Largest Chapter You've Ever Heard Of
 

What's the largest chapter of a GLO you've ever heard of, Fraternity or Sorority, traditional or cultural, social or special interest?

The one I know for sure is ATO at the University of Illinois with 137 members.

But I have heard that some chapters have like 200 guys. I even heard we have a midwest chapter with 300 guys (!), but I doubt that's true.

I think any chapter around 100 would be hard to establish bonds with the whole chapter.

We have around 135 members now, and we're not even the biggest on our campus. I think the largest has about 150, or did have at one point last year.

The biggest sororities at my school have about 170.

Our sororities here can have a maximum of 90 memebers, but only three of us have reached that. Since there are more fraternities their numbers are usually smaller, the largest having around 90 memebers I think. I've heard that some of our Chi Omega chapters have numbers around 250! I can't imagine, but it must be fun!!!:D

Many at U of Oklahoma are at 200 or over. (This is sororities, the fraternities are much smaller, because there are twice as many).

P.S. At MY school (NSU), they are at around 60, and I dont know how big the fraternities are

At BSU soroities can only have 80. When I first joined , because of Quota, we had 86. When I graduated last year we had about 50. (The previous graduation class was 33 girls). I have found that I like our numbers around 50. You get to know everyone on such a different level. At first it was kind of degrading because we were so used to saying we were the largest (with the thought of we were better because we had more girls) but as I got older I found out that numbers don't matter its the quality of those girls.

Fraternity Chapter Size
 

In the late 1940s, right after WWII when all the servicemen came back and flooded the nation's campusses, the Kappa Sigs at Arkansas one year had 300 men in the chapter. In 1982-82, the Pikes at Florida State had about 250+ men on campus. The University switched from a quarter to a semester system and everybody's transcripts got screwed up, so nobody graduated on time. They just kep pledging guys and no one left.
This fall, the Pike chapter will return with about 135 actives, and expect to pledge around fifty. It's an interesting debate on GC about the structure of very large chapters vs. very small chapters and how much closeness counts. Very large chapters operate extremely well if they "win". Those chapters run on momentum and morale. Pride in the name, in the prestige of being a member of that group. Like being a Marine. Very small chapters operate extremely well when they focus the energies of all their members on specific goals, and especially when they can all live in the same house or near each other. The ideal system may be Penn State where there are more than fifty fraternities, and the largest probably has no more than 65 members.
Personally, I've been in both and I prefer the very large chapter. But, large or small, if the chapter is successful the members can have equally strong and rewarding experiences.

we're relatively new on campus, compared to some of the other fraternities, but quickly growing. who knows how many is too many to form a tight-knit fraternity? one guy said, "historically, it's been a pattern that organizations that refuse to grow, die." so there is no plateau?

Maybe The Quote Should Be
 

interpreted as "Those who refuse to improve, die." Size is important if you think in terms of competition, but improvement is even more important. Size without success is pointless. remember, the chapter runs on morale and momentum. You should be at least as large as the top competitors. Beyond that, it has to do with achievement.

Alpha Phi Omega @ Saint Louis University, has about 300 members. I've been to one of their meetings, it was chaotic!

According to Spring Semester 2002's grade reports, the Theta Chi chapter here has 172 members. :eek:

Where?

Several of our southern chapters are around 200 members. I'm almost certain that Mississippi U is.. FSU is or was at least 150..

Ole Miss's Sigma Nu chapter had between 180-200 members for the 2001-2002 school year.

Sigma Nu isn't officially recognized by FSU at this time. Even when they were I know that from 1997-2001 they weren't anywhere near 150 members.

At UCF, I think that AZD, KD, Tri-Delta, Zeta, and ADPi all have 180+ women in their chapters.

At the University of Arizona, Sigma Kappa had/has about 130. Pi Phi, Kappa, Theta, DG and Gamma Phi had/has somewhere in the neighborhood of 150.

"has/had"...I'm not sure of exact numbers as of this moment. I believe recruitment just finished up.:)

The largest DG chapter is at USC with 218 members.

Total here is 100, and I think the largest chapter (last I heard) is 160... but that may be higher.

