[ZTAngel]

I came from a large chapter. There were close to 80 women in my pledge class and around 250 women in the chapter. Looking back at my college years, I think a smaller chapter probably would've been a better experience for me. Here are the pros and cons of a big chapter. This is based on my personal opinions and experience.

Pros

• Always someone from your chapter in one of your classes.
• Socials were a blast.
• You never had a problem filling leaderships positions or committees.
• Participation in philanthropy events, socials, sisterhood events, etc. was never an issue.

Cons

• It was impossible to know or be friends with every girl in your sorority. Because of this, cliques were rampant and very closed-off. For someone more introverted and shy like me, it would break me and caused me to almost drop more than a handful of times. Ever feel completely alone in a room full of people? Yeah....there's that....and it sucked.
• You had to fight for a leadership position or committee spot since there were many other girls who would fight you tooth-and-nail for that role.
• Sorority recruitment "practices" were a week long process plus two summer meetings. It's difficult to corral 250 women and get them all to learn the same process, songs, entrances, exits, do and donts of rushing, etc. These practices started early in the morning and went to the wee hours with rush directly following. Everyone always ended up sick because they were so worn out.
• Too many chiefs, not enough Indians. Especially in a chapter that was as strong as mine. Every girl had a leadership role of some sort in high school. Every girl had a strong opinion. Every girl was used to having her leadership skills appreciated, and her opinions known. Imagine that times 250 women. It was a recipe for disaster, and it caused some major drama at times.
• We built an addition to our house while I was in college to accommodate our chapter. Our chapter room couldn't fit all of us. We were sitting two to a seat or on the floors during chapter. By the time our new chapter room came along, we had somewhat outgrown it (although not to the extent of our previous room). We all had to cuddle with each other during chapter. I imagine that with the addition of several sororities since my time there that pledge class sizes have been reduced leading to smaller chapter sizes. My guess is that the chapter room probably feels more comfortable now than when I was there.