Ole Miss is the smallest SEC school (other than Vanderbilt) with approx 15k undergrads. Alabama has about 26k undergrads, for the purposes of comparison.

Well, because that's all that is there. Ole Miss is actually a smaller school. It's the second smallest in the SEC with only 19,000 students. Vandy is smaller at around 12,000 but it is also private. Florida and A & M are the largest at over 50,000. Alabama, Missou and UGA are in the 30,000's and the rest are in the 20,000's. Vandy, Ole Miss and MS State, as the 3 smallest schools in the SEC, also have the smallest NPC systems.
So the 9 are not unsurprising. They are going to expand this next year. The problem there is housing and being in close approximation of the other groups.

Nota bene: 4,000 of the 19,000 are graduate students

Oh....ok. I guess that makes sense. I am glad they are looking at adding a few chapters. It sounds like the demand is definitely there. Thanks for the info.

I just used Wikipedia total enrollment for all because it was easiest to get to.

Back in the day there was a story that MaryAnn Mobley's (1 of 2 back-to-back OM-ChiO Miss America's) younger sister went through rush, got cut, left Ole Miss and went to Alabama. Story was MaryAnn never forgave the chapter. Not sure if it was true or not -- but it made for a great story and put the fear of God into Rushee's that if HER sister got cut -- watch out. During my time at OM rush was held the week before school started. There were lots of stories of girls getting cut and leaving school. It happened.

It does happen...I know someone who did it. Mind you this was 30+ years ago, but she went to Ole Miss intending to pledge a particularly sorority and when she got dropped from them, she packed up and transferred to a smaller state school closer to home (not in MS) that had a chapter. She got a bid and to her credit, stayed where she was.

Undergraduate enrollment at Vanderbilt is only about 6500.

Yes -- but I still don't think that this is common, especially in today's recruitment atmosphere.

Not to take away from the anecdotes -- I'm interested in knowing what happened to Mary Ann Mobley's sister.

Hey, if this happened today, Mary Ann could text her friends, tweet her displeasure, and even vent about it on GreekChat! ;)

Just for fun I googled around a bit -- and found that Mary Ann Mobley's younger sister is Sandra Williams Young. It appears that Sandra was a DDD at Ole Miss, though their mother attended UofA.

Of possible interest to DDDs -- Sandra Williams Young is the current president of the Delta Delta Delta Foundation:

http://test.tridelta.org/Document/Fo...rd_Of_Trustees

While Mary Ann Mobley was serving as Miss America, and immediately thereafter, a large formal portrait of her in her Miss America Regalia was on prominent display in either the foyer or living room. When her sister did not receive a ChiO bid, Mary Ann marched into the ChiO house and lifted her protrait off its hook and carted it to her car. Her daughter Collins went either TriDelta or KD, I cannot recall.

Perfectly understandable. All the work today filling pitchers of ice water has worn on me. I think I'm going to take an pain reliever.

I have found a nice glass of wine is the perfect ending to a round of recruitment!

Can't find the Naproxen Sodium, so maybe I will take your suggestion and a little Merlot.

Dear Mary Poppins,

Thank you! You're totally right. I'd forgotten the best part of the story. (And now that others have followed-up so diligently, I do recall hearing her sister pledged DDD.) The image of Mobley driving up to Oxford (in a convertible I heard at the time), marching into the Chi-O house and removing her picture is just too delicious. Maybe my age is showing, but seems like the stuff today is so boring in comparison. It's either poor grades or drinking or drugs or sex or some other tired misbehavior that takes too much time and energy and gives little in return. These current tales of woe are not the rush stories we live to re-tell. They're sad and mundane. No inspiration. But Mary Ann Mobley is still my hero. And so are all the participants in this drama. Even the Chi-O's. Imagine. The audacity to cut Miss America's sister! Takes guts. And the Tri-delts walked away a winner with a great pledge and valued member to this day. What's not to like about this story!

Ole Miss Sorority rush is the best.