Who guarantees placement?
 

It just came up in the IU thread, and I'm intrigued.

How many campuses guarantee placement if you maximize your options? Do you have to have maximized your options all the way through, or just preference? How far does it typically send a chapter over quota?

Arizona State guarantees placement. I believe a lot of this is done through quota additions, but I may be wrong. This can only be done if you fully participate AND all the Chapters you preferenced are on your bid card. The quota additions used to go to the smallest Chapters first and I will assume they are still done that way. This certainly makes the numbers look good on the Greek side, but I would love to know the percentage of women who don't show up for their bid or bail quickly after? In fact, I believe all the women who did not SIP got bids last fall and they had a super high placement rate 87%.

I oversee 10 chapters and, quite honestly, I only know the answer for a few of them. One of mine is IU so obviously that one doesn't. Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan do not have the traditional formal recruitment. At Carroll University, most chapters are under Total so if a chapter takes more than Quota, it could be snap bids rather than Quota Additions due to "guaranteed placement". I'll try to find out for my other chapters...

You advise at Carroll College? That's awesome! My cousins live one block from Carroll and my high school choir did a lot there. It's a very pretty college.

I don't believe any of the colleges I have connections at have guarenteed placement.

I remember that PHA at Wisconsin said it was "very likely" you would be matched if you filled out your card, but girls would still slip through with 3 preference parties, especially when some of the traditionally "lower tiered" groups began taking larger pledge classes than the "top" groups.

I'm still wondering how many women, especially those who maximized their options, end up with a totally surprise bid like in a thread I started years ago--something like "Getting A Bid from a Chapter You Didn't Pref".

Say, the girl goes to A and B for prefs and then ends up with a bid that says C and she hasn't seen C since the first round.

Let's not and say we did.

If past GC-age is any indication, we'll have more than a few rushees/parents/out of the loop alums who don't read past "guaranteed placement" and think that anyone who starts rush at these schools receives a bid.

This is kind of like the "which sororities allow grad students to pledge" thread.

Something similar happened to a girl we pledged her sophomore year. First year, she went through recruitment and kept dropping a group because she didn't feel like she got along with them and she was convinced they only wanted her for her religion. She was invited to pref this group and another group.

Her Rho Gamma warned her about ISPing, but she swears she did not put the first group down on her preference card. She said she thought about it for a long time, because of Rho Gamma's warning, but decided against it. (I am not entirely sure about this, because of what happened).

She went to bid day, got a bid from this group and turned it down. She returned to her dorm room to find balloons, streamers, and a big "XYZ welcomes you!" sign, which made it even worse. (Especially for those girls who took the time to decorate it!)

She ended up waiting a year and going through again. This time, XYZ dropped her immediately, which was to be expected.

I would hope that RFM has decreased that somewhat - i.e. A & B aren't going to ask her to pref unless there's room for her. And FWIW, C probably did invite her to pref (and the other rounds), her options were just filled before she had to go there.

Carnation, I think that is just weird, screams of desperate and more than a little dirty pool. It's one thing to have happened to a girl who declined an invitation to Pref because of a full schedule, but even then it shouldn't happen. I believe you that it HAS happened, but man oh man it shouldn't. I do think being able to invite someone to a later round of recruitment who cut you earlier due to a full schedule would be ok. I think some schools have "regret with interest," right? But with RFM, I don't exactly see how that would work.

Maybe you haven't gotten any answers because the problem went away? Let's hope for the best.

I know UAB and Montevallo do and am pretty sure Alabama and Auburn do as well along with a large number of others around the south. But it does require you to attend as many parties each round as you have room in your schedule and get invites. Anyone not doing that is definitely not guaranteed a bid.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...=didn%27t+pref

I was shocked by how often this did happen.

Agreed. This can be particularly problematic because of information that's rapidly out of date, and changes that occur constantly in Greek systems across the board. Eight months from now, a school that "guaranteed placement" in Fall 2010 may no longer do so in Fall 2011. I can hear the screaming already.

To each his own.

I wish people would understand the bolded. Speaking for Montevallo, it's rare for girls to be dropped from recruitment, but it does happen. And somehow that seems to blow minds.

And like every other school, we have a hard time getting girls to understand that listing every sorority they're invited back to is essential to getting placed. There are always those PNMs that are convinced that they'll get a bid to XY with no problem and then refuse to continue with recruitment when XY drops them. :rolleyes: I felt like banging my head against the wall more than a few times when girls would drop out of recruitment believing the sororities that did invite them back were beneath them. I mean, what's a nice way of saying, "Girl, you are NOT too good for them, trust me"?

