Upperclassmen quota
 

I was told, in regards to the recruitment at my school, that the upperclassmen quota is the minimum required number of upperclassmen that each sorority has to take. Is this accurate? Do they have to take a certain number of upperclassmen?
I looked through some older threads that said this kind of quota does not mean they have to take upperclassmen, so I am rather confused.
Thank you for your responses!

To be clear, no sorority HAS to take ANY members. Quotas are the maximum allowed, presuming the chapter is at total or reaches it through rush.

Having a separate quota for upper classmen allows the chapters to take older rushees when they wouldn't without a separate category. That basically comes down to money and the chapters would like to have more freedom to choose sisters, not just girls who can pay for 4 years instead of 3. At some schools this is critical because the upper classmen wouldn't stand a chance when cuts have to be made to 1000+ girls. At others it's really not as important because sophomores are pledged regularly and juniors are not unheard of.

Since rush is starting up again at a lot of schools, and if this applies to you right now, my advice to you is to stop worrying about it. Unless you have a way-back machine, there is nothing you can do about your age or your decision to not rush as a freshman.

Just wanted to update my information about this. I've talked to some friends who are in sororities and they've said the school makes each sorority take a certain number of upperclassmen. I know this is apparently not normal of most schools. Are there many schools that do this?

While it may seem that way to them, your friends are mistaken. It may be more of a tradition at your school, but Panhellenics can't require a sorority to take any members. They can't even force a chapter to take the regular quota number. There is nothing stopping any of the chapters from completely dropping all upperclassmen after the first round.

An upperclassman PNM should never count on the existence of an upperclassmen quota to get a bid.

There are actually one or two schools with guaranteed placement, so, FTR, there are things that schools can do to force chapters to take members. It probably doesn't apply here, though.

And to play devil's advocate to my own post, just because sororities CAN turn away more members than recommended, it would be an anomaly to do so. My understanding is the big California schools take a lot of juniors because it is fairly commonplace to work your way through the community college ranks and have the huge fees for just 2 years.

Still, they CAN turn away older students, but I'm sure the university, Greek system and tradition would really frown upon it. You don't want huge fluctuations in numbers from year to year so you can rely on a tolerable amount of members leaving each year. It's tough on a chapter when you typically have 40 members graduate and suddenly you have 60 without your overall chapter size growing.

If my understanding of upper classmen quotas is correct as it applies to RFM, one could presume a certain percentage of upperclassmen will be invited back to each round of rush and that percentage will vary based on individual chapter strength. Now I'm not interested or qualified to go into a whole explanation of RFM, but I'd assume those return percentages are tighter than they are for freshmen with the same qualifications.

In short, quit worrying about it! What the rules say has little to do with any individual's personal outcome. Even if you have the grades, even if you're literally a beauty queen, even if your Daddy owns half of Texas, even if you're a freshman, you are not guaranteed a place (except for the 2 or 3 campuses that have guaranteed placement and they're VERY small schools if I recall). And being a 24 year old woof on scholarship doesn't automatically make you unable to get a bid. Admittedly it's unlikely, but I wouldn't spend any more time worrying about Membership Selection rules and traditions. You can't do anything about them anyway.

I'm not completely sure why you believe I am worrying about it just by stating what I've heard. I know what to expect and where I'll probably end up so I'm completely fine with everything. I'm not relying on an upperclassmen quota to get a bid, either, so I really hope I did not come across that way haha. I just thought I'd update this since the information I got is inconsistent with most of the info about it on this site. I didn't even ask my friends about it, they just mentioned having to take a certain number of upperclassmen.
But thank you for your responses. I appreciate the advice since I'm fairly new to the whole process :)

Don't be so sure about these sorts of things. Your friends in sororities can only do so much for you. We all know people who haven't gotten bids who were in your shoes and can point out threads on GC to illustrate the point. Not trying to scare you, things may work out just as you think, but membership selection is more complicated than just having a couple friends in a group. I recommend you go into the process with the intent of keeping an open mind about all the groups, in case this one your counting on doesn't pan out.

I do understand that, and I am not trying to assume anything. At my campus it's very very rare for anyone, including upperclassmen, to be released completely, though. I guess it does sound a little arrogant to say that, though, so please don't take it that way. I'm sorry if I've seemed disrespectful in any way, I genuinely do not mean to :/

Ha. I don't think your disrespectful. It's not uncommon for women to be lulled into thinking they are a lock for a group and then have their hearts broken. The system isn't perfect so the best course of action is to keep a very open mind. The other important thing to consider is that you might find that another group is a better fit for you despite having friends in another group. :)

^^ I kind of get the hint that she is keeping an open mind, because she stated that it's rare even for upperclassmen to be released completely. To me that means she knows that if she keeps an open mind she could very well end up with a bid somewhere.

There's more to this story in her previous posts. She's a re-rusher who had sub-par grades which she admits haven't improved that much. With the exception of the house that didn't meet her expectations, everyone dropped her last time, she thinks because of her grades not making the cut. So she dropped out.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...d.php?t=123791

Good luck with recruitment, OP.

^^ I just realized this when you posted in the other thread. I thought the screen name looked familiar.

There are a couple chapters that have girls with grades similar to mine. I'm keeping an open mind, don't worry lol.

Trust me, we're not worrying about whether you get into a sorority or not.