[Kristin AGD]

Originally posted by AlphaXiGirl
The way that guaranteed placement works at UT - Austin is this:

A PNM that "plays by the rules"... she accepts the maximum number of invitations she receives for each event up to the limit for that round AND puts the maximum number of chapters on her preference card up to the number of preference parties she attended... she will be placed with one of those chapters.

It main goal is to keep "cross cutting" to a minimum.

She will not be placed with a group that she did not put on her pref card. Nor will she be placed with a chapter where she was not invited to their preference.

IF she is not matched through the normal bid matching process, she will be hand matched with the smallest group on her pref card.

PROS:
More women are matched!

CONS:
PNMS have learned to play the game... if you don't want to be placed with a group... make sure they release you before preference. More and more PNMs are rude to chapters hoping to be released from them....

Word of advice - don't do it. I know of at least three situations where women attempted this not knowing that membres of their "favorite" chapter were good friends with women of the chapter where they were rude. Competitive or not, the sorority women at UT all have good friends in other chapters... in the three situations I know of - word traveled quickly to the "favorite" chapter and the women were released from not just the chapter where they were rude, but three or four other chapters that got wind of the behavior.

Another con:
Guaranteed placement helps the middle sized chapters - chapters that are usually already at or above total on this campus... and has no benefit at all to the smaller chapters or chapters that don't make quota. One year, one of the mid sized chapters reached quota (51) + Junior Quota (3) + Guaranteed Placements of (9) = 63, while one chapter only matched 28 women.... the larger chapters only pledged 51 + 3 because, remember, guaranteed placed women go to the smallest of the chapters on their pref card.

My opinion is that GP simply widens the gap between chapter sizes. Whether or not that out weighs the benefit of matching more women - I can see it both ways. Luckily all 14 chapters at UT are strong and a few GPs isn't going to make or break anyone at this time. It's been about 5 years since UT lost a chapter but before that the campus averaged losing one chapter every two years or so.

AlphaXiGirl thanks for explaining that so well. I just didn't get how it works.