Biggest chapter?
 

What's the largest amount of members you've ever heard of in a collegiate chapter? Either your org or another one.

The ADPi chapter here at FSU had over 200 members last year. I've heard of ZTA chapters in TX have that many members or more - chapters get really huge in the South because Greek life is so much a tradition here.

I've heard that quota has been over 70 several times in the past 20 years at LSU so their chapters must be humongous.

I distinctly remember that Chi Omega at LSU had a pledge class of 75 last year (because I was thinking - gee, why couldn't it have been 76 - they were my favorite group)

A pledge class of 76? Eek! http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/eek.gif
That is nearly all of the sorority girls at U of Toronto, spread over 7 chapters! I guess the popularity of going Greek is a regional thing!

Last recruitment, the quota was 71 at the University of Central Florida.

Has anybody here been in one of the really big chapters? Is it hard to feel like sisters with so many? We thought our chapter was big with about 125!

I thought having more than 40 was big! We couldn't have more than 50 initiated members at one time at our school. I went to a really small school though.

And even with quota being so big here, many girls don't get bids at all...

I think Chi-Os pledge class was unusually big. Last year quota was around 65 or 70 I think. All chapters but one (ZTA) made quota. I don't know what quota was this year, but I don't think that Zeta made it again.

wow...

I could never imagine initiating 70+ girls...

that must take all freakin day

and I thought it took long to initiate our 23 girls last year (at quota)...

My pledge class was pretty average for my sorority. There were 6 women in my pledge class, including myself. That was pretty good considering it was informal rush. It is very rare to have more than 10 pledges or new members (as they call them now)rushing ANY sorority on our campus. Sometimes a sorority outweighed another, like we had only 4 in formal rush one time, while another sorority had like 15 or more (I can't remember). We always did better during informal rush. But that's ok, I'm not even sure how well my sorority's rush does now, last I heard, we were really getting up there in numbers (over 30 initiated). I really treasured my time with my pledge class. We had a great time and grew very close. I know how hard it was for the 6 of us to plan events, I can't imagine planning for 20 or more! That would be a mess! For those of you in big chapters, how did you accomplish this? How did your relationships grow between sisters?

At my small southern school, we had 4 sororities. Campus total per group was always set at around 90, quota for Rush at around 27. Zeta never made quota at Rush, but the others usually did. There were never really any COB events except for Zeta, and I only remember informal spring Rush once- Phi Mu and Zeta each took in about 4 members each that time. We thought we had large chapters until we visited some houses at Ole Miss and Tuscaloosa. I had friends in houses that had 150 and up members.

there were about 70 in my pledge class (the biggest ever) which was every houses's quota. Only two houses out of six didn't make quota the year I rushed. And there are about 160 girls in my entire sorority which is about normal at my medium sized private school.

yeah... i thought having 120 girls in a house with 35 being quota during rush week was a lot.. having a house with over 200 women.. wow....

Those of you from large (over 100 member) chapters,

How close do you feel to your chapter? Are there any benefits or disadvantages to being in a large chapter you'd be willing to share with us? What does your chapter do to build closeness (obviously not looking for secret stuff here, just more of the social aspect) among such a large group?

Thanks! (Most of our chapters are 65 members or less, so I'm just curious.)

My chapter at its highest was about 75. I think this was the best amount. I cannot see having a pledge class that size. I mean, I had the largest pledge class at the time (16) and I felt that that was even too big. Try fitting 16 girls in 2 compact cars in winter in New England!!!!IT WAS AWESOME!!!
I can't see having 200 women in a chapter and having close bonds... http://www.greekchat.com/forums/ubb/frown.gif

Last year our quota was 71 for the fall at U. of Central Florida which made our chapter to have up to 175 sisters.

Our sisterhood is absolutely incredible too! I know everyone in my AC class and above.

Better late than never...
 

I knoe this is primarily about the ladies, but my chapter has just exploded in size and its wierd for me to see. When I came to this chapter they had just done a house cleaning, and were down to 14 members. We had our ups and downs, but now are at 70. And with growth projections are looking to reach our goal of 85-90 men by next fall. Quite a change from the 14 of "back in the day." We are the largest our chapter has ever been in its 25 year history. Also we are pretty much tied with the Kappa Sigs and Delta Sigs for largest chapter. (We are only 1 or two people away from each other, but we have the highest retention rate on campus, so I am sure we'll pull away from the pack as the semester rolls on, and the Delta Sigs are only a colony, so that doesnt even count. At my campus its all about how long you've been here - we're second oldest)

Its cool to see the largest meeting room on campus (thats not a ballroom) filled with my brothers. Also theres always guys on campus, thats cool too.

