Effects of the New Release Figures

[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.

[UGAalum94]

Thank you, FSUZeta; I'm glad you understood.

Does anyone know if at UGA the number of parties per group varies?

I also am feeling bad about saying that I didn't believe the rho chi about release figures. I suppose she could have been an expert because she attended the parties as the girls made the rounds.

Can anyone verify if all the school who do release figures allow all the groups to invite quota times the number of parties back each round?

Do the number of parties vary by group at UGA?

[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.

[NUBlue&Blue]

There have already been a couple of posts on Facebook groups for incoming freshmen housing detailing the reputations of the chapters. Not good. Told my daughter and her friends that ***all together now*** "discretion is the key". I told my daughter that she may not understand right now that saying certain things is just not done, but as soon as she is in a sorority she will.

I hope.

[UGAalum94]

33Girls,

I didn't see your post, but I wanted to throw in my two cents in response.

At this point at UGA, the admission standards are so tough that most of them are going to be able to handle it academically, and like a lot of other places, the all sorority GPA average is higher than the rest of the students average GPA. Joining isn't likely to hurt them this way, and it may create some positive pressure to do well.

I apologize that I can't remember what campus you are from and advise, but one of the weird things to keep in mind is the scale of UGA recruitment. Figuring out a way to take 1200 girls to 18 houses for first round and get the results to them etc, it a big job although it decreases a little as the rounds go by.

I do know they can manage it other places while classes are going on, but if you suggested to the members and advisers that in addition to everything that recruitment currently requires, they were now going to try to do it at the start of second semester, while classes were going on, I don't think it would go over so well.

I really would represent something of a revolution logistically and we all know how most people deal with change.

[33girl]

That's why I said "and pressures." They might hate the environment - they might miss their hometown - they might hate their major - the money situation might be more than they can handle - many factors figure into people transferring after a semester that don't really have anything to do with whether they can handle the classes academically. Of course, with the shortened pledge programs, most of them are probably already initiated. And there go your secrets and rituals out the door.

I know that theoretically once people are in a sorority they are more likely to stay on the campus, but some of the things I mentioned can't be remedied by sorority membership. I'm not saying once you're there for a year you won't ever transfer. It's just that high school to college is a big transition and I don't see the merit in piling a decision that will effect your life on top of it right away.

I don't think that the schools I mentioned can do rush while class is happening, but with the amount of women who want to participate I don't think there would be any problem in asking them to come back a week before spring semester for recruitment.

[carnation]

They already come back right after New Year's in the spring, I can't see them volunteering to be there a week early plus a week earlier than that for the actives.

Plus I just don't see it happening at most of the SEC schools--there's such competition for "the right girls" and heaven knows, cheating was absolutely, wildly rampant when we had sophomore rush at Arkansas. Freshman year was miserable for the girls who wanted so badly to be Greek.

[UGAalum94]

I think it's scheduled as seven days right now, with the last, since it's bid day, overlapping with the first day of classes. Classes began on January 8th this semester, so maybe it would work.

You may be right. I don't know how it would play out.

If I remember correctly, I once ran across the results of a study into the possibility of deferred recruitment at UGA.
The studied how it worked on similar campuses and decided fall worked better. I'll look for the link.

ETA: Carnation is right about starting right after New Year; classes started on the eight but the orientation and registration stuff is earlier. I think campus opened back up and got rolling on the third or fourth. I don't think you could get rush in.