Dropping…More pros than cons?

You are not alone and also it's in every sorority. Freshmen year is when it is most worth it. My roommate's sorority is a lot stricter with rules than mine so she thinks about dropping on a weekly basis. I think about it every few weeks. I've felt excluded so many times so I question why I stay. I am also a sophomore and will stick with it through this year but I don't know if I can handle work week and rush again next year. I have a lot of thinking to do also.

This is "your" personal decision. You will receive different opinions and advice depending who you ask or who responds. I suggest making a slow and lengthy decision over time. List your pros and cons, but think about what you will really miss if you drop. Take a few walks past the row and think about how you will feel if you are no longer a member. Try to leave the financial part out of the decision until the end and then factor that in. No one can really answer this for you, but you. Good Luck.

Heavy on the “being just a number to them” part. I agree it feels like there’s nothing left to gain after you make a few friends, who will still be there for me whether I drop or not. I often wonder where the dues and fines even go, because sorority social events aren’t nearly as fun as fraternities and we rarely have sisterhood events and if we do, they’re lame AF. I don’t know about y’all but even Initiation seemed half-azzed after being hyped up all year. Doesn’t seem like they care whether we enjoy our experience or not, as long as we keep in line with overbearing rules, pay dues, clock in volunteer hours for their credibility, and keep up our GPA just so they can build their own social currency from it.

Totally ^^^^ lots of rules - lots of requirements (pomping , philathropy, rush, etc) - boring social events - and my sorority doesn't even mix with the fraternity my friends and I go to all the time. And as for "connections" they all brag about - I got my summer internship from my own searches and hard work. And I see this a lot on here and needs to be said again and louder- unless you are staying in Alabama absolutely NO ONE cares if you were in a sorority and even less which one once you graduate.

Alright I’ll come out of the woodwork lol..I’m an old alumna (30 so hopefully not THAT old to you). I dropped my senior year and my only regret is not dropping much sooner. I guess the reason I still creep on here sometimes is because I’m naturally curious about an org I had invested a lot of time and money towards and to see if things change. From what I’ve seen, they really haven’t. Most have the same reputations and drama going on.

When I look back I honestly have more bad memories about my sorority than good. I dreaded pomping, study hours, drama, favoritism, non-sense rules and all of that too. The ridiculous fines on top of every little thing only made me hate everything more and it always felt like I was never doing anything “right.” I wish I stood up for myself more against certain people. I wish I knew when to say enough was enough. I remember when my sorority said they rented out a really nice spot for the weekend, they made us get all dressed up, we were so excited, just to be brought there to be yelled at by the older girls that we “need to listen to them more.” That’s it. Then after that, nothing — no activities planned or anything. Just aimlessly walking with sore feet from heels around this nice empty place after a chapter-wide argument until we were told to go home. So much for sisterhood bonding lol.

Of course I made some great friends, but just like high school, you graduate, go your different ways, and move across the country. We’ve attended each others weddings but after that, that’s really about it and it just kind of fizzles out. Anyways all this to say, I think if you’ve already made your friends, there’s not much to lose by dropping.

I agree about the “networking” comment — everything I’ve accomplished since has been on my own, not through the sorority or knowing other alumnae. I know they like to drill into your head that “it’s for life, not just 4 years” but it really is just for college years. Freshman year is the full experience of it all and I personally wish I would have dropped right before sophomore year. Even living in the sorority house my sophomore year, I still wouldn’t say that was worth it.

I was surprised how indifferent I felt after dropping. I didn’t feel sad walking past the row or anything like a user mentioned above. I actually felt more free, not having to worry that I missed a mandatory meeting that could have been an email and not having to scramble to work off fines. I’ll admit I wasn’t in a top sorority at all, but I think many people experience similar in other orgs, they just don’t want to admit it because they’re dedicated to keeping up the facade.

I am feeling the same, it has become so exhausting. I feel like my freshman class is not doing anything together with just us, we should be doing some team bonding. I feel like a lot of girls are trying to meet others, but between all the meetings, and hours to put in, they’re not focusing on us together to try and build our class.

As an outsider on this thread from a large southern school with a strong Greek system, but much smaller sororities, I feel sorry for y'all at Bama, I do. I'm not here to say my school is better and put you down, just that it really does seem that your memberships are too large to be real sisterhoods, and that's what's causing these negative experiences. I HATE that for you! My sorority has been the greatest thing for me, life-changing in fact. But 400-500 members is just a huge machine, and any group of that size would of course end up being overshadowed by rules and fines and mandatory everything, just to keep things running and not get out of hand. I mean your sororities are bigger than a lot of high schools. How can you get close to a group of people and really know them in a mass of people like that? How can you even begin to do that in a new member class of 120+ girls? IMO that nobody asked for, half that number is about just right. But I don't know what to tell you to do about it. Restricting rush by GPA to keep numbers lower doesn't seem fair at all. I hope there are many, many more girls having great experiences that just aren't the ones posting on here...

This is a rough one on a whole because it is a big decision right now in your life. No matter what choice you make you will be fine and you just have to believe that.

If you are happy in your daily life with college, then you will be fine whether you remain in your sorority or drop. I think you just need to make sure you won't have any regrets because once you make this decision you can't go back.

Have you looked into your sorority to see if there is such a thing as "inactive status" or "special status" for a semester? Maybe you could try that and see how you feel. That will allow you to remain a member at a distance, but not fully drop. Sororities have different rules for this and some may not allow it at all, but maybe you could look into this.

Being a member in a huge sorority is tough for many. There is a big difference when you talk to friends that are in sororities from other colleges/unis that are half the size or less. Imo, the sororities at Bama need to do a better job when it comes to pledge classes bonding and then also new members bonding with older girls. It is just not happening and I hear that from friends in all different sororities.

Proud of you. You stood up for yourself and what you wanted. Now you can seek out something that makes you truly happy whether it is a new club/organization or finding a new passion. The most important point is to put yourself number #1 and enjoy Bama. Time will fly.

OP UPDATE
Lol wow, looks like someone went through the trouble of paying to remove my last comment about how I ended up dropping and it seemed like they couldn’t care less. How sad to cover something up like that when I never even named names when I could if I wanted to…

Anyways, long story short: I sent in paperwork to drop, they asked me to come in where we had a 5 minute “meeting” where I brought up that I didn’t appreciate the drama, the way things were ran, bullying & rude encounters with “sisters.” They just said “sorry your experience wasn’t great” and that was it. I’m a free woman now🥳