Alabama Recruitment

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Regina Filangie

I think this is what seems offensive. This statement sounds like the silly little southern girls just care about joining a sorority and not academics.

And I'm going to make a somewhat ridiculously relativistic point.

Even if we took the statement at its somewhat offensive level, one could still argue that what the southern girls were groomed for was as important to their long term quality of life as elite colleges were for the girls groomed for them, assuming all accepted the values of the culture they were raised in.

Obviously, an elite education in certain fields is more universally valuable than joining a top-tier GLO at Bama. But if you're going to settle down in Mobile, your general quality of life might be better as a former Phi Delta Theta or a Kappa from Bama than if you were a graduate of Princeton.

It's provincial, sure, but not everyone gives a flip about elite colleges.

[libelle]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Obviously, an elite education in certain fields is more universally valuable than joining a top-tier GLO at Bama. But if you're going to settle down in Mobile, your general quality of life might be better as a former Phi Delta Theta or a Kappa from Bama than if you were a graduate of Princeton.

It's provincial, sure, but not everyone gives a flip about elite colleges.

If you have the family connections to be a Kappa or Phi Delt at Bama then your general quality of life in Mobile will be good even if you go to a school like Princeton.

[littleowl33]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

And I'm going to make a somewhat ridiculously relativistic point.

Even if we took the statement at it's somewhat offensive level, one could still argue that what the southern girls were groomed for was as important to their long term quality of life as the girls groomed for competitive colleges, assuming they accepted the values of the culture they were raised in.

Obviously, an elite education in certain fields is more universally valuable than joining a top-tier GLO at Bama. But if you're going to settle down in Mobile, your general quality of life might be better as a former Phi Delta Theta or a Kappa from Bama than if you were a graduate of Princeton.

It's provincial, sure, but not everyone gives a flip about elite colleges.

I very much agree with this. If the GLO you joined in college is a major reflection of your status in the South, the college you attended is a major reflection of your status for me. I'm not saying one is more important than the other - I'm of the opnion that anyone can get a fantastic education anywhere, depending on your attitude and work ethic. My friends at Ivies could dick around for four years and emerge useless just as easily as someone at UA could. That's not the point here.

Hardly anyone in the area of New England I grew up in cares if you went Greek in college, or if so, what group you joined. It would never come up in conversation. They've probably never even heard of your GLO if it's not one of the super well-known ones. And honestly, it wouldn't be out of place for them to look down on you for being greek - the negative stereotypes are pretty intense. However, it is a very big deal where you went to college, especially at the grad level.

So, to mirror your closing statement, not everyone gives a flip about affiliation... and in fact, most won't (for me). My Greek friends in the Hopkins engineering school laughed when I talked about putting Kappa on my resume. For them, listing their GLO would be worthless, and at worst, hurtful to their chances of landing a job. Not judging, just repeating (verbatim) what they've told me.

[SWTXBelle]

FWIW, my husband has two degrees from the University of Texas and a Master's from Yale - he in no way thinks his education at Yale was superior to that at UT, although he will admit the Yale libraries are AWESOME. And he says that the best thing to help his quality of life wasn't getting an Ivy League degree - it was marrying a Gamma Phi .

[Katmandu]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

And he says that the best thing to help his quality of life wasn't getting an Ivy League degree - it was marrying a Gamma Phi .

Love this!

[homeward*bound]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

FWIW, my husband has two degrees from the University of Texas and a Master's from Yale - he in no way thinks his education at Yale was superior to that at UT, although he will admit the Yale libraries are AWESOME. And he says that the best thing to help his quality of life wasn't getting an Ivy League degree - it was marrying a Gamma Phi .

Proof that your husband is a very wise man indeed --- no matter where he went to school!

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by littleowl33

I very much agree with this. If the GLO you joined in college is a major reflection of your status in the South, the college you attended is a major reflection of your status for me. I'm not saying one is more important than the other - I'm of the opnion that anyone can get a fantastic education anywhere, depending on your attitude and work ethic. My friends at Ivies could dick around for four years and emerge useless just as easily as someone at UA could. That's not the point here.

Hardly anyone in the area of New England I grew up in cares if you went Greek in college, or if so, what group you joined. It would never come up in conversation. They've probably never even heard of your GLO if it's not one of the super well-known ones. And honestly, it wouldn't be out of place for them to look down on you for being greek - the negative stereotypes are pretty intense. However, it is a very big deal where you went to college, especially at the grad level.

So, to mirror your closing statement, not everyone gives a flip about affiliation... and in fact, most won't (for me). My Greek friends in the Hopkins engineering school laughed when I talked about putting Kappa on my resume. For them, listing their GLO would be worthless, and at worst, hurtful to their chances of landing a job. Not judging, just repeating (verbatim) what they've told me.

I missed this post earlier.

Please let me be clear: if we are talking about certain really exclusive chapters, it might be the case that your particular GLO really does matter for the rest of your life.

But as libelle noted, to get into those chapters, you probably already have the social standing that they are associated with. Getting a bid isn't transformational.
You were groomed for it; you got it.


But for most of us in the south, it's great to be Greek, but it's not life defining.

Similarly, you associate with people from less selective colleges. Their lives have not been crippled because they went to state schools.

[littleowl33]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Please let me be clear: if we are talking about certain really exclusive chapters, it might be the case that your particular GLO really does matter for the rest of your life.

