Tiers

AOII Angel · #1 09-09-2007, 10:06 AM

blondebutsmart,

Tiers only REALLY matter at southern schools. It's otherwise just used as a way to describe which groups are the most popular. That's no different than in high school when the group of popular girls were compared to a group of less popular girls. The girls in each group were usually not worried about which "tier" they were in because they were just hanging with their friends. The less popular girls may sometimes wish they were in a different "tier" when they thought about being Homecoming Queen or dating the cute quarterback, but usually they thought they probably wouldn't have much to say to the higher "tier" girls. It's the same thing in college. As for southern schools (like the SEC,) Mama's have raised their daughters with the idea that they can ONLY be an XYZ or an ABC. It is only acceptable to be one of these top tier members. This is why you hear about girls dropping out of rush rather than joining a lower tier group. It's stupid, but it serves those girls right for hanging onto these old social rules. They even write books about it!! If your Mama didn't drill into your head that you'd embarass the whole family if you joined DEF, than you'll be fine. Have a good time at recruitment.

violetpretty · #2 09-09-2007, 10:45 AM

Do tiers exits at most campuses? Of course. Do they matter? Nope. If being in a middle or low tier chapter was so horrible, those chapters would cease to exist. Obviously the members find their experience in their low and middle tier chapters valuable and rewarding or they wouldn't have pledged and stayed members for as long as they have. Sure, there are PNMs out there who drop out of recruitment when they don't get the invites that they want, but tons of women have just as good of an experience in a low or middle tier chapter as they do in a top tier. It all depends what you are looking for in a sorority.

ETA: Also, about mixing with fraternities/dating men in certain fraternities, I can think of lots of couples where it's not "top with top" or "low with low". I can think of couples where the girl is a low tier chapter dating a guy in a top tier chapter and vice versa. Maybe it matters more at other schools. Guys aren't going to not date you if you are in a low or middle tier chapter, unless those silly rules are true on some campuses.

carnation · #3 09-09-2007, 11:08 AM

Violetpretty, that has to be one of the best summaries of tiers that I’ve ever read!

DSTRen13 · #4 09-09-2007, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by violetpretty

Also, about mixing with fraternities/dating men in certain fraternities, I can think of lots of couples where it's not "top with top" or "low with low". I can think of couples where the girl is a low tier chapter dating a guy in a top tier chapter and vice versa. Maybe it matters more at other schools. Guys aren't going to not date you if you are in a low or middle tier chapter, unless those silly rules are true on some campuses.

I can't imagine why anyone would want to date someone who would actually follow such a stupid "rule" anyway ... I mean, who's going to bawl their eyes out over a guy who wouldn't go out with them because he disapproved of sorority's campus status?

UGAalum94 · #5 09-09-2007, 12:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DSTRen13

I can't imagine why anyone would want to date someone who would actually follow such a stupid "rule" anyway ... I mean, who's going to bawl their eyes out over a guy who wouldn't go out with them because he disapproved of sorority's campus status?

I completely agree with that sentiment.

However, if you know that you want to meet the hotties in fraternity XYX, and you know that sorority WTH have regular socials with them and sorority QTPi doesn't, that's when you get yourself into making kind of funny tier based decisions.

It's not that their are strict rules anyplace that I know of, and I wish it weren't true, but at colleges where tiers are a big deal, a member of a lower tiered group might have to work a lot harder to meet members of top tier groups.

It's all kind of nuts but it's still kind of exists, and if that's what your social GLO organization joining priorities are. . .

violetpretty · #6 09-09-2007, 01:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UGAalum94

It's not that their are strict rules anyplace that I know of, and I wish it weren't true, but at colleges where tiers are a big deal, a member of a lower tiered group might have to work a lot harder to meet members of top tier groups.

Maybe not "work harder" but just meet in different places other than mixers. Agreed that top tier and low tier chapters often do not have mixers together, but you can meet someone in class, or through some inter-Greek activity like Homecoming/Greek Week committee, IFC/PHA collaborations, Order of Omega, lobbying for the Greek Housing bill (ok only in DC), etc. All of these avenues are "tier-blind".

UGAalum94 · #7 09-09-2007, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by violetpretty

Maybe not "work harder" but just meet in different places other than mixers. Agreed that top tier and low tier chapters often do not have mixers together, but you can meet someone in class, or through some inter-Greek activity like Homecoming/Greek Week committee, IFC/PHA collaborations, Order of Omega, lobbying for the Greek Housing bill (ok only in DC), etc. All of these avenues are "tier-blind".

One might think that, but I'm not sure it's true. If tiers are a well known aspect of Greek life, events that really should be all Greek or Inter-Greek don't end up that way.*

It's true that you can meet people other places than mixers, and I think most people do. But you don't have to be Greek for that either.

I'm not trying to defend tiers in any way. But I don't think we can wish away their effects either. Once there are established social networks between certain groups and their members, those networks don't necessarily disappear or cease to matter at other events. Again, it's not a formal, rule based thing, but if 20 of your sorority sister are dating guys at XYZ, it's easier to you to meet other XYZs than it is for the girl who doesn't have those other social connections.

*I don't mean to make too big a thing of getting to meet certain people in top-tiered groups. It's kind of silly. But if your looking for an improvement in your social life, it's might be a common thing for an 18 year old to consider.

ETA: UGA in the 1990s may been especially bad about not really mixing as a Greek system. There was no method of formal exclusion, but while you might have paired with a group for Homecoming or a Greek week event, you didn't necessarily interact with any other groups as part of the festivities, or at least that was my experience but I was kind of weird townie-Greek hybrid aspirant, so I wasn't working my fraternity guy connections as much as I guess a person could have.

jwsteele · #8 09-09-2007, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AOII Angel

blondebutsmart,

Tiers only REALLY matter at southern schools.

I'm mostly in agreement but would also say to include a couple more schools that also have very competitive rushes (ie, Texas, USC, Miami Ohio, etc). From what I understand in those few outside-the-SEC competitive rushes tiers matter a bit as well. But I'd agree that on the vast majority of campuses tiers really do not matter.

DeltaBetaBaby · #9 09-09-2007, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwsteele

I'm mostly in agreement but would also say to include a couple more schools that also have very competitive rushes (ie, Texas, USC, Miami Ohio, etc). From what I understand in those few outside-the-SEC competitive rushes tiers matter a bit as well. But I'd agree that on the vast majority of campuses tiers really do not matter.

At other schools, tiers can be obvious during recruitment, BUT the tiers are fairly fluid and I have seen one good/bad pledge class turn a chapter around more than once.