Question Re: Southern Rush

[Sue_XO]

I only heard of this with schools- go three years at some easy college and then transfer to a big name one to get the degree (and status).

I love the greek system but it is getting sad when kids are choosing their college based on if they can get into their choice of a sorority rather than on that college and what the school has to offer.

[cutehootie]

I think the transferring is not only about the sorority. Some go to a more local school for a year because of boyfriends (bad reason), finances, mom and dad, fear of a large school, etc.; and then transfer the following year to a bigger state school for a variety of reasons. For example, they may go to some of the night football games and see the greek parties and total atmosphere, etc. and want to experience all of it. To say, its to join this or that sorority is probably an oversimplification.

Also, to their credit, many do transfer because of the breadth and depth of the degree programs offered at the state schools.

While the SEC schools do have a great Greek system, I doubt whether many (although a very few might) would go to a smaller school with the sole purpose of using it to get into a particular sorority at a larger school.

[justamom]

This year, my neice told me about a really cute girl going through rush. She was a multiple legacy, but didn't have the grades for LSU.(!?!) She was rushing with a friend who spilled the beans that they intended to transfer next year. Sad thing was, her grades were too low for her choice sorority and the others that heard about the transfer dropped her as well.

[juniorgrrl]

Originally posted by justamom
This year, my neice told me about a really cute girl going through rush. She was a multiple legacy, but didn't have the grades for LSU.(!?!)

LOL. Did this girl even have a pulse?

[33girl]

Originally posted by Sue_XO
I only heard of this with schools- go three years at some easy college and then transfer to a big name one to get the degree (and status).

I've heard of that too. In my hometown Penn State is practically a religion for some people, but not everyone has a) the grades to get in their freshman year or b) the money to go to Penn State all 4 years. So they go to a state system school (what used to be known as teachers colleges, now universities, and much cheaper than PSU) for 2 years and then transfer to Penn State so they can get the Nittany Lion on their license plate.

[Salience]

It's interesting that this seems towork. When I went to school, we had transfers, but they wanted the school name moreso than the "ease" of getting into the "right" sorority. Because at my alma mater, they didn't really extend that right hand of sisterhood to those who didn't start out there. One of my friends, who transferred in to be close to her man, just went at-large, which I guess NPC calls alumna.

[NeonPi]

I do know that most of the NPC groups have done away with voting on accepting transfers as these women have already been voted on for membership, and shouldn't be voted on twice .... but the transferring women do have the choice to affliate or stay alumna - ONLY if she has completed all financial responsbilities to her home chapter.

But yes, you hear stories every year about transfers ... too bad they didn't put their academic major in front of majoring in sorority

[tcsparky]

I don't think the two girls I wrote about transferred schools for the purpose of getting in the "right" sorority, I think they chose their sororities based on the fact that they were going to transfer. For example, "Carrie" attended her first two years at the small private college where her father worked. Professor's children had a huge discount. But, it did not have her major, so she knew she would need to transfer. When it was time to Rush, she looked at the sororities at the school to which she was transferring. She decided that XY had the status, sisterhood, etc.. that she wanted. At her own school, they were small, weak, and definitely not elite (had the "anyone with a pulse reputation"). She went all the way through and accepted a bid from them. And, she ended up loving them, and having a great time. The house began to grow and become more involved on campus. When she transferred, XY at her new school decided she did not "fit in", and she was not allowed to affiliate.

I'm glad to hear that most sororities have done away with the voting in of transferring members. This can be devastating to someone who ended up having no choice but to transfer schools. They come to a new place, under not-so-great circumstances, having left all of their friends behind. They will definitely need their sisters.

[carnation]

Y'know, I haven't heard a thing about sororities doing away with voting in affiliates. If anything, I've heard that more are doing it.

One problem you see in the South is that girls in a larger chapter of a selective sorority will actually encourage their buddies to rush a less selective chapter and transfer--this is done when the girls don't think their buddies will make it on the larger campus. AGDAlum once told me that a chapter at the University of Texas was once known as the "Friendly Four Hundred" due to this.

I hate to see a girl unable to affiliate! I just don't know what the solution is when people are purposely going around the system--which, by the way, hurts the smaller chapters as they lose members who never intended to stay to their bigger chapters.

[ErikaXO]

I always wondered about this myself.....but it isn't only a problem in the deep south!!!!! For a pretty large school, Kent State has a fairly small greek system. When I was there ('90-'94) we only comprised 4% of the school population....and the greek system was MUCH larger then than it is now. In my time, there were 7 sororities total, but only 3 of them were considered "prestigious." A couple of times we were faced with the possibility of girls from other schools coming to KSU and trying to affiliate. We actually had one come from Akron U which had an unusually weak XO chapter. She really surprised us....she was a girl who would have rushed very successfully at Kent...and she did affiliate. In XO we had a sort of pledge period, where the girl who is looking to affiliate gets to know the chapter, and learns our chapter's history, etc. Then we vote on whether to affiliate her or not. (If she is voted out, she goes alum.)

[bruinaphi]

Someone asked about counting affiliates in campus total. On most campuses unaffiliated women don't count in campus total - meaning that you don't count them in your membership until you affiliate them.

[NinjaPoodle]

I was curious if this is still an issue with SEC/major southern schools.

[clemsongirl]

I'd venture that Clemson is fairly major as far as non-SEC southern schools go, and every time a girl has come to my chapter as a transfer we've welcomed her with open arms. We do vote but it's entirely a formality. We had a sister transfer in from a different school in-state, affiliate with our chapter for a couple weeks, and then withdraw from school because a very prestigious school across the country offered her a scholarship starting the next semester. She still got to be our sister for a couple weeks.

I think that having a sister to vouch that she was transferring for "the right reasons", so to speak, is useful for chapters where this might happen.

[jolene]

When I was in school in the 90s I had heard the rumor of girls joining XYZ at State U and transferring to Mega Large State U due to rush being terrifying at MLSU and affiliating. That's probably simplifying it though. I was the Rho Chi for one girl who rushed & joined at my school and transferred to UGA and affiliated, but I don't think it had anything to do with sororities, but she decided she didn't like going to school in downtown Atlanta (she was from a small Georgia town) and liked Athens better. Also, I've known people who thought they wanted a smaller college and realized they would rather have a larger campus experience and transfer. Or sometimes, the person didn't have the grades to get in one school, got their grades up and transferred but joined a sorority that also had a chapter where they eventually wanted to go. There are lots of reasons.

[Happy Alum]

My chapter had sisters from other chapters affiliate with us almost every year. They all said they transferred for a field of study their former institution did not offer. We were absolutely crushed when we were made aware of a sister who had chosen to not submit her name for an affiliation vote. We always treated her well if we did see her as she was still a sister to us. I was told these sisters counted for total but did not affect quota.