"Forced" prefs?

[amIblue?]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Makes sense, if you're guaranteeing placement.

For those at larger 3 party pref schools, do you find that PNMs feel okay with getting a bid to any of their 3? Or is it an "I like these 2, but I for SURE don't want #3" kind of thing? Do a lot of women who receive bids to their #3 stick it out? Or do they drop out?

When I went through back in the dark ages, we had 15 chapters on campus. We had 3 pref parties. From my personal experience, I would have happily accepted a bid from either of the chapters that I ranked first and second. I didn't list the third chapter. I think three is sufficient, even for big schools.

[AXOmom]

When daughter went through her recruitments you could only have 2 pref parties at both schools (WSU and UO. It may have been 3 at WSU even then but she dropped out before pref and had 2 chapter left at the time, so I'm not sure). Waiting to see which 2 she had for pref at UO really stressed her out due to a misunderstanding she had about the rules, but due to that misunderstanding I think 3 would have stressed her out even more.

She did have a younger HS friend go through at WSU with 3 pref parties and she did get her 3rd choice (daughter happened to love that group). She texted daughter to say she didn't think she would accept the bid. Daughter wrote a lot of texts/facebook messages and I think a phone call or two convincing friend to go and give it some time. Friend ended up loving her chapter - wrote daughter to tell her thanks for convincing her to stay with it, but a year later she transferred back to a school in our hometown that had no Greek life. If daughter hadn't talked her into it - I do think she would have dropped even though she had 3 groups on her card most girls at that school would have been thrilled with - just because it was her 3rd choice if that makes sense.

[AlphaXi_Husky]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

Makes sense, if you're guaranteeing placement.

For those at larger 3 party pref schools, do you find that PNMs feel okay with getting a bid to any of their 3? Or is it an "I like these 2, but I for SURE don't want #3" kind of thing? Do a lot of women who receive bids to their #3 stick it out? Or do they drop out?

From what I've seen over the past several years, it really depends on the PNM. Some are happy with all three they have, some are loathe to go back to one (or two) out of their three pref parties. I have seen people who get their 3rd choice stick it out and love it, and others drop out. I don't think any of this would necessarily change if PNMs only went to two parties.

[Greek_or_Geek?]

Originally Posted by AlphaXi_Husky

From what I've seen over the past several years, it really depends on the PNM. Some are happy with all three they have, some are loathe to go back to one (or two) out of their three pref parties. I have seen people who get their 3rd choice stick it out and love it, and others drop out. I don't think any of this would necessarily change if PNMs only went to two parties.

I think that's a fair assessment of what I have observed too.

The other thing we need to remember is that just because a PNM can have three pref parties, many of them have fewer than that. Fewer than three seems to be fairly common at the schools where I've advised (which have all been large and moderately to extremely competitive by GC standards.)

[AZTheta]

I *think* ASU did three party preference last August with (shall we say) interesting results.

Paging AXORushAdvisor! If I'm wrong I'll stand down and delete this.

[AXOmom]

I think Washington State went to 3 a couple of years back - could be wrong on that.

[Mevara]

So does anybody think having 4 invitational round for campuses with 15+ chapters would be helpful?
Just looking at the RFM schedule

15-11-7-3 or 15-11-7-2
16-12-8-3 or 16-12-7-2
17-13-8-3 or 17-12-7-2
18-13-8-3 or 18-13-8-2
19-14-9-3 or 19-14-8-2
20-15-9-3 or 20-14-8-2
21-15-9-3 or 21-15-9-2

To go from having 7/9 chapters down to 3/2 chapters seems almost impossible to decide!! Wouldn't having another round help even out the cuts for both the PNMs and the chapters?

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by Mevara

So does anybody think having 4 invitational round for campuses with 15+ chapters would be helpful?
Just looking at the RFM schedule

To go from having 7/9 chapters down to 3/2 chapters seems almost impossible to decide!! Wouldn't having another round help even out the cuts for both the PNMs and the chapters?

Remember, though, that a lot of these run two weekends, so you have a lot of time to think things over between the first and second invitational. Also, the chapters are making more cuts than the PNM's, and the chapters have time to do their research in there.