OT To Greek Or Not To Greek

Just-a-Mom said:

@cheerKT that video makes me want to go back in time and change my whole life and go to college when I was 18! I really missed out on so many things. Now I have to live vicariously through my children and make them join. (Not really...but I am reeeeally hoping they do!)

@HeresAThought I have to say...there is not one thing that surprises me in your post. Your parents being delta sigma theta and omega psi phi suits you to a T. (I mean, I don't actually know you, so I'm just going on your Fierce Board personality, but I still think so). ***This is a compliment btw.

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Yeah my mom actually brought up me pledging post grad earlier this week...and I was like If 20 year old Erin couldn't be sold on this, do you really think 27 year old Erin, who will put you in your time and place if you so much as look as me the wrong way has the time for it? Now is like, not the time to strip me of my individuality (so to speak) in the name of sisterhood. No. New. Friends.

HeresAThought said:

Yeah my mom actually brought up me pledging post grad earlier this week...and I was like If 20 year old Erin couldn't be sold on this, do you really think 27 year old Erin, who will put you in your time and place if you so much as look as me the wrong way has the time for it? Now is like, not the time to strip me of my individuality (so to speak) in the name of sisterhood. No. New. Friends.

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Lol my daughter is the opposite. She's like "All. New. Friends. PLEASE." So hopefully she'll jump right in! I let her know you guys said gpa matters. So she'd better tighten up!

Just-a-Mom said:

Lol my daughter is the opposite. She's like "All. New. Friends. PLEASE." So hopefully she'll jump right in! I let her know you guys said gpa matters. So she'd better tighten up!

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For lack of caring to be politically correct, since it is what it is...she she interested in a black sorority or a white one?

HeresAThought said:

For lack of caring to be politically correct, since it is what it is...she she interested in a black sorority or a white one?

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I think she's leaning towards black. If she ends up at Norfolk State that will be her only choice anyway. But she's looking at a few schools. She keeps talking about zeta though, so I think that's her first pick. But I told her to consider all of them and be open. Don't know if you saw earlier that her aunt is a zeta, so she's of course getting pressure from that side of the family that it's zeta or nothing. And I'm clueless so I am just sitting here like "Uh huh...ok. Do what you want. Just tell me where to send the money."

cheermommaRN said:

Cp is a ZTA fanatic (already has a t and everything)...it's years down the road but I can imagine she would be devastated if she didn't get in. Personally I hope she takes a seat and stops planning out her social calendar through college...let's get to middle school first child.

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My younger one (idp) is like this. She will let you know right now that she is going to Georgia Tech, playing volleyball, and that she's going to be a Kappa Delta. I'm with you - to use my new favorite @HeresAThought saying, "Have several seats and go to middle school."

Just-a-Mom said:

Lol my daughter is the opposite. She's like "All. New. Friends. PLEASE." So hopefully she'll jump right in! I let her know you guys said gpa matters. So she'd better tighten up!

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My sister said several girls she knew were straight up told they didn't qualify for the sororities she liked because of their HS GPA. I mean obviously each one has different requirements and I'm sure you'll end up somewhere unless you have like a really low one... But some sororities have higher GPA requirements than others.


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cheernerd5678 said:

My sister said several girls she knew were straight up told they didn't qualify for the sororities she liked because of their HS GPA. I mean obviously each one has different requirements and I'm sure you'll end up somewhere unless you have like a really low one... But some sororities have higher GPA requirements than others.


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Well thanks to home schooling her high school gpa is good. If you put her transcripts together it's a 3.5; I'm worried about how she'll do in college though. Guess we'll know soon enough.

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Every National Sorority has a gpa requirement. Most are around the 2.5 range. On top of that, most schools also have a gpa requirement. Once you are initiated, the Sororities gpa requirements don't go away. In mine, if you went below a 2.5, you were put on academic probation. You were not allowed to vote at meetings (except when voting on potential new members), you were not allowed to hold office, you were not allowed to become a big sister. Basically, you weren't allowed to do anything. Once your gpa was a 2.5 or higher, you came off probation.

cheernerd5678 said:

My sister was told if you got a bid you have to accept it.... Is it different at different schools?


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Yes and no. Like @cheeeeer93 said, you can decline and take your chances with COB. Obviously, I've only got experience with what my school did. We were a small school. My pledge class was 10, and we were the biggest class on campus that semester. At my school, Fall rush was informal. We had no pi chi's (they were called rho chi's back then). You could go to whichever sororites you wanted. The sorority would send you the invites ect ect. Bid day consisted of all the sororities going around to the dorms (singing and what not) and personally delivering the bids to each girl. They could accept or decline on the spot if they wanted to, or they could wait and do it in private (I think you had 24 hrs to accept or decline). It was always so much fun, and VERY loud...especially when someone would accept on the spot. Lots of cheering ect. Formal rush was in the spring, and very much like what @cheerKT described and what @krystynakrez went through. We had rho chi's (now called pi chi's) that temporarily disaffiliated with their sorority. First round, you had to go to each sorority. At the end, you would fill out a form with your preference of sororities. The sororities would fill out a bid list. Then you would be matched up. If your number 1 had you on their first bid list, that's the bid you received and so on. You could only receive 1 bid in formal rush. It's always up to you to accept or decline. If you accept, and drop out during any period of pledging, you are beholden to that sorority for a year. You cannot join another sorority until that year is up.

cheermommaRN said:

So you don't actually "chose" your sorority? That's the part that confuses me. What if the sorority you really want doesn't take you but another one does? Can you decline the bid and re rush the next semester? Or is it a given that once they reject you it's over? Does the rejecting houses let you know why they came to that decision?
Cp is a ZTA fanatic (already has a t and everything)...it's years down the road but I can imagine she would be devastated if she didn't get in. Personally I hope she takes a seat and stops planning out her social calendar through college...let's get to middle school first child.

