has many legacies not just mine.

My daughter chose Ga. first and foremost for the education that she knew she would receive and she grew up knowing UGA as a school not defined by the sorority her mom was in, but for the great school it is. I think from what I see Ga. has 17 wonderful sororities. If she wants to go through again I hope it will work out for her. That's all this mom wants for her child.

[carnation]

Oh, I wasn't talking about you! I was thinking of many, many cases I've seen in the last 9-10 years here in town. Some of these moms even bought ABC paraphernalia ahead of time because they were so confident their daughters would soon be their sisters.

Even if my older daughters had gone to school with Pi Phi chapters, I wouldn't have dared been so overconfident as to buy Pi Phi para ahead of time.

Hollywin, I'm impressed by what you say about your daughter! I wish the best for her!

[shadden]

I was very fortunate to have my daughter pledge the same chapter I was in at UGA, but I must say that I did not realize until recently how competetive rush is there. A good friend was in another chapter at UGA, and when her daughter went through recruitment two years ago she was cut by the house where she was a legacy after round 1. After round 3 the house called the mother to get a rec on another girl from the same hometown. The mom was understandably furious that the chapter had been so insensitive to her feelings. When they realized what they had done they were apologetic, but hurt feelings are hard to undo. I think the system has simply grown so big that it is hard to manage all the information and even be aware of legacies and recommendations. My chapter released a girl I wrote a rec on after round 1, and that would never have happened when the system was smaller.

[carnation]

So much of the difficulty in getting a bid at UGa lies with, originally, the HOPE Grant. You guys of a certain age or older will remember that back in the day before it, anybody and his parakeet could get into Georgia. Now because of it, students with 1200 SATs often don't get in. You end up with hundreds of incredible women rushing, women with grades and test scores and activities that would get them into almost any sorority in a smaller system. Because Georgia is so selective in admissions and Auburn, Bama, and Ole Miss aren't quite as hard to get into, I'd rate Georgia as harder to get a bid at; the competition is staggering.

Also--back in the day, quota was often set early in recruitment, even as early as after the second parties. I've even heard of schools that set quota based on how many women signed up. This led to huge pledge classes for the "more selective" sororities and much smaller ones for the rest. When you couple that with the new release figures that most big schools use, you can see how rough UGa rush is and how different it is nowadays.

[IHeartUGA]

Originally Posted by hollywin

She dropped out because she was only invited back to one house that she knew would probably not give her a bid. Religious reasons we assume.

She had recs at almost every house.

We are from out of state. She had a 4x legacy at one house and was dropped from many because they assumed she would pledge there.

The irony was that she was not interested at this house and they dropped her after 2nd round. The legacies were all from UGA !!

She was caught up in the system !!

I saw that highschools in GA. are already receiving information from UGA on rush. This gives the out of state girls such an unfair advantage. My daughter went to a great school (Charlotte Catholic Highschool), but there are almost no one from this school at UGA.

She is proud to be there from her parents legacy. She is now a Bulldog in her own right with or without a sorority.

I can probably name 10 girls in my chapter that went to that school or another private school in Charlotte. We get numerous Charlotte girls each year. I'm sorry rush didn't work out for her!

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by carnation

So much of the difficulty in getting a bid at UGa lies with, originally, the HOPE Grant. You guys of a certain age or older will remember that back in the day before it, anybody and his parakeet could get into Georgia. Now because of it, students with 1200 SATs often don't get in. You end up with hundreds of incredible women rushing, women with grades and test scores and activities that would get them into almost any sorority in a smaller system. Because Georgia is so selective in admissions and Auburn, Bama, and Ole Miss aren't quite as hard to get into, I'd rate Georgia as harder to get a bid at; the competition is staggering.

Also--back in the day, quota was often set early in recruitment, even as early as after the second parties. I've even heard of schools that set quota based on how many women signed up. This led to huge pledge classes for the "more selective" sororities and much smaller ones for the rest. When you couple that with the new release figures that most big schools use, you can see how rough UGa rush is and how different it is nowadays.

It's interesting that you say this, and I hadn't really thought about it this way. It may be harder than it used to be to actually get any bid at all.

I think recruitment at UGA may be "easier" these days in one way: the old south elite groups are more open, I think.

