Intentional Single Preference (ISP) is Bad
 

Candidly the subject heading was meant to be a PNM eye catcher.

Here's a great example of why a PNM should never ISP:

Just did bid matching yesterday. Every single PNM was matched (Yay!)...with the exception of one.

Had she listed *both* sororities where she preffed, she would have been a quota addition for her first choice. Instead, today, she is without a bid.

Ladies, I implore you, please list all your choices!

At best, you may get your first choice (as this PNM would have).

At "worst", you'll open yourself up to a great set of new experiences with another Greek Letter Organization that will welcome you with open arms.

How do you know that she would have been a QA to her first choice? She may have matched to the house that she left off her card. If she was listed high enough on the second choice's bid list, that is the house that she would have gone to.

Totallyjersey, you don't know that. The other organization may well have been fabulous or it may have been a disastrous choice for her.

She was high on Choice A's list (but still not high enough to make the list). She was low on Choice B's list (so her second choice would have gone unmatched). When quota additions were considered, she became ineligible because she ISPed.

I totally disagree. She didn't like group B enough to put them on their card- didn't want to be in their chapter and didn't want to be a member- it would have been a deal breaker for her or she would have listed them. She doesn't have a crystal ball so she puts down the only chapter she can see herself in. Now if you would have gone to her and told her what you told us here then she probably would have put B down on her card, but again she didn't receive any out side help and had to make a decision based on the information and facts available to her at the time of signing her bid card.

I would give my own daughter the advice not to put ANY chapter down that she couldn't see herself in. She would know that she might not receive a bid, but if she doesn't like the other Chapter and is not going to show up on bid day or quit soon after I think SIP is a better way to go and leaves you more options. When I went through recruitment a 100 years ago I liked both of the Chapters I preferenced. I would have been happy in either one so I would have never considered it.

Although I appreciate your effort to have girls keep an open mind, this is just the kind of thing that ends up biting girls in the ass. Yes, it CAN (and in your example did) happen, but by selling this as a possibility you convince a lot of girls to write down chapters they have no intention of joining.

I would much rather suggest to these girls that unless they really super duper couldn't ever see any way of EVER making it work with the second or third choice, you should write down all of your options. But that is not the same as write down the chapter you despise in hopes of being a QA to the chapter you love.

Take a deep breath, take a moment to consider what it means to be a sister and a friend, and outside of rush what those qualifications would entail, and then maybe think if that 2nd or 3rd choice really doesn't offer that. I would hope that a lot of girls would go, you're right, I don't choose my friends based on how well they do skits or how well they can match clothes with 50 other girls! But some will still only be willing to accept 1 sorority based on whatever her personal criteria are, even if we think she's wrong, narrow-minded or childish. And blowing sunshine up her skirt over possible happy endings doesn't help either her or the chapter she doesn't want.

I see it as an integrity issue.

If she would have listed a chapter from which she would not take a bid, she'd be, at best, trying to game the system. At best.

She, not you, not me, not Greek Chat, is the one who has to live with the outcome of her decisions.

Amen, DGTess.

Thank you, Tess. That was a well worded response. I don't think anyone could say it better.

I attended three preference parties and intentional single preferenced the only chapter I could see myself in. In my case, had I not matched with my first choice, I would have rather not accepted a bid elsewhere. Twenty-one years later, I don't see myself having done anything differently even having a much more Panhellenic outlook.

Sometimes ISP really IS the best choice for a PNM. We can't know what is individually best for a girl and while I do agree that MANY girls can be happy in places they think they cannot, it is NOT the right choice for every girl. I do think that college Panhellenics and Rho Chis need to do a very thorough job explaining how ISP and quota additions work. I've seen girls very disappointed because ISP has bitten them (they didn't rank as highly as they thought they would) and I've seen girls disappointed because they've matched with their second choice in bid matching when they fully intended to refuse a bid from that chapter.

This is a big problem that I don't think we mention enough. A lot of women think there is no way they won't match...and some of them have been led to believe that by the chapter at pref. Dirty rushing/bid promising is responsible for at least a portion of this.

So, it would have worked out in this one particular situation. She's the exception, not the rule. Putting down a chapter from which you would not accept a bid on your MRABA for the sole reason of trying to become a QA is not a good plan. It usually doesn't work out because the chapter is often one that is less popular (and might not make quota), or when QAs are considered, they may go to the smaller chapter, instead of the PNM's preferred chapter, depending on the school. The OP advises at an academically competitive school with a small number of chapters, and I doubt the "tier dynamics" are the same that you'd see in the SEC.

This is the kind of thread that makes me think we should get rid of QAs altogether...because obviously there are PNMs out there who are using their knowledge of them to work the system.

It's not wrong to ISP if you absolutely could not see yourself being happy in one of the chapters you preffed. It is a difficult decision, though. If you ISP, you lose out on the chance of being matched to your first choice as a quota addition (and IIRC you cannot be offered a snap bid), but you're free to go through COR if you don't match. OTOH, if you do not ISP, you run the risk of being matched to the chapter you can't see yourself in, and then you're bound to that chapter for one year, meaning no COR ... but you can pledge that chapter you think is so awful, and you may find that you like them, and if not, you can always depledge and rerush next year.

Actually an ISP who does not match is eligible for a snap bid. Just not quota addition.

