Why? Sophomore UGA story

UGAALUM · #1 08-19-2008, 04:22 PM

Each sorority at UGA is different in how they treat upperclassman (i think) What I do know is back in my day we pledged a lot of juniors, but not anymore. I know at least one sorority on campus has an internal rule they can pledge no sophmores. My sorority has a limit of 3 or 4 I not sure how many, but i know it is VERY competitive for a sophmore. The thinking is (which I don't agree with) is a freshman will be there all 4 years. I know every year there are freshman who pledge that drop out and I'd much rather have that sophmore that knows this is for her, but that is the reality. The rules aren't set by the girls (they want to pledge their friends), but by their national or alum advisors.

33girl · #2 08-19-2008, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UGAALUM

The rules aren't set by the girls (they want to pledge their friends), but by their national or alum advisors.

I don't know of any national sorority that says you are not allowed to pledge [insert class status here]. They would be in buttloads of discrimination suits if they had anything like that in their bylaws or policies. Ditto putting something like that in a chapter bylaw. You just couldn't do it without getting in all kinds of trouble.

Maybe it's an "unwritten" rule within a chapter, but that would be it.

KSUViolet06 · #3 08-19-2008, 04:35 PM

The thing with larger schools and upperclassmen is NOT a written rule put in place by ANY of the chapters on campus, or their national officers, or their alumnae. It's more of a "campus culture" thing than anything else.

The general line of the thought is that a freshman has 4 years of participation in the sorority, as opposed to a sophomore or junior who has 2 or 3.

UGAalum94 · #4 08-19-2008, 05:34 PM

I think the number of sophomore is something looked at very carefully at some chapters, and I think advisers do have to make some heavy "suggestions" to the chapters sometimes for the long term health of the chapter. (You don't want to end up with a huge percentage of your chapter graduating at one time, I think, is the thinking maybe even more than "only" being involved for three years rather than four.)

I don't know if the rules are written or unwritten, but if everyone knows during work week that it would be better to take only a few sophomores or upperclassmen, the chapter may just regard it as a recruitment goal.

And honestly, the OP may be a "slipping through the cracks" kind of situation. If the chapters had a few sophomore legacies each, they may have liked her but not wanted to risked ending up with 10% of the 2008 pledge class graduating with the 2007. It's likely not a very personal decision although it probably feels that way to her. And it wasn't like there was a cooperative effort not to give her a bid.

AuburnMom08 · #5 08-21-2008, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UGAALUM

Each sorority at UGA is different in how they treat upperclassman (i think) What I do know is back in my day we pledged a lot of juniors, but not anymore. I know at least one sorority on campus has an internal rule they can pledge no sophmores. My sorority has a limit of 3 or 4 I not sure how many, but i know it is VERY competitive for a sophmore. The thinking is (which I don't agree with) is a freshman will be there all 4 years. I know every year there are freshman who pledge that drop out and I'd much rather have that sophmore that knows this is for her, but that is the reality. The rules aren't set by the girls (they want to pledge their friends), but by their national or alum advisors.

IMO this is the best answer to the original question. IDK about UGA but at Auburn about half the sororities don't take sophomores at all and the other half can only take a few - ie 3 or 4 at most so that means out of alllll the girls pledging only about 25-30, at most, will pledge ANY sororitiy as a sophomore. At Auburn they ended up with something like 16 sophomores out of the entire pledge class of almost 1000 girls.