School with Lowest Percentage accepted?

[ForeverRoses]

As an IU outsider who now lives and breathes IU recruitment info ( okay, that might be a bit dramatic) yes, IU is brutal. On both sides. Most groups already have a rough idea of what quota will be for them in January. I have also heard rumors of some of the groups with senior live out policies getting rid of them now that there are additional sororities. Which is nice for budgeting...
I will also say that a few years ago NPC visited campus to try and get the campus to move away from bed rush. From the papers I have seen, the presentation wasn't very well received. Then again the approach left much to be desired. (at least that is my impression after reading all the meeting minutes and the notes from the presentation)

[KSUViolet06]

^^^This was true of my alma mater as well. There were a couple who had 2 year live-in requirements and the rest of us the one year requirement always talked it up.

[CookiesNCream]

Just throwing my 2 cents out there regarding the bed quota tradition at IU... Our chapter has expanded in size so much these past couple of years that we are now at about 200 members and I believe we are the largest sorority at IU. Of course, this means that many of us are going to be living out next year, myself included... about 50 of the 70 girls in my pledge class won't be living in the chapter house next year, nor will basically any of our seniors sans the ones on exec board.

I personally am a little bit frustrated because we are the only housed chapter on campus with such a high amount of live-outs; it kind of makes me feel like we're the "odd one out" while my friends in every other sorority get to live in as juniors. I know that other schools, particularly in the South, do differ in their traditions and thrive with larger chapters. But I really do like the close-knit bonds that are forged by being a smaller chapter and I think these bonds are something that most IU sororities take very seriously.

I don't know if this is going to inspire a trend and encourage other chapters to take bigger numbers, but I know for a fact that many girls in my chapter are hoping our quota is going to be set lower within the next several years so we can return to a "normal" chapter size for IU.

It doesn't look like things are going to be changing anytime soon. Many people are proud of the fact that recruitment is so competitive and that nothing is guaranteed. I think that at this point the unhoused chapters are a temporary fix for a longterm problem, I don't forsee them really being able to thrive as much as they can if bed quota continues the way it does.

[Greek_or_Geek?]

Originally Posted by CookiesNCream

Just throwing my 2 cents out there regarding the bed quota tradition at IU... Our chapter has expanded in size so much these past couple of years that we are now at about 200 members and I believe we are the largest sorority at IU. Of course, this means that many of us are going to be living out next year, myself included... about 50 of the 70 girls in my pledge class won't be living in the chapter house next year, nor will basically any of our seniors sans the ones on exec board.

I personally am a little bit frustrated because we are the only housed chapter on campus with such a high amount of live-outs; it kind of makes me feel like we're the "odd one out" while my friends in every other sorority get to live in as juniors. I know that other schools, particularly in the South, do differ in their traditions and thrive with larger chapters. But I really do like the close-knit bonds that are forged by being a smaller chapter and I think these bonds are something that most IU sororities take very seriously.

I don't know if this is going to inspire a trend and encourage other chapters to take bigger numbers, but I know for a fact that many girls in my chapter are hoping our quota is going to be set lower within the next several years so we can return to a "normal" chapter size for IU.

It doesn't look like things are going to be changing anytime soon. Many people are proud of the fact that recruitment is so competitive and that nothing is guaranteed. I think that at this point the unhoused chapters are a temporary fix for a longterm problem, I don't forsee them really being able to thrive as much as they can if bed quota continues the way it does.

So how did this happen? Did your chapter deliberately decide to offer more bids than they had beds for? How is your size and live-out situation looked upon by others in the community? Are sororities there able to offer as many bids as they want but chose to follow the bed rush formula?

[CookiesNCream]

Originally Posted by Greek_or_Geek?

So how did this happen? Did your chapter deliberately decide to offer more bids than they had beds for? How is your size and live-out situation looked upon by others in the community? Are sororities there able to offer as many bids as they want but chose to follow the bed rush formula?

To answer your questions... The reason why we experienced such a sudden spike in members in such a short period of time was because our chapter struggled heavily during the 2000's, particularly around 2005-2009. It was to the point where our nationals was threatening to pull our charter if we didn't get it together. Winter 2010 recruitment was our most successful in years and it kept on going upward from there; we have made quota the past 2 years (not sure what quota was in 2010 but the amount of girls who accepted bids was around 50, which was substantially larger than the 14-girl '09 PC) and have had the biggest pledge class on campus each time, which is a huge accomplishment for a chapter that was literally on the brink of being shut down only several years ago.

We do not set our quota, our nationals does... they are completely in charge of it but they take various chapter trends into consideration (namely retention rates and quota met) when setting it. I guess the reason why our quota is so much higher than other chapters is because a) nationals wants to ensure that we continue to make quota/have enough members to sustain our chapter so they set it extra high to have some cushion for new members that might drop/not accept bids b) we have one of the largest chapter houses on campus, with room for about 100 members to live in, and c) they want us to continue expanding.

