I want to see if I got this right... PNM's who make it to prefs, even if for only one group, are guaranteed a bid to that group?

If so, recruitment has changed in the last 8 years.

Only one campus "guarantees" a bid. But she should get one...unless something unusual happens...like they find out about the drug arrest and 2 out of wedlock babies right after pref and before the bid list goes in.

I'm confused.

While I will be the very first to admit that I do not understand all the ins-and-outs of NPC recruitment, bids, etc., can anyone clarify this situation?

Tarleton State University
Quota: 63

Alpha Gamma Delta: 75
Delta Zeta: 80
Phi Mu: 79

This I understand: quota at Tarleton was 63. I also am under the impression (I don't want to say I understand) that quota is usually the number of pnms who are still in the process at preference round, divided by the number of sororities. I also am under the impression that some campuses will do a little bit of "leeway" with that number (example: 100 pnms are still in the process at pref round. 4 sororities on campus. Quota could be 25, but the campus Panhellenic makes the quota 23) to account for qota additions and to help place as many pnms as possible.

Tarleton made quota at 63, but the groups made quota with +12, +17, and +16. Now, I do understand quota additions, but it really appears like Tarleton set their quota extremely low.

Or, am I just a clueless IFC guy? Which, I will willingly admit.

Quota is set at whatever number will place the most eligible women(those who have maximized their options) and secondarily have the most chapters at quota. So, it may have been that setting it higher would have resulted in placing fewer women overall - based on how they listed their preferences - and may have had fewer chapters at quota.

We used to compute quota by dividing the number of chapters into the number of PNMs signing bid cards. But that left some chapters not making quota as the preferences do not always fall out evenly and quota additions were capped at 5% of quota for any given chapter. Thus we went to this method which allows the computer to move quota around to see what number is most advantageous for all.

Hope this helps.

Yeah, it's getting more and more weird, but the RFM specialist adjusts the numbers to place the most women. Those QAs may be women who wouldn't have gotten their first choice or may have displaced other women and started a cascade of events if you raised total. Who knows? They massage the numbers until the most women are given bids.

You're not clueless. Doing it this way punishes the girls who SIP. This way means the girls who SIP have a way slighter chance of getting a bid, since they can't be used as a QA. And while I'm not a fan of SIP, that still seems unnecessarily harsh, compared to making quota 70 or 75.

This low a quota relative to pledge class size would only seem to make sense at a campus with many more chapters where it will allow more chapters to achieve quota, or restrict the strongest chapters from continuing to grow relative to the other chapters. As has been discussed before, the strongest chapters have the fewest girls at pref, and therefore the fewest opportunities for QA. But based on the numbers, neither argument seems to make sense here.

A little of both :-) Quota is chosen both to place the most women possible AND to maintain some sort of parity among chapters.

I am gonna go generic here, so nobody thinks I am ranking chapters, and obviously I am being super-extreme in the example:

We are trying to place 234 women. Let's say that ABC is the weakest of the three. Say, 189 women attend prefs at ABC, but nobody lists them first on their bid card. If quota is 63, even if NOBODY lists ABC first, the first two chapters can only hold 123 women, and ABC is left with 63 for themselves. If quota were instead 75, the first two chapters can hold 150, and ABC is left with only 49.

QA's can then be placed as the GA pleases (he or she has a LOT of discretion in placing QA's; we've discussed this elsewhere).

This is a hugely imperfect example, but you get the idea: there needs to be a cap on the strongest recruiting chapters so that some women get their second choices.

Keep in mind that some of these women may have had just one pref to attend and therefore only one to put on their bid card. Not having an even distribution of choices among the bid cards also skews quota.

What is Tarleton's total?

Also, the total may have been raised before the colonizing NPC group (Tarleton is open for expansion) was chosen. This is kind of bassackwards, but whatever.

The fact that there is relative parity among the numbers the groups took is the most important thing. If those numbers were 80, 80, and 60, then there would be issues.

Is it possible that all the +12, +17, +16 could be free upperclass? And that quota of 63 was just for freshmen?