[aggieAXO]

It also depends on the school you attend. I had a friend in a small chapter at my school. Her chapter had about 40 woman compared to most that had 140-160. It was a struggle just to stay open and no she wasn't enjoying alot of that experience neither were her sisters. They had a large house they could not fill so ended up having to rent out rooms to non-members. They had to have collegiate members from other chapters come help them for rush which actually worsened the situation. Then her senior year the chapter re-organized and she was not allowed to wear her letters around campus. The stigma was too bad and the re-organization did not work. Why keep struggling? If you want to join a smaller chapter-whatever works for you but I could see what my friend and her sisters had to deal with and it was not for me.

I would say at most large southern schools-once you start struggling it will likely be an ongoing battle to stay open.

ETA: those that responded in favor of keeping the chapter open-how big was your chapter? Did you have a huge house to keep up? Was your chapter over 100 members smaller than total? Yes, I agree quality over quantitiy but that does not pay the bills unfortunately. Also-as far as the "quality over quantitiy" theory-my friends sorority actually could not cut many if any girls during rush as they needed members and thus accepted pretty much anyone-they had to to keep the doors open.