But as libelle noted, to get into those chapters, you probably already have the social standing that they are associated with. Getting a bid isn't transformational.You were groomed for it; you got it.

But for most of us in the south, it's great to be Greek, but it's not life defining.

Makes sense.

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Similarly, you associate with people from less selective colleges. Their lives have not been crippled because they went to state schools.

Of course I do, and of course they weren't "crippled"! But I can tell you that in some very hoity toity circles (not mine, certainly), if your child went to state school, ANY state school, it would be looked at as an embarrassment and would not be mentioned. If it's not a big name, it's no good. I don't agree with that at all, but that's the way it is for some people. And if the GC stories are to be believed, there are Southern Greek parents who feel the same way about their children pledging certain "undesirable" chapters. I'm sure we can both agree that this kind of snobbery is certainly the minority for both demographics, and it's unfair to use it as a generalization.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by littleowl33

Makes sense.



Of course I do, and of course they weren't "crippled"! But I can tell you that in some very hoity toity circles (not mine, certainly), if your child went to state school, ANY state school, it would be looked at as an embarrassment and would not be mentioned. If it's not a big name, it's no good. I don't agree with that at all, but that's the way it is for some people. And if the GC stories are to be believed, there are Southern Greek parents who feel the same way about their children pledging certain "undesirable" chapters. I'm sure we can both agree that this kind of snobbery is certainly the minority for both demographics, and it's unfair to use it as a generalization.

I wasn't picking on you with the "crippled" comment.

I think that the number of people who actually live their lives making any important judgments about people based on either kind of elitism are probably pretty small in number.

Weirdly, I'd put parents not wanting kids to join "undesirable" chapters in kind of a different category. It's the socially insecure, rather than the elite, who are going to worry about that, assuming that the kid really wants to join the chapter. Some normal parents might just be bummed because their kid is disappointed with her results. But someone who isn't interested in actively social climbing isn't going to care if her daughter wants to join the "fat chapter."

[BlueCarnation]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

I wasn't picking on you with the "crippled" comment.

I think that the number of people who actually live their lives making any important judgments about people based on either kind of elitism are probably pretty small in number.

Weirdly, I'd put parents not wanting kids to join "undesirable" chapters in kind of a different category. It's the socially insecure, rather than the elite, who are going to worry about that, assuming that the kid really wants to join the chapter. Some normal parents might just be bummed because their kid is disappointed with her results. But someone who isn't interested in actively social climbing isn't going to care if her daughter wants to join the "fat chapter."

Is there even such a thing as the "fat chapter" down South? Every girl I've seen in all these pictures is just darling!

I think this is all just another cultural difference between the different areas of the country. When I tell people where I went to school, few ask what sorority I was in, unless they were Greek themselves--we have a large Greek system, but we're known more for other things (I went to one of the big, "higher rated" publics that have been mentioned above). We have a lot of kids that come from all over the country to our school, and interestingly the Greek system is seen, not necessarily correctly, as a haven for students from certain areas, and exclusive of in state students. So again, I think it all just depends. One of my best friends from college lives in Florida now and her neighbors can't believe that she was not in a sorority and never considered it. But to her, growing up in a blue collar town in the midwest, it was never even something she considered. Again, not good or bad, just different.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by libelle

If you have the family connections to be a Kappa or Phi Delt at Bama then your general quality of life in Mobile will be good even if you go to a school like Princeton.

Good point. And I'd never say that going to Princeton was a negative, just that it could be a mistake to assume that everyone regarded it as being really, really valuable.

It's going to seem much more important to people who attended similar institutions or wanted to.

[littleowl33]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

ETA: I think your definition of selective is probably narrower than what we were talking here. I wouldn't argue with your point at any college I'd put in the Ivy-League-or-Similar-Admissions-Freakshow range.

EATA: I don't mean that students at those institutions are freaks. I mean that the admissions criteria and degree of selectivity are freaky.

Originally Posted by littleowl33

And this is how I would feel about an SEC rush! I don't find the selectivity of Ivies and similar schools freaky at all. We're just in different mindsets, which is what I was trying to convey in the first place.

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

It might be worth noting that you've changed your comparison from SEC recruitment generally being "freaky" to being selected for certain elite groups.

That wasn't my intent... I didn't mean to include the whole college admissions/rush process, just the bit about getting into the "top tier" college/group. I though that's what we were talking about all along. Sorry if I was unclear.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by littleowl33

That wasn't my intent... I didn't mean to include the whole college admissions/rush process, just the bit about getting into the "top tier" college/group. I though that's what we were talking about all along. Sorry if I was unclear.

No big thing. I just probably would have nodded along had the comparison clearly been between the 7% of girls who get bids to the "top" group at Bama, whatever it might be, and admission at the Ivies.

But merely getting a bid in the SEC, while weird and difficult emotionally, is no admission to Harvard equivalent in the realm Greek Life.

[Txborn]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

FWIW, my husband has two degrees from the University of Texas and a Master's from Yale - he in no way thinks his education at Yale was superior to that at UT, although he will admit the Yale libraries are AWESOME. And he says that the best thing to help his quality of life wasn't getting an Ivy League degree - it was marrying a Gamma Phi .

I love that - here is a man who has his head on straight - he loves his wife and his Longhorns!!!!

[MerryGPhiB]

Originally Posted by Txborn

I love that - here is a man who has his head on straight - he loves his wife and his Longhorns!!!!

Smart man!!! ;-)