Closing the door after the horses bolted

[SWTXBelle]

I am sorry your daughter couldn't see herself in the chapter which so obviously wanted her - if she was invited to pref, they wanted her. Perhaps she can find a home through informal recruitment.

I do think it bears mentioning that while we hear a great deal from moms of pnms who don't get bids, the vast majority of pnms FIND A HOME. Recruitment may not have worked out for your daughter (although if she had at least 2 pref chapters, I would argue that it worked pretty well up to that point) but especially with the new rfm programs we are seeing MORE women finding homes in MORE chapters. Overall, it works. It works better NOW than it did back-in-the-day. Record-breaking numbers of women are becoming sorority members. Campuses are expanding. Numbers don't lie, and the numbers say the system works, probably as well as it can. Deferred recruitment has its own problems, and those campuses are not the ones we see succeeding in the ways conventional campuses are.Having recruitment during classes is a major head-ache, and distracts from what should be a freshman's main focus - getting off to a good start academically. Chapters are always going to be more likely to pledge women they know (hometown or schools) or who have recs from trusted actives and alumnae. But even SEC chapters pledged large numbers of out of state girls. My Texas girls (drawl-free) did well at SEC schools- 100 % of my recs who went to Alabama (one of the, if not THE, toughest recruitments) received bids. BUT - they were all encouraged to have open minds. From your description, your daughter decided from the get-go that she would not consider one of the chapters. That, in this day and age, is a recipe for disaster. If she truly could not imagine being in that chapter than of course she made the right choice. But it is ludicrous to try and blame the entire system, which works so well for so many, for her negative result.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

IDeferred recruitment has its own problems, and those campuses are not the ones we see succeeding in the ways conventional campuses are.

I wouldn't say that. Maybe "conventional" campuses are placing more women through formal rush, but how many of those women initiate or stay active for all 4 years?

Sorority enrollment is up EVERYWHERE, deferred, non-deferred, private, public etc.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by 33girl

I wouldn't say that. Maybe "conventional" campuses are placing more women through formal rush, but how many of those women initiate or stay active for all 4 years?

Sorority enrollment is up EVERYWHERE, deferred, non-deferred, private, public etc.

My point is that having deferred recruitment does NOT translate into more successful (if we judge success by pnms placed in chapters) recruitment than those who do not defer; in fact, the opposite seems to be the case. The op posited that because of her daughter's recruitment failure recruitment should go to a deferred model. I do not think that would have the result the op thinks it would.

As to retention, I don't think there is a big difference between deferred/non-deferred campuses but don't know where to access the data. I think I can confidently state that retention isn't a major problem at the SEC campuses I referenced - a problem, perhaps, but look at those chapter numbers.

[AlphaFrog]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

My point is that having deferred recruitment does NOT translate into more successful (if we judge success by pnms placed in chapters) recruitment than those who do not defer; in fact, the opposite seems to be the case. The op posited that because of her daughter's recruitment failure recruitment should go to a deferred model. I do not think that would have the result the op thinks it would.

As to retention, I don't think there is a big difference between deferred/non-deferred campuses but don't know where to access the data. I think I can confidently state that retention isn't a major problem at the SEC campuses I referenced - a problem, perhaps, but look at those chapter numbers.

The two of you are talking about a completely different set of demographics. The campi where deferred recruitment would really improve retention rates are the opposite of the campi where hell would freeze, melt, and freeze again before they would even consider deferred recruitment.

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

The two of you are talking about a completely different set of demographics. The campi where deferred recruitment would really improve retention rates are the opposite of the campi where hell would freeze, melt, and freeze again before they would even consider deferred recruitment.

Do you know of a campus where they went to deferred and it improved retention rates? And since you obviously have a campus (or campi) in mind - where do you think deferred WOULD improve retention?

SEC was the topic in the op, so that is where I've focused my comments. I would be interested in knowing if and where deferred recruitment works/would work better than standard recruitment. I am most familiar with SMU, and I don't know that I would say it works for them based on what I know about what happens during the fall.