Just wanted to Say Thank You!!

[momofpnm13]

Hello,

My daughter & I have been reading your site for a couple years. She has always known she wanted to go to a large school and join a sorority.

Your words of advice have helped us put our head around what is needed for a competitive recruitment.

We started a while back with a spreadsheet of all the sororities and started filling in the women we already knew affiliated with each (recommended on GC). She has now been accepted to & has decided Alabama is the place she is to be, so we have now concentrated our endeavors on those specific organizations.

She has started a letter to e-mail to all of the staff of her school to ask if they or anyone they know is affiliated with any sorority (recommended on GC). I am asking friends on FB if they are or if they know of anyone (recommended on GC).

She has started putting her resume together (recommended on GC). Deleted anything on FB that could be questionable (recommended on GC). We did an internet search of her name to see if anything showed up (recommended on GC).

If we had not found your site and read your threads, she would have gone into recruitment totally unprepared.

So, as the thread title states, this was just a note to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us to prepare for sorority recruitment. Our hope is that it will help ease the stress when it all begins.

[AGDee]

Good luck to your daughter! And good luck to you as she finishes out her senior year. It's a joyous but stressful time

[Titchou]

We wish her the best! I am sure she will do fine. You are going about everything for Alabama correctly..

[DubaiSis]

Now see? Is that too much to ask for? A Mom comes onto GC, does lots of reading, actually takes some advice and is as prepared as she's ever gonna be for sending her daughter off to one of the most competitive rushes in the country. Thankfully it's early in the rush cycle so you will only have to have one never ending anxiety attack lasting through the summer and not through the fall as well.

And not once in the post did I read, but my super special snowflake doesn't need this or that because she's the ... (insert reason why she's better than any 18 year old girl EVER).

One other little nugget I would suggest is working on her conversation skills. While teenage girls are known for how forthcoming and communicative they are with their mothers, if you can talk her into rush chatter (maybe while you're running errands in the car, so for a limited but captive time period), she might be even more prepared. You should be able to find threads here about common questions and how to answer them.

And to remind you, Facebook isn't the only social media out there. All of them need to be kept clean and rush-ready. There is no safe place (except maybe in her room with the door closed) where it's ok to talk badly about ANYONE or about her expectations or desired rush outcome.

Congratulations on her success so far! We'll be rooting for you and your daughter.

[aephi alum]

Best of luck to your daughter.

You two have certainly taken away the right messages from GC - get recs and don't wait until the last minute, clean up anything compromising on the internet in general and social media in particular, put together a solid resume now instead of throwing something together at the last minute, etc. (BTW, with that resume, if your daughter adds any accomplishments between now and rush (like being named valedictorian or landing the lead in the school play next spring or being named to All-County or All-State for orchestra/band/choir) be sure to add them in. )

[momofpnm13]

Thank You, Ladies, for the well wishes. We are hopeful, but anxious, nervious... Okay.. a little terrified. :-)

Next big adventure is SHOPPING!!! We are definitely going to take advantage of after Christmas sales for potential Pref Dresses.

RE: Internet search: We found her OLD myspace account she had in grade school. She had not logged on to it in over 4 years. It was attached to a deactivated e-mail, no way to access. It took some doing, but we were able to get it deleted through MySpace & now it is gone. I am so glad we had the advice to search so we could address this issue early in the process.

And my daughter is a Snowflake, to me anyway.. as every daughter should be. But to the world she is just ________. Thanks to GC, hopefully we can show the sororities at Alabama she does have something special to offer.

ETA: RE: conversations- Sorry I forgot to address this. Thanks to more GC recommendations, we have been addressing this also ( thank you, Dubiasis for reminding me)

Keep up the good work, Ladies. There are lots if us moms listening.

[honeychile]

It's so refreshing to read your thanks! It's our pleasure to help women into the greek system.

I do hope you keep us informed come recruitment time. I would suggest that you start a new account at that point, so that your daughter remains anonymous.

But most of all, I wish her all the luck in the world, and that she gets the bid of her choice!

[aephi alum]

Originally Posted by momofpnm13

Next big adventure is SHOPPING!!! We are definitely going to take advantage of after Christmas sales for potential Pref Dresses.

Oh, that reminds me: While you're shopping, keep half an eye out for initiation dresses. It's pretty much an open secret that most if not all NPC sororities require new initiates to wear white. The specifics (are bare shoulders ok, is a full-length skirt required or is knee-length ok, is a pantsuit acceptable, is a blouse and skirt acceptable, etc.) might vary from group to group, but a conservatively-cut pure-white dress would probably be acceptable for any sorority she might join.

You probably won't find anything now, but next spring would be a good time to look. You will also want a nice pair of white shoes to go with the dress. You don't want to leave this until after your daughter receives a bid (assuming she does) - finding a white dress in the fall is difficult. Even if she does not receive a bid, it's never wrong to have a nice white dress in your wardrobe.

[SWTXBelle]

The "Rush Right" book has been helpful to several of my pnms who then went on to pledge - it does a good job of giving pnms a plan and advice about conversations.

[AOII Angel]

Good idea about the spreadsheet, mom. Great way to keep up with rec writers, and you can make sure you document that you've thanked them all.

[BadSquirrelBeta]

Wow this is a great thread and I want to echo the sentiments already expressed giving kudos to you both for all your thoughtfulness and efforts. Good luck to your daughter...I wish the best for a ++ outcome!!

[AnchorAlumna]

Originally Posted by momofpnm13

Hello,

My daughter & I have been reading your site for a couple years. She has always known she wanted to go to a large school and join a sorority.

Your words of advice have helped us put our head around what is needed for a competitive recruitment.

We started a while back with a spreadsheet of all the sororities and started filling in the women we already knew affiliated with each (recommended on GC). She has now been accepted to & has decided Alabama is the place she is to be, so we have now concentrated our endeavors on those specific organizations.

She has started a letter to e-mail to all of the staff of her school to ask if they or anyone they know is affiliated with any sorority (recommended on GC). I am asking friends on FB if they are or if they know of anyone (recommended on GC).

She has started putting her resume together (recommended on GC). Deleted anything on FB that could be questionable (recommended on GC). We did an internet search of her name to see if anything showed up (recommended on GC).

If we had not found your site and read your threads, she would have gone into recruitment totally unprepared.

So, as the thread title states, this was just a note to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us to prepare for sorority recruitment. Our hope is that it will help ease the stress when it all begins.

QFP
Nothing to add here, momofPNM13, except that you are one smart cookie!

[Old_Row]

Good luck to your daughter!!!! Roll Tide!!!!!!!!!