GPA Question *tricky*

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by Miss{BooperDoo}

Ok...regarding GPA requirements for rushing, I know when you transfer schools your GPA does not carry over. This is my story

*HS...not so great GPA 2.0 graduating...but not sure if they will need H.S. transcript as I graduated 2004 and have had college work since then)

Attended community college-GPA 3.4

Transferred to State School-GPA plummets due to working 40 hours to pay for classes that I couldn't attend because I was working to pay for them (yay for shitty financial aid advisors who don't know what they are doing and stick you with a huge bill that MUST BE PAID...should note here I was trying to go the "no student loans" route...so I did shoot myself in one foot, while FIN AID shot my other) and not dropping hte classes, just ended up failing them. (Yay for shitty advisors who were never available and schedualed appointments to become "no shows" leaving me waiting for AN HOUR before giving up...ok sorry mini rant)

*GPA plummeted to point of academic probaton

Went back to community college- GPA 3.2

When transferring down to School out of state, will they look at just the college I transfered from, or both?

I'm going to echo kddani's sentiments and add that based on some of your posts (and I don't want this to sound too critical) it sounds like you don't take a lot of personal responsibility.

I'm not really sure why you chose to work 40 hrs/week if you knew you had to go to class. If you couldn't schedule your classes around work, or better yet, work around your classes, I dn't know how you're going to handle sorority life because there are meetings, fund raisers, practices and all kinds of other stuff in addition to class.

Many of my sisters were able to successfully balance school, work and sorority but everyone was strategic about how they did so. They would work around classes and sorority stuff and sometimes usually in the evenings.

I guess I'm not understanding why everything is financial aid's fault if you chose to go to the non-loan route?

It also sounds like there will need to be some kind of help in the financial department if you are seriously considering a sorority. Sororities aren't cheap.

If you do get into a sorority, and decide to work as well, you will need to consider that you will likely need to take around 2 weeks off (at least that was the time committement at my school) for recruitment. That's 2 weeks of unpaid time unless you are fortunate enough to work at a place that will give you that time paid in the form of vacation.

And like kddani said, you should be responsible for passing your classes. The blame should not be on the advisors just because they weren't there when you decided you wanted to drop them.

If you work during the day, go to class and study at night.

I remember this one remarkable woman who worked 2 jobs and consistently had one of the highest grades in our junior and senior level classes. This woman worked a lot, graduated owing nothing for her education and graduated with honors. She looked tired a lot of the time, but she was dedicated to school and made it.

[BethanyW]

A 3.2 doesn't sound bad to me.

A little off topic, but I've only failed one class in my college career, and I'm the type of person used to getting As, and I took it again and got an A. (which I think it will be averaged to a C when I transfer?) and now I believe I have a 3.25 now. I'm not really sure what I'm getting myself into having registered for rush this fall, but I'm pretty confident with myself, my grades, activities. I'm transferring there, and I know that USA does have a lot of transfers. I don't see any reason not to be confident with a 3.2, if that's what you have.

But, then again, I'm not greek. I don't really know what sororities at USA are looking for specifically.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Panhellenic will have a minimum required GPA to participate in recruitment. But each individual sorority will have different minimum GPAs (that they will require you to have in order to receive a bid). For example, Panhellenic might require a 2.0 to rush, but XYZ sorority has a minimum GPA of 2.5.

How is the Panhellenic minimum set? Does the campus Panhellenic GPA requirement equal the lowest GPA requirement of all the chapters? So to use KSUViolet06's scenario, would there be at least one chapter on campus with a minimum 2.0 GPA requirement? Frankly, it does not seem fair that Panhellenic would allow a girl to rush with a lower GPA than what is required by at least one chapter.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by BethanyW

A 3.2 doesn't sound bad to me.

A 3.2 is a good GPA, if USA designates that GPA as her official GPA for recruitment. She mentioned that she had other GPAs from other schools that weren't as high. If the school decides to use one of those others (depending on their transfer policies), not so good.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by TSteven

How is the Panhellenic minimum set? Does the campus Panhellenic GPA requirement equal the lowest GPA requirement of all the chapters? So to use KSUViolet06's scenario, would there be at least one chapter on campus with a minimum 2.0 GPA requirement? Frankly, it does not seem fair that Panhellenic would allow a girl to rush with a lower GPA than what is required by at least one chapter.

It depends on the school. My school required a 2.5 to go through recruitment.

But that doesn't mean that at least one sorority HAS to have that GPA. The national GPA requirments of all the NPC sororities on my campus are all AT LEAST 2.5 to start with. Then we all chose on our own to make our GPAs even HIGHER in our local bylaws (NPCs can choose to make their GPAs higher than the minimum required by their HQ).

