Effects of the New Release Figures

[carnation]

Back in the day, there were few to no release rules and some groups would keep as many girls around as possible for "eye candy", then do massive cuts before prefs--where there were usually required numbers. For instance, some schools required that your pref party numbers be no more than 1 1/2 to 2 times the numbers of bids that could be handed out. This was also aided by the fact that at many schools, quota was determined early on; they might take the number of girls still in after first parties and divide it by the number of sororities. Both of these led to the big groups staying big and the smaller ones staying smaller-or folding.

I think we hear more about the cuts from selective schools like UGa because you have to be so outstanding to get in now. Certainly no freshmen are cut for grades and I have no idea how the heck the sororities are able to manage the giant cuts. Anyway, the women who are rushing have been rejected very little in their lives; they've accomplished so much and when these outstanding women get cut by 75% of the sororities after second parties, many, many drop out. Unless someone personally knows some of the outstanding PNMs who get cut (like, say, the women whom NUBlue&Blue knew last fall) they can not begin to imagine how fabulous these "recruitment dropouts" are.

[UGAalum94]

Oh, I agree. I think I've mentioned before how more girls I know dropped out last year than pledged, and they were all excellent girls. They also knew enough about the process that they were seeking out recs and knew to provide information about activities, etc.

I don't think they would have been more likely to get bids from the A1 chapters in the past, but they would have pledged someplace, and I wonder what makes the difference.

Can anyone speak about an increase in snap bids? I heard they had increased too. Is that accurate?

[carnation]

At UGa, I really think that the increase in dropouts is due to the shock of the early, heavy cuts. Once on here, I posted about how one of my daughters was sitting in front of a freshman dorm during rush a couple of years ago and several buses drove up and unloaded dozens of sobbing women. Her friend asked one of them what was going on and she said that everyone on those buses had just dropped out of recruitment because they were cut so heavily.This was after second parties.

In the last few years, we've frequently heard about many of the big houses having to extend some snap bids. It's probably hard to figure out how the PNMs are ranking you.

[UGAalum94]

And the dropping out probably gains momentum as more people see other people doing it.

I can think of one of the girls I followed, and she and her roommate both dropped out.

In her case, though, she explained that for greek life to be worth it, it was one of her top chapters from the first day or nothing at all. Ah, the eighteen year old mind, you gotta love it.

But at least it means that the girls who come back for third round and pref are serious about at least one group they have left. I bet there aren't too many girls who go through pref and then don't sign a bid card.

[FSUZeta]

i believe it was said in another thread, that in the atlanta metro area(and i am sure other areas also) that it is a status thing to be in certain sororities at uga. maybe going home with an "xyz" shirt instead of an "abc" shirt would be akin to not pledging at all in these circles.

i wonder if these women who are dropping out at the getgo are being dropped by all the top chapters and the pnms figure that if they cannot be in one of the top 3 or 6 or 8 sororities on campus, then they just won't pledge.
i have visited many of the uga sororities websites and they all look good to me-of course i do not know which ones are supposed to be more prestigious than the others, so i am looking at them unbiased.

i agree with carnation that the nrfs seem to be doing a number on legacies. maybe it hits them particularly hard because most sororities as a courtesy will invite a legacy of that sorority back to the first invitational round-if the majority of the other sororities have already dropped her for fear that she will pledge her legacy house, and then she is not invited back to the legacy sorority for the 2nd invitational round, she is left with little to no choice.

it becomes all the more important who the sororities invite back when they have to cut 50-75-90% of the pnms after the first set of parties. they cannot take a chance that a legacy is coming into recruitment with an open mind.

wouldn't it be nice if pnms came in not having already heard the "tent talk" during their high school years and were completely ignorant as to supposed prestige of each chapter? and wouldn't it be great if the pnms took a good long look at themselves and realized that they just might fit in better and stand a better chance in a 2nd tier or bottom tier chapter? when i rushed at fl. state, i knew girls in several sororities, but i did not know any of the sororities reputations-panhellenic relatives had spared me that. i look back now and realize that i declined invitations to many of the top tier(at the time) chapters. i still managed to find the right fit for myself and had a full compliment of parties each day-of course this was waaaaaay before nrfs.

