Georgia Recruitment

SWTXBelle · #1 02-08-2008, 08:12 PM

We've discussed just this topic before - I can't find the thread - about whether or not you should list legacies. I think there was a feeling that the thing to do is NOT list your legacies on the general panhellenic forms, but of course DO let the legacy chapters know (via legacy introductions/recs). We always LOVED to poach legacies - but our system is not that competitive (nothing like UGA!)
I'd be really impressed if, given the number of pnms going through the system, any of the houses really remembered her and her legacies. It's tough enough to remember the girls as they are going through rush!

carnation · #2 02-08-2008, 08:26 PM

What I can't figure out...I've known several moms who send their daughters into competitive recruitments, planning that their daughters will pledge their legacy chapter and ignoring warnings of those in the know who tell them that if it's so important that their daughters be an ABC, they'd better try to rush at a smaller college. We've seen moms go ballistic when their daughters were cut by their highly competitive legacy chapters (those with maybe 4 times the number of legacies that they can pledge) when the daughter could have easily pledged the so-important legacy chapter at a smaller university.

And yes, I know that the important thing is the daughter's education but let's suppose she's going to be an education major, which most universities seem to offer. If it's so important that the girl be an ABC, what's the difference between her going to Huge U with 30,000 students and Smaller U with 15000?

There's a mom a town over who sent her younger daughter to a huge university, planning that she would join ABC since mom and older sister had done so at other schools. Younger daughter was cut right off by her legacy group. We have not heard the end of this from Mom for 4 years.

KSUViolet06 · #3 02-08-2008, 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carnation

And yes, I know that the important thing is the daughter's education but let's suppose she's going to be an education major, which most universities seem to offer. If it's so important that the girl be an ABC, what's the difference between her going to Huge U with 30,000 students and Smaller U with 15000?

I see what you're saying here. I think alot of the issue with moms "ignoring the warnings" is that some moms don't just want their little girl to be an ABC, they want her to be an ABC at THEIR school. It is more important for her to be a Big Southern State U ABC than it is for her to be an ABC at all. They want their daughter to have the same experiences as they had as a member of that chapter.

For example, my friend is a Chi Omega legacy. She could've gone to school here in OH and pledged Chi O at any one of them. But her mom is an SEC school Chi O alumna and insisted that her daughter go to THAT school and be a Chi Omega.

hollywin · #4 02-08-2008, 09:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

I see what you're saying here. I think alot of moms ignoring the warnings is that some moms don't just want their little girl to be an ABC, they want her to be an ABC at THEIR school. It is more important for her to be a Big Southern State U ABC than it is for her to be an ABC at all.

Some moms maybe yes. Others no. In my case my daughter chose her school from 4 she was accepted to. I was not devastated that she was cut by my sorority, my comment was that I felt bad actually that her strong legacy hurt her chances with the other 16 sororities.

My daughter approached rush with a very open mind. She new going in that being from out of state she would not know anyone in the sororities.
She knew it would be tough. While my sorority experience was wonderful it has been a very long time since college. Things change. All this mom wanted was for her daughter to be happy !! Rush was hard. Getting cut from all but 1 after the second round does hurt your self esteem . As a parent, many of you will find, seeing your child hurt is the most difficult thing you can go through.
Like I said my daughter has joined many wonderful organizations and is loving UGA. She did hope that she could enhance her experience by being in a sorority. If this is what she wants I will support her in every way. We come from a large family of greeks and she has many legacies not just mine.

My daughter chose Ga. first and foremost for the education that she knew she would receive and she grew up knowing UGA as a school not defined by the sorority her mom was in, but for the great school it is. I think from what I see Ga. has 17 wonderful sororities. If she wants to go through again I hope it will work out for her. That's all this mom wants for her child.

carnation · #5 02-08-2008, 09:32 PM

Oh, I wasn't talking about you!

I was thinking of many, many cases I've seen in the last 9-10 years here in town. Some of these moms even bought ABC paraphernalia ahead of time because they were so confident their daughters would soon be their sisters.

Even if my older daughters had gone to school with Pi Phi chapters, I wouldn't have dared been so overconfident as to buy Pi Phi para ahead of time.

Hollywin, I'm impressed by what you say about your daughter! I wish the best for her!

shadden · #6 02-09-2008, 12:37 AM

I was very fortunate to have my daughter pledge the same chapter I was in at UGA, but I must say that I did not realize until recently how competetive rush is there. A good friend was in another chapter at UGA, and when her daughter went through recruitment two years ago she was cut by the house where she was a legacy after round 1. After round 3 the house called the mother to get a rec on another girl from the same hometown. The mom was understandably furious that the chapter had been so insensitive to her feelings. When they realized what they had done they were apologetic, but hurt feelings are hard to undo. I think the system has simply grown so big that it is hard to manage all the information and even be aware of legacies and recommendations. My chapter released a girl I wrote a rec on after round 1, and that would never have happened when the system was smaller.

carnation · #7 02-09-2008, 09:42 AM

So much of the difficulty in getting a bid at UGa lies with, originally, the HOPE Grant. You guys of a certain age or older will remember that back in the day before it, anybody and his parakeet could get into Georgia. Now because of it, students with 1200 SATs often don't get in. You end up with hundreds of incredible women rushing, women with grades and test scores and activities that would get them into almost any sorority in a smaller system. Because Georgia is so selective in admissions and Auburn, Bama, and Ole Miss aren't quite as hard to get into, I'd rate Georgia as harder to get a bid at; the competition is staggering.

Also--back in the day, quota was often set early in recruitment, even as early as after the second parties. I've even heard of schools that set quota based on how many women signed up. This led to huge pledge classes for the "more selective" sororities and much smaller ones for the rest. When you couple that with the new release figures that most big schools use, you can see how rough UGa rush is and how different it is nowadays.