Why? Sophomore UGA story

[irishpipes]

I know where I went the chapter sizes were all over the place. It had nothing to do - well, little to do, with chapter strength. Graduation rates are no problem if you consistently take the same mix, but if in year 1 you take 20 sophomores and 25 freshmen, and then in year 2 you take 10 sophomores and 35 freshmen and then year 3 you take 5 juniors, 15 sophomores, and 25 freshmen, etc etc

You took 45 each year, but your loss to graduation is all over the place. So, total is relatively meaningless. You can be way over total just because you didn't lose a lot to graduation, or way under total because you lost a ton. It just gets messy. Total is no longer an indication of how your past recruitments have gone or your initiation rate or membership retention.

I know at my school, all of the strong chapters had between 150-200 members, and the chapter with 150 wasn't necessarily a weaker chapter than the one with 200, or vice versa. So, if total was 165 and you had 150, it didn't necessarily mean you were a struggling chapter. That's what I meant.

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by irishpipes

I know where I went the chapter sizes were all over the place. It had nothing to do - well, little to do, with chapter strength. Graduation rates are no problem if you consistently take the same mix, but if in year 1 you take 20 sophomores and 25 freshmen, and then in year 2 you take 10 sophomores and 35 freshmen and then year 3 you take 5 juniors, 15 sophomores, and 25 freshmen, etc etc

You took 45 each year, but your loss to graduation is all over the place. So, total is relatively meaningless. You can be way over total just because you didn't lose a lot to graduation, or way under total because you lost a ton. It just gets messy. Total is no longer an indication of how your past recruitments have gone or your initiation rate or membership retention.

I know at my school, all of the strong chapters had between 150-200 members, and the chapter with 150 wasn't necessarily a weaker chapter than the one with 200, or vice versa. So, if total was 165 and you had 150, it didn't necessarily mean you were a struggling chapter. That's what I meant.

This makes complete sense, and I think I'd like a Greek system like that a lot.

But at a school where most groups regarded as "successful" are relatively the same size and there's little COB, it's a big risk to graduate too many at once.