What is considered a "good"/acceptable GPA range for a PNM?
 

I see so much on the forum about grades and being cut early for grades at the more competitive schools, but can't find anything about what a "good" HS GPA is for an incoming freshman PNM? My daughter's grades were good enough to get her some good merit scholarship money for her school, but her HS didn't weight honors/AP classes the same way other schools do, so her GPA isn't sky-high like she sees with some of the other girls. Just curious--if anyone has any insight. Thanks!

The generic reference to GPAs refers to the fact that the GPA required to register through the campus Panhellenic for recruitment is often much lower than the typical GPA the sororities are looking for. For instance, the GPA to register might be 2.5, while the lowest acceptable GPA per a sorority on that campus is a 2.75. It varies from campus to campus. What Old State U's ABC chapter looks for in a GPA may be much higher than New Regional State U's ABC chapter. Similarly, Old State U's ABC chapter might have a higher ( or lower) GPA requirement than its neighbors. What is your daughter's GPA?

Her GPA is close to a 4.0 but there are a lot of kids these days with very high 4s and even 5.0s, so I was just curious what houses typically have as a cutoff. I've told her I don't think she has anything to worry about but of course I don't really know for sure!

More than likely they are going to be looking at her unweighted GPA because there are so many variations of weighting. My daughter's school panhellenic uses a "core" GPA that is a calculation the chapter receives from the registrars office prior to recruitment. It's 15 core high school classes and they do not consider weight, so a girl that received a B in a class but had an A factored into her GPA because it was AP and weighted, actually gets factored with the B. It also does not include "fluff" classes like cheer or dance team that are an auto A and jack up GPA's that otherwise aren't quite as stellar. If a PNM's core GPA is not at the minimum for most houses, they actually contact her and let her know that her options may be severely limited and she may want to defer her recruitment to spring COB or wait until sophomore fall recruitment.

Yes, the college PH often vets the GPA thru the college and gives the chapters the "core" GPA so that all are judged on the same scale.

^^^That has been my experience with the chapters I have worked with during formal recruitment.

So, you should have no concern for your daughter's GPA.

From what a couple of my rec gals heard this year is that over a 3.3 and you'll get invites back but you may get cut by some of the very academically focused chapters and over a 3.6 and you should be fine wrt GPA based cuts. A couple of PHAs are saying under a 3.0 will be difficult to get even 1 pref invite, but that is probably a campus to campus thing.

I think what is confusing is that for many schools now, my daughter's included, the average posted GPA for incoming freshman is over a 4.0, so girls with low or even mid-3s would not be admitted in the first place--definitely skews the numbers!

^ These are weighted GPAs, correct?

I'd say that puts PNMs who attended high schools (like mine) that have unweighted GPAs at an unfair disadvantage - unless the recruitment registration form asks incoming freshmen to disclose whether or not their high schools have weighted GPAs?

More than likely they are going to use the transcript to calculate an unweighted GPA for every PNM to level the playing field... universities already do that for admittance anyway.