So as of 2006 recruitment, the Panhellenic GPA requirement to rush was just a 2.5, but the LOWEST individual sorority GPA was a 2.75. So yes, girls would sign up with a 2.5, but be released by all chapters for grades because they didn't meet any of the individual sorority GPAs. I've never really thought that was fair, but that's even more of an incentive for girls to be sure they have high enough grades.

[FSUZeta]

the fsu zeta webpage states that their minimum gpa requirement is a 3.0. most of the other fsu sororities have the same minimum, while a few others a lower gpa as their minimum.

i would hope that if a sorority makes a statement which they publish such as," blah blah chapter of abc sorority requires a minimum gpa of 3.0." that that truly is what the minimum is. i am not privy to the details of membership selection at my chapter anymore, since i live 7 hours away and am not able to assist during recruitment. i do know that gpa at or above the minimum, activities and honors, service, recs., friendly, outgoing personality and pleasant, well put together appearance would be plusses for a pnm at fsu and any other campus. on most campuses a girl would have to be really extra, extra special for a chapter to be willing to take a grade risk. the lower the gpa, the greater risk the pnm would seem to be.

i agree ksuviolet....i think it is rotten when the gpa required to enroll in recruitment is lower than the lowest gpa required by any of the campus sororities. i think that it is very misleading to pnms. panhellenic gpa requirements should be set at the lowest acceptable gpa of the campus sororities.

[UGAalum94]

I agree that Panhellenic shouldn't do that and it's another instance of how the official word can be misleading.

I just wanted to clarify that I didn't think chapters were deliberately misleading about the minimum, but that in actuality the average PNM who didn't have other strengths to offset the GPA might need a higher GPA than the minimum to avoid being released.

A great girl with a great rec, lots of activities, and who girls in the chapter knew could easily get a bid with with the minimum GPA. A great girl who didn't have a rec or know girls in the chapter, maybe would need a higher GPA?

I take the minimum to be as low as the chapter could go with someone they were willing to take a grade risk for. But that it's lower than average and what they'd really want.

[TSteven]

GPA seems to play a much more important role in NPC membership selection (recruitment) than IFC/NIC rush.

What I have noticed with IFC/NIC is that the GPA to rush (if there is one) is usually the same as most of the fraternities. If I recall correctly, the NIC Standard being 2.3 to pledge. And yes, some campuses have a higher GPA to rush/pledge. Regardless, I would guess (hope) it would be the same GPA needed to rush and to pledge. In other words, the lowest chapter GPA would be the minimum required GPA to rush.

Which may explain why on most campuses, the all NPC chapter average is usually higher than the all IFC/NIC chapter average.

To be clear, this isn't to say that academics isn't important. For the most part, most chapters pledge men with a higher GPA than the minimum. Yet by keeping a lower GPA requirement, the chapter can still pledge those men that are "blue chip" (i.e. activities out the wazoo, popular, legacies, athletes, etc.) but do not have *as high* as a GPA as perhaps others do.

My guess is that this works for IFC/NIC because there is no quota or totals.

[AchtungBaby80]

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

I take the minimum to be as low as the chapter could go with someone they were willing to take a grade risk for. But that it's lower than average and what they'd really want.

Exactly. You put it very well.

[TSteven]

Originally Posted by AchtungBaby80

Exactly. You put it very well.

I agree as well. I would just add that *in general*, fraternities are perhaps more likely to take a grade risk than sororities.

[fantASTic]

For my sorority, the required GPA is actually lower than what the local NPC sets. THerefore, we go by the highest. I think that's pretty much standard; you take the two and go by the higher one.

And i'm sure that fraternities go lower than sororities; my boyfriend joined a fraternity with a 1.7. Granted, it was local so they weren't bound by the requirements many national GLO's are, but still.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by fantASTic

my boyfriend joined a fraternity with a 1.7.

Wow. At my school you were dismissed if your grades were that low.

[Miss{BooperDoo}]

First off, thanks for all the responses so fast! *logs on and sea’s 26 responses....* HOLY CRAP! Anyway... Apologies ahead of time for the beginning coming of angry. I think I mislead a few people and would like to correct that.

*excuse the misspelling/bad grammar ahead of time, its late, I just got off work*

I think that there is some confusion here, I did have to retype that original thread twice as it cleared out the first time (went' to cannot find page of doom) so I was a little testy typing it.

1) My classes that I received poor grades in will not transfer. They will be dropped. Classes you receive a D or F in do no transfer. So this will boost my GPA, not by much but it will help with the State issue.

