Texas A&M Rush as a Sophomore

[33girl]

Originally Posted by dnall

Sorry for busting in... My qualification to answer this is pretty limited, so just take this for what it's worth & if these girls say I'm wrong, listen to them instead.

Don't lie about having gone through rush before. You don't have to shout it from the mountain tops, but don't deny it. Assume they know. If you assume it'll come up, you have time to prep a few responses. You can VERY effectively spin the reasons for not having taken a bid before. Just don't outright lie to people. They may see a lot of rushees, but they aren't dumb.

In the meantime, and in addition to the advice above, make friends with people. Go to fraternity functions & philanthropy events. Sit by and talk to greeks in classes. The advantage you have now that incoming freshmen don't is you can network with people. That and you know a lot more about the orgs and rush process. Some things may be working against you, but others are more in your favor if you make the most of your opportunities. Take the glass is half full view of it, cause the alternative doesn't do you any good.

This was actually spot on. See, busting in is good.

[dnall]

Originally Posted by 33girl

This was actually spot on. See, busting in is good.

When prefaced with a comment about busting in, stating a relative lack of qualification, and deferring to people who the conversation is directed toward, then sure busting in can have it's place.

[adpiucf]

I'm going to caution you not to hang out too much with the Greeks at your school for the simple reason that you will make a fool of yourself at a party or a bar where they are present. The lower the profile you maintain the better.

If you happen to make Greek friends in the course of your daily life through classes or organizations you join, then those are good contacts. Don't just start going to Sig Ep house parties or LXA's Watermelon Bust in the hope of making connections with sorority girls. It will backfire.

As others have said, you need to make sure you have recs and know coming in that you are going to have far fewer options than you would have as a freshman. Go in with an open mind expecting heavy cuts and stick it out through the end. Here is the thing about sororities: every campus has their top, middle, and bottom chapters. Realistically, every chapter has 50-150 members, and you can't find a niche in ANY group that size then, no, sorority life is not for you.

As a sophomore, consider that you are rushing to join the Greek System and get involved with Greek Life. Take the bid from the chapters that are available to you if you want to experience sorority life because you will not get your pick of the litter second time around. I would actually suggest this to any freshman, too. Seriously, if can get along with a group of people, then you can be comfortable in any sorority. Unless you're overly opinionated or have an over inflated sense of self. Take advantage of the opportunity to be a Greek if the opportunity presents itself.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

I'm going to caution you not to hang out too much with the Greeks at your school for the simple reason that you will make a fool of yourself at a party or a bar where they are present. The lower the profile you maintain the better.

Huh??

I don't think dnall mentioned parties at all.

[dnall]

Originally Posted by adpiucf

I'm going to caution you not to hang out too much with the Greeks at your school for the simple reason that you will make a fool of yourself at a party or a bar where they are present. The lower the profile you maintain the better.

If you happen to make Greek friends in the course of your daily life through classes or organizations you join, then those are good contacts. Don't just start going to Sig Ep house parties or LXA's Watermelon Bust in the hope of making connections with sorority girls. It will backfire.

I did mention parties. I know what you're saying, but I tend to disagree.

You assume she's going to make a drunken fool of herself at some party and gain a negative reputation that will hurt her. There is that chance, and it would hurt her.

No one suddenly gains class because they're concerned about a standards cmte. If she's going to make a fool of herself, that's who she is and who she would be in or out of a sorority. If she is a classless drunken fool then sororities should know that so they can avoid her.

There's also the opposite chance. The chance she can make a lot of friends among both guys and girls. So that when she shows up for rush she has several actual friends (not acquaintances from class) in a couple chapters, and guys from fraternities rec'ing her to their friends and gfs in sororities.

This is A&M though, so it's a really screwed up social dynamic. The Corps takes the best guys, so fraternities suck like a podunk state college and sororities are more like a 1st tier university. Most sorority girls will not be at fraternity parties there. It's below their social class. There are some spirit orgs and Corps events she can go to instead that might be better for networking.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by dnall

fraternities suck like a podunk state college

Lots of people on GC don't take kindly to these sorts of blanket statements. Just to let you know. Sorry, but that's the way we do things here...

