Jobs and Sorority Life - Is it possible?

[Alumiyum]

Most of my chapter had jobs. Some girls had a harder time than others, depending on how many hours they were working and how good they were at scheduling. Get yourself a heavy duty planner, and check it daily. The sorority should give you at least two weeks notice for events so that if you have to take off work you'll have time to ask off. Girls in my chapter that were working a lot of hours every week tended to try to show up at all required events, and made extra events secondary to their job. I recommend you do this. You will probably feel slightly left out during your new member period because you won't be around your pledge class all the time, but I'm sure there will be other girls in your new member class that are working, too. Make friends with them so that you don't feel alone in scheduling your job and sorority into your school schedule. You'll be fine, a LOT of Greeks work to pay their dues and other expenses.

[KSUViolet06]

The majority of girls in my chapter had jobs.

It's definitely possible.

As others have said, get a planner.

Should you get a bid, it's important to know your chapter's policy on missing events for work.

For certain events, work was not a valid excuse. For example: you couldn't miss refinement week or recruitment days for work.

So make sure you can request off in advance for things that might be "no excuse" events.

[Pirouette]

Aerylle-lots of sorority girls have jobs during college (including myself). It wouldn't be the first thing to advertise during rush (don't say "Hi, I'm Aerylle and I have a time consuming job!") but if they ask about your involvement, mention it (something like "I was involved in this club and that club in high school. I want to continue my involvement with that club in college but I also have a part time job. Being involved in high school has helped me learn to manage my time so neither activity should affect the amount of energy I put into being a sister.")
Just let your sisters know ahead of time if you're going to be missing an event.

Good luck!
PS, ditto the planner. I've been out of college for years now and I still refer to mine like a bible.

[myopicsunflower]

Pretty much every collegian I've known has had significant extracurricular involvement outside of the sorority (sports, clubs, resident life assistants, etc), and the majority I've known also have had a job, research assistantship, or internship. Some girls even had more than one part-time job, because they were paying their own dues.

There is lots of good advice in this thread (co-sign on the planner -- I use Google's calendar, because I can sync it with my iPhone and always have it within reach), but I especially like what Pirouette said about how to frame your time commitments in a positive way if the issue comes up during recruitment.

[PhoenixAzul]

I worked, held offices in my sorority, was in campus governance, double major and honors in college. It is all about making priorities and managing your time. I actually ended up working the EARLY morning shift (5am-8.30 or 9.30am most days) because it paid an additional hour just for dragging your butt out of bed. Then I put myself as "flexible" so I could come in if someone needed coverage. If I could cover, awesome, if I couldn't, I'd pass. While I had to miss some sorority things because of commitments (was on the staff of the paper so I occasionally had to cover events during sorority things), I never, ever missed a ritual, and I'd opt out of whatever it was and find coverage for it if it fell on a ritual (or recruitment!) activity.

[psusue]

It also depends on how your chapter calculates/counts attendance for things. I know for my sorority and chapter we have to attend 85% or more of the mandatory events for us to stay in good standing. If we fell below this for two months, we are put on a sort of probation status. Therefore we had a decent amount of leeway for being able to miss things once in awhile (i.e. too much work one night so you'd skip chapter and just read the minutes) without having any issues. New members follow the same system (although as a NM you do have more mandatory events because of your NM meeting), but again, I can only speak for my sorority and chapter. Most sororities do allow some wiggle room though, because they do understand that collegians are busy women.

Also worth noting is that for some mandatory events you could still receive full points if you told the secretary at least 24 hours in advance. Valid excuses were sickness (which could be given less than 24 hours in advance, obviously since sometimes you wake up sick), any tests or exams, and of course family emergencies, etc. Half points were given for work (since we are always told at least 2 weeks in advance about it), unless we were told less than 2 weeks in advance, in which case work received full points. Things like exam reviews were determined on a case by case basis. But yes, in short, it is completely possible to have a job and be in a sorority, just manage that time well. Your sisters will be understanding, but you need to be responsible too. Best of luck with recruitment.

[FSUZeta]

Many, many college students are working and going to school these days. most of them are great at time management, or are becoming good time managers and time management is the key.

at some point in the present semester the officers in the chapter i advise make up the calendar for the upcoming semester, so girls are very aware of what is going to be when. they realize that some things will be added and that some things will change, but it gives them a good enough idea of when required things are going to occur, that those who have jobs can work with their job supervisor when he/she makes up the work schedules so they do not have to choose between missing work or a mandatory event.

my daughter held one on campus job her sophomore and junior years and two campus jobs her senior year and it worked for her.

[Alumiyum]

Also do remember to pace yourself. Your first semester of college can get hectic since everything is new. So if you join a sorority, maybe make that, work, and school your main three priorities until you feel like you have a stable schedule and aren't feeling too overwhelmed. Then you have time to add in other activities if you'd like without feeling lost. (That's not to say you shouldn't check out clubs on campus, just maybe stay in the shallow end for the first month or two at least). It's worth it to make sure you've found a way to balance activities that keeps you from getting too drained before you start adding new ones.

[Aerylle]

Originally Posted by Alumiyum

Also do remember to pace yourself. Your first semester of college can get hectic since everything is new. So if you join a sorority, maybe make that, work, and school your main three priorities until you feel like you have a stable schedule and aren't feeling too overwhelmed. Then you have time to add in other activities if you'd like without feeling lost. (That's not to say you shouldn't check out clubs on campus, just maybe stay in the shallow end for the first month or two at least). It's worth it to make sure you've found a way to balance activities that keeps you from getting too drained before you start adding new ones.

Right, that is good advice that I will take to heart. :]

I was actually thinking that this would be the best way to go since the job I'm looking into actually told me, "The first few months you feel like you are drowning, then after that you start floating no problem."

I think I'll be able to manage school, work, and Greek Life no problem since I am taking some pretty easy classes this semester (to ease myself into college life).