From a Californian's point of view...
 

In California, there seem to be few, or no chapters of the following:

AGD
ASA
Phi Mu
DZ
ASA
Phi Sig
AOII
ZTA
KD
SSS

:(, especially for KD, since I'm a legacy!

There might be more sororities that aren't very prevalent in CA, but I can't think of them right now.

On the other hand, there seem to be many (or more than a few) chapters in Cali of the following:
Theta
Kappa
Pi Phi
Chi O
DG
Tri-Delt
A-Phi
ADII
Gamma Phi
Sigma Kappa
Alpha Chi

Can you tell that I'm procrastinating from writing an essay? :p

dzrose,

I'm not sure if you are still reading this thread, but have you ever been here to Miami University where DZ was founded? I just read your post and it reminded me that I drive by your headquarters/museum everytime I go back to my house from the rec center.

Brian

I know that AZD is much more of a Mid-western/Northern Organization, however it seems that it seems to be streaching further south then any other direction.

At one time, there were 7 chapters of Alpha Gam in California. Unfortunately, only 3 remain active at this time, all in Northern California. Luckily, the Alpha Gam chapters that remain are doing very well on their campuses.

I hope that someday, we can reactivate the other California chapters. In the meantime AGD has a thriving alumna base that we use to continue sharing our sisterhood.

Alpha Xi Delta in CA
 

It seems that AXiD has few or no chapters in CA, too :(.

Nationall I know Tri Delta has the most chapters and is the strongest in Texas, and surronding southern states, and California.

There are definitely "strongholds" for certain chapters, but there are also chapters that seem to transcend all of these....they are almost everywhere across the board. I would say Chi O is definitely one of these. Also, DG and Tri-Delt seem to be everywhere.

DZ is very large in Ohio.....there is definitely some truth to that!!! I see DZs everywhere I go.

Gotta say, though, when you think of Southern sororities, you tend to think of Phi Mu, Kappa, Theta, and Chi O. So you guys are right.

I absolutely agree - the biggest sororities in the South seem to be Tri Delt, ADPi, ZTA, and KD. I've also noticed that Chi O seems to have really strong chapters everywhere! How do they do that? ;)

Hey Brian,

I haven't had the opportunity to visit Miami University yet. However, our 100th anniversary is next year and our National Convention is being held in Oxford to commemorate our 100th year. I made my hotel reservations a couple of weeks ago! :) I'm so excited! What's even better is that I'm sharing the room with one of my best friends who I don't see often since she and her husband just moved from Atlanta to Florida.

Since you're familar with Oxford, can you tell me some good local places to check out? We're only staying for the weekend (in July) so we don't have much time... but I'd love to see what I can of the town.

Thanks! :)
Carrie

I think part of that has to do with the fact that our national office is in Nashville. I would also have to say that sororities are overall more popular in the South than any other part of the country--for example, during the 'anti-greek' years I'm going to make the generalization that very few greek chapters in the south closed in comparison to the rest of the country. Overall, regarding AOII, including all the closed chapters, we are pretty well dispersed over the county.

Regarding AOII in California, we have chartered at 10 schools and still have chapters at 6 - including our oldest active chapter (Sigma at UC-Berkeley)

Sarah
AOII - Beta Gamma

Thanks for the compliment, BrownEyedGirl.....but we are hardly the only ones to have that distinction!!!! Not to pick out specific chapters but just for an example I have never seen a weak Kappa or DG chapter......there are others too. The basic fact of the matter is that the fantastic chapters of NPC rock pretty much across the board as far as I'm concerned!!!!!!:)

Oh yeah Pi Phi's are all over California! LOL Anyway, it seems that we're the strongest in the mid-western states. I don't know if every sorority is strongest around the area it was founded, but it seems like we're kind of centered around Illinois.

in Texas ZTA has the most chapters with about 14, Chi-o is next with 13 and AXO is third with 12 chapters. I am not sure if we have phi mu down here or AST, ASA, SSS, I know there are a few SK and gamma phi chapters

I think AXO is pretty well spread out except a few southern states-MS, Ak, and Kentucky

I go to school in TX and I have gone to two schools here with greek systems. One with a really big greek system and one that is small. I can tell you that I have seen weak chapters of the sororities you are talking about. I will not tell you which of the two schools they were weak because I don't want to specifically call anyone out, especially since chapters have weak times and strong times...it's just how things work. Anyhow, I have seen Phi Mu, ADPi, Chi-O having EXTREMELY diffucult times. ADPi actually lost their charter, which was really sad :(. On the other hand, there are very strong chapters as well! That's why you can't really say that AAA is strong as a blanket statement, even if you are only talking about TX. The fact that a group has a historically strong nat'l doesn't guarantee success for every chapter.