Um, not true. (??)

I know of at least one that has tons of strong chapters in CA, including all the major schools. ;)

I think I know the ones tootiepie's friend is thinking of and it's more the other way around - i.e. the groups that ARE big in Cali aren't at LSU.

Blonde93 looked at the thread that lists all the chapters at each school in Calf. and you are correct that there are many of the same sororities there as at LSU. I have no idea what school this girl would go to if she did go back to Calf. That was just a point I was trying to make to the family. One of the reasons for that is because many of her family and friends in La. were members of one of the top groups at LSU and they really want her to join that one. Although she has family that are in that sorority none of them are close enough to make her a legacy. According to my daughter this group is really hard for out of state girls to get into. I really wanted her to be open to all of the sororties cause they are all great.
and 33 girl you are also right. But as I have told many people and even my daughter will tell you even the least sought after group at LSU would probably be considered the best at a smaller school. They all have a lot to offer and I don't want her to write off anyone.

good luck helping her to understand that philosophy.

Agree. Unless you're from Highland Park and your Mama and Grandma were members of ABC at Texas and you know a lot of the girls already.

I absolutely know of some instances of this where girls would go to an out of state school in the South, pledge ABC there and then transfer to Austin.

Um, yeah. Not sayin', just sayin'. ;)

My son went to TCU, and I know which of the sororities were historically strong there, and believe me 33 is correct in saying that in Texas there are certain towns where your social future is dependent on pledging certain GLO's.

I found it shocking, and yet some of us from Florida had friends who went to out of state schools and were ecstatic to receive bids from the so called top houses there that were not historically strong at FSU or UF.

The things we deem important at the age of 18 such as "getting into the best house" certainly change over the years. We're more likely to wish our friend's daughters a wonderful experience, regardless of her choice, and that's a good thing.

non-NPC person swerving/

I can see this if a person is going from TCU to Smalltown, TX, but most of what I've seen has TCU grads staying in the Metroplex or moving to Houston/Austin/SATX. In all of those areas, your alma mater seems to hold more weight than your GLO.

I'm curious to hear where your affiliation can "make or break" you.

/non-NPC person

Well, it depends on where (exactly) in California your friend lives. The chapters out here are pretty diverse depending on size of campus.

A top sorority at USC may be a smaller chapter at UCLA (10 miles away). Or the smallest chapter at Stanford may be the biggest chapter at Cal-Berkley, which are both in the San Fran area. (Just examples, I'm not thinking of specific sororities.) There are so many universities/colleges in Cali with GLOs that it's hard to compare to those at LSU. (Though, I'm going to guess that the top houses at LSU are the pretty much the same as the top houses at the big universities in CA ...)

To me, that's not a reason to NOT go thru Recruitment. She should go ahead and join at LSU and have the Greek experience from the start. If the girl feels like she would end up transferring back to California (like, to be close to family), then she can check out the campuses in CA where she could transfer (Greek system, where she could get accepted and where her major is good) and decide then. Or, she could totally love her school & greek life at LSU & decide to stay.

Well, unless she joins a sorority with not many chapters in the California, like Sigma Alpha, Delta Zeta, Phi Mu, or Zeta Tau Alpha. That would limit the choice of where to transfer (to also continue your college experience while being a member of an active Greek chapter).

Oh she is definetly going to join a sorority. I was not trying to discourage that or even tell her to only think about sororities that are popular in Calf. She may come here and love it and her sorority may be one of the reasons she stays here. I just brought this up as something to think about and only if she was lucky enough to have a couple of choices and torn about which one to join. I would never want her to join a sorority she did not feel comfortable in just incase she transfered. As most everyone has said ABC at LSU will probably be totaly different that ABC at new college. So even if she did do this it might not work out since she might not even like the new chapter!!