<p>Pizzagirl, I think you mean you’d encourage your daughter to think long and hard before she decided whether or not she wanted to go thru rush, right? ;)</p>
<p>From the Auburn Panhellinic website:</p>
<p>“The other way that potential members are released from recruitment involves not receiving a bid through bid matching. When a potential member submits her preferences, Panhellenic uses a system that will work to place her in her first choice. If we are unable, we will then begin trying to place her in her second choice before trying to place her in her third choice. The actual mechanics of the system are too difficult to explain, but if a potential member is not placed, it means that she was ranked low in the preference list of all chapters she indicated a willingness to join. The order you rank the sororities in your preference selections affects which chapter you join, but it can’t change whether you receive a bid or not. However, most potential members who are not matched with a sorority are left unmatched because they chose not to list a particular sorority. In most cases, women who are released in this way would have received a bid had they maximized their options by indicating a preference for every chapter they attended for preference round. Please know that the sorority they would have matched would be the one they chose not to list, but they still would have had a bid. It is a misconception that listing a chapter you truly don’t want to join will help you get a bid into the one that you want. This is not true. Listing all of your options increases your chance of getting a bid in general.”</p>
<p>So, it is possible that of the 44 women released at Auburn, it is still because they did not optimize their options in the early rounds.</p>
<p>Well, what they’re describing instead is suiciding - you went to your three on preference night, but you only listed one or two. </p>
<p>Thanks for the corrections, lafalum 
It’s funny, lafalum, this is actually fairly irrelevant to my D, since 3 of her top choices are all-women’s schools in the first place! And the others only have a small number of Greek houses – 3 or 4 – and it all seems quite low key.</p>
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<p>I don’t think that’s the case at all. I think at some schools, the non-Greeks don’t particularly care one way or the other about the Greek system – as it should be; why should they care or worry or think about it?</p>
<p>I would bet that a lot of that 3.7% were released for not meeting the individual sororities’ minimum grade requirements. Problems occur when Panhellenic sets the minimum required GPA to rush at 2.5, but all the houses have their own minimum GPAs which are higher. And yes, I do think this is wrong. </p>
<p>In addition, the competitve rushes, most notably in the South, but at other places too, require recommendations. There are several discussions on greekchat right now about how damaging it is for university panhellenics to keep saying that recs are not necessary, when not having one for each house will put you at a distinct disadvantage. Fortunately, with the internet and FB, the message is getting out there about recs to PNMs, although if you’re rushing at Bama or Auburn, you are cutting it mighty fine.</p>
<p>That’s something I don’t like, since it tilts the system towards girls whose mother attended college or who knows enough to ask friends to get recs and away from the girls whose parents aren’t college educated, are immigrants, don’t speak English, etc. I think a system should be such that every girl steps onto campus with an even playing field.</p>
<p>CF: Yes, they may say to go to the maximum number of parties at any given round (and any smart girl does). But practically speaking it’s not enforceable. Here’s what I mean: When I was a rush counselor, I had a group of say 20 girls. For round 1, I physically accompanied them to House A from 7-7:30, B from 7:30-8, and so forth. However, when it came to round 2, they all had different schedules because this girl was going to ABCDEFGH, that girl to BDEFGHIJ, etc over a given period of time. They would have been on their honor to attend all 8, and certainly some girls decide they aren’t going to. And they’re not “checked in at the door” by any kind of central system to ensure that they show up. I still think a lot of this is driven by the “ABCDEFGH invited me back, I decided to only go to ABC instead of filling my dance card, and when they dropped me I had no place to go.”</p>
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<p>IOW, don’t suicide and then complain. I do know that this happened at NU, but that’s not a fault of the system; it’s a fault of the girl for not taking the loud and clear advice that if she wants to be in a system and she’s gotten to pref night, she’d better list all three.</p>
<p>I was a member of a sorority in college but my husband attended a service academy so it’s all greek to him (ha ha, stupid pun there). </p>
