re: Alabama Board Coronavirus Thread

You've got to have recommendation letters either way, legacy or no. Some sororities count legacy more important than others, but it counts for something at almost all of them. The thing I don't understand is they will ask total strangers to write rec letters for them, just send the info packet and they will send a letter. If I am getting a recommendation letter, I want that person to know me. And while I get that you can't know someone from every sorority at Alabama, I almost feel like no letter is as good as a letter from somebody that doesn't know me.

Anyway, Simian, this dad had to learn the whole process this year as I was totally ignorant of the process. You get the rec letters and an info packet about your daughter and send one to each house at Bama. This year they added a short 60 or 90 second video to introduce the girls since COVID and no face to face contact. Then round 1 (philanthropy) they send out invites based on the info, letters, and video. There are 19 sororities at Bama per Alabama Panhellenic. The actives get together and cull the girls down to however many they are allowed to invite. The numbers are controlled by Panhellenic, and selection is done by computer somehow. Not sure how that works.

You can get a maximum of 12 or 13 invites in round 1. So round 1, you get your invites and usually they have the invitees over to the house and meet and greet and discuss their philanthropy and introduce them to their sorority. This year it was zoom calls. Actives get together and cull the herd again. Then round two is philanthropy. You get a max of either 8 or 9 callbacks but you can get anything down to zero. Same thing happens, actives discuss sisterhood and the sorority with the PNM's (potential new members).

The whole time this is going on, your daughter is bitching, moaning, and griping and CRYING! because nobody gets a perfect draw so XYZ was their favorite and they dropped her or they didn't get a full card of call backs, etc. Actives get together after sisterhood and they have to cull the herd again, and the PNM gets a maximum of 2 houses back for round 3, Preference. Preference, the actives talk with the PNMs and the PNMs either tell the house they would really like to be a XYZ OR that they really see themselves in another house. That was the spot my daughter was in today. If you get back 2 you love, great, you're set. Or you could get only 1 back and you have to decide whether to accept a bid from them or not, or you could be dropped and get zero back.

Tomorrow is Bid Day, the big event. The actives get together tonight and decide whether to extend a bid to Mary Smith or not. Mary Smith gets to accept or decline. If she accepts, she's a pledge and can drop out anytime before initiation if she decides she's in the wrong house and do it all over again the next year. Same if she declines. Usually on Bid Day, they all run to the stadium when they get their Bid, but another Covid casualty, they can't do that because it was all a bunch of screaming and hugging and crying sans social distancing and masks, so not tomorrow.

So it's very emotionally draining and can be very ego bruising. You are judged based on GPA, activities, rec letters, legacy, looks (they wouldn't admit that, but you know damn well it's true), social standing, affluence, everything.