Pre-HOPE grant, I think UGA rush was a very smaller-city, hometown based event. A good girl from Albany or Savannah or Macon, especially if she was from a private school, could expect to be heavily recruited by almost all chapters, but she would really expect to end up in one of maybe five or six GLOs because those were the groups with the girls from her hometown.

Now, with HOPE, a higher percentage of the kids at Georgia are from the Atlanta metro area and went to schools like Parkview, Walton, etc. I think the public school, suburban kids have started to play a much bigger role in the Greek system than they used to, and they're more open to relatively unknown girls from other suburbs, rather than sticking to the little sisters of girls they knew at Deerfield-Windsor or Savannah Country Day.

I'm not sure if it's a good or bad trend, but I think it's a bit of a different ball game.

[carnation]

I think it's definitely harder for the average girl or a legacy to get into the "more competitive" groups. Remember, there used to be a lot of girls cut for grades right off and that took out a lot of competition. Also--with release figures, so many girls get cut by tons of groups by second or third parties. This results in a lot of dropouts but there's still keen competition for certain sororities.

The release figures are working in some ways but if you have your heart set on certain groups, it's a good idea to think twice and maximize your options.

[IHeartUGA]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

It's interesting that you say this, and I hadn't really thought about it this way. It may be harder than it used to be to actually get any bid at all.

I think recruitment at UGA may be "easier" these days in one way: the old south elite groups are more open, I think.

Pre-HOPE grant, I think UGA rush was a very smaller-city, hometown based event. A good girl from Albany or Savannah or Macon, especially if she was from a private school, could expect to be heavily recruited by almost all chapters, but she would really expect to end up in one of maybe five or six GLOs because those were the groups with the girls from her hometown.

Now, with HOPE, a higher percentage of the kids at Georgia are from the Atlanta metro area and went to schools like Parkview, Walton, etc. I think the public school, suburban kids have started to play a much bigger role in the Greek system than they used to, and they're more open to relatively unknown girls from other suburbs, rather than sticking to the little sisters of girls they knew at Deerfield-Windsor or Savannah Country Day.

I'm not sure if it's a good or bad trend, but I think it's a bit of a different ball game.

Are you from Savannah?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by IHeartUGA

Are you from Savannah?

Nope. I'm from suburban Atlanta which is sort of like being from nowhere and everywhere at once. My parents aren't from Atlanta which adds to the vibe.

[IHeartUGA]

I know what you mean-everyone at UGA is "from Atlanta" which usually means Marietta or something else.

[dgdramadawg]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Certainly, informally in-state hometown girls get information from from other UGA students from their hometowns, but this is probably the case at 90% of the colleges with Greek life. And I think it's the case that having hometown people pulling for you in the groups is an advantage, but it's an advantage that not even the in state girls have at all the chapters. Of 17 groups, the girls from the high school where I teach can be found in only five of them, I'm pretty sure. It's a difficult recruitment no matter where you are from.

They also get information from adults. The standard question for many UGA alumnae in my area when a girl says she is going to UGA is "Are you rushing?" As they start to get acceptances, they start to compile rush advice and information. Think about it this way: I can think of women from 6 separate chapters in my department alone. Girls from the school at which I teach most certainly gain an advantage if they have us to give advice/recs. A girl from out of state might not have so many alumnae at her fingertips... and alumnae from out of state might not ask "Are you rushing?" the moment a girl states her college choice.

*Note: I know of a few high schools that have lists of alumnae who are willing to find/write recs for graduated seniors. I'd imagine that would be a very valuable resource, too.

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

UGA GCers, how likely is it that the sororities will remember that someone is a 4x legacy to a chapter? Do UGA sorority members tend to remember PNMs that re-rush in general?

It depends on the PNM. If we really liked her and she cut us, we'd have remembered her. If she was poorly behaved in a memorable way, we'd have remembered her. But otherwise... it's very hard to remember specific PNMs year to year. Then again, I graduated four years ago in May, so it's probably a different planet now.

[carnation]

A former student's mother told me that her daughter gained early admission to Georgia for next fall. She said, "I think she should wait until sophomore yeare to rush," and I sent the mom this thread with a note that if she wanted her child to have choices, maybe she shouldn't wait! (Mom isn't Greek and had no idea.)