grade question

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by sherbertlemons

AT UCF, every chapter would receive a copy of every recruitment application. (At UCF, that's a lot of paper, too!) If any corrections needed to be made, the correction was obvious on the application. They also did it for ACT/SAT scores, too, as I recall.

That generally was not considered too big of a deal, especially if it was only slightly off. Sometimes it's the difference in how the college calulates GPA versus how the high school calculates GPA. However, if it was listed as a 3.0 and UCF corrected it as a 2.0, it would definitely be noticed!

Believe me, I have heard of PNM's getting dropped due to dishonesty on applications. It didn't just relate to the recruitment application, either. Lies on other applications have gotten back to chapters and resulted in the PNM getting dropped.

We all got copies, but we got them as they came in in spurts. Greek Life just sent out a printout of any updates/corrections that needed to be made. My favorite was college sophomores neglecting to include their college GPA in favor of their HS 4.0.

Anyone else ever get guys filling out the recruitment applications? Ours were stored in the Greek Life office and apparently still say "Sorority and Fraternity" on them. I don't know if Greek Life catches more than we see or what but we had two guys my senior year. They both had foreign names that were gender-ambiguous to your average American. Facebook helped out with that one. (I don't think they were trying to sign up for recruitment, just wanting to be notified about fraternity Rush)

[sherbertlemons]

Originally Posted by Drolefille

My favorite was college sophomores neglecting to include their college GPA in favor of their HS 4.0.

I remember a few of those, too. Honestly, maybe I'm just paranoid, but it never even occured to me that they wouldn't check GPAs on stuff like that. It's obviously so tempting to lie.

Actually, I've always wondered what purpose the self repoted GPA has on reruitment applications, since Greek Affairs still had to check them anyways.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by sherbertlemons

I remember a few of those, too. Honestly, maybe I'm just paranoid, but it never even occured to me that they wouldn't check GPAs on stuff like that. It's obviously so tempting to lie.

Actually, I've always wondered what purpose the self repoted GPA has on reruitment applications, since Greek Affairs still had to check them anyways.

From my perspective (that of the person making the spreadsheets) it was nice to have the info to enter as we got each application, making corrections to that later was definately easier than entering all of that later. Particularly since I usually had to convert GPAs to a 4.0 standard, that's not always hard and you get good at memorizing the obvious ones but it can take time.

[REE1993]

At my first school, where I pledged an NPC sorority, initiation was held the first week of the following semester to make sure that only pledges with high enough GPA initiated. This was in the early 90s, and I am not sure if they do that anymore, but that is how it was done then. (I left school the last week of the semester due to health, and was depledged).

There was a girl in my pledge class who did not make grades the semester before, and pledged two semesters in a row. She didn't make grades the next semester either, and she was dropped.

[Buttonz]

I agree with cuteASAbug about the money issue, if you had to work, please remember that sorority life is expensive, even more so in the South.

As for the grades, if that is the min that you need by the school, I wonder where in the South your going that is competitive because most SEC that is competitive want a lot more then that. However, if you feel that you can handle being cut heavily, go for it. Just be aware that it is likely that you might wind up being heavily and in the end not recieving a bid because of the low grades.

College classes are a lot harder then HS classes, and your going to have more work. I'd be wary of taking a PMN that had a 2.5 in HS.

[MaggieXi]

I was just curious how panhellenic got grades from hs.

We had girls lie on their applications all the time. There was a rumor -- every year -- that no one checked. Believe me, everyone checked (on grades, legacies -- we even had one girl who was a transfer and claimed she hadn't accepted a bid at her former school when in fact she had and had been initiated!!!! ) And for the girls who did get caught big time (like saying they had a 3.5 when they bearly had a 2.0 and the girl who actually was a sister in another GLO not on our campus were of course asked to leave recruitment. Our big problem was that Winter Term grades often weren't posted before recruitment began so if you ended up flubbing your winter term course you could get half way through recruitment and get pulled for grades. Or in the alternative have the bear minimum to rush, get released from houses with a higher minimum and then your winter term grades posted and you could have actually rushed those groups. I hope that they have fixed this system by now it caused pure chaos!!!!

