What makes a school recruitment competitive?
 

I went to a school on the west coast which has a very different recruitment process from the south (or so I have read). I always wonder what makes a recruitment competitive? Is it possible/common for PNMs to get completely dropped after the first day? Do these schools not have "lower" tier chapters? Thanks in advance.

It is possible at ANY school for a PNM to get completely dropped after the first day - even if there are "lower tier" chapters :rolleyes:, even if there are groups not at total, even if the rush is very NON competitive. Some people just aren't meant to be Greek.

And guess what, there are women who get cut by "lower tier" chapters who are devastated, even if they get bids from the "top tier." There are also "lower tier" chapters who cut women who the "top tier" is dying to pledge. It's not as cut and dried as you seem to think it is (i.e. the struggling chapter takes all the leftovers without even thinking about it).

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1435/...62f60e3b76.jpg

Please don't misinterpret what I say. I did not say struggling chapters take everyone and PNMs only want "top tier" chapters. I wanted to know how people decide that school xyz has a competitive recruitment versus school abc. How was it decided?

Thank you for clarifying. It really came off badly in your original post.

Competitive usually means (among other things) you MUST have recs and will get heavily cut without them (no matter what the school or website says). Other hallmarks of a competitive recruitment are:

-They could charge an insane cost for it and tons of girls would still sign up.
-The school and Panhel has to do very little PR for rush - girls are chomping at the bit to join.

I would explain "competitive" with the same definition one would use for a competitive university:

Several applicants, highly qualified, vying for a limited number of slots.

Said applicants spent time working hard to build their resumes in anticipation of this process, then worked hard on preparing application materials and resumes to send to prospective schools.

They networked, prepped for interviews, researched ways to "stand out" from the sea of applicants - all in order to present themselves in the best light possible, and therefore, be chosen by the (in their opinion) best schools.


Some get in, some do not...
Some choose a different school than they otherwise planned on attending

I would say that the biggest indicator of how competitive a school's rush is is how ingrained being Greek at that school has been in the past, and also how legacy (at the university, not sororities) is viewed at the school.

For example, let's pretend there are two fictional universities that are equal in most aspects. However, since 1900 25% of School 1 has gone Greek, and 15% of their freshman class has had a family member attend the school before. At School 2, only 10% of the school has gone Greek over the years, and 5% of the freshman class has had a family member attend the school before.

At School 1, not only is Greek life HUGE and affects the campus as a whole, but a significant portion of the freshmen already have a built-in social network of connections with alumni. This means more legacies to sororities, more PNMs with connections to the alumni, more PNMs with connections in the current sororities and more PNMs who have been "born to go ABC" since birth. At School 2, there are far fewer legacies and most freshmen are coming in with NO connections to alumni. Not to mention that Greek life is not as important there, so there is not as much pressure to go Greek.

At School 2, an "un-prepared" PNM is going to waltz right in without any hurdles. Maybe her personality will not click with chapters, but rest assured she is not being cut because there were too many legacies or hometown friends. At School 1, even a girl who is well prepared with recs may not stand out enough to get past the throngs of legacies and well-connected PNMs who are vying for a spot in certain sororities. Due to the history of these schools, these "chosen" PNMs may have been on the radar before they even sent their own recs in! If enough sororities have enough legacies and connected PNMs, then the PNM without those connections will have very limited options, hence making recruitment competitive as a whole.

At the really competitive schools, there's also huge competition between the 'big name' sororities. I was at a skit party of a strong group and a couple of the members obviously blew their lines and were ad-libbing with unfunny ones. I looked around and saw that many PNMs were fake-laughing and at that moment, realized that at this house the girls could have simply recited the ABCs for their skit and rushees still would have been rolling on the floor laughing--and dying to belong.

-An extremely strong and established Greek system
-A high percentage of super qualified and exceptional PNMs (grades, personalities, activities, appearance, connections etc.)
-Recommendations are required to even be considered for the second round
-Legacy status has very little significance since there are many more legacies than spots available in new member classes
-A high degree of “tent talk” and recognition of tiers (whether they be true or fair or not)
-Many chapters with extremely high return rates and even higher release figure requirements from the first day on
-Even the most qualified of PNMs can experience brutal cuts in each round
-A high percentage of PNMs who have expectations of which chapters are “acceptable” to belong to and would rather drop out of recruitment than accept a bid from one of the “unacceptable” ones
-And sometimes ……. overly involved parents and/or alumnae who make things a whole lot more difficult than they need to be.

APhiAnna thanks for your example, that clearly explains the difference between a competitive and non-competitive school.