University of Mississippi - Ole Miss Panhellenic Sorority Recruitment 2013

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by 33girl

MP - do they not take SATs? (they = the Ole Miss admissions office)

And the red/yellow/green zone thing re grades is AWESOME.

Ole Miss thought it was cute that MP had taken the SAT but wanted her ACT scores. They haven't changed a thing.

Zone thing is cool, except they don't tell you what will make a Chapter take someone in the yellow zone as a new member, and so it can lead to a Yellow Zone PNM that needs to go through formal recruitment her Sophomore year to go through as a Freshman.

Does anyone recall the Ole Miss PNM mom who railed against the cruel sororities and more cruel Panhellenic that dropped her Yellow Zone GPA daughter after Philanthropy? It was because the Zone system gave the Mother and Daughter a sense of deniability about the less than 3.0 GPA.

It's that tension between Panhellenic inclusiveness (everyone will get a trophy) and the Chapters needing to have quality PNMs through their own Membership Selection. Just look at the Freshman Class Overall GPA in the graph posted (comes from the Ole Miss web site.) It kind of paints a picture doesn't it?

[WCsweet<3]

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

Ole Miss thought it was cute that MP had taken the SAT but wanted her ACT scores. They haven't changed a thing.

Interesting. I applied to 10 (I think, it's been a few years) colleges and not a one asked for ACT. I never even took it. Over here people rarely took it. It was rumored that those who took the ACT either were going to Harvard (or some special school) or did really poorly on the SAT. I wonder if it's an area difference or what. I applied all over the country, not just West coast schools.

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by WCsweet<3

Interesting. I applied to 10 (I think, it's been a few years) colleges and not a one asked for ACT. I never even took it. Over here people rarely took it. It was rumored that those who took the ACT either were going to Harvard (or some special school) or did really poorly on the SAT. I wonder if it's an area difference or what. I applied all over the country, not just West coast schools.

According to my high school counselors in New Orleans, Southern Public Universities all wanted ACT, the Southern Private Universities wanted the SAT. They instructed us to take both.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by WCsweet<3

Interesting. I applied to 10 (I think, it's been a few years) colleges and not a one asked for ACT. I never even took it. Over here people rarely took it. It was rumored that those who took the ACT either were going to Harvard (or some special school) or did really poorly on the SAT. I wonder if it's an area difference or what. I applied all over the country, not just West coast schools.

I think it is. The only reason anyone at my HS ever took the ACT was in case you were thinking of applying to West Virginia U (they took it and not the SAT). The SAT was good pretty much everywhere else.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I think it is. The only reason anyone at my HS ever took the ACT was in case you were thinking of applying to West Virginia U (they took it and not the SAT). The SAT was good pretty much everywhere else.

My high school only prepped for the SAT because that's what all the schools they fed wanted. No one went to Southern public schools. When I decided to come home and go to Alabama I had to rush out and find a place to take the ACT and never prepped for it at all. Took it totally cold about 10 days after deciding for Alabama. Surprised I managed to get in.

[carnation]

A lot of Georgia kids take both the SAT and ACT; mine all have. The schools they applied to took the higher score of either plus most of mine applied to AL or MS colleges as well as GA ones.

My children who were more of the math/science type did significantly better on the ACT, enough that it raised their equivalent SAT score as much as 200 points. Actually, my daughter who just graduated from high school made a 27 on her ACT and never bothered with the SAT after that.

[WVU alpha phi]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I think it is. The only reason anyone at my HS ever took the ACT was in case you were thinking of applying to West Virginia U (they took it and not the SAT). The SAT was good pretty much everywhere else.

I went to WVU (enrolled in 2003) and never took the ACT. None of my WVU friends did either. I had one high school friend take it (in Maryland) but that was only because she received a really low SAT score.

[Hartofsec]

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

Zone thing is cool, except they don't tell you what will make a Chapter take someone in the yellow zone as a new member, and so it can lead to a Yellow Zone PNM that needs to go through formal recruitment her Sophomore year to go through as a Freshman.

Does anyone recall the Ole Miss PNM mom who railed against the cruel sororities and more cruel Panhellenic that dropped her Yellow Zone GPA daughter after Philanthropy? It was because the Zone system gave the Mother and Daughter a sense of deniability about the less than 3.0 GPA.

It's that tension between Panhellenic inclusiveness (everyone will get a trophy) and the Chapters needing to have quality PNMs through their own Membership Selection. Just look at the Freshman Class Overall GPA in the graph posted (comes from the Ole Miss web site.) It kind of paints a picture doesn't it?

Considering, what I found a bit surprising in the Ole Miss stats is how many sorority chapter averages are in the yellow zone. There are five chapters in the green zone, and most of those just barely over a 3.0.

Not that my own alma mater is a flagship of academic selectivity , but it seems as if the sorority/Greek chapter averages at Ole Miss are noticeably low in general.

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by Hartofsec

Considering, what I found a bit surprising in the Ole Miss stats is how many sorority chapter averages are in the yellow zone. There are five chapters in the green zone, and most of those just barely over a 3.0.

