Upperclassmen
 

I will be a sophomore going through formal recruitment in the fall. I emailed my school's panhellenic VP of recruitment to ask her about it, and she said that "upperclassmen are counted differently than freshman" and I have the same chance as getting a bid as a freshman would. My school has 6 sororities and I believe about 100 freshmen joined sororities last year, with each sorority getting between 13-23 new members. The VP told me usually about 10 upperclassmen go through recruitment each year.

How are upperclassmen counted differently? I have no idea what this means. Sorry if there has already been a thread about this!

Normally any PNM would count the same towards quota. Since there are benefits to taking a freshman, upperclassmen would be more likely to be cut early by more chapters. By counting upperclassmen differently it helps level the playing field.

For example 110/6 would make quota 19. A chapter would prefer those to be all freshman. But when counted differently you have have freshman quota of 17 and upperclassmen quota of 2.

The campus I advise on has a seperate upperclassmen quota too. It's almost like having 2 different recruitments going on at the same time even though all the pnm's attend the same parties. Chapters are given 2 sets of invitation numbers for each round, 1 for Freshmen and 1 for upperclassmen. We submit 2 Bid Lists and there are 2 quotas set.

Okay, say I pref 2 sororities, A and B. Sorority "A" got 13 new freshmen (now sophomores) last year and Sorority "B" got 23. Based on those numbers, am I more likely to get a bid to sorority A?

In other words, does my chance of getting into a sorority through upperclassmen quota have anything to do with the number of already active members in the same class year as me?

Are sophomores considered "upperclassmen"? I thought that designation started in the junior year. Just curious, not trying to disrupt the thread.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong: Your chances probably depend more on the actual # of upperclassmen going through recruitment compared to the # of upperclassman quota spots. If there are more upperclassmen than upperclassmen quota spots, competition for those spots is going to be tough. If you are at a school with upperclassman quota, chances are that the sororities there aren't going to go out on a limb and take on an extra upperclassman under REGULAR quota. So the only chance to receive a bid as a sophomore or above at some schools is under the separate quota.

Quota has nothing to do with the existing members, only the PNMs.

Assuming you are talking about a traditional formal recruitment, an upperclassmen quota is based on the total number of upperclassmen participating in recruitment. There is no correlation to the number of freshmen participating. Chapters may not make their freshmen quota, yet still make their upperclassmen quota. I have known of chapters that received upperclassmen quota additions even though they didn't make freshmen quota. As I said it is like having two entirely separate recruitments going on at the same time.
It's actually a misnomer. "Upperclassmen Quota" is how I've always heard it referred to on the campuses that use this process. A more accurate term would be "Non-Freshmen Quota".