A lot of people respect the progress we have made over the past few years and understand that it's natural to have some growing pains, but people occasionally do get curious when I tell them I'm living out of the house as a junior because that's pretty much unheard of with all the other IU sororities. If anything I think that will be our biggest struggle; a lot of PNMs who want to live in the house want to be able to do so sophomore AND junior year. So, if they find out they can only live in our house 1 year they might set their sights on joining a chapter with a 2 or 3 year live-in policy instead. I think the best solution for our chapter and what we ultimately want is to be able to have a 2 year live in policy with all seniors living out... several other IU chapters follow this right now and I think it's completely fair. It also helps chapters with bed quota take slightly larger pledge classes due to the absence of seniors, which will help ease the competitiveness of recruitment even if only a little bit.

I'm not sure whether or not other IU chapters go by a quota set by their nationals or by the chapters themselves, but I do know that our nationals doesn't really take "bed quota" into account at all due to our unique circumstances as a chapter. I am pretty sure that we are the only housed chapter at IU to operate this way, however.

[glittergal1985]

I wonder if the possible eventual addition of the rest of the NPC groups to the IU campus is going to help alleviate the problem at all, given that the PNM pool will continue to grow year by year. While I admit it feels strange to think my own sorority is unhoused on a campus where there others have housing, I still feel the school has the room for the continued addition of new chapters given our overwhelming success this past year. As far as the exclusivity of "being greek" at IU is concerned, I don't think that will be changed anytime soon. Even with the addition of ASA, the placement rate of PNMs will still reflect an exclusive system

[33girl]

Originally Posted by CookiesNCream

I'm not sure whether or not other IU chapters go by a quota set by their nationals or by the chapters themselves, but I do know that our nationals doesn't really take "bed quota" into account at all due to our unique circumstances as a chapter. I am pretty sure that we are the only housed chapter at IU to operate this way, however.

This is almost as silly as a chapter building a modern house at a very tra...oh hell, never mind.

I think a lot of NPCs would love to be the one who "rises above" campus traditions that they consider silly or even deleterious, but when it comes down to it, it is a business, and if you choose to run a McDonald's franchise and not offer fries, you're going to have a lot of people driving out of your parking lot and to the next closest McDonald's. If you think the campus is that effed up, you need to close your chapter.

[DubaiSis]

Does it have less cache at Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Arkansas? They all follow traditional rush placement policies and they're doing just fine. More than just fine. All 4 systems are growing. While I agree that may be the fear, I don't think it's valid.

[Greek_or_Geek?]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

Does it have less cache at Alabama, Georgia, Auburn, Arkansas? They all follow traditional rush placement policies and they're doing just fine. More than just fine. All 4 systems are growing. While I agree that may be the fear, I don't think it's valid.

It's a different type of cachet and for some at those campuses there's still the tightly held belief by many that it's better to not be Greek than to be a member of certain chapters. While that's true of many schools and I am sure it happens at IU, we don't hear the same kinds of dropping out meltdown stories that we hear from those other competitive schools.

[IndianaSigKap]

As I type this from Bloomington, I do
not foresee all26 chapters ever being at IU for two reasons. I am fairly sure that both Sigma Kappa and Tau chapter alumnae agree that recolonization is not a viable option without a house. If housing becomes available,the situation may change. My number 2 reason being that a friend of mine is a Phi Sigma Sigma and they have no desire to put the much effort into such a high risk situation. She has benn a national volunteer for years and has always contended that IU was not a campus on which they wanted to be.

[Titchou]

It's going to take the whole CPH deciding that they want more women to have the Greek experience whether there is room to live in or not before IU will make a change in the way they place PNMs. They are far too mired in what they've always done....and it shows in many ways.

[33girl]

Does anyone know of any instances where national Panhellenic (Panhel the entity, not each member group voting individually and making basically the same decision) has overridden a CPH? Or has that just never been possible ever?

Even if the above scenario were true, would the administration go for it? More than likely, the chapters would want larger houses as they grew...and IMO, the chapter and prospective colony that are not housed at the present time aren't going to want to stay that way forever, unless they market themselves to a very narrow niche and rush separately. As much as IU is saying "we want all 26" I think they're only saying it because they don't think it will ever occur. Unless they go to Q/T, tear down everything that's there and build 26 identical houses.

[Titchou]

They really would not have the power to do that. NPC does not sanction chapters or campuses. They have certainly tried to get IU to see the options but have not been successful in changing the system. It seems the people there are afraid to find out what it would be like as they are afraid some groups will end up with the short end of the stick. Which is true if they want to be as short sighted as they have been in the past. Or, which some also fear, is that they will be inundated with woment hey cannot accomodate - which is the more likely scenario. They could however plan for that but thinking outside the box is not something that happens in that particular Greek system.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

The NPC system is extremely large, popular, and healthy at Purdue and UIUC, which are the schools most similar to IU. I don't see why IU's system couldn't thrive under the rules that work on those campuses.

When we visited the IU chapter, I had the following conversation with another woman in my chapter:

Her: Man, their house is SO gorgeous. I wish our house was this nice.
Me: Do you want to live in the house senior year?
Her: Good point.

In this respect, UIUC is a world apart from IU. In fact, as I've mentioned elsewhere, many chapters use "only one year live-in requirement" as a selling point.