As the starter of this thread, I guess I should put my opinion.
I can really only speak for my pledge class at my chapter, but in our case the random matches were less than successful. Really active new members were paired with indifferent bigs and vice versa. Luckily, everyone had someone in their Kore that they could relate to. But as you all know, the key sis is a very special part of the Kore fam that's pretty hard to replace, and a lot of girls (myself included) felt kind of cheated. Much like KellyTheKappa, I was "adopted" so to speak. And I wish more than anything else that that girl could have been my key sis or at least in my kore. Even though I was initiated months ago, I wish she could be my big just because no one deserves the title more than her (she never got an official little) Especially because I was one of the victims of a bad match.
I'm sure that the intentions behind the changes in the New Member Program are very good. But on a largely Greek campus where we are exposed to what the other sororities do, it's hard to watch all the fun revealing-related activities that the other groups do, things that aren't allowed for us. You can't help but feel a little left out.
ps what exactly is a Sapphire again?