I have seen my chapter as big and small and my $$ is on the big chapter. My reasons are many. Anytime you are over 15 guys, youre gonna have cliques, because 20 people all cant get together in a car and go to a movie, so if there are cliques, I'd rather have a big chapter. Secondly, if you are a big chapter, you can absorb some of the punches you cant as a small chapter. If you are 20 and graduate 8, thats a big blow. But if you are 80 and graduate even 30 thats not that bad. ALso the buying power of a large chapter is awesome. THeres stuff the undergrads are doing now that I only could have dreamed of back in the day. Destination unknown to New Orleans or Skiing in Colorado (all expenses paid), Spring breaks in Mexico, spending $15,000 on formal and the like. Man that was a dream in the day. Yeah, I woudnt be tight with everyone of my brothers, but I also dont have to be worried about being closed in a heartbeat either. Between the two, I'll choose having to work to get to know my brothers ANYDAY!

I've been thinking about something.

If a chapter routinely has quota at 60, shouldn't there be about 240 sisters in a chapter. :eek: I've heard of chapers close to 200 but never 240. :confused: So what happens to these girls. I can't imagine having 40 girls a year disaffiliate. So what's going on?

I just can't understand how you can have a true sisterhood with 200+ active members in just your own chapter... At my school, total was 80... I just can't get my head around a quota of 70! :eek:

ADPiKnight
wow thats HUGE! When I was at Tech chapter total was around 110 but I think its now about 120--which we are over! Quota this year was 50-something I think but we took 62 (and paid over total fees). When I was at Tech, quota ranged from 40 one year to 62 one year. I've heard that KKG at Tech has almost 200 members now.

I know with ADPi, we split into smaller groups called "Prides" which gives you a small group to get to know. Prides change every semester so you eventually get to know everyone pretty well. For me, after Rush and all the practice, I felt like I knew all 100 really well..he..he.. We did alot of sisterhood activities during the week before Rush which really brought us closer together.

SoCal girl--
There are various reasons why chapter total might be 150 but quota is 60. Every group is bound to have some girls depledge. Especially at larger schools, many girls can't keep up their grades. I know at Tech several sororities didn't initiate until second semester and if a girl didn't make her grades she couldn't be initiated. For example, quota might be 60 but only 45 made their grades. With ADPi, we initiate during first semester so we never had this problem. Also, at Tech, many girls were intimidated by the size of the university and distance from home (we're out in the middle of nowhere)....so ended up moving closer to home or to a smaller university. These are the reasons I can think of off the top of my head..I'm sure there are others :-)

At Michigan about 85% of the house have pledge classes of 40+ girls. The largest I ever heard of was Theta with 51 in a pledge class.
Ive heard one girl say that about her sorority when she was a soph that she barely knew the Juniors in her house and didnt know the Seniors at all. Then one girl told me that b/c they had a class of 51, initiation took 8 hours to get through. It got so tiring that the Seniors and some Juniors got up and left. I mean its sad that they barely know each other, but your only required to live in 1 or 2 years so when your a junior and senior your not really in on everything cuz your living out the house. There could still be a strong sisterhood with 200+ girls (as Ive seen on my campus) it just depends on how active people want to be in their house. Small and big have its advantages and disadvantages

The most Ive heard about fraternities is Beta at my school. I think its said they have 100+ living in their house and 200 who dont live in. Dont know, but they do have a huge chapter.

At Texas A&M I think quota has been from 71-mid fifties the last 3-4 years, most chapters have over 200 girls. When I pledged in the early 90's, we had about 140, with my pledge class being 52 (quota was 52 + you could take 3 juniors if you wanted too). I loved being in a big sorority-more diversity in my opinion. But I also loved A&M where class sizes were often 250-300 students-
I think University of Texas is about the same-sororities may be a bit smaller?

aggieAXO,

do you know anything about the ADPi chapter at A&M? A woman I work with was a XO there in the 80's and said the ADPi chapter was really bad--but wouldn't tell me why.

thanks!

ADPi-EE
 

You are so right about having our prides to get to know each other better. We make a strong push to stay active and participate in the pride activities. I had always thought that it was impossible to know 100+ girls too but trust me, after spirit week and rush and all the sisterhood activities you do, you become close with girls you might never had even talked to before. Of course you're not going to be BFF with every single girl but I know I could call any of them up if I need anything. I have to say that one of the biggest things is on who your leaders of the chapter are. That can make all the difference. Girls do move back home and to community colleges often or disaffliate because of finacial reasons. Just this year we have like 30 girls gradutating.... so sadly, you do lose a lot of girls each year. I don't think that we'd ever hit 200 but I guess you never know.

