Why? Sophomore UGA story
 

Just found this site while looking for an impossible answer. An oustanding candidate had a miserable rush experience at UGA. High GPA (3.9), personable, actively involved in several philanthropies, Greek family history, tons of very favorable recs (close family friends, past chapter officers), attractive (Homecoming court), politically astute (class President), numerous friends/other connections and went into rush with a VERY open attitude. IOW, everything that, at least I, think about when thinking of sororities. Can there be THAT much bias against sophomores? Is there a valid reason for it that I am missing? I'm not talking about not getting the sorority that she wanted, she was cut by everyone BEFORE prefs. I can't believe that she could not find a home. Please help me understand.

No one here can answer your question.

Membership selection is confidential and no one can answer your question accurately.

Ideas:
- She did not maximize her options
- She did something her freshman year that earned her a bad reputation
- HS accolades mean very little for a sophomore
- She's up against hundreds of other "perfect" girls and just wasn't memorable.

Paging OTW's signature link!

If a sorority doesn't choose to have someone in their new member class, then the time to release her IS before prefs. Everyone who attends pref is somewhere on the chapter's bid list and therefore, a possible new member.

wow...this gives me no hope at all. i am planning on transferring to UGA and rushing my junior year. i am not in love with the sororities at the school i am at now because they put such an emphasis of being greek, and if you aren't greek then you are judged. i don't want to be affliated with girls that are like that. i know some girls in sororities at UGA and they are so very sweet and friendly. thats what i want to be affliated with. now hearing that great sounding sophomore was cut gives me no hope at all.

If you are only transferring to UGA because you want to be in a sorority there, I would rethink this plan.

Did you actually go through rush at your school and meet the women, or are you making this judgement without any firsthand experience?

my big sister pledged as a junior last fall.

there are lots of reasons as to why a girl could be cut, regardless of what year she is. maybe she didn't seem interested at the houses. maybe they didn't feel like she clicked with them. maybe she wasn't involved enough in COLLEGE....because i can tell you now, as a sophmore who rushed, high school achievements mean VERY little when you are rushing as a sophmore--let alone a junior--because you've been in college a year. a year is more than enough time to get VERY involved within UGAs campus. I wouldn't even bother asking a sophmore what she did in high school while rushing her--i'd be more interested in what she's doing NOW.

also I'm not sure what you meant by "they put such an emphasis on being greek that if you aren't greek you are judged," but sororities everywhere do that. just as people not in sororities judge those in sororities.

Each sorority at UGA is different in how they treat upperclassman (i think) What I do know is back in my day we pledged a lot of juniors, but not anymore. I know at least one sorority on campus has an internal rule they can pledge no sophmores. My sorority has a limit of 3 or 4 I not sure how many, but i know it is VERY competitive for a sophmore. The thinking is (which I don't agree with) is a freshman will be there all 4 years. I know every year there are freshman who pledge that drop out and I'd much rather have that sophmore that knows this is for her, but that is the reality. The rules aren't set by the girls (they want to pledge their friends), but by their national or alum advisors.

Exactly. We don't know!

#1 is unlikely because the OP says the PNM was cut from all chapters.
#2 is a possibility.
#3 is a possibility, if she did not continue to be involved at UGA (also, the 3.9, is that HS or college?)
#4, a possibility for "popular" chapters, but this argument doesn't really hold up with chapters that make fewer cuts and make their cuts later on in recruitment.

My money is on #2 and/or #3.

I don't know of any national sorority that says you are not allowed to pledge [insert class status here]. They would be in buttloads of discrimination suits if they had anything like that in their bylaws or policies. Ditto putting something like that in a chapter bylaw. You just couldn't do it without getting in all kinds of trouble.

Maybe it's an "unwritten" rule within a chapter, but that would be it.

I think the number of sophomore is something looked at very carefully at some chapters, and I think advisers do have to make some heavy "suggestions" to the chapters sometimes for the long term health of the chapter. (You don't want to end up with a huge percentage of your chapter graduating at one time, I think, is the thinking maybe even more than "only" being involved for three years rather than four.)

I don't know if the rules are written or unwritten, but if everyone knows during work week that it would be better to take only a few sophomores or upperclassmen, the chapter may just regard it as a recruitment goal.

And honestly, the OP may be a "slipping through the cracks" kind of situation. If the chapters had a few sophomore legacies each, they may have liked her but not wanted to risked ending up with 10% of the 2008 pledge class graduating with the 2007. It's likely not a very personal decision although it probably feels that way to her. And it wasn't like there was a cooperative effort not to give her a bid.

On the flip side of "getting four years from a girl" is the burn-out rate. Of course, I come from a campus that pledging as a sophomore happens in every house, including top tier, and most houses are open to pledging juniors. One of the things we found was that those who pledged later didn't encounter burn-out of those who had been around for a while.

Disclaimer: I'm not saying that all campuses should look at this.

My campus was that way too. It does really mess with chapter size though and makes total irrelevant, to an extent.