2) Yes, I do own up to a lot of the poor things that have happened as my responsibility. But when you are fresh out of high school and don't know anything about LOANS or FAFSA and are just starting to figure it all, I had scholarships to cover everything as it was my first semester out of high school. So my financial aid advisor didn't feel the need to go over these things with me. When I transferred, I entered a completely different school that *assumed* I knew everything about financial aid. The "state" university I attended is an "extension" of a state university. As in there are maybe 3000 kids who attend. If that. I commuted to school. I was assured by the financial aid office that I didn't need to take out loans, why you might ask? Because my EFC on my FAFSA was so high. Guess who pays for college. ME. Not my parents, not my grandparents, not my uncles, my aunts, whatever. ME. Did she ask that? No. She doesn't care. She just knows it has to be paid. She doesn't care by whom, and doesn't care to explain it to someone, who she thinks knows the ins and outs of financial aid because I had college work completed at another school. She's repeated it 10,000 times before hand, and this just saves her one time of saying it again. It's burn out, but none the less it screwed me.

3)When you have someone who does a piss poor job explaining to you about costs and what YOU WILL BE PAYING to attend their institution, you end up getting stuck with a $4000 bill that must be paid. I had THREE MONTHS to pay this off. Have you ever tried to pay off $4000 in three months while paying for your car, your gas, your insurance, your phone, your food etc? I didn't "choose" a 40 hour week knowing I had class. I HAD TO have a 40 hour week. Money doesn't grow on trees.

4) Once I discovered this huge huge bill and its problems, there was NO ONE to talk to about it. My "advisor" was never available. Anytime I wanted to talk to someone about what I needed to do, the response was "You need to make an appointment with your academic advisor". Who, as I said, would make appointments with me, and never show. By the time they switched me advisors I was told I needed to drop the classes, but I was already past the point of any refund and would have to pay for the classes anyway. I didn't have help here.

5) I'm taking out monstrous loans to get out of this area and the trap I am in of staying home and going to school. I am back at the community college because it’s what works for me now in my financial situation. My brother (who has just graduated and is making more than my parents) wants to help me out and is willing to co-sign some loans with me, so I can go out of state for school. I fully intend on, once completing school, living in Alabama. The debt will be completely worth it.

KDdani, you must not have read my other posts, that’s ok I didn't expect you too, but I have to clarify. I'm only 20 right now. I will be 21 when I transfer. Won't be 22 until April of 08. I didn't retype all that information (have been typing it in every post I've made) because it didn't seem relevant.

I understand that none of you know me, or my situation, and given that I have had some great answers to this question. Most everyone on this site is helpful and willing to give great advice. But a couple of replies to this question were HUGE ASSUMPTIONS about someone YOU DON'T KNOW. Giving me advice on the GPA requirements is one thing, but to say that I don't seem too eager to pursue my degree is completely another. You know about 19 or 20 posts worth (as that’s all I've posted) about my life. If that, as I can't say you've went back and re read everything I ever posted.

I'll be updating on this as I go through admissions on what university I plan on attending. Nothing is set in stone for USA and there are a couple of other colleges that are looking just as equally appealing.

Thanks again for the advice, and sorry I didn't quote this time around, I plan on responding to this again, but alas I am sleepy.

[kddani]

We're just going on the information that YOU have given us. You've come here asking for advice on a multitude of questions. Based on the information you've given us and what you've said, impressions and opinions were formed.

To sidetrack for a second- there is a wealth of information out there about financial aid. It is up to everyone to educate themselves. Hell, most people do it themselves without any help from any sort of adviser. It just really came across (and still comes across) as shifting of blame. It would be easier to be understanding towards your situation if you just said "yeah, I screwed up" rather than blaming everything on the evil school and advisers.

I'll just be blunt- your chances of sorority membership are pretty low. Low GPA, older, several transfers, possible financial issues, and the fact that you're not getting to the school until spring (when formal rush is held in the fall) and won't really know anyone- none of these bode well. Everytime you've started a thread with a new question it's just adding to this list- it seems like there's always another issue.

[alum]

Just as a sidenote:

I work at a university as an graduate-level academic advisor and see the undergraduate transcipts on a daily basis. Although you are correct that D's and F's do not transfer, many schools still put all the grades on the transcripts from previous schools. So if you do have D's and F's from the University of East Cupcake, got straight A's from Local Community College and now are transferring to State University, it is very likely that a State University transcript will show all classes and grades ever taken anywhere including the non-transferrable ones.

Yes, the colleges/universities do expect parents to pay for their children's higher education. It IS very difficult to be designated independent in terms of the FAFSA unless one is married or has served in the Armed Forces. EFC is notoriously high and parents are usually in sticker-shock when the figure is tabulated.