Tiers?

[DifferentDances]

I think your question is certainly valid, but the answer is really just common sense.

Tiers are determined much the same way the popular cliques in high school are determined: vague word of mouth, sheer force of belief, and sometimes founded in very real, substantiable facts and accomplishments.

Tiers are reinforced in much the same way as high school as well: rumors, status by association and tradition, etc.

It IS possible to move from a lower tier upwards, just as it's possible to slide downwards. I've seen both happen at my school, but we're not a big Greek school. It's probably harder to slide up the tiers at an SEC school or similarly big Greek campus, because the tiers are often known to non-Greeks and incoming freshmen, so again you have reinforcement of artificial status by sheer force of assumption and belief.

And, as is always true in life, it's a heck of a lot easier to slide down in status through a single misstep than it is to climb up. It can take years to repair the damage to a group's reputation, long after whatever incident caused the downfall and the involved people have graduated.