Graduate Student and AI

[33girl]

Originally Posted by PeppyGPhiB

I'm going to be a little blunt here. Why do grad students want to join chapters full of undergrad women 18-22 years old? I guess if a woman was a young grad student (22 or 23) I could understand some of the appeal, but older than that I just don't get it. A woman that's in her mid-late 20s and has already done the whole college thing wouldn't have very much in common with a pledge class of 18-year-olds. Chapters select women they think would fit in well with the group, and admittedly, grad students probably don't fit in.

Not all pledge classes are solely composed of 18 year old freshmen. One of the women on here was a chapter founder at I believe age 27 or so.

Please let's put to bed the notion that sorority pledge = 18 year old freshman. On some campuses that may be true, but on others most emphatically NOT.

At any rate, to suggest AI to the OP when what she wants is active membership in a collegiate chapter is most definitely NOT cool. It sounds like the chapter president was just trying to get the OP out of her hair and push her onto the alumnae chapter.

[_Lisa_]

Originally Posted by 33girl

At any rate, to suggest AI to the OP when what she wants is active membership in a collegiate chapter is most definitely NOT cool. It sounds like the chapter president was just trying to get the OP out of her hair and push her onto the alumnae chapter.

Thats not what it sounded like to me. It would be easier to push the OP off on another organization that may take grad students, but instead she liked her enough to want her in her own organization, even if only through AI.

[tinydancer]

Originally Posted by _Lisa_

Thats not what it sounded like to me. It would be easier to push the OP off on another organization that may take grad students, but instead she liked her enough to want her in her own organization, even if only through AI.

I agree; that's how it sounded to me, too.

[UGAalum94]

I'm trying to stay on topic for once.

Differences in college experience are quite pronounced, and that's why Scarleteriberry's situation is complicated, and why I suppose she's asking for advice here.

At Georgia State, for example, the average age of undergraduates is older than many colleges. It has a large non-traditional student population. I don't know if this is reflected in the area of Greek Life or not.

If it is, and many of the undergraduate members are in fact older than those at more traditional campuses, I can see how a young graduate school student could fit in completely in the chapter. The Greek Life office and the undergraduate chapters are going to best understand their policies.

But if the members of the active chapter encouraged you to do AI, I think that's a great direction to go in. You can work with a young alumnae group.

I understand that with AI you do a lot of waiting and seeing, but perhaps if you stay in contact with the active undergraduate chapter, you can stay more in the loop.

As far as having too many AI in an alumnae chapter, isn't it really the ideals of the group that need to be shared at that age anyway? Who cares if you shared the same undergraduate experience or not when your 35 as long as you're interested in supporting the philanthropy and living out the creed, purpose, symphony, etc?