I don't think OSU should be on the list. OU is more competitive than OSU, and neither are to the level of the SEC. Both have lots of very nice mid-tier chapters that an open-minded PNM can get bids from. They are large recruitments but not ultra-competitive.

ah with the large quota numbers and 'must-have-recs' advice it sounded like you pokes had it super competitive.

I always thought with their close proximity to Texas that the Big 12 was a kind of SEC-lite when it came to recruitment.

So I should just be looking out for SEC school threads popping up? (and do I ignore A&M and Mizzou threads?)

If only there was an official list haha (although I know the existence of something like that would be highly controversial)

The Greek system at OSU does not dominate the social scene at the school, so it isn't social suicide to be non-Greek. Most PNMs will have recs, and because of that they are necessary to avoid silly early cuts. It is competitive for the top 3-5 chapters, but other than that it isn't cut throat.

Oklahoma's recruitment comes very close to being ultra-competitive, as Greek life is extremely important at OU, and it is tough socially for non-Greeks. Greeks are highly influential and upperclass PNMs have a much tougher rush (although not impossible.). In fact, OU probably belongs in your thread as much or more than some other schools listed.

But, neither school has scores of PNMs who go bidless, unless they drop by their own choosing when the top tiers drop them.

Southern California
 

Recruitment is a bit later than some of these universities, but I think SC could be included in this list.

USC has more international students than any other university in the U.S. It is not unusual to have women from other countries, especially Canada, in new member classes.

So would a good characteristic of cut throat competitive campus be that "Lower Tier XYZ" is still better than being a GDI?

I knew about Oklahoma, its just as of yet no one has created a recruitment thread for OU, nor has there been an increase in threads by PNMs asking about OU specifically.

Well I'd obviously be the first one to agree with this! But the purpose of this meta-thread was to provide a helpful starting point for the myriad posts that PNMs create when they could easily find out the answers to their questions in preexisting threads.

There has yet to be an SC thread created, and I've noticed in the past there aren't that many threads created over SC recruitment. But once recruitment picks up it might be added.

As for other schools, which ones should I look out for as we get closer to the start of recruitment?

Updated the Auburn entry to include the thread started by AUAZD2001

Auburn Recruitment 2012
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=125165

This one is getting much more activity than the initial one I had linked to

Just a general question will "SEC" recruitment still be a byword for super ultra competitive cutthroat recruitment now that SEC technically would include Mizzou and TAMU?

I know Mizzou is pretty competitive but I've been recently educated about the more nuanced difference between Super Competitive as oppose to just Big Rush competitive.

It actually seems to me like it would be the opposite. The fact of the matter is that there are very few women who are dropped by every chapter, even at "competitive" schools. Even if a woman ends up with no invitations for a given round, it she typically would have had invites if she had ranked differently in a previous round (and RFM is doing more and more to eliminate this scenario).

So, when women would rather drop out of rush than be in XYZ, I'd consider it more competitive than when a bid to XYZ is still considered awesome.

Well what about schools like Alabama, or Arkansas or LSU; where I would have thought being Greek was better than not? I am sure one would argue that those 3 would be on the proverbial list of the most competitive recruitments?

It's a fine line. But I would say that there are a large number of those at these schools for whom XYZ would be not acceptable.

You could avoid the issue altogether by changing your thread to include competitive and large recruitments. Both are interesting. :)

My understanding is that there are/have been struggling chapters at all of those schools. That wouldn't be the case if being in ANY chapter was better than being in no chapter.

I have tried to formulate a response to this question many times over the years. It's tough to define - sort of, when you see it you know it kind of thing.

But taking a stab at it, I would say that a competitive campus is one where you have to have recs, it's on the PNM to get them, you definitely won't last if you don't have them - and maybe extra ones or letters of support also, and where you would drop out if you only had the lowest of the lowest left on your list unless you were realistic enough going in to know that would be all that's available to you because you had failed to get recs or because you don't meet the critera for most chapters (grades, activities, etc).

And this is still probably not clear enough - but I do know it when I see it!

If you had to pick a single, objective criteria of "competitive", I think recs would be it. If you need to get recs on your own, it's an indicator that you need to be preparing for recruitment well in advance. That, in turn, indicates that most of the women rushing come from communities where they would know about rush before they got to campus, i.e. there is a strong Greek presence, and being an XYZ vs. an ABC "means something".

Contrast that with a no-rec school: you can probably sign up when you get to campus, borrow clothing from someone on your floor, and if you go home on break and say you pledged XYZ, your high school friends only care inasmuch as it's cool if someone else pledged the same group at a different school.

That's why I put that first in my list - recs, recs, recs.