Most Competitive Greek Systems?

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by HDL66

2) I think it protects the Greek system from bad press in a neutral-to-greek-hating media.

So maybe it does, but that same media doesn't understand that 1600 PNMs can't all have the same bid. It's a fact of life that you will be cut and that Suzy Badattitude may actually not get a bid at all. Recruitment isn't perfect, but if you asked the 87% of women who got their first choice on bid day, 99.9% of them are going to be ecstatically happy and not give a crap about what their first choice might have been on day 1 or 2 or even 3. The girls at these schools that HAVE to be in THE sorority are the same 12% that drop out when they get cut from the chapters that they are interested in. Maybe they could do a little better job of warning PNMs about the heavy cuts, but from what PNMs report, this is explained pretty well at the beginning of recruitment. Some PNMs, though, only want to hear what they want to hear.

[NutBrnHair]

Has anyone said University of Tennessee yet? I'll add them to the list!

[UGAalum94]

When it comes to rush, I think people hear what they want to hear until something particularly happens to them, and then they often want to believe that what happened to them is unprecedented. So we get PNMs who want to believe that even though there have been heavy early releases for years that their recruitment counselors warned them about, that this year the computers messed up and the cuts were even worse.

And they are 18 years old, so I don't know that I have a big problem with it, but what I do sort of take issue with is finding fault with greek systems for the intensity of their recruitment when they do almost everything they really can to make it generate a bid for everyone.

If a system matches more than 90% of the girls who stay in recruitment with the options they have left, I think panhellenic is doing about all it can. Sure, it would be more accurate to say "X% are matched to the the first ranked of the houses they have left after the last round." But I really doubt that it will change anything about the experience of rushing.

ETA: the issues that do bug me about panhellenic are the misleading info they give out that ends up hurting the least in the loop, like when they give the party line on recommendations at campuses where recs are expects. We at GC all know, yes, officially the group will find you one if they want you and have to have one, but if you are an unknown PNM at Alabama, you need get your own recs sent.

[KKGis4Me]

[QUOTE=We at GC all know, yes, officially the group will find you one if they want you and have to have one, but if you are an unknown PNM at Alabama, you need get your own recs sent.[/QUOTE]

Ok, this is a bit off topic, but when I rushed this statement confused me...so are they basically saying that if you didn't have a rec, they would find someone to write one for you? Because if so, I feel it would defeat the purpose of the rec, cause that person really doesn't know you...please someone explain!

[Zillini]

Originally Posted by KKGis4Me

Ok, this is a bit off topic, but when I rushed this statement confused me...so are they basically saying that if you didn't have a rec, they would find someone to write one for you? Because if so, I feel it would defeat the purpose of the rec, cause that person really doesn't know you...please someone explain!

On this highly Rec oriented and competitive campus, the following is what I've witnessed.

PNM A has good grades, resume, etc, but does not have a Rec. While the actives like her well enough, there are plenty of other PNMs they like just as much who have just as good grades, resume, etc. and already have a Rec.

PNM B also has good grades, resume and doesn't have a Rec. Some of the actives fall madly in love with her. "OMG, this girl is my Rush Crush! I want to be her big sister! She's like the BFF I never knew I was missing!" The actives start scrambling to find an alumna willing to write her a Rec. (While this does happen, it is not the norm and no PNM should count on it being the case for her.)