[chelc8807]

I just talked to the Panhellenic Office at the school and they said 2.2 is required, but most prefer a 2.5 or better. just to keep y'all posted.

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by chelc8807

I just talked to the Panhellenic Office at the school and they said 2.2 is required, but most prefer a 2.5 or better.

Really? That sounds very low for an SEC school. While you are above the minimum to go through recruitment, you'll still be a "grade risk" at every chapter and will face early cuts.

If you really are serious about joining a sorority, there's nothing to lose by going through in the fall, because you can meet women from all of the chapters and learn more about Greek life at your school. I highly doubt you'd get a bid, and even if you did, you might not want to take it since you'd probably want to focus on getting good grades first before you add tons of activities in the mix.

After your first semester, all that matters is your college GPA. So if you do well, you will make yourself a much better candidate for informal recruitment in the spring or fall formal as a sophomore. Since informal recruitment can be about having connections to sororities, it might not be such a bad idea to go through this fall just to meet people.

[adpiucf]

JessSigKap,

The min. is not necessarily the norm, though. For example, when I was in undergrad, you had to have at least a 3.0 to be considered for acceptance into my major. In reality, the cut-off for those who were actually accepted was a 3.5.

[dgdramadawg]

I'm wondering what school this could possibly be because, as jesssigkap mentioned, 2.2 seems very low for SEC. Of course, adpiucf is absolutely right that taking a girl with the minimum is rare... why take a girl with the bare minimum when there are PNMs with much higher? OP, I'm not trying to guess where you're going; please don't think I'm asking you to tell us.

Here's what's available online for the SEC schools. It seems a lot of schools don't post an "official" required GPA. I wonder how this could hurt PNMs who don't know how much a low GPA could hurt them?

Alabama - none listed. Bama is known for having one of the most competitive recruitments, though, so even if a PNM can register with any GPA a low GPA would equal an early cut (although they don't list official chapter minimums on the site).

Arkansas - 2.5 required to participate.

Auburn - none listed. Site specifically states that PNMs with GPAs below a 3.0 will be unlikely to receive bids.

Florida - none listed, but UF has become very hard to get into... it would be rare to get into UF with a 2.5!

Georgia - none listed, but it's also very hard to get into UGA... it would be rare to get in with a 2.5 high school GPA.

Kentucky - no official GPA required to participate, but in recruitment info they list 2.8 as required for one house and 3.0 for all the others.

LSU - 2.75 required to participate.

Ole Miss - no official GPA required to participate, but in recruitment info they list chapter requirements between 2.6 and 3.0.

Miss State - 2.0 required for upperclassmen, nothing listed for underclassmen. Chapter GPAs are much higher.

South Carolina - none listed, but chapter GPAs are all very high (most above 3.3), so I can't imagine anyone taking a grade risk.

Tennessee - none listed, but FAQs mention that the average sorority member has a 3.1 GPA so it can be assumed that similar qualifications are expected from PNMs.

Vanderbilt - Deferred recruitment (no GPA listed), but I can't imagine someone with a 2.5 getting into Vandy.

[violetpretty]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

JessSigKap,

The min. is not necessarily the norm, though. For example, when I was in undergrad, you had to have at least a 3.0 to be considered for acceptance into my major. In reality, the cut-off for those who were actually accepted was a 3.5.

Right, I was merely suggesting that she go through to meet people, understanding that the chances of her getting a bid are microscopic.

[ISUKappa]

Originally Posted by chelc8807

I just talked to the Panhellenic Office at the school and they said 2.2 is required, but most prefer a 2.5 or better. just to keep y'all posted.

Hokay, maybe I'm stupid, but this seems awfully low for a HS cutoff. It sounds more like a collegiate GPA cutoff.

And am I understanding it correctly that the university you're attending next year has recalculated your HS gpa (I'm assuming so it's on a universal scale as opposed to whatever system your HS used), it's not a collegiate GPA? Because if you're telling the Panhellenic that your "university" GPA (the recalculated one, but it's still from HS) is 2.5, they may be giving you the wrong cutoff.

ETA, so I started this reply like 30 mins ago and then had to do real work, so I've said pretty much the same thing as about 337 other people.