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Lots of people on GC don't take kindly to these sorts of blanket statements. Just to let you know. Sorry, but that's the way we do things here...

Hey this is the ATO forum and you shouldn't get... oh.... wait.

[sigmadiva]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Lots of people on GC don't take kindly to these sorts of blanket statements. Just to let you know. Sorry, but that's the way we do things here...

But he's right - to a point. That's how A&M's culture is. I probably would not go so far as to say the fraternities are like podunk state though. But, there does seem to be a greater pull towards the Corps than the fraternities.

And at A&M it is impossible not to get involved in some group / club and not meet people. A&M likes to claim that they have over 400 recognized student orgs, so it is impossible not to get into something. So, the chance of meeting and interacting with sorority members through different orgs is very possible.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by sigmadiva

But he's right - to a point. That's how A&M's culture is. I probably would not go so far as to say the fraternities are like podunk state though.

I'm not referring to the A & M comment, I'm referring to the "fraternities suck like a podunk state college" coment.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by sigmadiva

To make a broad statement about all fraternities at every school, yes, he is way off base. But, we are not talking about all schools here, just one - Texas A&M.

As they have said, no one at all said he was off base in his assessment of the Corps vs. fraternities at A&M. He said:

Originally Posted by dnall

The Corps takes the best guys, so fraternities suck like a podunk state college . . . .

It's a figurative form of comparison called a simile. The comparison made is that fraternities at A&M suck in the same way that a podunk state college sucks.

What 33girl and then DF objected to is the use of "podunk state colleges" as the target of the simile, as it implies that podunk state colleges are an appropriate and perhaps even obvious yardstick of suckage. People who went to podunk state colleges might disagree with the use of that particular yardstick.

If instead he had said "so fraternities suck like Justin Bieber," then all would have been well. That is, unless some Beliebers found this site and highjacked it.

[sigmadiva]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

As they have said, no one at all said he was off base in his assessment of the Corps vs. fraternities at A&M. He said:It's a figurative form of comparison called a simile. The comparison made is that fraternities at A&M suck in the same way that a podunk state college sucks.

Then it is left up to the reader as to what they consider to be a podunk state college. I'm sure some who attended the Ivies,like one of my ex-boyfriends, he went to Harvard, considered all of his state schools in CA as podunk.

So, it is relative as to what one considers podunk. What may be a 'podunk' state college for one, may be the best school ever for another.

What 33girl and then DF objected to is the use of "podunk state colleges" as the target of the simile, as it implies that podunk state colleges are an appropriate and perhaps even obvious yardstick of suckage. People who went to podunk state colleges might disagree with the use of that particular yardstick.

Then they they do suck to that individual person. There are universities in Texas that I absolutely did not consider attending because I thought they were just that - podunk! They sucked to me, but to those that attended, I'm sure that university was the best thing going.

If instead he had said "so fraternities suck like Justin Bieber," then all would have been well. That is, unless some Beliebers found this site and highjacked it.

Maybe the simile was offensive to some, but the intent is still the same. As you said, some may have gotten offended at the Justin Bieber comparison, but not me. .

[MysticCat]

Oh good grief. The point is no one was commenting at all on his statement about A&M, so there was no particular need to defend his statement about A&M. That being the case, your responses defending what he said about A&M were irrelevant to what 33girl and DF did take issue with -- the statement about podunk state colleges (or Greek life at those colleges). That's all.

[adpiucf]

Originally Posted by dnall

Most sorority girls will not be at fraternity parties there. It's below their social class. There are some spirit orgs and Corps events she can go to instead that might be better for networking.

Ok. I think we're both on the same page, then. My advice was to get involved with clubs and orgs, but what I didn't explain was that OP is likely to make sorority friends doing that and that will lead to socializing with them outside those orgs (same goes for classes).

[carnation]

LOL, Corps events. My mother wouldn't let us go to them in the seventies because she got groped at a Corps event in the forties. Her friends reported similar occurrences.

I wonder if things have changed?