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Hey all.
I've mentioned this before, but I'm actually an Dartmouth alum now, but I used to be involved in the CPH.
I understand what D Mom is saying, but a strongly tiered sorority system is not unique to Dartmouth. Our Panhellenic does work with those chapters that are weaker at recruitment, but the fact is, someone always has to be last.
I would feel better about the tier system if it were based on something worthwhile like GPA, service hours, happiness of the sisters... Instead, the tiers are mostly based off of the opinion of fraternity men and trashy publications like IvyGate (I know it's hard to ignore, but it makes me sad when women make life decisions based on a repulsive internet blog that recently posted a humorous article about a student death).
Part of the reason Dartmouth women have the luxury to find chapter reputations beneath them is because Panhellenic works so hard to get all women a bid. At many campus, the majority of women who go through recruitment end up bidless, so even getting a bid to the "worst" sorority is considered an achievement. If we chose to take that path, we could artificially make our system significantly more competitive, so that many women wound up bidless. This would likely make all bid recipients more likely to be satisfied with their bid. BUT, our number one priority is providing the opportunity of sisterhood to every interested woman, so this is not a route Panhellenic will be taking.
Panhellenic can not hold rush any earlier than it does per College regulations.
Informal, 'get to know the sorority' events are held for freshmen women during the spring. All of our chapters take advantage of this opportunity to meet women, and our 'less desirable' chapters are no exception. There are also events that are Panhellenic in nature, providing women a chance to see sorority life in general. We chose not to control these "pre-recruitment" events, because each chapter chooses to organize them differently.
I understand the pressure your daughter felt to join a "desireable" house, but I have to tell you that most if not all of the talk of desirability and tiers fades out after rush. All sororities mix with all fraternities, and women truly aren't placed in a box because of their affiliation. Women who end up in houses they didn't expect are often the happiest a few weeks or months down the road because they find their chapter truly values them for who they are. In my anecdotal experience, it almost seems like the system knows where these women fit better than the women themselves.
And a final, small point. The school newspaper made a HUGE deal last year of what they called a totally new computer system/recruitment style. We switched from accept/regret to select&rank. The real difference is just taking out an extra and unnecessary step. It really wasn't a huge change.
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