RE: Chi Omega invitation numbers.

1st: We don't know how many they invited back. Rumors swirl around during recruitment and most of them are inaccurate.

2nd: If they are a strong recruiting chapter with stellar returns, yes, their invitation list will be small, because almost everyone says, "yes". Chapters with strong returns don't need to invite a lot of PNMs to have a full house and a full pref and a full NM class.

3rd: If that number is correct, its not "harsh", it's reality. It would be less kind to pad their numbers, invite massive numbers of girls who fell in love with the group, get their hopes up because of an invitation and then get dashed in the end. Early cuts allow girls to re-focus and dance with someone else.

ETA: love it 33girl. Whap, whap, whap.

I just found my Alpha Gam scrapbook from college and I have all my name tags from all the parties! So fun :) But yes, tons of work- and my alma mater had a small greek system.

I'll use a non-recruitment related analogy here. My college academic program was Occupational Therapy. In my program, they accepted 50 students per year and there were typically more than 250 applicants. Although the program had specific GPA requirements (must have a 2.5 overall and at least a 3.0 in some specific courses) and requirements for health care field volunteer hours (at least 60), nobody with a 2.5 and only 60 hours was accepted because it was so competitive. In reality, the lowest GPA accepted was a 3.5.

ETA: I have a rec girl at IU this time around :)

YES. To all of this.

Yeah, and the fact that *one* applicant with a 2.6 got into the program after single-handedly curing cancer does not change the fact that YOU need to have a 3.5.

Think of it like interviewing for a job. Resumes matter and connections matter. They looked at resumes and they looked at who the chapter knows and decided who gets the interview.

Think of a presidential election. A person has to be 35 and a natural-born citizen to run for president. Doesn't mean they'll win. Then pundits try to determine why a certain candidate didn't win when he/she was so qualified. These pundits can speculate that it was because of the candidate's religious views, military history, race, or position on this issue or that. But really, voters don't have to have any reason at all to not vote for a candidate. It can be all of those reasons and it can be none of them.

Some PNMs just don't make a good enough impression, for whatever reason, to that group of young women, at that particular moment. Moms (and sometimes alumnae) may prefer that membership selection would lean heavier to the objective criteria, but once minimum criteria are met, it can be any reason or no reason that a PNM isn't selected. The reason one member didn't vote for a girl could be an entirely different reason from why another member didn't.

These are all excellent points, and in the long run, every women going through recruitment should strive to be in a chapter that she fits in with the members and that wants her to be a part of that chapter. Who wants to be surrounded by women who were "pushed or forced" to accept you. Regardless of how harsh it sounds, getting cut from a group may be a blessing in disguise! =)

DG at IU on Ellen right now!!!
So cute. They are looking for "dancer"

I goofed. It was at Butler. They are darling girls and represented DG and Greek Life in such a positive way.

Sorry for getting off track with recruitment at IU.

I really want to drive the point home here that the chapter(s) are not being "harsh". They are being *required* to cut more girls.

My understanding of the RFM (Release Figure Method) style of sorority recruitment is: the more successful a chapter is at recruitment (the more popular they are), the more girls they have to cut. In effect, it is expected that they won't have any trouble filling their parties and, therefore, are not allowed to over-invite a surplus of girls that don't statistically have a chance of getting a bid. That way, as others have pointed out, the chapters don't get the hopes up of girls that aren't as likely to make it to the end.

The chapters that historically have a lower return rate are allowed to issue "extra" invitations in order to increase their chances of getting a full pledge class. Again, by the stronger recruiting chapters releasing more women earlier, it allows those PNMs to more realistically focus on the chapters that want them and not on "dream chapters" that they didn't have as good of a chance with.

I apologize for the double-post; but, I wanted to separate this out.

So....for those readers still trying to work this out. Here's how I interpret what IndianaSigKap said:

Sorority ABC is a strong recruiting chapter and Sorority XYZ is a weaker recruiting chapter. Quota is set at 45.

ABC historically has a 90% return rate. Therefore, 45 x 100 = 4,500. 4,500/90 = 50. ABC can only invite 50 girls to preference round.

XYZ historically has a 70% return rate. Therefore, 45 x 100 = 4,500. 4,500/70 = 65. XYZ can invite 65 girls to preference round.

Some people might look at this and say, "OMG! ABC is sooo mean! How can they be so harsh?!" When, really, the system is trying to give the PNMs a statistically higher chance of getting a bid.

Thanks for the explanations... it makes sense. Just trying to understand the process. I don't do helicopters. ;)

Close, but not that literal. It's not a direct correlation between return rate and number of invitations issued. There are some other factors that are used as well.

Ok thanks. I was trying to come up with some kind of illustration that would help the Moms here get the concept. I know that RFM is real-time and last year's return rates aren't necessarily the sole factor. My main concern was the focus on why some chapters would seemingly cut so many more girls than the next house. Though, I couldn't think of an easier way to explain it to someone on the outside. :confused:

Early and severe cuts seem harsh, but the old way - where some chapters would keep inviting as many girls back as would accept their invitation, some of whom they had ZERO interest in, and then cut them either right before or after pref - was way, way, harsher. You have to remember these are the kind of chapters who can make everyone feel welcomed and like they fit in. And some chapters just genuinely don't want to cut anyone because they want to keep giving everyone a 3rd and 4th and 5th chance. With these kind of numbers, that doesn't work either.