[UGAalum94]

I apologize for seeming so skeptical, but can anybody really say for sure that any groups have to release 75 to 90% of the women after first round? Really?

That would mean that they went from 1200 to 300 or even 120 girls for 12 party second round.

Think about how weird it would be to have 10 to 25 pnms per party visiting a 200 girl chapter. I know that one of the Rho Chis tried to tell me that it was really true, but I tend to take what Rho Chis tell me with a grain of salt because the official word and reality don't always match up. (I also don't know how privy they really are to the groups' party lists and release numbers; not at all I'd guess.)

I thought that release figures always allowed a group to invite anticipated quota times the number of events back, even for the groups near perfect return rates, so cutting 75-90% doesn't add up with that.

Is anyone willing to either post or pm me the number that you chapter really had to cut after first and second round?

FSUZeta, I'm a skeptic by nature and I apologize that it seems like I doubt what you are telling me. I just don't understand how it's possible.

[UGAalum94]

If we said quota was likely to be 55 and you had 12 parties second round, a A1 group would likely have to cut half the PNMs or so, which is plenty harsh enough. And they'd do about half again after second which would be severe again, and a group would be done to around 25% of the total girls who started rush by the start of third party.

I can see why the groups are looking for any reason, like legacy status, to release a girl who they think might not want them. Not that it's right, but it would be so hard to decide to invite back.

[FSUZeta]

no need to apologize. no offense was taken !

i did not mean for anyone to take literally the figures i threw out there. i was just using them as a possible scenario. sorry for the confusion.

i would imagine that the groups that had to cut the highest number of pnms would have the same or at least close to the same amount of pnms at their parties. they would probably just have fewer parties than the groups who were allowed to extend as many invitations as they wanted.

i don't know exact figures that i can quote-i always hear the outcome of recruitment at fsu, but i do not get hard numbers(except how much quota was). the panhellenic system at fgcu(where i am an advisor) is new enough that they are not yet having to comply with the release figure component. i think that they will be ready to use it in a few years.

[ADqtPiMel]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

i believe it was said in another thread, that in the atlanta metro area(and i am sure other areas also) that it is a status thing to be in certain sororities at uga. maybe going home with an "xyz" shirt instead of an "abc" shirt would be akin to not pledging at all in these circles.

My best friend, who is from Marietta, ranked ADPi over another sorority after pref because it would "look better" to her friends back home.

[alum]

Originally Posted by FSUZeta

wouldn't it be nice if pnms came in not having already heard the "tent talk" during their high school years and were completely ignorant as to supposed prestige of each chapter?

This is the problem I see with deferred rush. Although 18 y.o. freshmen women SHOULD ignore the chatter and gossip of sorority reputations (especially when said by the fraternity men), many times they do not. Hearing for an entire semester about how one house only gets ugly girls, one has the trust-fund babies, and one is all athletes doesn't help.

[carnation]

So true. Arkansas got rid of deferred rush after I rushed and it was a good thing they did. During the summer before the freshman year, girls could have "rush dates" and it about killed the girls who didn't. At fraternity parties, they heard all the gossip, plus the freshmen lived together in halls...they had their minds set on which groups they would accept way before recruitment started. Probably most of them had a good idea before they even started school.

The silence rules (year long) were a joke!

[33girl]

But it seems that at places like Arkansas, Georgia, Ole Miss, the majority of the women coming in to rush already know that anyway. Wouldn't it make more sense to wait a semester to see if they can actually handle college classes and pressures?

[UGAalum94]

There's enough of the reputations and gossip that still happens with-before-school-even-starts fall recruitment. I can't imagine what it would be like at Georgia with deferred.