Daughter Headed to College

[MathMom]

Hello GC Posters,

I made my initial new member post a few weeks ago but I'm following up to say that my daughter, a HS senior, got her acceptance letter to her first choice school and she is thrilled (so are we)!

Her future school has a Greek system that she hopes to be a part of and we've both been reading on GC for a while now. She knows there are no guarantees but her thought was that she studies for tests and practices for sports, why wouldn't she gather as much info as possible on something else she really wants to do?

She's taken all of the discretion information to heart and has already started scrubbing her social media (there wasn't a whole lot to scrub-she's a good kid, even if I am biased, but better safe than sorry) and making things private now.

The rec advice has been great also.

She's started a spreadsheet for all the information that she'll need to have in her rec packets and dates to have them put together for her rec writers in the spring/summer. It's early to work on that but she's excited & she also knows that several of her recommenders will be writing recs for multiple young women and she doesn't want to be scrambling at the last minute to get everything to them timely.

While she prefers that I post instead of her (but keep things vague for now) so much thanks from both of us (no matter how it turns out) for having some really excellent advice available.

Congrats to all the newly college-bound young women & men out there.

MM

[sigmagirl2000]

Good luck to MathKid!

(this math teacher loves your username!)

[als463]

Originally Posted by MathMom

Hello GC Posters,

I made my initial new member post a few weeks ago but I'm following up to say that my daughter, a HS senior, got her acceptance letter to her first choice school and she is thrilled (so are we)!

Her future school has a Greek system that she hopes to be a part of and we've both been reading on GC for a while now. She knows there are no guarantees but her thought was that she studies for tests and practices for sports, why wouldn't she gather as much info as possible on something else she really wants to do?

She's taken all of the discretion information to heart and has already started scrubbing her social media (there wasn't a whole lot to scrub-she's a good kid, even if I am biased, but better safe than sorry) and making things private now.

The rec advice has been great also.

She's started a spreadsheet for all the information that she'll need to have in her rec packets and dates to have them put together for her rec writers in the spring/summer. It's early to work on that but she's excited & she also knows that several of her recommenders will be writing recs for multiple young women and she doesn't want to be scrambling at the last minute to get everything to them timely.

While she prefers that I post instead of her (but keep things vague for now) so much thanks from both of us (no matter how it turns out) for having some really excellent advice available.

Congrats to all the newly college-bound young women & men out there.

MM

Everything I made pink and bold explains why I think your daughter will do amazing in recruitment! It sounds like she has a really good head on her shoulders. I wish more PNMs came on here with all this work already put in. Good luck!

[Nanners52674]

I hope your daughter has a fantastic recruitment, I'm blown away by how on point and organized you are at this point.

Side note: This thread is the perfect example of why we say read the threads. They really do contain the majority of the info people ask for.

[MathMom]

Thanks, all.

I'm a numbers geek-so is MathKid (I like that one).

Part of the numbers geek personality is a slight tendency towards the anal retentive (slight being open for interpretation).

We also come from an area where recruitments are ultra competitive and even though her school isn't on that level, we've seen first-hand too many people get disappointed when they've gone in thinking that something was a given.

She learned that lesson herself in another arena a few years ago, it smacked her upside the head, and she learned the hard way about planning and preparing for what you want. At least she learned, though.

As much as I hope this works out for her the way she wants, she has learned that everything doesn't always turn out as planned.

[MathMom]

In fairness, I did reach out in PMs about some specific information that I couldn't find in the threads, but it was specific to her school (at that time it was still one of her hoped-for options).

I didn't want (and still prefer not) to post it publicly because I think it would be too easy to identify it and her. She's still got half her senior year and the entire recruitment period to go and we don't want to do anything that might have negative repercussions for her.

We've been lurking on these boards for a while so as it gets closer, we'll be keeping our eyes out and definitely asking for more specific info & advice. If her recruitment goes well, I'll absolutely post her story.

[Nanners52674]

Originally Posted by MathMom

In fairness, I did reach out in PMs about some specific information that I couldn't find in the threads, but it was specific to her school (at that time it was still one of her hoped-for options).

I didn't want (and still prefer not) to post it publicly because I think it would be too easy to identify it and her. She's still got half her senior year and the entire recruitment period to go and we don't want to do anything that might have negative repercussions for her.

We've been lurking on these boards for a while so as it gets closer, we'll be keeping our eyes out and definitely asking for more specific info & advice. If her recruitment goes well, I'll absolutely post her story.

Don't post the school, stick to being vague like you are now.

[DubaiSis]

If it's a school with a large Greek system, now is NOT too early to be thinking about what she needs, who she will be requesting recs from, etc. She doesn't want to send the stuff out now, but if it's 15 or more chapters, it could take her awhile to find that tricky 14th and 15th rec writers.

I think the best she can learn by doing plenty of research in advance is every NPC sorority has a great deal to offer. There's a thread on here somewhere where many of us posted something we love about every NPC sorority. It's worth perusing through that so that when she's being bombarded with tent talk she will hopefully remember that it really is a good group, even if that particular chapter is currently struggling.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

There's a thread on here somewhere where many of us posted something we love about every NPC sorority. It's worth perusing through that so that when she's being bombarded with tent talk she will hopefully remember that it really is a good group, even if that particular chapter is currently struggling.

It's one of my favorite threads!

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums...ad.php?t=37621

[MathMom]

That is a great thread. It's an excellent idea in general to remember to actively & consciously find something good to say.

It's funny but that's my second reminder today about active kindness. We (meaning MathDaughter [while I do like MathKid, since she has a brother Kid 1 and Kid 2 seem just a little too impersonal], MathSon, and I) were watching Big Bang Theory this afternoon and Howard was telling Bernadette that a happy marriage isn't built on telling your partner all the things you dislike about them.

Anyway, it's not a large Greek system-nowhere near 15 chapters. It is a very solidly well-established one. We do happen to be from an area that does have large and very competitive systems. She was looking for a particular specification in a college and those schools didn't have it so she's going somewhere different (that she fell in love with) but most of her rec writers will be writing for those schools, and will be writing for large numbers of young women.

The NPC groups at her future school are all excellent, we know some wonderful women from each of them, and she'd be honored to get a bid from any of them.