I hate this, because even when girls have to attend parties, nothing stops them from showing up and acting like a snotty bitch. I'd rather them not be at my party than stand outside for fifteen minutes beforehand telling everyone how much they hate my chapter.

IMO the gamma rhos should shut that shit down. My group did...but PNMs usually didn't have balls to do that right outside the chapter or in a party. I don't think I encountered one THAT ridiculous. The ones that were that rude were the ones that would do things like get their invitations back to find they'd been dropped by the one sorority they deemed good enough for them and then leave, never to be heard from again (I had a few do that). We did hear it occasionally walking in between parties or in the general meeting room.

I like guaranteed placement, especially on a campus like mine where it's hard to get PNMs to go through formal recruitment in the first place. And the majority of PNMs stay open minded and end up happy in their new home. But the ones that have tunnel vision can be such a challenge.

This is a good point.

I think that guaranteed placement should require:

1) The chapter has absolutely positively obeyed the release figures
2) The PNM attended all parties every round
3) The PNM is added to the smallest chapter at which she preffed

But the fact of the matter is, if these things happen, there really shouldn't be much need for guaranteed placement. We would run into problems with PNM's who were total biatches to all but the top five chapters. Then, only those five chapters would invite them back. So they followed the letter of the law to be a quota addition, but not the spirit, as they didn't give anyone else a real chance.

At Montevallo there are only 5 sororities, so a situation like that is unlikely. If a PNM is a total bitch to 3 out of 5 chapters she runs the real risk of being badmouthed to those 2 she does want to pref, not to mention it seems that it's the girls most likely to do that that are the least likely to end up where they think they want to be. Whether that's because the chapter sees through them or because the girls aren't quite as charming as they think they are I can't say, but at a small school it's harder to play the game that way.

PNMs like that usually seem to think they're a shoe in for XY or AB, and that's IMO the #1 way to pretty much guarantee being dropped from XY or AB. (From an outsider's viewpoint...I'm not talking about my own chapter here).

lane swerve..

PNM's should have to sign a code of conduct IMHO. I worked with a struggling Chapter that has since closed that had PNM's being HORRIBLE to the Chapter because they didn't want to be there- to the point that it would make the actives cry. I thought it was disrespectful and rude. You would NEVER act that way in someone else's home and it shouldn't happen in recruitment. I would like to see women who behave badly be released from recruitment.

I would like that, too. And as far as I'm concerned, PNMs who behaved that way towards another chapter weren't good enough to be members of my own chapter. (And vice versa when they were badmouthing my chapter to another sorority). I know lots of Panhellenic women on my campus who feel/felt the same way. Badmouth one of us, badmouth all of us.

I had to constantly remind girls that these chapters went to a lot of trouble to impress them and the least they could do is should up and be polite. It's one thing to know you don't want to join that particular chapter, but it's another to be rude to them because of it.

I was going to add #4 to that list: The PNM is not a raging bitch.

The problem is it works and the sororities who DO like them sometimes overlook it and would throw a fit if they weren't allowed to pledge the woman who was Miss Sunshine at THEIR parties.

Plus it's a subjective thing. The rude PNMs could just as easily say "my land, they just misunderstood me...I was having gas...that's just my humor...yadda yadda yadda" and it devolves into a she-said/she-said.

So yeah, good idea, but unless the PNM does something like walking out of the party, I don't know how you could follow it through.

It probably would only be enforceable in the PNM-walking-out-of-the-room situations (or saying something so bitchy there's no way to take it out of context) but it might at least keep those who make snide remarks from doing it during or in between parties if they're nervous about being dropped from recruitment.

I so agree with that sentiment!

Idle threats FTW!

I do see how it could work at a small school. I guess in my experience, with 19 NPC chapters and at least three chapters* that consistently did COB after recruitment, there is no reason to guarantee bids. If Suzie PNM absolutely, positively can NOT find a home in one of the three smaller chapters, methinks she is not giving them a fair chance.

*When I was there, there were three not at total even if they took quota during FR, every year. However, most years there were others that came up a bit short and so, realistically, there were at least five chapters doing COB every year. One year, seven chapters did not make quota, while the other twelve got quota additions, so you can see why I am bitter on this topic.

The University of Texas has had guaranteed placement for several years.

