You are not getting into any sorority with bad or mediocre grades.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

Those recruitment videos may look ridiculous for graduates of almost every age and gender, but we're not who they're targeting. For 17 and 18 year old women, videos that show fun, put together and well dressed girls doing cool things (yachts! music festivals! pools! running on the football field!) is wayyyyyy more of a draw than studying in the library or conducting chapter meetings. Keep in mind they're coming from high school, and only the absolute richest girls have had access to these types of events with their friends before (and they're going to want to keep at least the status quo anyway). They're wildly exciting to that age group and that's why chapters are spending so much money on them. You're kidding yourself if you think otherwise.

Perhaps that's the case. But then we can't be surprised when PNMs believe that their GPA isn't going to be a huge factor going into recruitment.

And I don't think you give 17- and 18-year-old women enough credit. To think that all of them are simply drawn in by pretty houses and glitter is not accurate.

I'm not saying you have to show a video of women in the library studying, but why, instead of running around aimlessly with a meaningless song playing, do we not talk about the benefits of membership? The importance of scholarship? The friendships? The lifelong connections? The opportunity to give back to the community? Heck, you can even talk about and show your amazing house and the social events you hold, all while hanging out by the pool. But a good number of recruitment videos are expensive, trivial recordings that portray nothing of substance.

[DubaiSis]

The Alpha Xi Delta chapter at the University of Washington did a GREAT video a year ago and it is being replicated by some of our other chapters. It's a great "letter" from the outgoing president to the new members about what sisterhood means. It's very emotional and heart-felt with little to no hair flipping or bimbo'y clothes. I'd love to see more chapters talk about that part of sorority membership and less beating you over the head with less than subtle sexual references.

[33girl]

If we are afraid that anything but images of pretty girls in bikinis is going to scare women away from sorority membership, perhaps we're targeting the wrong women.

And (I can't believe this is coming out of my mouth) perhaps the advisors and national headquarters, either or both of whom I'm guessing have to approve the astronomical budgets for these productions, need to rethink the type of member this is attracting as well.

I'm not saying we should talk about nothing but grades and studying, but occasionally the disconnect is large enough to incite whiplash.

[DubaiSis]

Sadly, women are a big part of the anti-feminism problem. We COULD be a big part of the solution, but that all goes back to the same arguments of sorority women understanding and using their power. When sorority women start telling d-bag fraternities where they can shove their mixers, they can start thinking about not making bimbo videos.

[FSUZeta]

My FarmVille 4 sister is RIGHT ON the money(as are my other Panhellenic sisters and our IFC brother). I would add a caveat, that while you might qualify with your low GPA to sign up for recruitment, that in no way means you will meet individual sororities GPA requirement, which are, most often, higher.

[carnation]

True! I've known of several girls whom Panhellenic allowed to rush even though they had under a 2.5 as freshmen. They were so happy that they were going to get to rush and then they were cut across the board after first parties. And of course, PH got to keep the fees.

[ari115]

Do sororities take into account your major when looking at GPA? I'm a sophomore biology major and I have to say the upper level math, chemistry & biology classes I'm taking are significantly harder than a lot of other majors. I have gotten ONE C on my transcript and I have 3.23. The rest are all A's and B's. I'm working really hard and I get good grades but I know my GPA is still mediocre.

[Titchou]

They don't see your transcript once you have a semester of college credits. So all they would know is your GPA. Some might take a look at your major; some won't. And even for the vast majority of incoming freshmen, they won't see your HS transcript and only go by the HS GPA that the university accepts from your core subjects. Most of the schools I have worked with give the chapters your official GPA- not the one with cheerleading,etc included.

The requirement for each group to bid is simply a number. Where you rank within the list of those above that number is a different story and is dependent on grades,activities, recommendations and other things. In other words, the whole package.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by ari115

Do sororities take into account your major when looking at GPA? I'm a sophomore biology major and I have to say the upper level math, chemistry & biology classes I'm taking are significantly harder than a lot of other majors. I have gotten ONE C on my transcript and I have 3.23. The rest are all A's and B's. I'm working really hard and I get good grades but I know my GPA is still mediocre.

