I’m in my sophomore year of college and would like to apply for membership into a specific chapter of a sorority at my school…I won’t say the name for obvious reasons. I heard they will have a line next year. My question is most of the women were in the same non Greek organization before they cross. I got into this organization and had a falling out with majority of them and decided to step out of the org as it did not fulfill its purpose in my life because of the drama. I want to wait until those members that were in my org have graduated to go to the Rush so that I won’t get “no” votes to be apart of the chapter because those members don’t like me because of our falling out. Do graduated members still get to vote if you are in or not? Is it a good idea to wait? Should I talk to the members of the org that I stepped down from and try to apologize even though I know they don’t care for me? My gpa, service hours, recommendations are all in order but I know people who were in the same position as me but did not get accepted because people in the chapter did not like them for personal reasons. Are members who have graduated included in the vote? I go to a HBCU and want to be apart of an African American sorority.
I came across your question on yahoo lol. I’m wondering, due to the language you use “line” and “rush” what type of sorority this is? What classification does it fall under? What is it’s council? That will affect my answer
I’m assuming that it’s an NPHC sorority given that you are at an HBCU and want to be in a mostly Black sorority. Caveat: I am not in an NPHC sorority (or any sorority, really) but I do have a lot of friends in them. This is all secondhand knowledge.
In theory, no the graduated/alumnae members do not have an official, formal vote on who is selected into the campus chapter. You have to be a member of the chapter to get a vote, and alumnae are no longer members of their campus chapter.
However, in reality, alumnae - and recent alumnae in particular - do sometimes have a large influence on the selections of new members. A close friend of mine is an alumnae of an NPHC sorority (at an HBCU, too) and she still lives nearby her undergraduate campus. She’s still quite involved particularly since she crossed as a senior. The chapter was bringing in a new line and she was quite involved in the process - without getting into specifics, I could tell from conversations with her that her opinions, and those of her line sisters who had already graduated, would be weighted heavily in the selection process. If there was a specific young woman who she had a bad experience with or didn’t like for some reason, I would guess that young woman would have a difficult time getting admitted to the chapter (unless she had a strong advocate the other way). I’ve also observed other friends who were alumnae of my own college and members of NPHC sororities return for the selection and ceremony of bringing in a new line, particularly if they graduated in the last few years, although I don’t know how involved they were/are in the selection process.
These organizations usually have far more applicants than they can admit, particularly at HBCUs.
But…I still don’t think that should stop you from pursuing this sorority. If you are in your sophomore year and they are having a line next year, then you may only have one chance to apply - lots of HBCUs only do lines every two years. Either way, given how competitive the process is, you can only give yourself multiple chances - it’s better to try junior year and senior year than to try to wait. Continue to show up at the events and be friendly with the members. The worst that can happen is that you get rejected and you’re right back where you are now. But what if you wait and then you find out that they won’t have a line your senior year?
As a side note, a LOT of my friends joined sororities in the ~3 years after they graduated from college. Most of my friends who joined after college went to HBCUs (as opposed to my friends who went to predominantly white schools; most of them joined on the undergrad level.) I have a lot of friends (some of them legacies!!) who went to my own HBCU (Spelman) who joined their organization of choice on the alumnae level. So…that’s an option.
@rojo972 What makes you think that being in a sorority is going to be better than your previous experience, it’s actually worse. Sororities try really hard to conceal the drama that goes on within their ranks but they can’t all the time … one of my good friends just quit her sorority (AKA) b/c they were constantly fighting over petty stuff, wanted an unreasonable amount of her time, and tried to police her too much. Like she said it’s super fake, the girls who be all in your face smiling and hugging, calling you sista soror this and sista soror that be the first ones to sabotage you and starting negative rumors about you. Not only that but she told me that most of the girls who call her sister soror so and so don’t even know her real last name nor any interesting details about her life … she spent all this money and time on a nicely fabricated lie. She tried to run for president so she can help clean up the division, drama, and admission process but she was blackballed by the girls (notice I didn’t say women) doing so based on false rumors and jealously long story and short. It’s so political and it’s not even possible to fix, it’s just best to stay out of her were her words. Many of the girls in the sorority make prospective members buy them things or do their homework which is illegal (among other illegal things they do) and she reported it to her graduate advisor who basically turned a blind eye after doing a psuedo investigation … this is one of several reasons why she’s fed up and I support her
And don’t think good grades, community service, and having a good reputation is very important to a black sorority one minute (they lie and tell you that but it’s a LIE). I know plenty of girls who were extraordinary women on campus who got rejected. And the girls who barely showed up to class, had mediocre grades, were bullies, were heavy socialites/shopaholics with misplaced priorities, got in with ease. I will never understand why people waste their time with these black greek organizations. It’s all an illusion, obnoxious insecure losers, and just a hot mess and they prove it again and again … the AKAs and Deltas in my city had a scruffle (almost a fist fight) at a house party last semester.