UCLA Recruitment begins Wednesday!

[BlueOwl]

The upperclassmen quota in NOT optional. Each sorority is required to take quite a few, usually about one third of the new member class will be non- freshman women! This policy began about five years ago. As I said before, the sororities aren't exactly in love with this requirement. The drop rate for junior transfers runs particularly high. I think that it can be really hard for the junior transfers to develop the strong bonds of sisterhood within a group of girls that already shares a couple of years of experiences and "history" between them. The junior transfers tend to stick together, live together, and often drop together. The retention rate for girls who join as freshman, however, is very high.

CaliTransfer, what has your experience been?

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by BlueOwl

The upperclassmen quota in NOT optional. Each sorority is required to take quite a few, usually about one third of the new member class will be non- freshman women!

Are you certain about this? I have a REALLY hard time believing that any chapter is required to take anyone.

I suspect the requirement is something more like "these are junior spots, if you don't take juniors, you may not take freshmen instead", which feels to the chapters like they must take juniors so as not to have the smallest pledge class.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by BlueOwl

The upperclassmen quota in NOT optional. Each sorority is required to take quite a few, usually about one third of the new member class will be non- freshman women! This policy began about five years ago. As I said before, the sororities aren't exactly in love with this requirement.

I would think they'd be beyond "not in love" with it, considering this is infringing on each sorority's individual right to select its members.

Is it a flat number or a percentage? Or is is just capricious and arbitrary?

I'm surprised that any national organization would permit this.

[BlueOwl]

Well, I am a parent, so I don't know all of the specifics, such as does the panhellenic office determine how many non-freshman a chapter must take, etc. But, I will say this for sure...non-freshman women get bids from houses that they would never get a bid from if they were rushing as freshman. Sure, my daughter's sorority has offered bids to some highly desirable non-freshman women. The competition for desirable non-freshman is intense! For example, student athletes generally do not join sororities due to their time commitments in their sport. If the girl no longer plays her sport, she may decide to rush. And, yes, there are lots of great girls who transfer in to UCLA from community college , etc. But, yes, it's absolutely true that chapters will have to extend bids to non-freshman girls who are less desirable to them in order to fill their non-freshman quota. Believe me, if it was not a requirement, they would not do it! No, the actives do not like having to do this one bit.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by BlueOwl

But, yes, it's absolutely true that chapters will have to extend bids to non-freshman girls who are less desirable to them in order to fill their non-freshman quota. Believe me, if it was not a requirement, they would not do it! No, the actives do not like having to do this one bit.

That shouldn't be. I'm guessing that most of the women do fulfill the requirements on paper, but a chapter should never be forced to take a woman for any reason - be it her GPA, her race, her class standing, whatever.

As DBB said, if they don't want to use those upperclass quota spots, that should be their prerogative - and with that prerogative comes the possibility of having fewer members. It seems that the "forcing" has already been shown to be a negative thing, as you mentioned the large amount of juniors who drop out.

[CaliTransfer]

Originally Posted by BlueOwl

CaliTransfer, what has your experience been?

I can only speak from my experience from my own chapter, but I never felt like I was treated differently as an junior transfer new member from a freshman new member. Based on the transfers I know from my rush group, about a third now are die-hard for their sorority and incredibly active and have made great new members. A third have dropped out due to circumstances that happen to anyone regardless of class standing (finances, too busy with their workload/other extracurriculars, family problems, realize sorority life isn't for them). The last third are the ones who deal with the feelings of "not having a connection". I think this occurs because it's hard to find as much in common with freshman who are very "OMGZYAY COLLEGE!" when a lot of these girls have been independent for the past 2-3 years. For transfers it takes a lot more effort on their part to take initiative and get to know upperclassmen girls outside of the pledge class and not just wait for the sisterhood to happen.

Personally I felt this especially after my best friend (also a transfer) in my pledge class was planning on dropping. I didn't live on campus and couldn't bond as much with those in my pledge class who did. But it has gotten a lot better since I've taken on a little and have gotten more involved in the house (especially now during recruitment!).

Also, I just calculated the numbers right now and upperclassmen (sophomores and up) comprise 33% of those signed up for recruitment with almost 20% being junior transfers.

[bruinaphi]

Originally Posted by BlueOwl

The upperclassmen quota in NOT optional. Each sorority is required to take quite a few, usually about one third of the new member class will be non- freshman women! This policy began about five years ago. As I said before, the sororities aren't exactly in love with this requirement.

As the RFM Specialist and NPC Area Advisor for UCLA, I can tell you that this is not true. It is up to each national organization to determine whether or not their chapter wants to fulfill their upperclass Quota, just like every other campus that has an upperclass Quota. It is my understanding that each of the national organizations on campus have decided to participate in the upperclass Quota. The upperclass Quota is determined using the same Quota Range system that is used for freshmen women. There are no mandatory carry figures.

The chapters themselves voted to have an upperclass Quota, as the demographics of UCLA PNMs had shifted and we were losing great women from recruitment because chapters wanted to affiliate freshmen to maintain their class balance.

[BlueOwl]

Thank you so much for the clarification! That makes sense.

[DTD Alum]

Originally Posted by bruinaphi

As the RFM Specialist and NPC Area Advisor for UCLA, I can tell you that this is not true. It is up to each national organization to determine whether or not their chapter wants to fulfill their upperclass Quota, just like every other campus that has an upperclass Quota.

Just a clarification, because I find sorority rush so interesting compared to fraternity rush, then would that mean that the national organization is dictating to the individual chapter what to do? If it's up to the national organization to determine whether the individual chapter fulfills the separate quota, then I think the spirit of BlueOwl's post could still ring true in that chapters could feel like they are forced to take women they may not necessarily want. If it's the individual chapters making the decision then BlueOwl's point is moot though.

Also, you say the chapters voted for it, but would that mean that only a simple majority would have had to vote yes? I could see many chapters loving this policy, but I could also see how certain chapters that are used to being really selective may be frustrated that they "have" to give bids to a group of girls who may not have made the cut as freshmen. Once again, that only applies if the individual chapters are being told to take the full separate quota, whether from their nationals, their adviser or Panhellenic.

[bruinaphi]

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

Just a clarification, because I find sorority rush so interesting compared to fraternity rush, then would that mean that the national organization is dictating to the individual chapter what to do?

I cannot profess to know the inner workings of the various NPC groups. My guess is that most groups get their chapters to understand that it is advantageous to them to participate fully in the upperclass Quota, since these women make up 33% of the women going through recruitment. BlueOwl's point was that the college panhellenic was forcing groups to take women. This is incorrect.

But they are required to fulfill a non-freshman quota. A sorority can't just say "we don't want to take any junior transfers". So, they do try to get the girls that they want from that pool of PNM's. Would they much rather fill those slots with freshman? For the most part, YES. Could most of the UCLA chapters fill all quota numbers with just freshman?

Actually, a sorority can say "we don't want to take any junior transfers." No group is forced to affiliate anyone by the college panhellenic. And the reason why we have an upperclass quota is that most of the UCLA chapters cannot fill their Quota numbers with freshmen, that is why the numbers are separated out.

With respect to retention of juniors, I am not sure some of the "data" on here is accurate, but I also don't get class year breakdowns of chapter sizes. There was higher than usual attrition last year, but not the year before.