What to tell overconfident PNMs

[DGTess]

Originally Posted by 33girl

^You would hope that the mom or whoever would have the smarts to realize that her chapter has not been frozen in amber for the last 25 years, or that the chapter at mom's alma mater and daughter's school have never had anything in common except their letters. IMO it would be more upsetting to have a daughter pledge your org, hate it and drop out.

It would also be nice if mothers recognize that their daughters are different people, with minds of their own, and allow their daughters to make not-my-group decisions without guilt trips or repercussions.

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by DGTess

It would also be nice if mothers recognize that their daughters are different people, with minds of their own, and allow their daughters to make not-my-group decisions without guilt trips or repercussions.

I have a feeling that this will happen more and more as time goes on. These PNMs will become new members who will become sisters and recognize that there are simply too many legacies going through recruitment to take them all on. When they become parents, they may be more sympathetic and understanding of the chapters' position.

There will always be a few exceptions, of course, but I think this will change in the future.

[Titchou]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

I have a feeling that this will happen more and more as time goes on. These PNMs will become new members who will become sisters and recognize that there are simply too many legacies going through recruitment to take them all on. When they become parents, they may be more sympathetic and understanding of the chapters' position.

There will always be a few exceptions, of course, but I think this will change in the future.

Not in the deep South....

[33girl]

Originally Posted by Titchou

Not in the deep South....

I think that EVERYWHERE there are alumnae who in their dotage (har) have forgotten the legacy who came through during their time as a collegian who just didn't fit. And that has been going on since there were legacies.

[carnation]

We didn't forget! But those girls were usually waaaay out of the ballpark. Now there are far too many legacies rushing for sororities to take them all.

[DGTess]

Originally Posted by carnation

We didn't forget! But those girls were usually waaaay out of the ballpark. Now there are far too many legacies rushing for sororities to take them all.

I have trouble with this statement in its many forms. Not to single out carnation, but I see it a lot.

I thought I understood RFM.

Quote = # women at prefs/# sororities, right?

Logically, then, no such thing as 'can't take them all'.

Even one chapter. Granted, I don't understand sorority life at chapters of 200+ members, either, but when your pledge classes are over 100 women, is it really mathematically impossible to pledge all your legacies? Has it ever happened that more legacies than the chapter could take listed that chapter as #1?

I also understand not wanting a pledge class that is all legacies. Or even a majority legacy.

Now, as a sister of a 20-woman chapter at a geeky private school in the 70s, and an alumna who recommended my daughter not rush at Texas, I recognize I'm out of the mainstream. What I fail to understand is how that changes the math.

Newbies who come to GC and make a statement like "there were too many women for the sororities to take them all" are rapidly corrected. Why is this legacy statement promulgated?

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by DGTess

I have trouble with this statement in its many forms. Not to single out carnation, but I see it a lot.

I thought I understood RFM.

Quote = # women at prefs/# sororities, right?

Logically, then, no such thing as 'can't take them all'.

Even one chapter. Granted, I don't understand sorority life at chapters of 200+ members, either, but when your pledge classes are over 100 women, is it really mathematically impossible to pledge all your legacies? Has it ever happened that more legacies than the chapter could take listed that chapter as #1?

I also understand not wanting a pledge class that is all legacies. Or even a majority legacy.

Now, as a sister of a 20-woman chapter at a geeky private school in the 70s, and an alumna who recommended my daughter not rush at Texas, I recognize I'm out of the mainstream. What I fail to understand is how that changes the math.

Newbies who come to GC and make a statement like "there were too many women for the sororities to take them all" are rapidly corrected. Why is this legacy statement promulgated?

It's been a few years now, but I think when I was involved in my chapter's recruitment we had around the same number of legacies going through as quota, which hovered in the 60s. But, part of that was an upperclassman quota, which was around 15 because Clemson has a fairly large number of sophomores in recruitment for a couple reasons (and they are very successful). Thus, if more of those legacies were first-year students than upperclassmen, which I think they were but I don't remember for sure, we would have had more than we could take.

Obviously this is one poorly-remembered anecdote, but it's possible. Or, take ADPi's chapter at Brenau University. Quota there is something like 8-it's entirely possible that one of the six sororities there could have more than eight legacies in recruitment, especially sororities with a more liberal definition of legacy.

I agree that in generally it's not likely, and people are probably saying it more to mean "we don't want a whole pledge class of legacies", which is also valid, but a little different.

EDIT: another difference between "too many women rushing to take them all" and "too many legacies" is that legacies are chapter specific. There are a lot more ADPi legacies in Clemson recruitment than say, Sigma Kappa legacies by virtue of the fact that there are many more ADPi chapters in the areas Clemson students come from that are very old. Vice versa in other locations with other sororities. Legacies aren't divvied up at pref night equally. Also, a woman can be a legacy to more than one chapter but only counts as one PNM.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by DGTess

Quote = # women at prefs/# sororities, right?

Logically, then, no such thing as 'can't take them all'.

Even one chapter. Granted, I don't understand sorority life at chapters of 200+ members, either, but when your pledge classes are over 100 women, is it really mathematically impossible to pledge all your legacies? Has it ever happened that more legacies than the chapter could take listed that chapter as #1?

I also understand not wanting a pledge class that is all legacies. Or even a majority legacy.

Now, as a sister of a 20-woman chapter at a geeky private school in the 70s, and an alumna who recommended my daughter not rush at Texas, I recognize I'm out of the mainstream. What I fail to understand is how that changes the math.

Newbies who come to GC and make a statement like "there were too many women for the sororities to take them all" are rapidly corrected. Why is this legacy statement promulgated?

Well, right now Alabama has 2500 women registered. Divide that by the 16 sororities participating in formal and you have 156. I have absolutely no problem believing that there are (for example) 200 women whose mother, grandmother (which you have at least two of) or sister (which you can have many of) is a Pi Phi among those 2500.