Hopeful 2011 SEC PNM from "The North"

[Pass the Pinot]

My best advice for a great recruitment next year? Enjoy THIS year. Try something new and challenging. Study hard and maintain or improve your grades. Practice being a great conversationalist. Make graciousness a habit. Meet new people and take a genuine interest in their activities and thoughts. This will make your senior year so full and rich that you will enter recruitment with a great spirit and attitude.

Great advice as well as being sure Alabama is where you want to be. You won't have a problem getting in with the grades you list, but make sure it is the best fit for all reasons and for all of your goals.

You are on track to be thinking about recruitment now, with your big emphasis beginning after the 1st of the year. My daughter rushed this fall at a big SEC school, had great everything like you and tons of recs. It was still brutal. Here are some suggestions:

1. Ask your mom to write her circle of friends. For my daughter, I emailed my tennis friends, church friends, club friends, etc and said she would be going through rush. I listed the sororities on campus and asked for help. Other moms in sororities love helping girls like you and I was honored at how much they cared. I am sure this will be the case for you. We asked everyone we ran across and kept a list. Once you have your list, prepare a nice package for the rec writer, including your pictures, resume a nice cover letter, a blank rec form for their sorority (you won't be able to do this for all houses, many are restricted to the members only) and self addressed envlopes with LOTS of postage.

2. Once you are SURE you want UA, you really must start trying to get to know girls in some of the houses there. This is what we did not know going into rush this year. There are just so, so, so many girls going through that on paper they all start to blend together. The girls that have the best rushes are the ones that have girls in the houses swinging for them. I would suggest making some road trips to Tuscaloosa and have an AGE APPROPRIATE, best manners weekend. Make getting in front of girls in the houses your priority. Combined with the rec's you will be in much better shape.

Good luck!

[atrianglepi]

I know you are very interested in Alabama, however I have first hand knowledge about South Carolina. My daughter just completed recruitment there. We are also OOS, but still from the deep south. Surprisingly enough the majority of out-of staters at SC are from Penn, Maryland and New Jersey. That being said, my daughter told me that certain chapters are comprised of girls mostly from the south. Good luck and Roll Tide/Go Gamecocks.

[Bamababe]

Originally Posted by Pass the Pinot

Great advice as well as being sure
2. Once you are SURE you want UA, you really must start trying to get to know girls in some of the houses there. This is what we did not know going into rush this year. There are just so, so, so many girls going through that on paper they all start to blend together. The girls that have the best rushes are the ones that have girls in the houses swinging for them. I would suggest making some road trips to Tuscaloosa and have an AGE APPROPRIATE, best manners weekend. Make getting in front of girls in the houses your priority. Combined with the rec's you will be in much better shape.

Good luck!

Alabama has just passed a new set of rules regarding pre-recruitment, which includes no contact during the fall semester. Therefore, while blondieee3 may visit campus as much as she would like, she can NOT contact/be contacted by sorority women until after final exams this semester. She should use this semester to enjoy her senior year, as should all PNMs considering Alabama. There's absolutely no harm in finding women right now to write recs for the PNM come this spring/summer, but no PNMs should be focusing on getting to know sorority women, yet. (For more info, look at the "Bama Sorority Recruitment 2010 thread- these rules are better discussed there)