Too Much of a Good Thing
 

I have a first cousin who was in a huge sorority at UT many years ago. One of her sisters was an acquaintance of mine whom I had seen in our hometown during Spring Break. I asked Sherry if she knew my cousin and she said she thought so and would tell her I said hello when she saw her.

When Sherry saw my cousin, she gave her my regards and my cousin stared at her and asked, "Who are you?" There were 125 pledges and more than 100 actives in the chapter and few knew each others' names.

I was stunned when I heard this story. We had about 30 actives and 15 pledges in my sorority and that was considered a good size chapter at my school. At least I knew everyones' names!

It is too much of a good thing in numbers that high. Where is the closeness, the sisterhood, the knowledge that you can depend on one another in a group that large?

I wouldn't trade my chapter experiences for those large numbers. I am still in touch with most of my sisters after 42 years!

Paula M.
Sigma Delta Tau
ΣΔTPatriae Multi Spes Una One Hope of Many People

I'm sure you still get the closeness and sisterhood and longlasting friendships. You just don't get it w/ everyone in the chapter and your "group" is probably smaller. A ton of kids from my HS went to Penn State (and AFAIK none of them went Greek) and as odd as it seems, they usually knew less people at their 35,000 student school than I did at my 6,000 student school - because they tended to make a group of friends and stick with them. I'm guessing this is the same way.

That was a problem for AOII up until this past year when we finished our addition and renovations to the house. All of the houses have added on new chapter rooms or just added on in general to accomodate for everyone. Theta begins their addition this summer. Phi Mu just finished their house. Now if only the University could help with the parking problem around the sorority houses. During recruitment, chapter meetings, formal meals, the parking is awful sometimes! As an advisor I have just learned to take the first spot I see (which is usually not close to the house) and just walk.

My sorority was at campus total of 150 and my pledge class was 48. I knew the names of everyone my sophomore and junior years. I do admit that my senior year I did slack off (plus I was off campus interning at a TV Station for one quarter) but even then I knew everyone's face if not name. It wasn't hard- I just went to the events, date parties, teas, etc. in addition to chapter.

As far as depending on one another, just like any group, I was closer to some than to others. In fact the year I lived in the house, I had roommate issues, however the night I broke up with my boyfriend, guess who stayed up until 1am to make sure I was okay. My roommate. We might not have been best friends, but we were still sisters.

And I have been out of college for 11 years now, but I am still in telephone contact with my 5 closest sisters and I exchange e-mail/Christmas cards with another 10 or so. You can have sisterhood and closeness is a large or small group. You just have to work at it- Friendships aren't instant they require work no matter what the numbers.

With the big sororities here (most of them around 150 girls) they seem to form their own groups within the sorority but theyre also able to pool their resources and do some really cool stuff together.

you thought ole miss was big.....
 

The University of Arkansas in Fayetteville has actually recorded the largest number of pledges in almost all of their 8 chapters histories. Almost all 8 houses had a quota of 104-106 girls on bid day!!!! The University's Greek Life program has absolutely exploded. The campus is looking to install a new chapter but unfortunately it is rumored to cost upwards of $6.8 million to compete with this campus' Panhellenic system.

...and water is wet.

You bumped a thread that was started almost 3 years ago. We know that Arkansas pledge classes are huge.