I think when rush ocurs plays into this a lot.

At my school, rush ocurs at the beginning of 2nd semester. A lot of girls will have formed their friend-groups by this point. Unfortunately my school is very stereotypical when it comes to Greek life--i.e. these type of girls will go here, these will go there, and so forth. So these clumps of girls will join sororities together and so a large part of the pledge class are these groups.

Luckily for me, my lovely ADPi had a unique year. We just rock that much ;) Where as the pledge classes (err, excuse me, Alpha classes) above our's are mainly groups of girls who are characteristically "ADPi" at our school, my Alpha class is different. We have 46 beautiful and absolutely uniquely amazing girls, who fit into every sorority on campus (as far as "stereotypes" go). For whatever reason, we really got lucky my year. The plus side of this is that we are all friends :) And we all get along together well. There are no "cliques" in my pledge class. I count my lucky violets for that.

My roommate's sorority, on the other hand, is not so lucky. There are around 10 groups of 4-5 girls who are pretty exclusively friend groups/cliques in her pledge class. They are an odd assortment of cliques who don't seem to really get along. I feel bad for them ;( but in the Panhel spirit, hope things get better.

While girls rushing together could work out well, let me tell you a sad story. I rushed this past spring (I'm a sophomore) with seven close friends. The eight of us were set for Greek life--we already attended a lot of fraternity functions, etc. etc. A sophomore I knew well was in a sorority (she is now my big sis!) and I knew the girls there were cool; as well, my friends and I however really bought into the "good" sororities on campus.

Every single one of my 7 friends dropped out of rush. The first was cut by the 2 sororities they most wanted; slowly by pref night the rest dropped out. One of my friends actually got invited back to ADPi for Pref Night but her ego was so bruised from being cut by "the #1 sorority on campus" that she dropped out and didn't sign pref card or anything. One of my friends later (after dropping out) tried to COB my sorority, but she didn't get a bid [we had something like 30ish girls try for 2 COB bids].

It's really sad. Everytime I have a Greek function or a sorority sister waves to me on campus, I think they feel even more isolated from the Greek life which flourishes here. The social scene IS dominated by fraternities and sororities and they are very involved socially, they just don't belong to a sorority.

I have asked my friends if they wanted to re-colonize a chapter that "died" on campus within the past 10 years (notably KD and ZTA, which have a strong alumni base & great local chapters 6 miles away at UNC-Chapel Hill) but they don't. They are so caught up in being in the "Best" sorority they won't give anything else a shot.

ADDED TO SAY: Sometimes I wonder if we had first semester rush, they wouldn't have rushed all together and almost collectively decided to drop out. I know some girls would have gone certain places had they stayed in. :confused:

When I joined my chapter there was 4 actives on campus. My friend and I joined at formal rec. and started to really like it. (My pledge class tripled the size of our chapter.) The next fall we had another friend join and then the next semester another friend joined. I think if you get one or two friends that do have a big group of friends outside of the Greek system there is a bigger possibility of getting more members. :)

Yeah it can happen. When I pledged I was in a group of 9 people who were all pretty good friends! We all happened to live in the same hallway, and it worked out for the best! :D

The thing that drives me nuts here at Florida Tech is roommates. Roommates are always a package deal, and it's always the "stronger" roommate that chooses the sorority for them. We had an awesome girl come through who acted very interested but her roommate wanted XYZ. We didn't invite her roommate back to Pref so she turned down her invite and they both went XYZ. It's just kind of annoying that people can't think independently. My roommate and I went through Recruitment at the same time and were fully prepared to join different sororities. We both ended up being A Phi in the end, but I could have gone ABC all the way up until Pref.

I can see what you mean though about them making a weak sorority strong. There's a sorority here that's struggling that started off as a group of friends. If they had a group of girls come through and pick them up that would be awesome. I just hate it when girls who would really fit in better elsewhere follow their roommate.

i can see how a group of friends pledging together is great for the chapter and everything but my only trip is the fact that we are all individuals. thats why there is more than one sorority in this world. we are all diverse in our own way. and though its great that friends pledge together...do you ever wonder if theyre thinking for themselves or actually like everything the sorority is about and not just the people in it? i think some girls only pledge because they are sure they'll get into a sorority because they already have friends in that sorority.

Someone just told me that a few years back at West Georgia, a group of girls tried but failed to get ADPi there so they joined an already-established group and its reputation shot up. I guess it can work in the South!