Rush at UVA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rush is over. Are there young women at UVA who did not receive bids this year? Last year it seemed that all houses weren’t full. I know someone who was recruited in the spring and never indicated any interest in a sorority. They asked, she said OK with indifference. They took her. She joined. Seemed happy. They have a huge national network. Could be a benefit.
Probably surprised her parents.

Houses can take a full group in recruitment and still have space to take more members. They may have space because women have graduated or dropped out of the sorority or dropped out of school. Chapters have a total number that can take in formal recruitment (quota) and a total number of members that they can have (total or house total). If they are below total, they can continue to recruit informally and extend bids through informal recruitment.

[Anonymous]

Experienced parents-
What comes next? It has been a week since bid day so new members are doing activities at their new houses. When is initiation?

Can someone explain how informal recruiting works at this stage? (DD dropped out before pref round since she was not comfortable w/ her options.)

[Anonymous]

She should contact source to find out if any groups are doing informal recruitment. She can also contact a group directly and ask if they re doing informal recruitment. Check their websites and email their recruitment officer.

Initiation dates vary by group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Experienced parents-
What comes next? It has been a week since bid day so new members are doing activities at their new houses. When is initiation?

Can someone explain how informal recruiting works at this stage? (DD dropped out before pref round since she was not comfortable w/ her options.)

The

Ju st boring or the record that this student dropped the sororities because they didn't meet her criteria, rather than them dropping her. So much for the cruelty of sororities.

[Anonymous]

Just noting for the record...

[Anonymous]

Yes. About 400 young women dropped out of the rush process. There is nothing wrong with deciding that matches aren’t mutually desired. It apparently happens a lot.

[Anonymous]

PPs, Indiana is no longer doing bed rush, they've moved away from it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Experienced parents-
What comes next? It has been a week since bid day so new members are doing activities at their new houses. When is initiation?

Can someone explain how informal recruiting works at this stage? (DD dropped out before pref round since she was not comfortable w/ her options.)

The date of initiation differs depending on the sorority - it will probably be some time in March or April, though. Until then, the new members spend time learning all about the sorority (the history, the traditions, etc.), meeting other members, getting a Big Sister/fam, etc. Then, formal initiation will happen.

If your DD dropped out of formal rush and is interested in doing informal recruitment, she should contact the ISC over email to indicate her interest in joining a chapter informally. She will then be put on a list of interested girls that will be sent to all chapters doing informal recruitment. Additionally, if she knows anyone in chapters that she's interested in, she should reach out to those girls and let them know of her interest - they can convey her interest to the rest of the chapter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cutesy crafts are easy to criticize but when a girl rushes freshman year she is still only 18 and months out of HS. They exchange what gifts they have or can make. It’s not always the highest quality. However some of the nicer small paintings and gifts have been passed down for years. They can also be purchased on Etsy. It’s part of a process. By the next year they look back and see that they are more mature & have outgrown that style of gift.

I think you're underestimating the potential brilliance and power of 18 year old young women which in turn diminishes their own conception of themselves and their power. Young women who get into UVA have taken rigorous courses and been at the top of their schools. The sorority culture encourages--requires--this kind of cutesy crafts and gifting. (Look online if you're not familiar). Add this on to the wearing of spanx, the keeping up appearances, the endless smiling. Why? Why do sororities want to communicate this talk of leadership, sisterhood etc. and then decide that they aren't free to contribute from their genuine talents, interests, but have to make some tangible crafts/gift item and conform to an image. To me it's symbolic of the many ways we want young women to diminish themselves. Picture having young 18 year old men do this and how you--and they-- would perceive it.

And, sure, they might come to see growing beyond it as part of the process, who wouldn't--but wouldn't we hope for so much more --and different kind of growth from a year of college?! No wonder fewer girls want to join sororities--it's diminishing and seems outdated. It's too bad because we need sisterhood more than ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife was in a sorority at Maryland. Would our daughter get any legacy status for the same sorority at Virginia Tech?

Absolutely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Computer generated GPA cuts? This is crazy talk. You, as a parent, cannot get grades without permission from your student.

The computer system they use for rush has the ability to do this. This is not a UVA thing, either.

Privacy violation.

They sign a release for their grades when they sign up for rush. You are really dense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The cutesy crafts are easy to criticize but when a girl rushes freshman year she is still only 18 and months out of HS. They exchange what gifts they have or can make. It’s not always the highest quality. However some of the nicer small paintings and gifts have been passed down for years. They can also be purchased on Etsy. It’s part of a process. By the next year they look back and see that they are more mature & have outgrown that style of gift.

I think you're underestimating the potential brilliance and power of 18 year old young women which in turn diminishes their own conception of themselves and their power. Young women who get into UVA have taken rigorous courses and been at the top of their schools. The sorority culture encourages--requires--this kind of cutesy crafts and gifting. (Look online if you're not familiar). Add this on to the wearing of spanx, the keeping up appearances, the endless smiling. Why? Why do sororities want to communicate this talk of leadership, sisterhood etc. and then decide that they aren't free to contribute from their genuine talents, interests, but have to make some tangible crafts/gift item and conform to an image. To me it's symbolic of the many ways we want young women to diminish themselves. Picture having young 18 year old men do this and how you--and they-- would perceive it.

And, sure, they might come to see growing beyond it as part of the process, who wouldn't--but wouldn't we hope for so much more --and different kind of growth from a year of college?! No wonder fewer girls want to join sororities--it's diminishing and seems outdated. It's too bad because we need sisterhood more than ever.

+1,000

Very well reasoned.

[Anonymous]

Like giving a scholarship to Miss America does not make the whole premise of a beauty contest more valid/less sexist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My wife was in a sorority at Maryland. Would our daughter get any legacy status for the same sorority at Virginia Tech?

Absolutely.

Yes, but legacy status doesn't mean what it used to. For many groups all it means is that you get an automatic invite to the first invitational party, but it's not guaranteed after that. Lots of people are shocked when their legacy gets dropped.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PPs, Indiana is no longer doing bed rush, they've moved away from it

But they're still setting their own house totals and quotas, and don't guarantee a bid for any woman who attends the last round. They're the only ones who don't.