So if they all get to pref... Which we know they won't... Quota will be 152. :eek:

Even if we assume a 90% placement rate which is a little bit below last year quota will be 137!
http://media.giphy.com/media/65i0TaZCsNlks/giphy.gif

And just 4 years ago the freshmen quota was 73 -- down just 10 from the year before with DG colonizing. If this growth remains stable, we would need many more sororities to reduce the new member classes to a number approaching that of NM classes then.

It just has to level off at some point -- I don't think even the new houses were designed with this rate of growth in mind!

Am told 2447 were registered at start of today.

Have I mentioned lately how glad I am that I began college in 1978? Things were way easier back then!

I never even went through formal recruitment. Boy am I GLAD!

I think that all the time about when I was in college...it was so much easier back then. No social media is the biggest thing! I can't even begin to imagine what I would said or done!

Both of my daughters are graduated from Alabama and were Tridelts. The oldest graduated in 2010 and the younger in 2013, so they were in on the seemingly exponential growth of the NPC there. I must remember to tell them that I have discovered a profound new respect for what they and their fellow young ladies are managing to accomplish. I'm not sure we could have succeeded in this mighty feat when I was their age.

I think social media has a lot to do with the surge in women going through recruitment not just in Alabama but all over. They see it in daily life, there was the TV Greek, TFM, TSM. It's all over fb, twitter, Instagram etc... More exposure, more girls?

I do wonder though if the Greek system could ever get "too full" .

The bubble will bust a some point....just hope the house is paid for by then!

I can't think of too many places where huge facilities are being constructed. There have been high profile building projects at South Carolina and Tennessee, but those chapters didn't have any housing previously, and the new houses aren't gargantuan. The really big chapter houses seem to be Alabama, Arkansas, and Ole Miss. Are there other schools undergoing panhellenic-wide building booms? Just off the top of my head, it seems like most new construction on the sorority side of things is due to new chapters that have no existing housing or don't have competitive housing.

Titchou.....can you comment on this?

It's happened before. When I started at UF, the Phi Mu house was vacant.

OMG! Where isn't there housing construction going on? NC State is building anew Greek village - have a web cam on their web site if oyu are interested, MS State is getting a new house or two, Greek Villages at Bowling Green now, ASU is looking to build, I'm working with Louisiana - Monroe, Central Arkansas is moving into houses this weekend. GA Tech has a lot of construction going on . I'd have to check my NPC housing committee list but we are very busy working with all size campuses.

We just had 2 chapters move into new houses - UCA as Titchou mentioned and Grand Valley State in Michigan, where it seems they've been adding a new chapter every year. I'm more nervous about that sort of growth trend than I am about chapters in the SEC not being able to fill houses.

I'm hoping that everyone learned from the 1970s & 1990s Greek busts and have constructed the houses/additions/villages so that they can be reconfigured or repurposed if need be.

Yeah but at Ga Tech, AGD is the only sorority that has built a new and very large facility in the last 10 years. And that's partially because of their lot, that they were forced to build up instead of sideways. Fraternities have, but Phi Mu is the only other house that was built large enough to accommodate the current exponential growth. Everyone else has outgrown their facilities. Total has gone from 94 in 2005 to over 173 in 2015.

Alpha Phi is building at GA Tech and several fraternities are building new houses or just built - Delta Sig is one.

I know I'm quoting myself, but it was an eerie experience to be involved in your one and only rush (it was rush back then) and walk past a deserted sorority house.

Also, North FLorida, Jacksonville University, Maine, UL-Lafayette, West Texas A & M, are among campuses looking to build...just to name a few

I hadn't heard about Delta Sig at GA Tech building a new house. That's good for them though. FIJI, Kappa Sig, and TKE's houses are all new and awesome.

Alpha Phi's building is delayed. They've moved into Phi Tau's house for the next 2 years.

Delta Sig has hired Laurus to help with their fundraising and outreach for the new house. Have a good friend who is an alum of that chapter and an architect. He hates the design they are using for the campaign (they haven't actually hired an architect yet so it's not a "real world" design) and has told them he won't give them any money unless they change it!

Well that's certainly one way to get things done! They are desperately in need of a new house so hopefully the new one will be awesome

I imagine there will be some leveling off at some point, because not every freshman wants to be greek, no matter how popular it becomes. However, I think the game changer for greek life, particularly sororities, is social media in the last 5 years. The self-promotion, instagraming, professional videos, really has so much appeal, and it just looks fun! When high school students see their older friends head off to college and then get to follow them on social media, that is so much marketing that never used to happen -- and I don't see that going away. And then, it becomes more and more popular, and the growth just branches and becomes exponential. I imagine there are students considering Alabama today because of the glamour associated with their greek life -- and 10-15 years ago, Alabama probably wouldn't have even crossed their mind.

Everything you say is true, although who knows what might happen in the decades ahead that may be an unforeseen factor that perhaps would offset at least somewhat what you mentioned in the first four sentences of your post. But I do think that Alabama has a special advantage with greek life in common only with Ole Miss and maybe one or two other schools. That is their large, (what at least some have called) old south greek system with very large and glamorous houses and style. And in reference to the last part of your last sentence, absolutely; since 2003 Alabama has recruited heavily out-of-state which as I've mentioned in past posts has contributed in no small part to their phenomenal greek growth.

Here is a picture with a partial side-profile to get a better idea of just how large the GPhiB house is!

http://www.uapanhellenic.com/gamma-phi-beta.html

The daughter of one of my dearest friends is going through rush at Bama right now as OOS Freshman. I just heard from her mom that she was so excited to get 12 houses back today and is having a great time! Her schedule made me laugh though, 10 houses today and 2 tomorrow, why don't they split it up a bit more evenly?

Because UA has so many PNMs, extra parties were added so the groups would be smaller. Almost every PNM has some gaps in their schedule. Some even have a free day.
She should be elated. We're already hearing from some PNM moms whose daughters only have 1 or 2 houses left.

Her mom said she was really nervous and was hoping for 6-8 back, so was thrilled when she got a full schedule with all her favorite! She's a great girl and has a good head on her shoulders. She was excited to have a bit more time at the houses today and learn about their different philanthropies, volunteering has always been important to her. I hope it continues to go well for her.

So how do Quota Additions and COB/COR work? Are the Quota additions done the night before bid day? If a girl maximized her options and her final three did not select her could she still get a bid on bid day through Quota Additions?

That is the way QAs happen.

From rush, to dorm rooms, to push up bras, I so got gypped when I was a kid ...

Good luck to her!

QAs and COB are totally different. If a PNM is a QA, she will never know it and neither will the chapter members. She shows up on the bid list like everyone else.

Who is a getting a house at ULM?!

Bid Day tomorrow!

Fingers crossed, y'all!!

It's dorms with chapter rooms.

Bumping for bid day since their's so much spam this am.