Alabama Recruitment

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by als463

Okay...be prepared for this stupid question: Who? I'm from the North and not as well versed in football, so excuse me for not knowing who those men are. If you don't mind me asking....Who are they? I'm sure they are great but, I just don't know who they are. Sorry....

Gosh! Blasphemy to us! No, seriously, I wouldn't expect you to know 3 of the 4 but am surprised that you didn't know, or couldn't deduce, that "Coach Saban" is the head football coach. The other 3 are former outstanding players...two of whom played in the NFL....

[littleowl33]

Originally Posted by Titchou

Gosh! Blasphemy to us! No, seriously, I wouldn't expect you to know 3 of the 4 but am surprised that you didn't know, or couldn't deduce, that "Coach Saban" is the head football coach. The other 3 are former outstanding players...two of whom played in the NFL....

Don't worry, als463... I know nothing about football so I had to Google it!

[IHeartUGA]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

That is cool!

Co-sign!

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

I know many women who rushed on a whim without recs at U of Illinois and experienced few cuts. You can do all right without them there, even though the system is immense.

That's not a criticism of Bama -- IMHO, it makes a lot more sense to cut PNMs based on recs than on looks, and looks are necessarily going to form a bigger part of the impression a PNM makes if the chapter has no other information. I'm just saying that system size alone doesn't explain the importance of recs in the SEC.

You are correct. Yes, recs make it easier to make easy cuts in a system with 1500 PNMs, but recs predate recruitments that large. A lot of it has to do with tradition. Even if suddenly the PNM pool dried up, the need to have recs would not dry up with them. It's part of the mystique of greek life in these large systems. They also serve an important purpose. But.......

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by LadyLonghorn

And there are some who attend colleges with just as rigorous admissions standards as yours and recruitment about as competitive as the SEC.

Which colleges?

I'm interested in hearing because even among "competitive" recruitments at selective schools (I'm thinking Cornell, UPenn, and Stanford), they're still a whole heck of a lot less cutthroat than Bama.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Which colleges?

I'm interested in hearing because even among "competitive" recruitments at selective schools (I'm thinking Cornell, UPenn, and Stanford), they're still a whole heck of a lot less cutthroat than Bama.

Well, Texas for one.

ETA: I think your definition of selective is probably narrower than what we were talking here. I wouldn't argue with your point at any college I'd put in the Ivy-League-or-Similar-Admissions-Freakshow range.

EATA: I don't mean that students at those institutions are freaks. I mean that the admissions criteria and degree of selectivity are freaky.

[Regina Filangie]

Originally Posted by littleowl33

Like the southern girls who were groomed for elite groups at SEC rushes since they were children, I was groomed for "elite" colleges since I was little.

I think this is what seems offensive. This statement sounds like the silly little southern girls just care about joining a sorority and not academics.

[VandalSquirrel]

Originally Posted by Regina Filangie

I think this is what seems offensive. This statement sounds like the silly little southern girls just care about joining a sorority and not academics.

But when we hear the stories of women who leave college when they don't get a bid to the chapter they want, it appears that in some cases it is true. If the stories of women going to a different school, joining XYZ and then transferring back to the original school are in fact true, then it does seem it is about the sorority and not academics.

[kk_bama]

Originally Posted by phiwho?

Not only did Nick Saban's daughter pledge Phi Mu but three other alabama football heroes' daughters did too! Paul Ott Carruth's daughter, Richard Todd's Daughter and Van Tippins' daughter. Very strange! Makes you wonder if they knew each other before?

I hope you mean Van Tiffin.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Well, Texas for one.

ETA: I think your definition of selective is probably narrower than what we were talking here. I wouldn't argue with your point at any college I'd put in the Ivy-League-or-Similar-Admissions-Freakshow range.

EATA: I don't mean that students at those institutions are freaks. I mean that the admissions criteria and degree of selectivity are freaky.

Yeah, Texas is pretty selective for a state school but it's not a Hopkins. It's just about as selective as UF. The post I quoted suggested that there were schools as selective as littleowl's (Hopkins) with cutthroat recruitments like Bama's. The poster kind of threw down the gauntlet.

The closest I can think of is UVa and maybe Michigan.

[littleowl33]

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

Well, Texas for one.

ETA: I think your definition of selective is probably narrower than what we were talking here. I wouldn't argue with your point at any college I'd put in the Ivy-League-or-Similar-Admissions-Freakshow range.

EATA: I don't mean that students at those institutions are freaks. I mean that the admissions criteria and degree of selectivity are freaky.

And this is how I would feel about an SEC rush! I don't find the selectivity of Ivies and similar schools freaky at all. We're just in different mindsets, which is what I was trying to convey in the first place.

I never said that southern girls don't care about academics or that southern universities aren't academically rigorous. I don't think that's the case. I don't want this thread to turn into a north vs. south or academics vs. greek life type thing because I don't think that's how things are. Unfortunately, I see things going downhill from here.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Regina Filangie

I think this is what seems offensive. This statement sounds like the silly little southern girls just care about joining a sorority and not academics.

And I'm going to make a somewhat ridiculously relativistic point.

Even if we took the statement at its somewhat offensive level, one could still argue that what the southern girls were groomed for was as important to their long term quality of life as elite colleges were for the girls groomed for them, assuming all accepted the values of the culture they were raised in.

Obviously, an elite education in certain fields is more universally valuable than joining a top-tier GLO at Bama. But if you're going to settle down in Mobile, your general quality of life might be better as a former Phi Delta Theta or a Kappa from Bama than if you were a graduate of Princeton.

It's provincial, sure, but not everyone gives a flip about elite colleges.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by kk_bama

I hope you mean Van Tiffin.

oops...I meant to tell her that...thanks for catching it...

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

Yeah, Texas is pretty selective for a state school but it's not a Hopkins. It's just about as selective as UF. The post I quoted suggested that there were schools as selective as littleowl's (Hopkins) with cutthroat recruitments like Bama's. The poster kind of threw down the gauntlet.

The closest I can think of is UVa and maybe Michigan.

Oh, pardon me. I was confused about who the poster whose school we were referring to was. I thought LL was schooling someone from Alabama when I posted.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by VandalSquirrel

But when we hear the stories of women who leave college when they don't get a bid to the chapter they want, it appears that in some cases it is true. If the stories of women going to a different school, joining XYZ and then transferring back to the original school are in fact true, then it does seem it is about the sorority and not academics.

But this isn't the norm anywhere. It may happen, but I think it's blown out of proportion.

If you had a couple of people doing crazy stuff at your institution, you wouldn't expect the whole system to be judged by their values.