I know that there is a phi mu chapter some where in the south that has over 350

Delta Gamma's Alpha Nu chapter is the largest sorority at USC as well as the largest Delta Gamma chapter nationwide boasting over 200 members

In the early '90s a couple of the ADPi Texas chapters were over 300 members, (I really wonder what the heck total was on their campus?) they had to have two executive boards to manage the chapter. No idea if its still like that.
I heard the same about Phi Mu in Georgia.

OK so big Chapters, Big Damn Deal!

Do you know your Sister?

It is like going to a big school where you are a number and not a person!

How in the Hell do Chapters that big have Initiation that means anything? Do you run them through like a cattle call?

We did 14 New Associates one weekend and I did not get any sleep for 2 1/2 days!

I was talng with the Greek Life Event Coorinator this last weekend and NPC will not allow more Sororitys on campus, We have 3!

They do not fill their quotas! Why, because they are not wanted by the girls who are rushing?

I am not knocking them, as they are all good Soros! ASA, AGD, adn Tri Sigma! All Have Chapter Houses!

Since I was there, and I know it has been a long time we have Lost: DR, a local We as LXA helped to start who had a chance to go PM, ADP, and KD!

It is time that We As Greeks Get Off Of the Collective Asses and figure out the problem and do something about it! Soon!

I know the know individual likes us and is a DZ from NWMU!

But I cannot get through to her that more need to be added on campus because of the stupid damn rules!

We are in a business and need to act like a business! We have Budgets, Property leases, time scheaduals, grades to keep and many more things!

Hell, That is what We as Greeks Do! :mad:

Hmm. like I said I'm just going on what I've heard at national conventions. They don't really publish chapter sizes anywhere:D

Sigma Nu Is Active At FSU
 

Sigma Nu is in good standing at Florida State, though they are not a large chapter. You may be thinking of the University of Florida where they are historically very large.

isnt alpha phi omega at stl an honor society?

on bid day, my chapter was the largest on campus (of fraternities and sororities) at 201. Now we have like 195.

there are 40,000 people (about 6,000 greeks) at my school and there are only 10 sororities, so every sorority has at least 120 or so sisters.

you'd think that it would be hard to really establish sisterhood with that many people, but its like any other chapter, there are people who come around and people who don't. nevertheless, the bonds of sisterhood are still apparent, and VERY strong. :)

I am pretty sure that the Betas at Mizzou are around 160. Beta at Auburn started the fall with about 120 and I know our OU chapter is mega huge and so is Georgia.....

OU as in Oklahoma?? Oregon?? I know the Ohio chapter isn't that big

I go to Mizzou and you're right Beta is at about 160, making it the second largest fraternity on our campus, following ATO I think. Most sororities here (we have 14 sororities and an undergrad population of 25,000ish w/about 25% of the undergrads being Greek) are way over 100 members, most are at 150 and many fluctuate between 150-200 members at any given time. My chapter currently has 163 members, and we do just fine with sisterhood. I think it's kind of offensive when people say big chapters aren't as good or whatever b/c it's too hard to establish real bonds. Well, I've done it along with thousands of other people, so I don't think until you've BEEN in a large chapter and had a bad experience you'd have any right to say whether we're bad or whatever. Sorry, just needed to vent. :D

tkes at u of l have like 100+ guys
we went with some of their new pledges to one of their parties
and the guy wouldn't let them in because he 'didn't know who they were'
i was like, 'omigod, he's a tke. . .'
he was like, 'well, our chapter is pretty big. . .but i don't think we pledged any new guys recently'
thank goodness, i knew the vice president and he was like, 'dude, you know these guys!'





in a chapter with 60 members and above, i don't see how you can call it a brother/sisterhood because you really don't know your members. you just know their name and maybe their fave color. . .so numbers mean crap to me. . .after seeing that at a party, i'm convinced small chapters rule.


'We ain't going nowhere. . .we can't be stopped. . .we're Phi Sigs for life. . .'

