Quote:
Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby
In addition to what you've mentioned, most women still have options throughout recruitment when there are more chapters. At Illinois, there are about five chapters that are roughly on par at the bottom of the recruitment strength game, so even the PNM's who don't shine as much are likely to have 2 or 3 pref parties to attend. Psychologically, going to three prefs and choosing which one to rank first is VERY different from attending one pref and feeling like this is all you have left.
That's why the situation Carnation is describing is so amazing to me. You would think that there would be some selling points beyond the top three chapters, and women who still had three or more options would be able to see that.
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Granted it was a long time ago, but at Illinois there was definite status attached to being Greek. I don't think as many PNMs had the feeling that pledging a lower-tiered house was a worse option than being a GDI. The first question asked when you met someone new on campus was always, "what house are you in?" and if you said "I'm not Greek" the response was, "why not?" The social structure was:
1. The 3 queens
2. A mid-tier sorority
3. A lower-tier sorority
4. GDI
I think the problems occur at schools where being in a "lower-tiered" sorority is worse than being independent.