grades

MSU has guaranteed placement in recruitment. You will get in a sorority, but the top houses could drop you early if you do not meet their grade requirements. However, some sororities make exceptions for girls that they really want. I know a girl that got in a top house with a 2.0GPA.. but they really wanted her.

Grades are the first thing sororities look at when making cuts. If you're below about a 3.2 expect some cuts. If you have other great things going for you, I'm sure you'll be fine and find a home somewhere. If you don't have stellar involvement, connections, or personality to make up for the grades, you might not have a great rush. Just be calm and be open minded and present your best characteristics!

Don't expect to be invited back to Chi O, DG, and KD unless your best friend is one and majorly pulling for you. Depending on exactly how bad your grades are and how strong your other areas are to make up for the grades, expect some cuts from other houses too. Just being honest though if you aren't THE best girl from your school who happens to have crap grades, don't expect to go top tier.

Truth - YES, grades play a major role in recruitment. Sororities have GPA requirements for pledging PNMs. Some are 2.5, some are 3.0, some may be higher than that. Even those groups make exceptions...but it is very uncommon.

Does everyone get a bid? No.
Some PNMs get released out of recruitment by every chapter. that typically only happens for 2 reasons: character & GPA.

If I attend 2 pref parties, will I get a bid to one of them? Yes. But, it might not be your first choice.

If I attend 1 pref party, will I get a bid to join that group? Yes...but ONLY if you've 'played the game right' and gone to ALL of your possible parties all week (maximized your options). However, if you intentional single preference (known as "suiciding" for 1 sorority), then you might not get a bid to that group...depends on where you fall on their bid list.

i'm worried about grades as well. my high school gpa is terrible, but other areas of my resume show that i have academic potential. will i get completely released if my gpa is below a 2.7?

It all depends on how great your activities are. If you were president of the student council, homecoming queen, and miss "it" then a 2.7 isn't going to kill you...but, if you weren't REALLY HOT SNOT in high school, expect some pretty significant releases on the first night. IF you have extenuating circumstances which resulted in your sub-par academic performance in high school, you might want to make sure they know that (I.e. your dad was deployed overseas for 2 years and you had to babysit your infant twin siblings while mom worked a third job....not just 'my dog died and I had a really hard time with it.')