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At South Carolina you sign a bid card the night before bid day saying that you will accept a bid from either of the two chapters you went to on pref night. If you elect to decline the bid you receive the next day, you have to wait a full calender year before rushing again. Including COB events. It's the bid card that counts here.

Just-a-Mom said:

Lol my daughter is the opposite. She's like "All. New. Friends. PLEASE." So hopefully she'll jump right in! I let her know you guys said gpa matters. So she'd better tighten up!

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GPA definitely matters! My chapter automatically drops all "grade risks" after the first round. Grade risks are different for each chapter but for us it was less than a cumulative 3.0 high school GPA or a cumulative 2.5 college GPA

Just-a-Mom said:

I think she's leaning towards black. If she ends up at Norfolk State that will be her only choice anyway. But she's looking at a few schools. She keeps talking about zeta though, so I think that's her first pick. But I told her to consider all of them and be open. Don't know if you saw earlier that her aunt is a zeta, so she's of course getting pressure from that side of the family that it's zeta or nothing. And I'm clueless so I am just sitting here like "Uh huh...ok. Do what you want. Just tell me where to send the money."



My younger one (idp) is like this. She will let you know right now that she is going to Georgia Tech, playing volleyball, and that she's going to be a Kappa Delta. I'm with you - to use my new favorite @HeresAThought saying, "Have several seats and go to middle school."

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Yep. That's the thing about black sororities...if your 2nd cousin's sisters aunt twice removed is a ______________ then clearly that is all you can choose from.

I remember one Thanksgiving while in college my dads sister that is an AKA got offended when I told her that "I would never been an AKA"... like seriously you ignorant heifer, I'm pretty sure my mom's Delta trumps you an your AKA that I only see once ever blue moon.

Not that I even intended to do anything anyway.

But also grew up believing the stereotypes about the different sororities (and to be real... they held strong when I got to college)...so if I'd done a sorority and it wasn't Delta, I would have just done AKA and shamed my mom. Anything else would have killed her.

i ended up not going greek, but the school i went to was very small in the greek life department. you kind of just signed up to attend a meet and greet and either got a bid or didn't. there was a bigger group of "multicultural" sororities/frats than the others, though. I was friends with a few girls on my floor freshman year who were pledging a latin sorority and it was very secretive. they weren't allowed to talk about it. at all. they spent a full year "pledging" (pretty sure that's not what they call it, though) and doing fundraisers and events in that year to raise money and pay their dues (literally and figuratively). i remember being woken up in the middle of the night once to a very loud chanting sound. i looked out my window and they were in the pitch black in the middle of the parking lot with hoods over t heads marching into the woods to an unknown destination with other members of the sorority.

when they finally got in the next year, there was a huge stepping celebration, which was so awesome to watch. started out similar to the parking lot thing. their faces were covered. they were marched into the middle of the school's apartment complex and when their hoods were removed they had a whole, amazing step routine to perform with chants and whatnot. and there were some frats that performed the full step routine, canes and all.

so, while i can not tell you any of the secret things that went on, from what i saw it was a very long, yet rewarding process being in the "non-white" sororities, @Just-a-Mom and it was fun as an outsider to watch them

NJ Coach said:

It's a mutual decision. You choose them and they choose you. You absolutely can decline a bid and rush the next semester. I have never heard of a chapter letting someone know why they didn't extend them a bid. Formal recruitment has a lot of rules. You only get 1 bid. You can choose to accept or decline.

I knew in hs which sorority I wanted to pledge. It helped that I had a friend in the chapter, and knew all her roommates who were also sisters.


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I am confused. How do all the sororities organize and decide which candidate they are going to give that 1 bid to? If say 3 sororities want this one candidate, how do they choose which sorority gets to extend the offer? (If I am being totally ignorant please forgive me.). My oldest will be going through rush in 2 years so I want to make sure that I guide her in the right direction. I went through rush my Freshman year (to long ago to remember) at IU but my dad counseled me against joining.

gymcatmomx2 said:

I am confused. How do all the sororities organize and decide which candidate they are going to give that 1 bid to? If say 3 sororities want this one candidate, how do they choose which sorority gets to extend the offer? (If I am being totally ignorant please forgive me.). My oldest will be going through rush in 2 years so I want to make sure that I guide her in the right direction. I went through rush my Freshman year (to long ago to remember) at IU but my dad counseled me against joining.

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All 3 can put the same girl on their first bid list. The one who gets to extend the bid is the one highest on the girl's list. Lets say alpha, beta and gamma all put me on their first bid list (first list is their first choice). My order of preference is beta, gamma, alpha. Because beta has me on their first list and I have beta as my top choice, that's who I get the bid from.


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gymcatmomx2 said:

I am confused. How do all the sororities organize and decide which candidate they are going to give that 1 bid to? If say 3 sororities want this one candidate, how do they choose which sorority gets to extend the offer? (If I am being totally ignorant please forgive me.). My oldest will be going through rush in 2 years so I want to make sure that I guide her in the right direction. I went through rush my Freshman year (to long ago to remember) at IU but my dad counseled me against joining.

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At USC there is an A list and a B list. All the girls who came through your house for preference round (aka the last round) are put somewhere on that list, in the order than you want them. The girls then cast their votes and a computer system matches them up with the chapters' lists and the chapter is given a "bid list" or list of girls they got.