Julie

When I moved to Memphis, I turned to their alumane chapter to meet friends and business contacts. From this, I have made some of my dearest friends, and this was long after my college graduation.

Being a member of a sorority gives you a bond with other women all across the United States. While I enjoyed my college experience, I didn’t realize the true meaning of the sorority sisterhood until the mephis alumnae became my only friends.

Now many of my chapter members have reconnected on Facebook. It brings me such joy to reconnect with them.

While my daughter is only 2 years-old, these are the experiences I want for her if she decides to pledge a sorority.

My advice to parents: Look beyond what you see on TV and in movies. Look at the real women you know who are in sororities, and I can 99% guarantee that you would want your daughter to turn out like them.

Mackenzie

Of course there were always stereotypes and misconceptions going around about how it was harder for out of state girls to get into a sorority. However, I can stand by the fact that almost half of my sorority was made up of girls who lived out of state, and rang true for many of the other sororities on campus. Along with this statement, the number of girls who dropped the sorority or transferred schools was astonishly and overwhelming majority of out of state girls.

I had heard other sororities on campus say that take in a select number of out of state girls each year due to this very fact – that they fear these girls won’t put in their four years as a sorority member. Obviously there are numerous things that factor into why girls are invited by the houses, and each campus sorority is different.

Also, you mentioned quota. Quota is based on how many sororities there are and how many girls are going through the recruitment process – this has nothing at all to do with the population of the student body.

My daughter got accepted to UGA (and the Honors Program) against tall odds. With so many Georgia residents staying in state at UGA due to the Hope Scholarship, admissiion for out of state applicants is HARD. So admission was the biggest hurdle, right? WRONG! (misconception two) The worst odds have proved to be breaking into a Greek system that is too small for the number of eligible rushees going through “recruitment.”

Now obviously I’m partial, but trust me when I say that my daughter would be an asset to the “best” sororities on campus. She’s intelligent (Honors Program), she has a great sense of humor, and she’s attractive. Ask anyone who knows her, and you will find that these are consistent descriptions. However, she is going into Pref Day with a distinct likelihood that she will withdraw from rush. Say what you want, but no one should be advised to accept a bid to any sorority that they aren’t completely happy with.

The problem? The University of Georgia is becoming, on all fronts academic and social, a university exclusive to Georgia residents. You might think that’s great if you’re the parent of a Hope Scholarship child, but it certainly doesn’t breed diversity. This exclusivity has influenced the Greek system. Although there is a large number of sororities at UGA, the quota (about 56 this year) is half of what it should be. The number of sororities shouldn’t influence the quota; rather, the quota should be determined by the population of the student body. With less that 15% of students coming from out of state, there just aren’t enough spots for even the most competitive rushees when they’re competing against girls who have fifty friends from high school in the system already.

All I want to say is this: If your daughter is not from Georgia and doesn’t have friends in sororities at UGA, she is staring at a huge disadvantage compared to Georgia girls in rush. We’ve seen this with many other girls in rush this year, not just my daughter.

I was elated when my daughter wasn’t going through rush at my alma mater….little did I know we were jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. Sometimes your job as Dad is to explain to your daughter that she was a victim of the numbers and that there was really nothing she could do to change the results of her rush. Unfortunately, this won’t make her (or you) feel any less slighted.