1. The PNM must attend all the parties on her schedule each day
2. The PNM must not be crosscut before Preference and attend at least one Preference party

But ............
Crosscuts are brutal at UT and many PNMs don't make it through to Preference. (I think part of the problem is many PNMs are able to drop the "weaker" houses after Open House set and still have a full schedule for the second set. Brutal cuts occur after that set, and when a PNM doesn't have any chapters remaining who have more forgiving return numbers because she dropped them after first round, her options are then greatly limited going forward.) Many others drop out before Preference because they don't like their invites.

I've seen a lot of that at big Southern schools because let's say that a school has 8 "big deal" groups, 4 medium ones, and 4 that a lot of PNMs won't consider.

After first parties, Patty PNM can go back to 8 and she picks the big 8. After second parties, they can go back to 4 but she's been cut by the Big 8--or most of them--but she has some re-invites by the No Way 4 that she cut earlier. A lot of these girls will drop if they have no Big 8s left.

The thing is that many of them would've considered the Medium 4 if they could still go back to them but they cut them the first day and the Mediums rarely re-invite anyone. This is why a lot of girls who are more heavily cut after first parties seem to like their recruitment results better...they kept their Medium 4 all the way through and are perfectly happy with their parties and bids.

Of course, this doesn't sound PC. However, that's what many Greek observers have noted since RFM came into effect.

I really don't know how else we can reinforce to PNMs that the "best" sorority is YOUR sorority, the one you ended up in. Your sisters are always the "best" sisters.

Coming from a small chapter, I really don't know how to drill that into an 18 year old's brain.

I don't directly advise.. I oversee at a higher level. I haven't had the opportunity to visit that campus yet, but hope to eventually! And, I misspoke, because they are Carroll University now :)

Lane swerve, but isn't RFM supposed to have most of the heavy cuts come early on, keeping chapters from leading PNMs on and giving them a more realistic look at the houses they could get a bid to? You may have said that, but I may have misunderstood (definitely not my territory).

In which case, does UT not use RFM?

Sorry for the confusion/lane swerve.

People talk like the killer cuts come after first parties. Seems like most of the killer cuts come after second parties, though, and by then the PNMs may have released a lot of groups they would've liked. When there are 18 groups and you get invitations back to, say, 15 for first parties and you have to cut down to 10 or 12, it's hard to choose.

Does anyone know when Tufts changed from guaranteed placement (i.e., everyone gets a bid, even if they get cut from all three houses or fail to maximize their options) to guaranteed bidding (i.e., if you go through pref and maximize your options throughout recruitment, you are guaranteed a bid)?

Their 2008 viewbook (the latest currently posted on their website) says,
"Please understand that this is a mutual selection process. After each round, you will preference a certain number of chapters and each sorority will preference a certain number of women. Participation in Recruitment does not obligate you to join a sorority nor does it guarantee memberships"

Based on this, it seems Tufts now has guaranteed *bidding*, similar to that done by UT and some other universities, but I remember reading about the sorority system there having guaranteed *placement* when I was looking at colleges in 2005-2006.

I'm just curious as to when they made this switch.

Thanks!

I've never heard of guaranteed placement as you've described it. I believe at every campus where it's used, it's a carrot to keep you from dropping houses. I can't imagine any campus guaranteeing placement if, say, you decide day 1 you're only visiting one house. That would be utterly unproductive and certainly not worth rewarding.

We've talked about Tufts on here before ad nauseum. It was, indeed, the only school that guaranteed a bid to anyone who went through rush, even if they were dropped.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh....php?p=1504459

psy - Here was what the Greek handbook said back in July 2008 - or at least this was posted in July 2008. Sorry I can't quote a quote.

All eligible Tufts students seeking to join a fraternity or sorority and participating in the entire Recruitment process (attending all scheduled events to which they are invited) are generally assured a bid from at least one of the social Greek organizations on campus. Note that this system does not guarantee an invitation to join a particular chapter.

If they have indeed gotten rid of this jackwagon system, all I can say is Thank God.

http://m.memegen.com/38b506.jpgg

I guess when you go through recruitment three times you become an expert in who will "always" give you a bid. Nice.

I can't even.

My eyes are bleeding from reading all of the crap in these posts by Jd24. Really hope we have a troll on our hands.

We have to be faster about recognizing the trolls. I think Jd24 has been entertaining, but not even possibly real.

Well.... poop. Now it is all gone.