Tent Talk & "Bottom-Tier" Houses

[melindawarren]

Originally Posted by LAblondeGPhi

Yes. I think when most of the chapters on campus are under total, the Panhellenic environment becomes very competitive year-round as chapters are vying for PNMs via COB. It's easier for chapters to be nice to each other when they each feel secure in their individual situations.

However, I think members of the non-Greek and fraternity community are contributing to tent talk just as much, if not more, than the sororities themselves. From my collegiate experience, the most blatant examples of PNMs being told "these chapters suck, and these chapters are the only ones you should consider" came from fraternity men talking to freshman over the summer or in their first days on campus.

I think it's natural for PNMs who don't know any better to ask what chapters are good to join - after all, they just went through the college selection process where they took into account prestige of university, tuition costs, "Fit", etc.

Things that I think help:
1) Holding recruitment right when PNMs get to campus, so they have minimal time to absorb tent talk
2) Discouraging talking, texting, etc. between recruitment parties (tricky though it is)
3) Coordinating with IFC to encourage an "All Greek Together" policy - I don't know if this would mean a carrot or stick approach, or maybe both. I'm sure plenty of fraternities would like the sorority women to keep their mouths shut about reputation, too.
4) Better "expectations" programming during the orientation process. There was another thread about adjusting PNMs expectations, and maybe it could help.
5) Perhaps the Greek Advisor could make a concerted effort to subtly "talk up" the chapters that typically perform less well during recruitment to the PNMs. Or maybe present a little information about each chapter that shows each group in an amazing light - highlighting awards, involvement in on campus activities, fundraising totals, etc.

I agree with a lot of what you've said.

I don't think most people would know about this, but a few months before I started at USC, a girl posted on our College Confidential page asking about what the sororities were like, and a former, non-Greek SC student (female, and proud to admit that she's completely anti-Greek) posted reputations and generalizations about each and every Greek house, including a tier structure. Nothing good to say about any house.

I feel like, in the internet age, the tent talk happens the moment a girl chooses to go Greek and go NPC. I remember discovering GC and deciding that I wanted to rush. I was leaving on a family vacation the next day, and I remember googling "USC sororities" at some point on the trip. After the USC pages, up came a bunch of CC pages where people ranked the groups; GreekRank (please do not let this degenerate into another GR talk; I've had enough of them lately); and, finally, GC.

Now I really get concerned because my younger sister announced not too long ago that she'd consider rushing in college and she began researching Greek Life at the schools she's going to apply to this fall. Where did she land? GreekRank. It comes up too fast on search results.

It doesn't help that there are a lot of misconceptions about recruitment in general. I remember having a discussion with two girls at orientation. One asked the other, "which houses are you rushing?" To which the first replied with the "top tier" (gah I hate that) sororities at our school. The other said, "oh, same, but also ["upper middle tier" group--hate that, too]." When I said "I think I'm going to go through recruitment as well!" I kind of got that weird look when someone says they're going to do something that seems crazy to others and they dropped the subject. I wanted to say, "no, you're rushing ALL of them." *eyeroll*

This is getting long, so I'll sum it up fast: having gone through recruitment this fall, there was very little "tent talk," because we'd pretty much all heard it from Google before we even showed up on campus.

[28StGreek]

Originally Posted by melindawarren

This is getting long, so I'll sum it up fast: having gone through recruitment this fall, there was very little "tent talk," because we'd pretty much all heard it from Google before we even showed up on campus.

And you've hit the nail right on the head!

And for some schools like Texas or Alabama local/regional PNMs may already have grown up through high school (or even earlier) with the tent talk firmly in place 'knowing' what the house reputations are however inaccurate they may be. ng before they even know where they are going for college.

[melindawarren]

Originally Posted by 28StGreek

And you've hit the nail right on the head!

And for some schools like Texas or Alabama local/regional PNMs may already have grown up through high school (or even earlier) with the tent talk firmly in place 'knowing' what the house reputations are however inaccurate they may be. long before they even know where they are going for college.

Yes! I have a friend at Texas who said that she felt so underprepared for recruitment because so many of her fellow rushees literally knew everyone and everything LONG before she even realized she'd be going to Texas. Or probably before she even decided to apply to Texas.

At our school, though, and many others, it's definitely internet.

[28StGreek]

Originally Posted by melindawarren

At our school, though, and many others, it's definitely internet.

Yeah we have quite a large out of state population so the internet definitely is a huge influence in tent talk. I get the feeling that the girls at SC who know about the house reps from high school (or earlier) are the ones who have an advantage any way since they have older siblings, cousins or friends they went to school/church/club/tennis/etc with, that are already in houses.

[melindawarren]

Originally Posted by 28StGreek

Yeah we have quite a large out of state population so the internet definitely is a huge influence in tent talk. I get the feeling that the girls at SC who know about the house reps from high school (or earlier) are the ones who have an advantage any way since they have older siblings, cousins or friends they went to school/church/club/tennis/etc with, that are already in houses.

Yes, and that also influences tent talk, just a different kind. I'm local, though, and I only found out about how Greek Life works by using the internet. Sorority life wasn't that big a deal around here when my mom was at UCLA in the 70's, and my dad went to SC, but he knew nothing about Greek Life. The most my family knew about sororities was that my uncle went as a date to a Pi Phi formal in the late 60's or early 70's. And that my mom was part of an unsuccessful attempt to colonize my sorority at some point. I also didn't have any relatives who were interested in helping, so it was me making my connections through the internet. I tried to find reliable sources (and I succeeded), but I bet there are a lot of girls who can't/don't care to (which is stupid, not going to deny it, but still).