Yes! Please do!

I believe they get bids at 5 pm today. Sending good thoughts to the PNMs and moms!

Its hard to say because the Alabama numbers have the Alpha Phi and DG expansions to take into account which might also increase withdrawals.

I can say the Auburn number is a little off year to year because they were showing that most of the women who withdraw after first round were withdrawing before day 1 was over in 2011 or before they saw their invitations for round two. That might be attributed to the horrible heat wave last year.

The numbers I used for AL (and IL) were for 2010, which was not a year affected by an AL expansion. But you are correct -- the numbers during years of expansion (2008 and 2011) were considerably affected – big increases in girls withdrawing after receiving pref invites, and also in the “not receiving bids” column. Many girls probably withdrew upon receiving pref invites -- and others purposely did not maximize pref options -- knowing that a colonizing option was available following formal recruitment (the vast majority of the colonizing chapters’ new members were girls who participated in formal recruitment).

UofA stats by year (click on document to enlarge): http://img.docstoccdn.com/thumb/orig/121342940.png


Good point – the Illinois and Alabama numbers were specifically 2010, and only those who withdrew during the process (after open house). Seriously – the prospect of standing in the heat for a week could cause some girls to change their minds after signing up or before ever receiving any invitations!

But I what I was actually wondering about is ... if the withdrawal numbers at Illinois were smaller (this number is huge compared to AL and Auburn), would this potentially affect (raise) somewhat the number of girls released through the process?

The number would increase a little bit, but I do not think that much (not 15%!), because the RFM would account for it and corresponding numbers of invitiations allowed out would increase.

If they are hanging out on the quad, it may be a good time to check the Quad Cam! http://illinois.edu/about/tours/quadCam.html

I’m not sure what you mean by 15% -- I’m probably not explaining myself very well.

Using the 2010 numbers from IL and AL, since these are comparable, it seems that the percentages of girls released from recruitment are so small that it might be easier to look at raw numbers:

IL: Released by all chapters (through pref invites): 2 of 1258
AL: Released by all chapters (through pref invites): 16 of 1604

But that there is huge disparity between withdrawal numbers and percentages:

IL: Total Withdrawals up to and following pref: 325 of 1258 (approx. 26% of PNMs withdrew during recruitment process)
AL: Total withdrawals up to and following pref: 154 of 1604 (approx. 10% of PNMs withdrew during recruitment process)

I kinda see what you are saying about RFM compensating over the course of the week – but wondered if more girls had continued in recruitment at IL, if some of these may have been subject to release by all chapters at some point.

Why are the withdrawal numbers at IL so high? Any thoughts?

Based on what I've read here, my guess is that at Alabama, there's more of a "I'd rather go Greek than not" mentality for PNMs, so when they get chapters that they are not happy with, they're more willing to stick it out. I don't think you can say the same thing about Illinois.

Just my guess.

As a former chapter member at U of I, my guess is that it is because sophomores have great success in recruitment. Freshman year is not your best and only chance of placement.

Just posted in the other thread, too, but...my sister is a SIGMA KAPPA! :)

Hope everyone has a lot of fun tonight!

Other factors at Illinois:

The decision to rush is not necessarily a careful one. A lot of women just sign up the night of orientation, recs aren't needed, it costs like $40...plenty of people do it on a whim and then decide it isn't for them.

Rush happens during the school year, not in a bubble before school starts. Given the time to visit 18-20 chapters (the number has fluctuated only slightly in the last 15 years), you are missing out on a lot of other stuff during that timeframe.

When I was there, the rho chi selection process totally sucked. I don't know if that's still the case, but many of the stories I hear about awesome rho chis are very counter to my experience.

Yay! Dove love to your sister! Any chance you could convince her to stop by and write a recruitment story? :D

Agreed!

Posted on the other thread too….there is a new PI PHI Angel in our family!!!!! soooo thrilled!!!

I have a pi phi too and she is really happy!! Her sister was a pi phi too (another school) and they are both happy to have the added sisterly bond!!