top sororities

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by (With all the competitiveness I know that anything can go wrong and worry that she will join one just to join which is not the best thing to do.)
Multiple times it has been said that there is little difference in the sororities here...none have a bad rep on campus, and mostly, they are all connected in one way or another. My daughter is in one of the top listed above and she probably knows at least a few, if not a lot of the girls in all the other sororities, and I think she would have been very happy in most all of them. Which ever one your daughter ends up with, she will find great friends. I don't think there really is big a social status that comes with being a KD, CHiO, AGD, PhiMu, or ADPi compared to a AOPi, DG, Zeta, PIPHI, DDD, DZ, AXO, Sigma Kappa, Gamma Phi, Kappa, AXiD, or Theta. For the most part, change their letters on their Tshirts, and you wouldn't know the difference because there are so many great girls in every group. It still feels like you are somewhat "hung up" on her getting in a top sorority. If your daughter is they way you described, she will be fine as long as she isn't thinking only about 2 or 3 groups that she has to have. It's only tough when you have expectations, because, again, there are so many great girls going through. She needs to just be herself, keep and open mind, and she will have a great rush and find the place she is supposed to be! She will love Auburn!

I have 2 comments.

(1) There sure are a lot of parents who visit this site. Good to know.
(2) This mom still has this same exact conversation going on the Bama page. She should be FAR more impressed with the responses she's getting HERE!

Alum Mom wrote on Bama (where she's also an alum?) that she thinks the criteria is to be "pretty" to make it through the first few of days...it feels like Mom has a very shallow view of what it means to be in a sorority...which explains why she only wants to know what the top are at AU and at Bama for her daughter. I hope other Moms and Dads who view this site do not think similar. There are so many considerations that go into where each PNM ends up (looks are certainly not as high as other factors in most sororities).

Something that has been mentioned a couple of times -- that this mom has not commented back on -- are recommendations. They are critical to keeping a PNM from being released early at an SEC school. The SEC is the most competitive recruitment in the nation, and anyone preparing for it does not need to be concerned about tiers and top houses -- they need to be concerned about lining up a couple of alumnae recommendations for EVERY chapter. I've seen SEC PNMs try to rush without recs -- they were either released early (despite high GPAs, impressive resumes, friends in sororities and lots of "pretty") or they ended up voluntarily dropping because they didn't like their return invites. In recruitments and because of the release figures methodology most all Panhellenics implement now, sororities have to have a way to manage the numbers -- having recs/not having recs has become one of the tools.

Mom -- you may already be on task with this, but if not, have your daughter ask women she knows if they're a sorority alum and willing to give her a rec -- teachers, relatives, neighbors, friends' mothers, ladies through church, babysitting, etc. We don't send recs until summer, but it's not too early to start getting your duckies in a row. I've already been contacted by Fall '13 PNMs heading to Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Tennessee and UGA...all total, about 12 have contacted me and we're barely into the new year. The number will grow significantly! :)

Edited to add to my above post -- In the last sentence of my first paragraph, I meant to say "in HUGE recruitments and because of the release..." :)

While I am happy that you respect your daughter's decision to Rush with an open mind and it seems as if you are truly ok with her not going Phi Mu and fourth more understand that she may even get cut prior to pref......I don't understand why you would bash other colleges.
It was silly to question why someone would attend a private school in Atlanta and then go to auburn, who cares!! People attend public schools here and end up at Northwestern. But then to specially name another institution and make comparisons to Bama, classless truly classless. Shame on you. You don't have to depend why she wants to attend auburn but you also do not have to stoop so low as to take swings at other universities!!