Ole Miss Recruitment
 

I've heard that rush here is very competitive. I have several hometown girls going through this fall. I hope someone from Ole Miss will keep us updated. How many sororities do they have, and how many girls are rushing?

They have 9 NPC sororities and typically around 900 PNMs.

Ole Miss recruitment is practically the definition of competitive. Since their rush is later in the year, you should probably advise your hometown girls to keep it under control and keep it classy when tailgating in the grove or out and about in Oxford. Believe me... the sororities will be watching. With so many girls going through, they are looking for any way to distinguish girls. Also, recs will be very important. Again, with so many girls, a rec is just like a foot in the door. It will by no means guarantee a bid, but it sure couldn't hurt.

Co-sign.

To be perfectly honest, frank, and candid, I hope "hometown girls" are from Mississippi (or nearby in the South) and there are other "hometown girls" from said hometown already at Ole Miss. Many PNMs at Ole Miss know girls in many chapters and it is definitely more of a challenge for the out-of-state ladies to overcome this fact/to get on a level playing field with these girls. I had 2 friends at Ole Miss (I actually had 3 friends there but one was a guy and this doesn't exactly apply): one of them rushed and pledged/joined/initiated, and the other never rushed at all. My friend who rushed was from out-of-state (but from the South and SEC country) and SERIOUSLY had all of her ducks in a row so things worked out well for her. But yeah, I'd say it's possibly THE most competitive recruitment in the SEC. 9 chapters makes it tough...
That said, I like that Ole Miss has a sort of kind of deferred recruitment. I never knew the "official" reasons for this, but I think it allows PNMs a better chance to learn about chapters on campus/meet NPC women (unless they have strict silence from the beginning of school?)

Nevertheless, best of luck to your hometown PNMs and keep us updated!

Although it would seem that logically deferred rush would be implemented at a school for the purpose of allowing PNM's to get settled, learn about the sororities, etc., it is my understanding that Ole Miss initiated deferred recruitment for a different reason. Greek Life is such a huge part of life at Ole Miss that a number of girls were transferring to other schools when they did not have a successful result. To prevent students from doing this, Ole Miss moved recruitment to October. I don't know if they have any statistics on whether or not the number of girls transferring after the first semester is substantially different from those leaving at the beginning of school but one would think that there wold be a difference.

Yesterday (9/7/08) was the first party, Water Party (Open House). This is done a few weeks prior to the rest of formal recruitment. The next round of recruitment will be on October 15th with Bid Day on October 19th.

Recruitment at Ole Miss is competitive. Like we have said in some other threads, as long as your have your act together, your recs together, it is not completely impossible for an out-of-state PNM to receive a bid! And with any recruitment, remember to keep your options open and to go through with an open mind!

There are 9 NPC Groups: AOII, Chi Omega, Kappa Alpha Theta, Pi Beta Phi, Kappa Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, Tri Delta, Delta Gamma, and Phi Mu.

OleMissGlitters,
Is there any word on expansion at Ole Miss? I have heard that maybe ZTA and ADII are coming back - any truth?

According to the University Office of Institutional Research, the freshman retention rate - the main statistic the university had their eye on - increased from about 75% in 1996 - the last year recruitment was held before fall classes - to about 81% last year. Draw your own conclusions.

1996 was the year I went through recruitment and there were many girls who did leave school because they didn't get their first choice. I think pushing it back has helped retention at Ole Miss. Plus I believe (and this is just my opinion) that it aided in Ole Miss securing a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.


GatorDG: The Panhellenic would have to go through the Extension Process as it is listed in the NPC Manual. (I believe it is called extension). I have friends who are alumnae of ADPi and ZTA and they have not heard anything about rechartering their chapters here. I am not aware of any conditions that were made when ZTA and ADPi left either (like if they have to wait 15 years or when a house comes available). I said this in another thread but with the new residential colleges being built, land isn't readily available for a new house to be built yet. A chapter without a house would probably not be a good idea either.

(Sorry for any misspellings, I'm on a different laptop tonight so my hands arent typing as well tonight!)

There are no plans at this time for ZTA to return to Ole Miss.

I was one of the 'Yankees" that went through "rush" many years ago at Ole Miss. It was VERY competitive back then and still is as I've sent others down to the campus I love. I agree with the others that have said it helps to have your ducks in order with recs. Just remember to enter all of this with an open mind, follow your heart, be yourself and have FUN!!! If you play by all the rules you should find a Greek home.

McCain/Palin '08 (agree!)

I believe that part of the reason for the extremely late rush this year at Ole Miss is because of the Presidential Debate being held there on September 26th.

That is correct and it also has to do with when we have an away football game or an off weekend during football. Logistically, we could not have recruitment when there is anything else "big" happening on campus.

Good idea! That would seem like a no brainer, but Arkansas held the last part of recruitment over the weekend of their first home football game. This just added more craziness to the already Crazy Craziness!