Reasons NOT to pledge a sorority?

[DubaiSis]

If you are not a joiner, accept commitment with enthusiasm and/or aspire to leadership, it's probably not the place for you.

You have to understand there will be things you don't want to do and sisters within the house you cannot stand. If you can't suck it up, this is not the place for you. MOST of the things asked of you and most of your sisters will be awesome, but some girls go ape-shit over the first negative thing in their life and the first response is to bail.

If you are on a sports team that is going to require every spare minute of your time or the real (and only) reason that you're going so far away from home is to spend every minute of the day with your boyfriend, sorority probably isn't going to work. Yes, you can be on teams, have time-intensive majors and have boyfriends, but they can't control so much of your life that meetings, parties, mixers etc. get brushed aside.

I think it is REALLY healthy to think about these things in advance. I think you will find that yes, all of these things will work for you, but it comes as such a surprise to so many girls. If you can spend some time thinking about what kind of college student you want to be, then you can be prepared for rush, and hopefully some time will be spent on what kind of sisterhood you want to be part of and whether or not status and tiers mean more to you than lifelong friendships. Good luck!

[BadCat25]

You will have to accept that a certain amount of conformity is involved. You will be expected to dress and act like an SEC sorority girl. No wearing a nose ring or dying your hair purple or acting like a slut.

[sigmagirl10]

Originally Posted by BadCat25

You will have to accept that a certain amount of conformity is involved. You will be expected to dress and act like an SEC sorority girl. No wearing a nose ring or dying your hair purple or acting like a slut.

I think these are pretty extreme examples, but BadCat25 is onto something there. Joining a sorority involves a certain level of conformity. No, we are not going to make you give up the person you are and be exactly like us--that is a patently false stereotype. But if you have a problem with having rules and regulations control certain aspects of your life (like when and how you can speak in a chapter meeting, what is appropriate behavior while at a fraternity mixer, and how you must dress for the sister side of recruitment, for example) is a problem for you, then sorority life is probably not for you. If the idea of having someone tell you that you can't wear that color of nail polish for philanthropy round and that your dress is too short for pref and dancing on the pole at the party last night made the chapter look bad...well, that's something to think about, at a bare minimum.

My chapter had a sister choose to disaffiliate because she felt that there was too much structure (i.e. being given super-reasonable, room-for-self-expression dress guidelines for recruitment, being expected to attend a meeting at the same time every Monday, and being reminded that her actions reflected back on the chapter).

Just some food for thought.

[ADPi95]

Originally Posted by sigmagirl10

I think these are pretty extreme examples, but BadCat25 is onto something there. Joining a sorority involves a certain level of conformity. No, we are not going to make you give up the person you are and be exactly like us--that is a patently false stereotype. But if you have a problem with having rules and regulations control certain aspects of your life (like when and how you can speak in a chapter meeting, what is appropriate behavior while at a fraternity mixer, and how you must dress for the sister side of recruitment, for example) is a problem for you, then sorority life is probably not for you. If the idea of having someone tell you that you can't wear that color of nail polish for philanthropy round and that your dress is too short for pref and dancing on the pole at the party last night made the chapter look bad...well, that's something to think about, at a bare minimum.

My chapter had a sister choose to disaffiliate because she felt that there was too much structure (i.e. being given super-reasonable, room-for-self-expression dress guidelines for recruitment, being expected to attend a meeting at the same time every Monday, and being reminded that her actions reflected back on the chapter).

Just some food for thought.

I'd be curious to see how this individual handled a job post-college. Dress codes, expected to be on time, actions reflect on the company/org...

[HQWest]

Gee-ess
- if I had 5 recs each for 1400 women I wouldnt have any place to put them? Someone still has to read them?

Asking 2 each so you have a back up is probably fine - you might ask for more if there is one special group, and you know lots of members