He is speaking of Oklahoma. The University of Oklahoma Beta Theta Pi chapter is notorious for 60 man pledge classes. Oklahoma State was the same way a few years back before they got into trouble. They are now back on track and will be huge again in the next few years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My school only has 1,200 undergrads. Only 450 girls, so the 3 sorotities combined only have 120, that's smaller than some Chapters! But I think having a small chapter is great because you know every one of your sisters by name and can easily form close bonds with then.

my chapter is average sized for our campus (about 50 guys) but I dont think being big takes away the uniqueness. I think it depends on the dynamics of the particular greek system in question. Ive seen big chapters that have a much stronger brotherhood than smaller ones

Re: I agree
 

Now,a friend of mine is in the same national as i am, but on another campus and her chapter has like 15 girls. It sucks! they barely have enough people to fill all the officer positions. Rush is good if they take three or four new girls. Everyone knows everyone but, it stinks because they let girls in they don't really like because they need the numbers. There is only one other sorority on campus and they' re tiny too.I tell her about the things we are doing (date night, crush party, trips to know where, pledge retreat, big sis recognition, senior ceremony etc.) and she's like " Oh we were going to have that, but no one came", or "we thought about that but its too expensive" or whatever. They have to pay so much more for t-shirts and stuff because their orders are always below the minimum for that company. Formal is a struggle because they don't have the bank roll to have it at a hotel or whatever. They had to have it in the student center one year (lame) and another year they had a formal with the other sorority b/c neither could afford on their own.FORGET intramurals or greek week or anything. It's just way toooooo much work for such a few people. I feel bad for her. She's always wanting to come to our suff-we let her!

I think medium sized is good. Not too big ,not too little ,just right! [/B][/QUOTE]



maybe it's because her school isn't behind the greek system. i know dozens of sororities that functioned on 18 or 19 people. . .and still threw parties, did community service, and had a hell of a time. . .
now, i think their sorority is the largest on our campus.

Sigma Nu is recognized by Florida State..but the chapter isn't that big

I can't imagine holding chapter with 200 girls! It's hard enough with our 25 (25 is GOOD for a Greek org at my school). Same goes for new member education.

The thing about smaller chapters (less than 15) is that they CAN NOT operate in the traditional presidential-hierarchical structure. In a period of less than 6 months, we lost about 20 girls to graduation, transfers, and study abroad. At that point, we had about 8 people. Our national headquarters realized that those 8 did SO much for the chapter (and all had at least one office), it was killing us. So, before the next Recruitment (we rush in the Spring), National came in and completely reorganized us and placed an Oversight Committee in charge of us. We no longer had officers, but we were divided into teams of Internal Affairs and External Affairs. Our chapter advisor, who was an accountant, did our books. Our traveling consultant was basically stationed at our chapter that entire year. Members of the committee (consisting of alumnae in the area and various national council members) required us to update them weekly about events, chapter relations, etc. It actually cut down on all the work we had to do, as they wanted us to focus on getting our numbers to a healthy size (but keep in mind, a woman from Alabama's idea of what a "good chapter size" is didn't go too well with a New England liberal arts college's realities). We've kept the structure, but the committee has decided that because we've grown to a healthy size for us and chapter relations are better, we can go ahead and reform into a traditional chapter structure.

White_Chocolate, I'd suggest your friend's chapter contact National. I've heard that Phi Sig is really good about getting consultants and others to help with chapters. It may be that the chapter size is great at 15, but they seriously have to do way too much work. I've been there. :)

Is it just me, or are there a LOT more offices than there used to be? When I was in school we had 9 people on exec, and about 10 other positions that didn't take a lot of work or were seasonal (like Homecoming Float or Greek Sing). Now it seems like there are twice that many positions to fill, and no one can have more than one because they're so time consuming. How are these smaller chapters supposed to get out and rush girls and increase their size when they are bogged down with all these offices?

To clear some things up:
DG is no longer the largest sorority at USC, this year Kappa Kappa Gamma became the largest at USC with around 230.
The smallest chapter at USC still has over 100 in it.
My house has around 130 and I would like to say that I certainly do feel that I know my sisters well. I don't think anyone was trying to brag about having a big chapter, they were just stating that there are some big chapters out there. Having a big chapter can be an advantage and a disadvantage. For instance, most of the frats at USC do not have nearly as many guys as the average sorority and so when they do excahnges or so forth, things can get kind of unequal. However, we have enough sisters to go around during rush so that each PNM can meet at least 3 sisters individually during any round. And with that many different girls you usually always have someone with the certain aspects the chapter may be looking for in any officer position.
On the note of the last post, my chapter certainly does have a lot of offices, but only 6 of these are on exec. There are around 30 offices total though including things like spirit chair, and alumni relations, and t-shirt chair.