Alabama Sorority Costs...Can anyone help?

[shirley1929]

Originally Posted by HQWest

The other problem that comes up with a combination of OOS and asking about dues is that OOS are already more likely to transfer.

What??? I have never heard this...where does this statistic come from?

[33girl]

Originally Posted by shirley1929

What??? I have never heard this...where does this statistic come from?

Brains and guts.

I think that varies hugely by school/region. At some schools, people would probably think "well if she came all the way from BFE and went through ALL THAT to get here in the first place, I doubt she's going to transfer, now that she's here."

[HQWest]

Originally Posted by shirley1929

What??? I have never heard this...where does this statistic come from?

?
This is also why sports programs that can recruit more in state athletes are often considered stronger programs. It doesn't matter if they are bringing the most awesome athlete with the best coach ever - sometimes family situations are such that they need to transfer and OOS students are perceived to do this more often to go closer to home.

Someone could probably write a master's thesis on this but (having gone to school OOS) my theory is that a big OOS move is exciting in many cases, but it does remove the social network and support system that one is used to. This makes college - which can already be a stressful situation - even more stressful.

At a private school, where there are lots of OOS students the willingness and opportunity to build new networks are there. It can be harder at a big state school with big classes and a large fraction of the student body already having a network. I think Facebook and email can make this easier nowadays, but then that inserts a new level of high school drama that was not present when I was a kid?

A good sorority situation can Definitely make it better. (Hence the interest of OOS students in recruitment.) A bad sorority experience can make it worse. (Hence, the legends of NMs who spend one semester at a school get initiated and then transfer to schools where that sorority is more highly respected....)

(I will ignore the fact that in the Alabama thread you just called Alabama BFE....)

[33girl]

Originally Posted by HQWest

(I will ignore the fact that in the Alabama thread you just called Alabama BFE....)

Hee, I was referring to coming from BFE (which at Bama would be...anyplace outside Alabama?).

[AnchorAlumna]

Way to make friends here, 33Girl.

[HQWest]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Hee, I was referring to coming from BFE (which at Bama would be...anyplace outside Alabama?).

LOL - At Bama, yes, anyplace outside of Alabama would be BFE.

(nice save )

[Hartofsec]

Originally Posted by 33girl

That was the best part of this thread - you and I being mistaken for youngsters. OMGZ R U going to the One Direction concert with me? If so we have to go get some sparkly glitter makeup to wear.

I thought the assumption regarding age was quite logically drawn from the behavior on this thread.

Originally Posted by 33girl

Hartofsec, you know what I mean. Dissecting posts is silly.

Actually I do not know what you mean, so for the purposes of clarity, please pardon my dissection.

Originally Posted by 33girl

If you're trying to say "she could join a cheap group and get the same experience" - then you're clueless as well.

I wouldn't presume to know what experience other people have based on the cost of their group. My own GLO appears to fall into the "more expensive" category (though for the purposes of comparison, the information regarding costs at most chapters appears to be lacking in general). But I certainly wouldn't assume that girls in less expensive (if that is even the case) chapters have a diminished sorority experience, as you appear to be indicating.

Originally Posted by 33girl

You cannot, in rush at Alabama, pick and choose which groups to return to. The groups are cutting you.

When I went through "rush" (as was the terminology at the time) at Bama, the process was one of mutual selection.


When my daughter went through recruitment on a different SEC campus several years ago, it was also a process of mutual selection. At the conclusion of the party day, she "picked and chose" the houses she most wanted to return to based on the number of allowed parties in the next round, and then prioritized the houses beyond this number.


I was not at all aware that PNMs at Alabama are no longer involved in having some choice regarding where they return. I haven't received that feedback from girls for whom I have written recs or from other alums.

Originally Posted by 33girl

If all she has left is more expensive groups, that's all she has. PERIOD.

Well, that is true enough -- but difficult to determine the costs of what she has left, considering the unavailability of comparable cost information.

[AlphaFrog]

We've discussed AD NAUSEUM on this board that "Mutual Selection" is less than mutual.

She could rank sororities by cost, but if the least expensive ones all drop her, there'a nothing she can do about it. Also, if she prefs the two cheapest and the most expensive she needs to rank them all and could very easily end up in the most expensive.

[amIblue?]

Ranking sororities does not equal cutting sororities. If your daughter ranked, then she did not cut. It is not like it was back in the day when we got all of our invites back and accepted or declined them.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by amIblue?

Ranking sororities does not equal cutting sororities. If your daughter ranked, then she did not cut. It is not like it was back in the day when we got all of our invites back and accepted or declined them.

JESUS CHRIST YES.

PNMs do not CUT ANYONE.

Please read if you are confused.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=121739

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

JESUS CHRIST YES.

PNMs do not CUT ANYONE.

Please read if you are confused.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=121739

Sorry to make you take the Lord's name in vain, but a noob with all of 8 posts talking about her daughter picking and choosing, I just couldn't bite my tongue.

[Jen]

No one reads threads and learns here, do they?

The sororities list who they want back - if she gets invited to all of the groups she visited, THEN they use her rankings to eliminate her lowest ranked groups so she'll go to the max number of parties. BUT ONLY THEN do they use her rankings.

So unless she is going back to the max number of parties every round and none of them are her lowest ranked, the sororities ARE choosing her and not the other way around.

[Hartofsec]

Originally Posted by Jen

No one reads threads and learns here, do they?

The sororities list who they want back - if she gets invited to all of the groups she visited, THEN they use her rankings to eliminate her lowest ranked groups so she'll go to the max number of parties. BUT ONLY THEN do they use her rankings.

Exactly. And then the houses that the pnm chose to rank at the bottom do not cycle back into her list of parties.

I get it folks -- I just don't agree that this negates the mutual part of mutual selection. I do agree that the mutual aspect is not evenly distributed, and that the houses have the advantage.

I do prefer this system, even if girls are required to attend some parties that they might decline otherwise. It keeps options open to girls that they may not have considered favorable earlier in the week.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Hartofsec

Exactly. And then the houses that the pnm chose to rank at the bottom do not cycle back into her list of parties.

I get it folks -- I just don't agree that this negates the mutual part of mutual selection. I do agree that the mutual aspect is not evenly distributed, and that the houses have the advantage.

I do prefer this system, even if girls are required to attend some parties that they might decline otherwise. It keeps options open to girls that they may not have considered favorable earlier in the week.

Absolutely, but it also means that any PNM not having a near perfect recruitment with all the chapters inviting her back each round is going to have a VERY limited change to control which chapters she attends based on cost.

At the end, of course she can decline her bid if that chapter costs too much, but arguably if a PNM and her parents can't afford all the chapters, it's a pretty painful process to go through.

I don't fault the OP, and I'd hate to be in her shoes, letting her daughter go through and then telling her to rank or drop because of costs. I just wish she'd known earlier what she knows now and could have avoided this particularly emotional proposition.

[Titchou]

So who on here wants to be the mom telling daughter #2: Well you chose a cheaper college than your older sister but the cost to be Greek for you is too high. So, even though we funded your sister's sorority bills, we aren't going to fund yours because it's too expensive at your school.

Really? You want to tell your already #2 daughter that you don't love her enough to do what you have to do so she can have what you've given her older sister? Wow! And I thought my mother was Momie Dearest personified.