ISP
 

When my oldest daughter was going through recruitment she called before she signed her card. She asked if she should go "suicide". I responded with the question "Do you want to be Greek, or do you only want Alpha Gam? She was at a relatively non-competitive school and knew that she would get a bid to Alpha Gam. I don't know until this day (she was a PNM in 1997) what she decided, but I do know I explained to her that being Greek was more important than the GLO. I won't tell you that I didn't want her to be an Alpha Gam...
When my 2nd daughter (same school) wanted to put another GLO as her first choice in 1999, it hurt. I gave the phone to her dad, who knew what they system was like as I was a member of the VST. I don't know what he said, but she also pledged AGD.
The next year, my 3rd daughter was cut by the other 2 chapters on campus before pref... she really didn't have a choice. In 2003, I was truly surprised that the other 2 chapters carried my 4th daughter to pref along with Alpha Gam. To make the story short, as my 4th daughter put on her AGD letters, her comment was, it's about damn time.
ISP would have probably been a viable choice for my daughters, but I could never recommend it.

I think the policy is pretty widespread (if not true of all NPC sororities) that if you invite a legacy to preference they have to be on your first bid list so in your daughters' cases, they were pretty safe. But even so, it sounds like you gave them sound advice. I guess you'll never know if daughter #2 got her first or back up choice, but it sounds like it all worked out in the end.

Exactly. I'll never know. But she was part of the "Fab Four" in her New Member Class and even going through a divorce this summer they were there for her. Not saying that the other group would have done differently, but, yes, it worked. I gave all daughters the "panhellenic" answer and would do the same today. But I have to admit that it is sweet that all 5 of us are Alpha Gams. I personally think that is more important to be "greek", than to be a member of a specific GLO, but that is probably because I came from California to Texas in 1973 and only realized that GLO's existed after I had been at TCU for a semester.

I think this is not guaranteed in any group, because there is always the possibility of having more legacies at pref than quota. Do they get put at the top of the bid list? Probably, for most groups, but if it comes down to deciding among legacies, some may not make the first list.

But just to be clear, a chapter that's already doing QAs is over Quota and cannot issue snap bids, because you can only snap to Quota, right?

Yes, but it is possible she could be snap bid by another chapter, even one at which she did not attend pref.

yes and yes .. a chapter that's doing QAs won't be snap bidding as snap bids are only to get a chapter up to quota. But an ISP is not barred from receiving a snap bid from any chapter that's not at quota that wishes to extend a bid to her, even a chapter that had previously cut her or a chapter that she had previously dropped.

I've also thought at times it would be a good idea to make a rule that a PNM can not join a chapter she ISP'ed for one year.

When we were in the room before signing our pref cards, our Greek life director explicitly stated that if we ISP'd we would NOT be able to receive a snap bid... I don't know if that varies from school to school?

True, but it doesn't stop a chapter from saying that. I'm suggesting a formal rule to keep the chapters in line, not the PNM's.

No. It's an NPC rule. Your GL director was just wrong or you're remembering it wrong.

If a chapter matches quota, but there's a no show or two at bid day/early on in the NM process, the chapter is going to look at their snap list first, which may very well contain someone who ISPed their chapter. That seems like an unneccessarily harsh penalty for both the PNM and chapter. It's a good idea to emphasize that hoping for a snap bid is a bad idea, but I don't think that not allowing PNMs to join a chapter that she ISPed if the opportunity presents itself is fair.

They may still be under total and looking to COB. Of course, this will be the exception, rather than the rule.

First bid list is in alphabetical order, so if the legacy has a last name starting with A, she will be at the top of the first bid list :)

Most likely, since I think most sororities do it that way. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't there one or two that don't?

No. If you have 30 legacies, and quota is 25, you must decide which 25 go on the first list. You don't just alphabetize those 30 and say sorry to Suzie Zimmerman.

Groups that require their legacies be on their first bid list would release any legacies they couldn't issue bids to before pref so this wouldn't be a problem. If quota is 40 and you have 50 legacies left before prefs, you've gotta release 10 of those legacies. Most chapters would have released them earlier anyway since it's not desireable to have a pledge class full of only legacies.

Is the "Fab Four" an AGD thing? Are you allowed to say what it is? I'm nosey; sorry! :)

She knows that, she was making a joke. Your first bid list is your first bid list and it doesn't REALLY matter if they are in alphabetical order, height order, or in order by how white their teeth are...so, the chapters that alphabetize only technically have their legacies on the *top* of their bid list if they happen to fall that way in the alphabet.

shadokat's school actually did do this because so many women were suiciding and then getting COB bids afterwards.

This mainly happens with chapters that are not at total...but if that many chapters are having that issue that they can do this...you need to lower total.

I went through this past January, and I doubt I'm remembering it wrong. I know they were strongly trying to discourage girls from ISPing, so I don't know if she said that just to do that. (I also remember a couple girls being worried they wouldn't get a bid, and wanting to be able to pick up a snap bid, so several girls just didn't sign there MRABAs. I had two other friends, however, who put both houses on their pref cards, even though neither saw herself as XYZs. They both got bids to XYZ, one tried to go through the pledge process but dropped midway, and one just didn't show up to bid day.)

For those reasons, I don't think ISPing is bad. At all. Especially if you don't see yourself at XYZ. As has been said previously, it hurts the chapters, especially those who are lower tier and are less selective in their process (I hate labeling chapters as being top tier and lower tier, but I don't know how else to word it). If a girl prefs top tier ABC and lower tier XYZ, they hope for ABC based on reputations (this happens a LOT at my school), but end up getting a bid from XYZ, and they decline it or depledge. And it hurts the chapter.

From the NPC Manual of Information:

4. If Preferential Bidding is used, women who indicate an Intentional
Single Preference and do not receive an invitation to membership are
eligible for Snap Bidding and Continuous Open Bidding, but are not
eligible for Quota Addition.
Resolved (1995), That a Potential New Member who withdraws from
the Fully Structured Recruitment process before the signing of her
membership acceptance shall be eligible for Snap Bidding and
Continuous Open Bidding.

No, it was their thing. I think it was important at the time to them, I think it still holds importance to my daughter and her 3 friends, but it's not an Alpha Gam thing.