how do you define a 'great/strong pledge class'?
 

frats or sororities often state that their "pledge class" emerged victorious amongst their competitors' classes during the rush season.

so if you were to hypothetically claim that your pledge class is better or stronger than that of a rival, what exactly are you saying? its just that the term "great pledge class" could mean so many things, and that the phrase is somewhat ambiguous.

1. so what does a "strong pledge class" mean to you?

2. also one more question: what exactly distinguishes a freshman from other freshman, when it comes time for recruitment (for frats or sororities). what makes a great pledge?

thanks for the replies.

a strong pledge class would be one where nobody drops, or gets dropped. All of the guys are real close and stay good friends after initiation. They also have to get all of their shit done. You can tell the fraternities that have shitty pledge classes because you'll hear the brothers bitching about stuff not getting done.

How often does all of that really happen though?

To me, a strong pledge class would be one with guys you can see as being leaders in the chapter, with few drops (only the weakest links getting dropped or dropping), and a pledge class that remains kind of close but also maintains that sense of unity after initiation.

In the sorority world, when you hear someone say they pledged a strong pledge class, it usually means their cuts were minimal and they got their top girls (top girls on campus going through rush).

After rush and several weeks after Bid Day, it may mean something else - i.e great workers, loyal members. In other words, they lived up to their resumes and recs.

Agreed. Formal sorority recruitment is more numbers-driven, with spreadsheets and formulae, etc. NPC formal recruitment is all about determining quantifiable comparisons of how the sororities recruit in competition against each other. You can look at a chapter's return rates (rates that PNMs were coming back to chapter XYZ's next party round) and determine that a chapter was doing much better/worse/the same than the previous year and in comparison to other chapters.

Greek men and women know the difference between PNMs who they really, really want to pledge and PNMs who will be cut asap, or who might be bid... if you don't get Johnny Awesome versions 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Key Factors:
-Leadership, accomplishments, grades
-Attractiveness (in the WHOLE sense of the word - personality, charisma, attitude, physical appearance)