question about juniors and seniors

That's pretty much the pattern for all college students. People drop out, fail and transfer.

Curious Mom too!

My experience at a different school was that by senior year sorority life was "less important". Freshman and sophomore years certainly the peak. As you noted, other social outlets and friends from classes/major as well as internships and study abroad started to limit sorority time.

That being said, the cost of staying active was not as notable for me. I would love for my daughter to stay active, but if her upperclass experience mirrors mine, it would be very hard to justify the thousands of dollars of expense. Not a matter if we could, but does it make sense. I am sure this will upset some, but you can tell by the numbers allot of girls are thinking this way.

I also have read here that some houses claim high retention. In general, the houses are more similar than different - they all recruit about 150 memebers each year to maintain total membership at just over 400. Some may have a slight edge, but hardly notable or significant.

And relative to grad pictures, I've often thought the same thing. Very few girls and kind of sad. \n\n\n\n\n

a lot of what greek life offers caters to freshman. There's really no point in paying 10k a year for 3 date parties and a formal. people drop from every sorority.

A lot of girls go abroad the spring of their junior year and come back to realize they don't feel like doing the sorority thing anymore. Some night want to get involved as alums but they're over the college vibe.

Also, there are only so many positions on exec. As an upperclassman you pretty much have to be SUPER into your sorority and be a leader or there's no point in paying for it at all. Heck, I think DG's officers are 80% sophomores or something like that, which usually means no juniors or seniors wanted to be involved in that capacity.

There's no such thing as an "active alum", you can have inactive status which usually means you are abroad/taking a semester off or you can go "early alum" which means you become an alumnae before your four years of collegiate membership is over. Once you are an alumnae, you are always an alumnae.

Dropping is a negative thing but when the dues are this high most girls don't care.

An 'alumna'. Some 'alumnae'.

Most sororities do not let you take early alumna status if you're still enrolled in the same school. It's member or no longer a member.

If you drop before graduation, and can't take early alumna status, can you be an alumna member after graduation?

Good idea

No. I know my chapter doesn't let you serve as president unless you've served on council before (not sure if that's an official rule or just an unspoken one.)

I think DG is the only chapter with a sophomore as president, I believe every other one is a rising senior.

Did not realize that about DG. Interesting. What does it say about them? Is that girl just so awesome (after all the last SGA president from XO was a sophomore, so it is not like they can't lead), or was there a lack of interest and leadership available from the rising Juniors? Is it a leadership development thing/issue?

I do have to give DG props for a good year last year and they seem to be on the rise, so things seem good there at DG.

Most of the kids I knew last year that dropped out or flunked out were Alabama kids, not OOS. Sure, someone might get homesick, but it seemed to me that most OOS kids were here because they wanted to be here, whatever their reasoning was, and a lot of the Alabama kids were here because it's where you go in Alabama, where their parents went, etc... Also, I knew some Alabama kids that were just SHOCKINGLY unprepared for college life. I am sure there were OOS folks like that too, I just didn't know any of them.

I guess it's just who you know. I can't remember the last time a girl in my house who was from the south dropped (although we don't have a lot) but probably at least 20 girls go back to NJ/NY/Chicago at the end of first semester every year

Enrollment at The University of Alabama reached a record high of 37,665 for fall 2016. The entering freshman class, at 7,559 students, is the largest and best qualified in UA history. More than 40 percent of UA’s 7,559-member freshman class scored 30 or higher on the ACT, up from last year’s record 36 percent.

But kids do come here for the football and party culture too, so @Bama's snarky comment is not completely unfair.

Don't appreciate those that say generally attacking Bama's education quality or the competitiveness of its admissions. It is not Ivy League but it is a quality institution.

Something like 55 percent of those freshman in 2016 were female. That translates to roughly 4,000. Of that, 2,750 or so did recruitment. So about 2/3 of all incoming female freshness did recruitment.

Don't kill me on inexact math, but that is quite a high level of participation.

Love us.

The fraternity and sorority community at The University of Alabama is one of the largest and most vibrant in the United States. With more than 11,000 students, the UA Greek community comprises over 36 percent of the undergraduate student body and is home to 62 social Greek-letter organizations. Since Fall 2011, The University of Alabama has held the coveted honor of being the largest fraternity and sorority community in the nation with regard to overall fraternity and sorority membership

This is from university web site.

So....

Just looking at these numbers, we can see an overall pattern of lower percentage participation university wide vs. sororities as percentage of incoming freshman. Not surprising but shows that people remove themselves as they spend time at the university, which is consistent with observations above.

The university is definitely getting smarter, more qualified students but they have also not cut off the bottom applicants, hence the huge growth in enrollment. Maybe someday they will start to raise the entrance requirements (at least for out of state students-I think state residents with decent scores deserve to attend the state university)

There are some other statistics, especially sad being the graduation rate. 41% in 4 years (national average is 59%), 62% in 5 years, 67% in 6 years. So...1/3 of all students don't graduate within 6 years; statistics show that it is because 24% of all Bama undergrads transfer out and 8% of them drop out. Gotta keep bringin' em in as freshman because 1/3 of them won't stick around. Drink, pledge, drink, football, drink, transfer.