Not that my own alma mater is a flagship of academic selectivity , but it seems as if the sorority/Greek chapter averages at Ole Miss are noticeably low in general. Fall 2012:

@Hartofsec: I agree they are very low, but that is part and parcel when the University forces Chapters to have Recruitment during the Semester at an SEC school. So many unsatisfied PNMs were withdrawing from Ole Miss after Recruitment that Administration moved Recruitment out of the traditional preterm August time frame. Today, the largely non-Greek Alumni Instructors choose to routinely put midterms, papers, projects, and tests during the week of Recruitment out of passive (or active) aggression. Further, Recruitment is scheduled around the Football schedule so we cannot set Recruitment dates until the Football schedule is written in stone. For an Institution where the Administration, Alumni, Faculty, and Students say they want to be taken seriously, the current arrangement flies in the face of any appearance of Ole Miss having a serious purpose for academic achievement. Probably why it's the #1 party school in the nation right now it that academics are not the primary purpose. That being said, I have been told that Spring Term grades significantly improved over Fall, but do not believe it has been published as of yet.

[Gingerdeltaz]

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

Today, the largely non-Greek Alumni Instructors choose to routinely put midterms, papers, projects, and tests during the week of Recruitment out of passive (or active) aggression.

My daughter went through recruitment at Ole Miss in the fall of 2012 and said that this was very apparent. When it happened in a couple of classes she thought perhaps it was coincidence, but it soon became obvious that it was not.

Another note on something that may or may not have had an impact on the sorority GPA's...my daughter had several friends who were dropped from recruitment fairly early on due to grades, but were given snap bids on bid day when some of the chapters did not make quota. (I doubt that these few girls that my daughter knew were enough, in and of themselves to make a significant impact, but I'm certain that they were not the only girls who had been dropped and received snap bids.) Just a thought...

[Hartofsec]

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

@Hartofsec: I agree they are very low, but that is part and parcel when the University forces Chapters to have Recruitment during the Semester at an SEC school. So many unsatisfied PNMs were withdrawing from Ole Miss after Recruitment that Administration moved Recruitment out of the traditional preterm August time frame. Today, the largely non-Greek Alumni Instructors choose to routinely put midterms, papers, projects, and tests during the week of Recruitment out of passive (or active) aggression. Further, Recruitment is scheduled around the Football schedule so we cannot set Recruitment dates until the Football schedule is written in stone. For an Institution where the Administration, Alumni, Faculty, and Students say they want to be taken seriously, the current arrangement flies in the face of any appearance of Ole Miss having a serious purpose for academic achievement. Probably why it's the #1 party school in the nation right now it that academics are not the primary purpose. That being said, I have been told that Spring Term grades significantly improved over Fall, but do not believe it has been published as of yet.

I can see how rush conflicting with the midterm could have an impact on GPAs -- honestly, I don't know how everyone survives (especially the actives!). And most girls will have this interruption 4 semesters during their time at Ole Miss. Best to schedule one's most difficult classes in the spring if possible (made me wonder if this discourages some serious students from recruitment and membership).

I didn't see the spring 2013 numbers anywhere, but looked up the previous spring (2012). Interestingly the numbers are similar -- still very low -- with just a 0.08 overall difference for the nine NPC sororities:

http://web.archive.org/web/201211200...ks/scholarship

This might make it difficult to advocate for a different recruitment period based on the impact on grades. It might also lead a PNM with similar "yellow zone" grades to feel less concerned about how her grades will affect her recruitment.

I'm not sure how this can be explained considering the rising GPAs of more recent freshman classes at Ole Miss overall. If MS is anything like Alabama in terms of rural high schools (and I think it is), high school GPAs from rural high schools may seem inflated compared to more urban (suburban perhaps) high schools and private schools.

In other words, a 4.0 at Outlying Rural High is not necessarily equal to a 4.0 at Jackson Academy.

I think the rising numbers of OOS students probably helped us in this department at Bama.

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by Hartofsec

In other words, a 4.0 at Outlying Rural High is not necessarily equal to a 4.0 at Jackson Academy.

This ^^^ and the intense social scene at Ole Miss. I remain amazed at how busy these young women are. Ole Miss is deceptive. When I was in undergrad in the 80's, it was known to be a moderately easy school with only certain courses of study being challenging. During Chancellor Khayat's tenure, Ole Miss acquired a more serious tone and a Phi Beta Kappa Chapter. People who rely on their parents memories will be sorely mistaken. And those who were never allowed off the leash in high school? They will be lost in the whirl. When I was a young one, Ole Miss used to lose 50% of the Freshman every year ("The Dean of Students hopes that you will take this next semester to reflect on how you might improve your performance in the Spring Term next year at Ole Miss"), I don't know what it is now.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by Hartofsec

not necessarily equal to a 4.0 at Jackson Academy.

^^^ Hey! My husband's cousin has taught there forever!

[ADPiEE]

Originally Posted by MaryPoppins

@Hartofsec: I agree they are very low, but that is part and parcel when the University forces Chapters to have Recruitment during the Semester at an SEC school. So many unsatisfied PNMs were withdrawing from Ole Miss after Recruitment that Administration moved Recruitment out of the traditional preterm August time frame. .

Pardon the crash (and I'm sure this has been explained before and I missed it)--why didn't they opt for a deferred recruitment (In January) instead of having a long drawn-out recruitment in the fall? I can't see how the current schedule is good for anyone.

[MaryPoppins]

Originally Posted by ADPiEE

Pardon the crash (and I'm sure this has been explained before and I missed it)--why didn't they opt for a deferred recruitment (In January) instead of having a long drawn-out recruitment in the fall? I can't see how the current schedule is good for anyone.

Everyone of the Chapters said that it would negatively impact their finances to move Recruitment a whole semester. Given that not for profits cannot retain proceeds after expenses (known as profit in the for profit world) it may have seemed impossible to plan for that eventuality.