No. Unfortunately they do not see all of that.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by ari115

Do sororities take into account your major when looking at GPA? I'm a sophomore biology major and I have to say the upper level math, chemistry & biology classes I'm taking are significantly harder than a lot of other majors. I have gotten ONE C on my transcript and I have 3.23. The rest are all A's and B's. I'm working really hard and I get good grades but I know my GPA is still mediocre.

I'm sorry, but this whole "I'm in a more difficult major than you" thing annoys me. I was an engineering major to start, and I realized that calculus wasn't something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I graduated with a Poli Sci degree with a focus on law. I wrote so many papers as an undergrad, including a 60-page study on politics, the media, and the effect that each has on each other. Meanwhile, I knew Engineering and Math majors who couldn't spell or write to save their life. But their GPA should be weighted more heavily because they're in a "difficult" major? Please.

I know that part of this is a product of high school students not being advised adequately and ending up in majors they were never meant to be in, but to argue that certain people should get a pass because of their major is ridiculous.

[thetalady]

They care so much about GPA for several very important reasons. A very big issue is whether a girl will bring the average GPA for the chapter UP or DOWN.

Chapters are critically evaluated against campus ASA (all sorority average) or all Greek average. How many 4.0 GPAs are needed to lift a 2.5 up to that number? LOTS. If a chapter does not meet or exceed ASA, they may face some disciplinary action. The GPA numbers are not weighted because a chapter has a bunch of pre-med or calculus majors.

[DubaiSis]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I'm sorry, but this whole "I'm in a more difficult major than you" thing annoys me.

In defenses of that argument, I had elementary ed major friends who complained about all the reading they had to do, of Dr. Seuss books, when I had to read 17 novels in 1 semester, including The Executioner's Song. You have to weight train just to lift that sucker. And my nursing and pre-med friends had to memorize, oh, you know, every bone in the human body. While I don't think GPAs of majors should be weighted (because if you're in it you should have the talent for it), but some college IS harder than others.

[clemsongirl]

I don't think people should get a pass for their major, but I think there should be understanding. Objectively, my engineering friends had more involved, more difficult work than I did as a sociology major. Their GPA matched against mine was more impressive knowing the work they did was more time-intensive and more rigorous than the work I did. My major was the major athletes got placed in to stay academically eligible, which I know because I tutored a whole lot of them who needed it even though their classes were easy. Football players don't get put in engineering courses to keep them on the team.

We had to be reminded during recruitment that if a PNM told us she was in engineering or the Honors college not to wow and awe at her or tell her "that's such a hard major!" because it was incredibly awkward to be on the receiving end of that (which I experienced more than once when I mentioned being in our Honors college). While I hated when engineering majors acted as though they were somehow better than non-STEM majors because they survived their classes, I acknowledge that not all majors are created equal.

That said, I think there should still be a minimum PNMs have to clear regardless of major, and then what that major was can be considered afterwards.

[BlueCarnation]

Then of course there's the issue of quality of preparation. My stepmom taught an intro chemistry class that was required for pre-med students at her college. The class was full of kids who got As in "honors" science classes in high school. They could barely balance equations---and were stunned when she told them that they may want to think about some other route than medical school. So I guess it goes both ways.

But I agree about the "harder major" thing. No way my engineering roommates could've written the papers I wrote about Congress...and no way would I want to do all the math they did!

[DGTess]

Look also at when the "difficult" classes are taken. An engineering major who is barely prepared will probably have to bust butt freshman and sophomore years to internalize the heavy mathematics required for further experience, where a social-science or humanities major likely is expected to start small and work toward the thesis-level, in-depth research projects with heavy research and book-length reports An instrumentl music major likely has to start out strong and add time in rehearsal as s/he progresses. Choosing how to weight programs without factoring innate abilities, program timing, and individual perspective is useless, and factoring them all is impossible.