A former University of Alabama student has claimed that her sorority charged her $4,000 in fines because she missed a week of homecoming events while her father was battling cancer.
Katherine Ellis, 24, from Boston, Massachusetts, has more than 45,000 followers on TikTok, where she documents her life as a sports reporter, podcast host, and content creator.
In a recent video, she opened up about partaking in Bama Rush when she started her freshman year of college in 2017.
‘Imagine joining a sorority at Alabama thinking it’s gonna be the best thing ever,’ she began, ‘but then your dad gets cancer, and they try to fine you thousands of dollars because of it.’
Katherine Ellis, 24, from Boston, Massachusetts, went viral on TikTok after claiming her Alabama sorority penalized her for leaving campus after her dad was diagnosed with cancer
Ellis, who started her freshman year at the University of Alabama in 2017, explained that she and her sisters had to prep for homecoming for eight hours a day for two weeks straight
Sororities and fraternities are a significant part of the campus culture at the University of Alabama, where 36 percent of the ungraduated student body is a member of the Greek community.
Alabama’s sorority recruitment process, known as ‘Bama Rush,’ has become a viral sensation over the past few years thanks to a number of aspiring students vying to be a part of Greek life.
‘Freshman year I went to Alabama, and like every single girl there who wants a social life, I rushed,’ Ellis explained. ‘When you want to rush at Alabama, you have to decide you want to rush months before, and then go through this whole registration process.
‘The registration is an application that takes a long time to do,’ she noted. ‘You have to submit photos of yourselves. You have to submit your resume [and] letters of recommendation. I didn’t know I needed f*****g letters of recommendation to hang out with a bunch of girls and go to parties.’
Ellis said she tried to prepare herself by watching YouTube videos and talking to people she knew in sororities to figure out what she needed to do to get in.
However, she wished someone had warned her that her high school GPA would affect her chances of getting a sorority bid.
‘Thousands of girls that are going through rush at the exact same time. So you can’t actually pick who you want in your sorority or not based off the first round because the first round is like five minutes,’ she said.
‘So the first round is all GPA drops, and no one told me if I had below a 3.0 GPA, I would be dropped from almost every single house right off the bat.
They were required to roll colorful tissue paper into tiny balls and arrange them into decorative portraits, an Alabama tradition known as ‘pomping’
Ellis said she missed a week of pomping after her father was diagnosed with cancer and underwent ‘life-threatening’ surgery. She dropped out after her sorority fined her $4,000
‘I also have no idea why the sororities even care about grades because I had a 2.9 going into Bama, and I left with a 4.0,’ she added. ‘If you can spell Bama — not even Alabama — you can get a 4.0 at that school.’
Ellis considered quitting after being dropped by most of the school’s sororities, but she stuck with it because she had already paid for registration.
She ended up getting accepted to a sorority, although she didn’t name which one, and decided to give Greek life a chance for the semester.
The content creator explained that in honor of homecoming, she and her sorority sisters had to roll colorful tissue paper into tiny balls and arrange them into decorative portraits, an Alabama tradition known as ‘pomping.’
‘For the two weeks leading up to homecoming, we were required to be at the sorority house for eight hours a day, pomping it up,’ she said.
Ellis claimed that their big sisters would take their cellphones and university ID cards away to prevent them from getting distracted or leaving.
‘If you’re caught not actively pomping, the hour didn’t count, and for every hour you miss, you owe them $100,’ she said.
Ellis’s father was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer at this time, and she flew across the country to be with him while he underwent ‘life-threatening surgery.’
Ellis left the University of Alabama after her freshman year and transferred to Boston University, where she graduated from in 2021
Ellis’s video has been viewed more than 3.7 million times, and some commenters were inspired to share their own sorority horror stories
Instead of being met with sympathy when she returned to campus, her sorority penalized her for leaving during their homecoming prep.
‘I missed a week, and they fined me $4,000,’ she said. ‘So I dropped.’
Ellis left the University of Alabama after her freshman year and transferred to Boston University, where she graduated from in 2021.
She shared her story ahead of last month’s release of HBO’s sensational ‘Bama Rush’ documentary, which exposed the dark underbelly of Panhellenic culture.
‘Sisterhood! Am I right?’ she captioned the video, which has been viewed 3.7 million times since it was posted on May 6.
More than 2,300 viewers commented on her experience, and some were inspired to share their own sorority horror stories.
‘I got fined for missing an event bc I was in the ER,’ one person recalled.
‘It’s crazy. My daughter was in the sorority. She missed meetings due to surgery and was fined,’ someone else replied.
‘I got fined for going to my grandpa’s funeral,’ another added.
Ellis noted in the comments that she did not pay the fine, and she was also happy to report that her father has been cancer-free for the past four years.
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