Greek System Sizes -- Is U of Illinois Largest?
 

The campus paper at the U of Illinois recently ran an article asserting that the school's Greek system is the largest in a) the Big Ten, and b) the world. A small graphic / list accompanying the article gives some data about the eleven schools in the Big Ten. Looks like Penn State may have the highest percentage of students in its Greek system in the Big Ten, while Minnesota -- with just a sliver over 4% -- has the smallest.

Not that size is the be-all and end-all, by any means. (I tend to root for the brotherhood / sisterhood aspect and strong lifelong friendships, not chapter or system size.) Still, for those interested in some data, FWIW,

see:

http://www.dailyillini.com/features/...t-in-the-world

There have been a few threads on this. I posted in one of them about the break down of number of chapters by conference (NPC, NIC, NPHC, etc), but I can't find it. I think U of I is largest in terms of number of chapters. I think other schools have higher percentages and higher number of members.

And that's Northwestern's logo next to the highest percentage of Greeks in the Big Ten, not Penn State. :)

ETA: Here it is: http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...3&postcount=46

And yes, my count of 36 sororities is correct. The DI is wrong. Because 59 + 39 =/= 95. :rolleyes:

Wow!!

Thirty-six is a lot of sororities, and 39,000 undergrads is a crazy amount of students. How competitive is it the situation overall? For example, if a girl really wants to join a sorority - for the sake of argument, ANY sorority - is there a "home" for most girls who want to be part of a sisterhood? I am guessing that the 20 NPC chapters have the most members, collectively, but given the existance of 2 NPHC, 5 Latina, and 4 "other" sororities, is it likely that a girl looking for a sisterhood will find it?

Okay, I'll try to answer this as best as I can, but keep in mind I joined a colony at Illinois as a junior, and therefore I only had one recruitment on "the other side", so I'm definitely not the authority on our recruitment. This is just what I have observed.

U of I's recruitment is competitive just based on the fact that so many girls rush. However, it's not like competitive southern schools where you absolutely need recs for every house to even stand a chance (or at least this is what I've gathered from GC). I rushed as a sophomore (I did drop out--I knew nothing about the system, and didn't know my bad GPA was going to be a problem. So when I received heavy cuts I took it as a sign that it wasn't meant to be and just dropped out) I was under the impression that many of the girls in my Gamma Chi group didn't know much about the system either. Therefore, I'd assume many girls don't have recs going into recruitment. Also, AFAIK, we didn't receive a ton of recs compared to the number of girls rushing this past year.

According to this website, http://www.odos.uiuc.edu/greek/membe...lenicStats.asp, out of 1207 PNMs that rushed, only 1 was released from all chapters. Likewise 73% of PNMs received bids. All of the girls I know who did not join sororities either dropped out while they still had invites, or received a bid and did not pledge.

So to answer your question, is there an opportunity for most girls who want to be part of A sisterhood, then I would say yes. If more PNMs stuck it out through recruitment, I think more would end up in chapters.

One really great thing about our system is that we offer a variety of chapters. There chapters range from about 10 to close to 200. There's also social sororities that appeal to certain interests. For example, 4H is a sorority on our campus. So, I think the variety helps in allowing PNMs to find their home too.

Wow, according to that data, prior to 2008, 30+ women per year were released by all chapters, but in 2008 and 2009 combined there was only one.

Notwithstanding the fact that total-release numbers were already low (given the number of PNMs), what did Illinois do to drop those numbers to nearly zero? Was there a change in panhellenic policy or was it just different decision-making by the chapters?
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DolceSecretary

Maybe it was the rushees finally pulling their heads out of their asses.