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VERY interesting question! For me personally, I would join AAA...coming from the Northeast, where people enter college much less aware of the "reputations" of GLOs on a national level then say, people in the South, I would pick the chapter the would enable me to have the best status during school. I wouldn't want to endure 4 years of ridicule on the off chance that after graduation I would be heavily involved with my GLO or, for that matter, would care what people thought of the org. I was in!

for guys of course its different:

There were a couple of groups I was interested in and that were interested in me (I only posted about one or two, but there were more) but I went on the basis of "if some one calls me at 4am, or if i needed to call someone at 4am, who would I want to be on the other end of that call." Realize that you'd be talking to the person you get along with/know each other the least in the chapter. It came down to which chapter was tighter with each other. I joined Theta Chi.

That is an interesting question especially since it can be applied to the Uof Arizona. There are a couple of chapters here who have great national reps but on this campus they aren't the most popular, let's say. I always wondered if girls who join them think about that at all....

well it would depend on the amount of riducule I received for being a BBB..... I mean I can't really imagine people being out right rude about being in a certain sorority because at my school greek life is so small you pretty much have to be nice to the people in the other GLOs or your screwed anyway.... so depending on if I was going to get Isht talked about me ALL the time hard core...... I MAY just join AAA... but if I was just going to get some what good naturedly teased I'd be a BBB and try to better my chapter and bring it up to the rest of the chapters nationally because its' easier to change a chapter than it is to change nationally...

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This is an awesome question! It depends. As a female knowing the importance of which sorority you are in while at college, I would want to choose AAA. But I don't know how important being a graduate and being able to say "I was a BBB" is? I mean while you're an Alumni, how important is that? That sounds really snobby....but I've just never personally been around alumni discussing sororities before. :confused:

Well, it all depends what you want to do with your GLO membership after college.

Do you want to work with your GLO on a national level? If so, I would pick AAA. You'll be the big fish in a small pond; your chapter will be named a top chapter every year; you'll probably get a foot in the door for national positions more quickly. If you would pick BBB, they know your position in your school's pecking order. You would always be trying to prove yourself and overcome your chapter's reputation.

If you want networking, name recognition, and probably more alum chapters, go with BBB.

and again, it depends what you mean by "ridicule" - if it's one of those things where you don't get to do anything unless you're in a top group, I would join AAA and have fun.

Interesting question.

I enjoy a challenge, so I would probably join BBB and try to turn their reputation around and get them, if not into the top tier, then at least firmly in the middle. Then I'd reap the benefits of the alum network.

That, of course, is assuming all other things are equal. National and chapter reputations factored into my decision a lot less than the sisters and the sisterhood. That's a big part of why I dropped out of formal rush with 4 strong national sororities, joined a brand-new local sorority whose reputation boiled down to "Who are they?", and helped make it a force to be reckoned with. :D

Wow, great question!

I would choose AAA because in college you are defined more by the organizations you belong to than you are after college. When I went through rush, the two houses I preffed were very strong on my campus and that was one of the things I liked most about them. Turns out they are both strong nationally, but that is just a coincidence and had nothing to do with my preffing them.

I am aware that some sororities are stronger nationally than others, but there is honestly no way I would ever think, "Eeeew, so-and-so was an AAA in college. How gross!" Conversely, right now, I am a fairly active alumna and I don't really care about the national reputation of my organization.

That's a tough one!

I think the informed choice I'd make today might be different from the one I'd have made at 18. When I went away to college I assumed that all sororities were the same nationally as the chapters I'd grown up seeing at LSU.

When I went through rush (over 20 years ago), I discovered that:

One of the so-called "Top Four" was a group whose chapter had closed at LSU the year before. I cut them early on, since I didn't want the chance to like them or the horror of being seen in the letters at home in Baton Rouge.

The smallest group was one of LSU's best, most sought-after chapters. Still, I couldn't make myself like the group. Sadly it closed the next year.

Soooo, I suppose that if most 18-year old pnm's are as uninformed as I was, they know nothing about national reputation!

i would probably choose bbb mainly because i am not a person to care about status. if someone is going to talk crap about me because of which glo i am in, then i wouldn't have been friends with them anyway!

on a side note, i really didn't know ANYTHING about any of the national orgs on my campus. my decision to be a phi mu was purely based on the women in the chapter and i wouldn't have it any other way. as an alum, no one cares if you were in the chapter that was tops at your school or not. as for my involvement as an alum, if i didn't enjoy my collegiate experience, then there is no way i would be involved now. had i gone phi sig, dz or axo (the other chapters on my campus), i probably would have been miserable and i wouldn't be involved now. it seems circular to me.

You would be amazed. A guy walked up to one of my sisters wearing letters and said, "You're not fat, why'd you join them?" People are asshats. I wouldn't say that we're unpopular, or any less popular than the other 2 sororities on campus. But some people just want to rag on Greeks for no reason (or their reason is that they're jealous ;) ), so they pick something that they view as a flaw.

OK, since I will be going throuhg rush this fall I have thought about this vaguely.


Assuming that both wanted me and I felt comft in both I would join BBB becuase they could give me the sisterhood I need now but the connections and sister hood I need later in life.



Christia

i've had someone say that to me too :( to answer your question, although i went with the BBB chapter on my campus if i could do it again with what i know now i would have joined AAA. I had too much stress and heartbreak and hurt feelings . although i love the women in my chapter and my national org, i know i'm far from the only one in my collegiate chapter that felt that way.

Assuming that I love the women in both chapters and feel that the sisterhood is equally tight...

AAA all the way. I don't give a $#*& about what people think after I graduate. I can't imagine anyone in the adult world whose opinion I care saying "Well, she was an AAA, and you know they only have 5 good chapters." From Greekchat, it sounds like maybe that happens in small towns in the South; in the professional world in NY, DC, Boston, either people don't care about Greek affiliation at all, or they have mild contempt for Greeks in general.

Now, similarly, if some asshat wanted to laugh at me on campus for wearing a BBB shirt, f#&$ him. But let's be honest...on-campus prestige is not really what's at stake. If you have to spend the whole year recruiting 24-7, if you have to struggle to get other groups to hold events with you, if no one shows up at your philanthropy events because they don't know who you are...that affects your actual college experience. Being an AAA is not just about having people seeing your letters in class and saying, "Wow!" It's about being able to focus on other issues besides chapter survival.