Fall Recruitment
 

Hi everyone! I will be starting at College of Charleston in the fall and I had a few questions. I am very interested in joining a sorority. I am good at making new friends and feel as though I am approachable/easy to talk to. I have lots of extracurriculars (student council, honor council, snhs, girl scout for 13 years and have my gold award). I feel like the only thing that could prevent me from getting a bid from a sorority is my GPA. My unweighted 9-11 gpa is a 2.8. Not going to go into details, but about a month before my junior year started my best friend and her entire family were killed. My grades suffered immensely my junior year because I could not focus on school at all. So far this year I have maintained a 4.0...I had a 3.5 my freshman year and about a 3.0 sophomore year. (all of these are unweighted) I'm waiting to sign up for rush until i get my final transcript and see that my cumulative GPA is a 3.0 or over. Should I rush as a freshman, or should I wait to rush as a sophomore? Thanks!

Let me say that I am unfamiliar with the College of Charleston, so my opinion may be way off the mark.
But I would go ahead and go through recruitment. Be sure you get recs, and explain to the alumnae writing your recs your reasons for the poorer grades, so that they can include the info with their recs, which go directly to the chapters.
You have nothing to lose by doing it your freshman year, and you could miss a whole year of sisterhood if you wait. Be aware that some may still drop you because of the grades, and that you will not ever know for sure why they've dropped you.
But you may still find a great match.
If you choose to withdraw from recruitment, you can get those great college grades and go through as a sophomore. That would make it a whole different ballgame.