I don't know, maybe its who he likes to date.:rolleyes:

People, I want to echo Penguintrax's warning about not slamming any GLOs. She and I have been around long enough to see weak and strong chapters of every GLO and have been on GreekChat long enough to see what happens when the GLO insults start...big flame wars and hurt feelings.

oh man, how true is that!

and i would like to repeat her sentiment of no offense to anyone!

Getting back to (what I think) was the original intention of this thread...

Top tier, middle tier & bottom tier:

Someone had made a comment that top tier sororities were snobby & bottom tiers "actually like each other" - women in top tier sororities DO like each other & believe in their sisterhood, just as much as the bottom tier sororities do. And of course, as I always say, in any group of women, you will find women who hate each other & women who love each other. Plain & simple. No one can tell me that 100% of their sisters actually truly really love everyone in their chapter....that's baloney!

Now, on actually describing a tier system..or the sorority system in general:

The quote "from the outside looking in, you can't understand it' from the inside looking out, you can't explain it" (however it goes) comes to mind.

And finally, once again, I think this thread is getting more confusing because fraternities are being discussed. Sorority & fraternity membership/functioning/etc. are two totally separate systems. As much as you want to say they're alike, they're not.

While it's nice that many men here want to try to "understand" it, there is certainly no way a man can "explain" it.



And FYI, Kappa Sig has never been "top tier" at Florida, at least in the past 20 years since I have been a greek.

Correct on all accounts!!

EXACTLY!!!

Just wanted to throw in some more data points from the east: DU is basically the only house that was strong enough to survive the near-death of the Greek system at Swarthmore. Chi O is not in the top tier at Penn. Sigma Chi is about 50 tiers beneath the locals at Harvard.

hijack hijack, la la la
 

Do you mean the things like the Porcellian Club, or honest to God Greek groups with letters?

I think this is the best post in this thread so far!

I believe that it is possible to separate sororities on each individual campus into "tiers" based on any number of factors. In fact, depending on what the individual seeking to make the classification is using as their criteria, you could come up with several different results! How do you define each tier - who is the best? Is it the sorority that everyone wants to join on that campus? The one with the most members? Is it the sorority that has the best looking girls? Is it the sorority that wins Greek Week every year? Or Derby Days? Or Homecoming? Or has the Homecoming Queen every year? Or has the most campus-wide accomplishments? Also - who is the judge? Is it the other sororities? The fraternities? The independents on campus? The faculty/administration? There are so many angles to look at this question from, and each person is going to have a different perception of what they think makes a group the best.

Nationally speaking, I think it would be pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to try to define the 26 NPC groups into tiers, and one would be a fool for trying. IF someone had that much time on their hands to go around to EVERY SINGLE CAMPUS to observe Greek life, well, by the time they finished their study, it would be changing again!

Thos are all really good points AXiD670...

At greek awards...you often see a house that not's known as the top house on campus snatching up all of the greek awards.

So I guess this thread all depends on your definition of top.

P.s. ...I'm glad it has moved away from slamming specific GLOs on Specific campuses :)

Not everyone from IU. ;)

Of course, the strongest fraternity could have changed since I was there.

I mean things like the Porcellian Club, etc. None of the local groups at Harvard currently use Greek letters, as far as I know, but many of them did in the past -- some used to be affiliated with national groups. IMHO, they're no different from locals at other schools except for the style of their names.

There is now a NIC & NPC greek system at Harvard. In addition to Sigma Chi, Harvard has chapters of Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Upsilon, Pi Kappa Alpha (Al Gore III is an active in Pike there as I write), and Sigma Alpha Epsilon for the NIC groups, and there may even be others. The NPC chapters are Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Kappa Kappa Gamma. None of these groups are recognized by the school.

Yes, there is. And when we're talking about "tiers," however you measure them -- popularity, resources, size, prestige, visibility, stability, attractiveness -- the locals blow the nationals out of the water, especially when it comes to guys' groups.

FWIW, I'm a member of the "who gives a F*&$ about tiers" school of thought, but I stand by the point I was originally trying to make, which is that national powerhouse groups like Sigma Chi and KKG are NOT at the top of the totem pole on anything close to every campus in the East.

Also, because of their gender exclusiveness, the locals aren't recognized either, with the exception of two co-ed societies.

There used to be a man who sent surveys out to all of the sororities on all campuses & asked the presidents to rank the other groups on their campus (excluding their own). Anyone remember this or know what I'm talking about? I think it ended about 20 years ago.