<p>I will encourage my daughters to participate in recruitment (or, as we used to call it, Rush) and will help procure recs if necessary but beyond writing checks I don’t imagine I’ll be involved.</p>
<p>My son chose to join a fraternity and I have to say I’m very disappointed. He’ll be paying his fees out of his summer earnings as I will not allow any of my hard-earned money to go towards this nonsense.</p>
<p>Not a fan. My son has no desire to join a frat either.</p>
<p>I never participated in the Greek system, but my daughter decided to rush. I had many concerns, but as always supported her in her decision. Throughout Rush week she wavered back and forth about whether she would actually pledge or not and late in the week she decided to. She has been very happy with her sorority. She has met a nice bunch of girls and has a built-in group to go to football games and parties with. One really nice thing is that they all look out for each other and when they go to parties they all arrive together, watch out for each other while there and leave together.</p>
<p>In addition to the friends, she has become involved in a number of community service activities through the sorority. Her sorority has rules about public behavior (including Facebook posts) and encourages good grades among members. So far, as time consuming as I think it is, she has prospered from her involvement. She loves dressing up for the dances (formal non-drinking events) and going on retreats, which tend to focus on team building activities like the “ropes course.” She covers the sorority dues with her scholarship money so it isn’t costing me anything. </p>
<p>From what my daughter has told me I don’t think I would be as positive about my son joining a fraternity. My daughter’s observations is that there is a lot of encouragement to drink heavily and find girls to have a lot of sex with. She actually said that the one place a girl should NOT look for a boyfriend is at a frat party. The frat parties are only good for dancing when they have a good band.</p>
<p>not a fan here. S1 briefly considered an invitation from a fraternity, but promptly bowed out when he got a sample of what he must do during the rush process: he thought it was all silly and sophomoric, and he did not want to join an organization where entry requirements involves things like this. S2 is an ROTC candidate and his definition of brotherhood is having somebody’s back in a situation of real danger and risk to oneself.</p>
<p>S2 is applying to colleges this fall. Whenever he or I encounter a description of a college as a place where Greek like dominates the campus social scene and a place where there is nothing much to do socially unless you join a frat, that college is immediately put on a separate list. There is a college that seems to suit him very well and academically very strong (and his stats put him at top 10-15% of the enrolled student range so the admissions odds would be good), but in all likelihood he may not even apply because of its “go Greek or go home” reputation.</p>
<p>Very happy. S1 joined a fraternity spring of freshman year…his choice. He pays all costs. He has had a very positive experience and has been very active with the fraternity on-campus. He has also attended national conventions and three annual leadership weekends. He was elected one of two undergraduate members of the national board of trustees and has had the advantage of many many contacts at campuses all over the country which I believe will be a distinct advantage after he graduates this spring.</p>
<p>I was happy when my sons joined a frat because they are very good with time management. However, my daughter has received a bid and the time commitment is very difficult. It will be interesting to see how her grades are this semester.</p>
<p>Many of the schools with large Greek life have “non-traditional” Greeks. For instance, at Wabash (50% Greek), there are fraternities for everyone. There are the Dungeons and Dragons/scifi houses, the jocks, the studious pre-law/med types, the partiers, the Glee Club/theater kids, etc. In many of the LACs, kids go Greek that would have never considered it at a large state school. If S/D is very concerned about it, many schools will allow potential students to stay overnight in a fraternity/sorority. Not all Greeks are alike, so the student that is on the fence can make a more informed decision.</p>
<p>One thing that every fraternity that i’ve ever heard of has in common ( and this is my primary objection) is that they “select” their membership and do not open their doors to all. This is NOT what college should be about.</p>
<p>^^^^^that is exactly what college is about. Don’t the actual colleges “select” their membership. How is Greek recruitment any different that competitive college admissions?</p>
<p>It’s all about selection in life.</p>
<p>One thing I’d like to add that many students may not realize is that being in a fraternity or sorority is not just a college thing. One is still a brother or sister after graduation and that can lead to very valuable networking opportunities in the workplace.</p>