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Quote:

Originally Posted by pam713 (Post 1844286)

My alumni group supports a struggling chapter at UNA and I'm guessing that this is chapter D. It may be too late, if your sister has already declined her bid, but "Chapter D" is really a great group of girls. The bond between these girls is really strong; they seem to have a real support system and have really been working hard to turn this chapter around. If you have been lurking on Greek Chat then I know you have seen countless stories of girls who stuck it out and grew to love their chapter. I hope your sister can give them a chance. After all, they are the ones who liked her enough to offer her a bid.

I totally agree with you that (assuming chapter D is who we're thinking it is) they are a great group of girls. I have several friends who are actives or alumnae of the chapter, and they are definitely giving everything they've got to build things back up and better the name of the group here on campus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AOII Angel (Post 1844310)

Recruitment is rough sometimes, but although your sister is feeling rejected unfairly, she just did the same thing the Chapter D.

A freaking men. If she ranked a chapter where the girls were welcoming and nice below one where she was treated like poo solely because of the chapter's campus reputation, I don't feel sorry for her at all...and D should be damn glad they aren't stuck with her as a sister.

Agree ^^^

She said they were warm, welcoming and sweet. Then she ranked them last over a group that were ice bitches. I don't get it, and I don't really have much sympathy. I do have sympathy for women who have accepted all invitations and get completely released from recruitment. That is a different situation, and often has to do with recs, grades or upperclass status.

We have had a lot of stories this year of "open minded" pnms who receive invitations, even bids, but "can't see themselves" in the group and drop out. I believe that translates most of the time to, "I am too good for this group". In any group over 20 or 25 members, there is going to be a variety of personalities, looks, interests and scholastic ability and it is the rare woman who can't find a common bond and friendship somewhere in the chapter.

Truth be told, there are boring women even in the "top" group on campus.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 33girl (Post 1844756)

Amen again! They were beotches! But they weren't bottom tier beotches! I have no sympathy for women like this. At all. She deserves to be stuck as a GDI and those "bottom tier" women are lucky to not be stuck with such a shallow twit as a sister.

One of my closest friends is a recent alumna of chapter D at UNA. We were actually talking about this very subject the other day, that the Gamma Chis basically tell the PNMs that they have to rank both of their preference choices. They don't know that they can only rank one or are strongly discouraged not to. She was like, "Well, they discourage it because only 10% of the girls who suicide get what they want." That stat seems a little off. It seems like a scare tactic to "trick" PNMs into ranking both choices when they only want one.

It seems like a disservice to the PNMs for being bound for a year (though chapter D is usually the only one that does informal recruitment), but also to chapter D. My friend told me that a few years ago they MATCHED quota (25ish) but only 9 of them "ran" (accepted). How deflating to get your hopes up!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jen (Post 1844300)

D obviously had her on their first list, while A had her on the second list.

As simply as I can explain it ...

Each sorority has a list with the girls on it that they most want to match with in alphabetical order. The number of girls on the list will be what quota is (so if quota is 20, there are 20 girls listed).

They also have a second list that lists, in order of preference, girls that they would also like to match with who are not on that first list. (These two lists will be the names of everyone who attended their preference parties)

They will read out Jane Doe's first choice. She wants sorority A. She will match with them if she is on sorority A's first list. If she isn't, the card is put aside until they go through all the other PNMs doing the same thing with their first choices.

If it WAS a match, and sorority D had also had Jane's name on their first list, they have to cross Jane off, because she went elsewhere. Sorority D now has 19 names on their list. To bring it up to 20 again, they'd take the first name from list 2 and put it on list 1. Every sorority that didn't get Jane does the same if she was on their first list.

All the PNMs who don't match to their first choice the first time around are read a second time. The reason for this is that if sorority A had her on their second list, she may have moved up to the first list now because other girls they wanted matched elsewhere. So if they read her first choice, sorority A, and she's now on their first list, she'll match there.

This process is repeated until she doesn't match at A. She may not match because A got 20 girls (quota) before her name made it to their 1st list.

So now they read her second choice, sorority D - same process. She will match if she is on sorority D's first list.

If she was on sorority D's second list, and she didn't match at this point, they would continue the process (with her and all the other PNM cards) reading the choices until everyone is matched (or, in rare cases, someone might not match at all to anywhere).

