Indiana Recruitment

[TriDeltaSallie]

Originally Posted by carnation

I just found out that my husband's cousin is probably going to IU this fall. Her mom asked me if I thought she should rush since there are about 5000 Greeks in this family. I can't encourage her after all the heartbreak I've read and heard about.

I hope she chooses one of the other schools. Bed rush is sadistic. Yeah, we had it at Arkansas and it was awful but this is on a much larger scale.

Do you know the other schools she is considering, just out of curiosity?

[carnation]

Her mom told me but it was in the middle of a loud family party so I've forgotten almost everything except that she said that C's major was equally good at all 3 schools.

[IUgreekmom]

Early this month I came across the Recruitment wrap-up information statistics for Indiana last year. I printed them out but cannot find again where I found them. There are lots of statistics and here are a few: 1406 girls participated in 19 party, 1181 girls participated in preference round, 1015 participated in bid matching, 908 received bids and 107 did not receive a bid. Also, quota was listed for each sorority. Zeta Tau Alpha was lowest with 29 and Alpha Delta Pi had 96. Over half had quotas less than 45.

Indiana should disclose quota for each house when rush begins. It is not fair for these girls to get their hopes up for so many of the houses. I would love to see stats for this year. It has been posted here that way more girls participated in rush this year. With regard to bid matching I personally know 4 girls who did not get bids.

[IndianaSigKap]

Originally Posted by IUgreekmom

Indiana should disclose quota for each house when rush begins. It is not fair for these girls to get their hopes up for so many of the houses. I would love to see stats for this year. It has been posted here that way more girls participated in rush this year.

The stats are usually posted in February sometime. Look on the Panhellenic site in the documents section under minutes. I completely agree with you that chapter quota should be disclosed before 20 party begins. There are some women who might change their rankings a little if they realized that the chapter they liked at #12 is taking a pledge class of 29 and the chapter they are ranking at #15 is taking 48. I would move #15 up if I had twice the chance to get in.

One stat that is left off the report is how many women decline their bids if they don't get the chapter they want. I know it happens, more often than one would think.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by IndianaSigKap

The stats are usually posted in February sometime. Look on the Panhellenic site in the documents section under minutes. I completely agree with you that chapter quota should be disclosed before 20 party begins. There are some women who might change their rankings a little if they realized that the chapter they liked at #12 is taking a pledge class of 29 and the chapter they are ranking at #15 is taking 48. I would move #15 up if I had twice the chance to get in.

The sad thing about this suggestion is that even if you told them that info up front, the majority of them wouldn't listen.

Chances are that when you tell someone that their #1 chapter, ABC is only taking 28 girls, they're not going to think "gee I'd better move up some other houses I liked."

They're going to ignore you and think "Oh well that doesn't matter because I'm a great fit for ABC and they're totally gonna invite me back."

Or

"That doesn't matter because I'm a legacy."

Or

"I'm okay because all my friends are in ABC and Amy ABC said I'd be perfect for that chapter."

[IndianaSigKap]

^^^ I think you're right about the majority. While there are women who are blissfully unaware throughout recruitment, there are girls who go into IU recruitment pretty aware. If even 100 girls took the quota into consideration, they might rank differently. A hundred women here to there could make quite a difference.

A friend's niece who was well aware of the IU system and its flaws, took a different strategy when ranking and she did very well. She had a full party schedule each time and did get a bid. She made sure to keep "reasonable" chapters on her lists and she did look at the size of the chapter. She assumed that larger chapters took larger pledge classes and therefore she might stand a better chance to get in.

[DubaiSis]

Originally Posted by IUgreekmom

908 received bids and 107 did not receive a bid.

This number is appalling. I think their RFM person is doing everyone a HUGE disservice by not forcing larger cuts after 20 party. And they must be doing something akin to 3X quota at preference which should have gone out the window with RFM for the stronger rushing chapters.

Indiana SigKap, I'm glad your friend's niece worked the system correctly. You didn't say if she ended up in a stronger or weaker chapter, but from what I know about the chapters at IU, there's not really a substantially weaker chapter.

[IUgreekmom]

Thank goodness I saw the statistics while my daughter was going through rush this year. Since she was out of state, did not know anyone and my sorority(another big ten school) cut her right away we thought through her options after 14 party. Sad how some sororities do not value legacies. I told her to look at where she fit in and do not listen to others on who is the most popular, etc. Luckily she kept an open mind and had 3 parties for preference and said she would be very happy with any one of them. However, she was very nervous when she saw how many girls were at each preference party and knew that each house had multiple parties that round. She did receive a bid and is very happy.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by IUgreekmom

Sad how some sororities do not value legacies. I told her to look at where she fit in and do not listen to others on who is the most popular, etc.

There may be more legacies than spots. (This is true at lots of schools.)

Or she may have followed your advice above.

[IUHoosiergirl88]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

How many fraternities are there at IU, and what are their sizes like? Are they all over the board?