This. And then you end up with a zillion girls who are devastated when they receive their pref invites and end up dropping on the spot. And hate the Greek system the rest of their life because they were led on and then dropped.

The only thing wrong with RFM is that it wasn't started sooner. I can only imagine how many chapters might have been saved from closing across the country if it had been started ten to fifteen years earlier.

I agree so much. I was talking to a student who had questions about RFM and she stated that her concern was that it would prop up weak chapters and drag out the process but I stated that there is a difference between a weak recruiting chapter and a chapter that is struggling over all. A chapter that is weak recruiting but still manages to both retain their new members and turn them into positive members are the exact types of chapters that are able to thrive under RFM

Plus, the thing that can turn an actual weak chapter into a strong one might just be more new members.

Absolutely. I've seen two different chapters benefit from RFM by getting larger pledge classes. One is still around and is more active and had a stronger recruitment this year and the other isn't.

I realize this is getting off thread from IU but I just wanted to jump in about why I view RFM as a positive and hope to eventually see IU transition more over to this style then the bed quota.

Sorry for continuing the off-topic path, but something else that I consider a fantastic improvement is setting quota at the very end. When I was an advisor, it was set on our campus after the second round (of four), I think, and though I advocated for setting it later, with a more realistic total number of women who would commit to joining instead of just checking things out, it was shot down. The lower quota and shuffling around of PNMs would have definitely benefited the WRCs back then.

I am not sure if this is the correct thread to post an article about the algorithm behind the RFM process. If not, please move it to the right thread. In December the New York Times published an article about how middle school students are matched to high schools in NYC. The algorithm is similar to the one that is used to match hospital residencies. This article has an example with that some may find helpful.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/ny...cess.html?_r=0

Wow - and we thought RFM was complicated! I think this article gives a really nice overview of how complex these matching systems can be - and how many factors must go into building the process.

I personally think that RFM is actually a little more straightforward than the NY schools example, but it keeps getting confounded by all of the misinformation and misleading colloquialisms around the process ("Another house wanted her more, that's why she got a bid to it instead of her first choice", etc.)

Just wanted to wish the PNMs and their mothers a great second weekend of recruitment! Hang in there....bid day is around the corner!

Between this past Sunday & tomorrow's parties, do the PNMs wait until Saturday morning to get their invites? That would be an excrutiating wait!

Yes, they do have to wait that long. I was not sure if they received their schedules tonight or tomorrow, but I was informed it is tomorrow morning. That is a long time to wait, for sure. However, in the "old days" we would attend open house round in the fall and not get our invitation lists until we returned back to school in January. The wait was excrutiating.

Oh yes. Back when I was there, first round was in November, before Thanksgiving! (For some reason I was thinking October, but the yearbook had a big feature story about rush the year I went through and it was indeed in November that year. I'm old. : ) ) IIRC, strict silence had to be observed from then through the end of rush (it was rush back then!) in January - that's a long time! (I'm pretty sure there were exceptions for academic-related conversations - such as a PNM and an active being paired up for a group project in class.) I can't imagine how it would be for families where one sister was in a house and one was rushing.

Actually, quota numbers are reported to all chapters at the annual recruitment wrap up meeting. We are given a print out of all chapters, their quota, and the number of women they actually took. We also get return rate info, etc.

That's for the school's Panhel. Different than putting it on Twitter or FB etc. I'm sure if someone really wanted to share that they could.

Thanks!
 

Thanks for the positive energy! Has been long, but my DD has also had a great time!

I hope the IU moms with daughters going through recruitment this weekend will come back and update us. We're eagerly awaiting another update!

My rec girl has 3 invites including one to her favorite group!

That's great!

Sending out last minute good vibes to all involved parties tonight!

After how crazy last year's IU thread got, I am asking for everyone's patience tonight. Yes, there will be posts that are not very politically correct and maybe a few that are downright unkind. Try to remember that emotions are high tonight.

I have my snacks and am ready for the results to roll in. May the odds be ever in your favor. (Quick reference to last year's thread)

Yes, I am aware that this is re-post from the IU PNM thread, but I am just trying to hedge our bets and keep the thread as drama free as possible.

What time do they get their bids? Dying here!

Bids went out 15 minutes ago.

Her mom hasn't sent me a Facebook message yet. Hope that's not a bad sign.

I lied! She just did!

So my rec girl was the daughter of one of my chapter sisters... a legacy... who has gone AGD!!!!!!!!!!

Her mom just sent me a pic of the bid card :) So fun :)

Congratulations AGDee. How exciting.

WOO!!!!

Congrats Dee! It's a great chapter and she'll have an amazing experience there.

Yayy! Red and Buff roses to her!!!

I am so happy to share a neice of a dear friend is a Phi Mu!!!!! Whew!!!! Let's hear a big cyber cheer, she was a sophomore!!!

Soph
 

New Gamma Phi Beta!