So what happened was your sister was on the second list for sorority A. Her name did not make it to the first list by the time sorority A reached quota. Her name WAS on sorority D's first list by the time they had to read all of the second choices (whether it was on the first list right off the bat or on their second list and moved to the first because of other girls matching elsewhere is unknown ... if she was clear to them she wasn't interested, she may have been low on their second list and made it to the first because other girls on D's first list matched to other groups. So they may have been honouring her choice of being elsewhere by ranking her low on the 2nd, and she made it to their first anyway, by virtue of A filling up quickly). Therefore, she matched to D.

Correct except for the bolded part. It should say, "by virtue of PNMs of chapter D's list matching elsewhere or suiciding."

I know someone who went through recruitment at UNA and I have some knowledge of the campus panhellenic. To say that things are a little bit screwed up over there would be an understatement. If the RFM is being used correctly, I don't understand why so many women there go bidless, although they may be dropping out. The PNM's were supposedly told at the beginning of recruitment that, by beginning the formal recruitment process, they could not accept a bid outside of that for one year. I am not sure what color the book they are reading is.
My friend accepted a bid to "D" even though it was not her first choice and thinks she can make a go of it. I am proud of her. "D" is a strong group nationally and that is just as important, given the number of years that one is an alum.
I, too, have little sympathy for someone who went bidless but did not maximize her options. That is what happens when you start thinking you are too good for a certain group.

Quote:

Originally Posted by aopinthesky (Post 1845169)

I think the tent talk about chapter D is just really bad, in that so many girls would drop out than join chapter D.

I'm from Florence (where UNA is located) and know the four sororities you described quite well. I knew a lot of people in D and they loved it. I spent my freshman year of college at UNA before going to Auburn. All the sororities back then COB'ed all year. I knew five girls who went through rush who didn't get bids (that's when you could cut instead of ranking). All five got bids to the strongest sorority before the first semester was over. They all went to church with several of the members and there you go. The moral of the story--don't give up and do go to church.

I just want to say that I went to Una and I was a part of D (the struggling chapter) When I first came to Una I heard all the rumors of every chapter and didn't want to go to "D" just like every other girl on campus but unlike some I really did have an "open mind" and gave those girls a chance. it was and still is the best decision ive ever made.
Looking back on it now I was so stupid too think it was Chapter "A,B,C or nothing at all"
The ladies of D are the reason I stayed at Una. After my Mom passed away I was going too transfer but those girls were there for me when I needed support the most and if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be as happy as I am today.

I guess what im trying to say is if you want to be Greek its the sisters that matter not the letters you wear.

The part that bugs me so much is if the 8 girls in her group of 12 who didn't pledge houses all went to D the chapter would have no problem. All it takes is one solid pledge class. I'd love to see your sister talk with a couple of her friends who didn't pledge and think about going into D TOGETHER, being with the great and loving women and getting the numbers at a place where less confident women would also feel comfortable joining.

It sounds to me (no, I don't know this campus, but I was a member of a small chapter) like the ONLY problem this chapter has is numbers. I didn't hear anything here about the quality.

Several years ago as an AAA I helped my Fraternity reorganize. They were down to less than 10 men. We pushed the alumni and raized money for Rush and pledged 16 men. This group of men are now the largest on campus with 70+ members and regularly recruit the largest pledge classes of all the Fraternities. My point is that a lot of this is cyclical. There is a good chance that the group D will be the largest and best on campus in just a couple of years. It takes hard work and a lot of social networking but it can be done. When I was in school ZTA was always the smallest Sorority on our campus. Now they are at full quota with 100+ women and win awards right and left. Who would have thought so back in their early days of 20-25 members? It only takes one good pledge class to turn it around.

Right...UNA has small groups, compared to the behemoths at Alabama and Auburn. It wouldn't take that many women to turn things around. Tent talk is SO unfair. Maybe the Rho Chis should be emphasizing that.

I get the rejection factor, and was also surprised that she ranked D below C. After reading the initial description I was absolutely certain that she would drop C! But we also have to consider that a) there are a lot of factors that play into these decisions, b) the decisions have to be made fairly quickly, and c) she hasn't been on the "other side" so she only knows what she hears and sees. Women make some tough decisions when going through recruitment, and not all of them are with (what we would perceive to be) the bigger picture in mind. I know I would've done some things differently when I went through, but I also wouldn't change the end result :-)