I am new to this site, and just happened to see the posts about Texas A&M. I pledged ADPi at A&M in '94. I'm a bit surprised that someone would call our chapter "horrible", but I guess everyone has their own opinions!

When I pledged, the chapter was one of the largest at A&M. I know this because I was EVP and had to submit all the paperwork to Panhellenic, etc. I think we averaged about 190? We were always highly involved in campus activities and always did well in grades. In fact, I believe ADPi, ChiO and Theta were the first chapters colonized at A&M in the 70s. For those of you who don't know, A&M was an all-male military school up until the 60s. My next door neighbor was actually the first ChiO pledge at A&M--I think that means she was the first "match" in the process the first year that had rush! :)

The chapter was very diverse, and still is. We were called "the girls next door". Some thought we weren't as "social" as other in regards to fraternity relations since many of our members seemed to date only members of the corps of cadets!

I can tell you that the year after I pledged, we did not make quota, but were able to snap bid to make up for it. For the next 2-3 years, the chapter did extremely well in rush. I do know the chapter has had trouble making quota for the last couple of years, partly due to the colonizations of DG and KD.

Overall, I think A&M has a pretty competitive rush process. It's spread out over 5 days, and most of the rushees have multiple legacies. We always had several in-house legacies rushing. By the way, my younger sister pledged TriDelt at A&M when I was senior. Ouch! :)

Anyway, the chapter does have a website: www.aggieadpi.com.

my soon to be sis-in-law was an ADPi at A&M-but I really don't know much about their chapter....

when I pledged, there were about 80 girls in my sorority-and there were 16 girls in my pledge class. I liked the small number, because we really got to know each other-there's such a difference in the bonds you can form with 16 girls, and the bonds you can form with 50+

by the way ADPi_ZL, my future sis-in-law pledged in '94 also..I think..

ADPi-ZL-
Thanks for writing back. I didn't think ADPi had a bad chapter at A&M and was surprised when the woman I worked with said it. I've gotten the feeling that she was more of a "partier" and really into the social scene--which is cool and all, but she probably wouldn't have fit in with ADPi. Actually, she transferred to Baylor a year later and didn't affiliate with XO there because they were more conservative there.

I've always heard that the ADPi's at A&M were into the Core guys---which is cool with me because my brother-in-law was in the core :-) One thing I always liked about our Nationals is that they were more into grades, campus involvement, leadership, than the social scene. I have a feeling if I went through Rush at A&M I still would have pledged ADPi :-)

What was DZ like at A&M in the early 90's? One of my very best friends from high school pledged DZ in'92.

Thanks for the scoop!
<TT>

XO_Princess: That's so neat that I know your future sister-in-law!

ADPi EE: I only knew a few DZs. Their reputation was that they liked to party a lot and were kind of wild. But, I knew a couple of girls who didn't fit this image at all! Like most of the A&M sororities, they were fairly big and diverse.

Gosh a pledge class of 70:eek:


I have no idea what quota was here at UNL, but I know that most have around 37-40 new members, and a lot of the girls I've talked to don't even know all the names of their pledge sisters (well they didn't until their retreat which most had only a couple a weeks ago) and they couldn't figure out how I knew not only names, but also hometowns and majors by the third week of school.

All I know however is that having these (what I consider) large pledge classes bodes well for me and my pledge bros at froshes ;) :cool:

Gosh, I thought we were big back in the days when I was in school, and compared to some of the chapters you guys are talking about it was nothing. In the fall of 1990, I was one of over 500 girls going through rush for 5 chapters...quota ended up at 48 that year (tri-sig was new on campus that year and they figured in but they weren't actually a part of formal rush, it was strange.) When I pledged I was a part of a chapter that included 130 girls...we were the biggest at the time. Now I believe ceiling is something like 70!!!! I don't get it because Kent is a big school and there are 6 nationals. I think they are happy to get 300 rushing.

ADPi at A&M
 

I sent you a private message, but since another brought up the subject of ADPi at A&M and I have nothing but good things to say I guess I will post here-I went through rush as a junior and knew all reps of the sororities (had several friends in different ones)-I loved the ADPis-very nice, down to earth, friendly, cute as could be but as the ADPi said from A&M they were not that active on campus-fraternity relations (not a bad thing at all). But it was a great chapter when I was there.

as far as DZ goes-again I liked the chapter but they did have a party reputation-this did not turn me off but some of the rushees did not like it.

K