Currently on campus are: LXA, DU, Acacia, Fiji, Delta Chi (in ATO's house, will be unhoused as of Fall 2012), Sigma Chi, Sig Ep, Beta, Sigma Nu, Phi Psi, Phi Delts, Skulls, AEPi, Kappa Sig, Delts, Sigma Pi, Theta Chi, Sammy, ZBT, and Pi Kapps

Currently off campus are: SAE, Pike, ATO (will be returning to campus in Fall 2012), Alpha Sigma Phi, Deke, Phi Tau, KDR (not sure if they're still around or not)

Others: APES, the former members of AEPi after they were removed from campus in 2008...and yes, they do still recruit, and Emanon--the former members of ATO after they were removed from campus.

In terms of size, it ranges. Obviously the on campus chapters are significantly larger than those off campus, but it depends. The largest off campus chapter (SAE) is at 80

We also have a few religious/gay/etc fraternities, but they tend to not factor into the mix. Evan's Scholars also has a house on Jordan.

[ForeverRoses]

Originally Posted by IUHoosiergirl88

Currently on campus are: LXA, DU, Acacia, Fiji, Delta Chi (in ATO's house, will be unhoused as of Fall 2012), Sigma Chi, Sig Ep, Beta, Sigma Nu, Phi Psi, Phi Delts, Skulls, AEPi, Kappa Sig, Delts, Sigma Pi, Theta Chi, Sammy, ZBT, and Pi Kapps

Currently off campus are: SAE, Pike, ATO (will be returning to campus in Fall 2012), Alpha Sigma Phi, Deke, Phi Tau, KDR (not sure if they're still around or not)

Others: APES, the former members of AEPi after they were removed from campus in 2008...and yes, they do still recruit, and Emanon--the former members of ATO after they were removed from campus.

In terms of size, it ranges. Obviously the on campus chapters are significantly larger than those off campus, but it depends. The largest off campus chapter (SAE) is at 80

We also have a few religious/gay/etc fraternities, but they tend to not factor into the mix. Evan's Scholars also has a house on Jordan.

Does "off campus" mean unhoused?

[IndianaSigKap]

Originally Posted by ForeverRoses

Does "off campus" mean unhoused?

Yes, technically. There are groups of brothers in the off campus groups who do live together in residential houses and apartments, but there is not one official residence.

[SoProud2BeAnAlphaXi]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

This number is appalling. I think their RFM person is doing everyone a HUGE disservice by not forcing larger cuts after 20 party. And they must be doing something akin to 3X quota at preference which should have gone out the window with RFM for the stronger rushing chapters.

With due respect to my good Sister, I need to say as a seasoned RFM specialist that I have been party to many, MANY conversations and strategy sessions with IU's (equally seasoned) RFM specialist as she has worked to make the best of this exceptionally challenging situation. She has spent probably an entire week of her life -- volunteer time of course -- not just handling the numbers but explaining in various ways to the administration, and to the chapters on campus and their inter/national counterparts (the latter of which might also be referred to as "the choir") why the current setup is far less than ideal and should be changed in order to meet the demand for the sorority experience at IU. She has been beating this drum and advocating change for years, not just this year when it became "news". Meanwhile, there are NPC groups who will tell you their chapter's health at Indiana has been significantly improved under her RFM guidance, working the numbers as best she could.

It is unfair, at best, to blame someone who has taken on the thankless task of trying to manage numbers for a community where chapters simply won't consider taking nearly half the women going through recruitment (but all with different numbers, which sometimes change after recruitment's already begun). I know the whole situation is very frustrating, but let's not attribute fault where it does not belong.

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by SoProud2BeAnAlphaXi

With due respect to my good Sister, I need to say as a seasoned RFM specialist that I have been party to many, MANY conversations and strategy sessions with IU's (equally seasoned) RFM specialist as she has worked to make the best of this exceptionally challenging situation. She has spent probably an entire week of her life -- volunteer time of course -- not just handling the numbers but explaining in various ways to the administration, and to the chapters on campus and their inter/national counterparts (the latter of which might also be referred to as "the choir") why the current setup is far less than ideal and should be changed in order to meet the demand for the sorority experience at IU. She has been beating this drum and advocating change for years, not just this year when it became "news". Meanwhile, there are NPC groups who will tell you their chapter's health at Indiana has been significantly improved under her RFM guidance, working the numbers as best she could.

It is unfair, at best, to blame someone who has taken on the thankless task of trying to manage numbers for a community where chapters simply won't consider taking nearly half the women going through recruitment (but all with different numbers, which sometimes change after recruitment's already begun). I know the whole situation is very frustrating, but let's not attribute fault where it does not belong.

Thank you for that clarification of the RFM part of this puzzle. I think it is very important to point out that NPC (which RFM specialists represent) have only an advisory role on a campus. They have no power to make these chapters agree to massive overhaul of the system. I honestly don't know how you would decide on release numbers in this situation. Blaming the people who are trying to make a difference is not the way to go, obviously, but so many people don't understand who is to blame.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

I have NO inside IU information, just a lot of graduate level work in time-series forecasting and other statistical methods.

First of all, I'm glad to hear they actually do have an RFM specialist. I wasn't even sure if that was the case. When I think about how RFM works, though, I can see why it breaks down when different chapters have differently-sized pledge classes, and further, can change that size from year-to-year.