[BlueCarnation]

I was in a sorority at UM a while ago, and I know that those three are currently listed as the "top tier" on the ridiculous rankings that seem to be out there.

Original poster, my sorority is now a "tier 2" (I guess) at UM (I can't even believe I typed that--the whole thing is so ridiculous), but when I was in it, I couldn't even tell you where we were. Why? Because I loved the girls in my sorority and could not have cared less what we were ranked. All the sororities at UM are great in their own way, and frankly, with your attitude, you're going to be lucky to get into one at all. Half of my pledge class was sophomores, and some of my best friends were a year older than me. I was on Panhel Exec and I got to know so many people that I forgot what houses they were in. I didn't care.

If you only care about who your pre-party partner is or who you think you're going to party with, then you're going in to this for all the wrong reasons. I can tell you that some of my best friends to this day are members of other sororities from UM, and we don't care who was in what house or who we partied with. We all had a blast at parties we went to, but ultimately we found friends for a lifetime in our sorority and I am so glad that I went in knowing nothing about it. What we remember are the friends who were there for us when we needed them, the late night Pizza House orders, and amazing games at the Big House.

Again, I strongly encourage you to get out of the mindset of only being in one of those 3 sororities. They are excellent sororities at UM to be sure--and by excellent, I mean that the girls are involved all over campus and in panhel, they support other sororities, have extremely bright women in them, and represent both their chapters and our university in a positive way--but if you don't open your mind to other houses, then you are doing yourself a big disservice and will not end up in a sorority at all. Please think about why you want to join the Greek system. There are many wonderful young women going through recruitment going through for the right reasons, and they deserve a bid. You would be surprised by who knows you and what will happen. You don't want to be known as that girl who thinks she's too good to be in any other sorority.

ETA: You're living with 3 ADPis but ADPi isn't good enough for you? Seriously? Think about why that is.

Good luck and Go Blue.