What’s it like to be in a Huge Chapter?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Jen

The biggest difference I can see is that there is far less of a reputation to all the groups when they get really large. It's hard to peg one group as the sporty group or the studious one or something, because there are just so many personality types in each sorority.

This is why I get slightly annoyed when PNMs from these big Southern schools say things like "I dropped out of recruitment because I couldn't see myself fitting in with those groups."

Um, every group on your campus has 150 women. How does one "not fit in" with 150 people?

The more women a chapter has, the less you can look at a chapter and say you "don't fit it." If a chapter has like 30 girls and you said that, I would argue that you might not fit. But not when they are all nearing 200.

I also feel like the bigger groups get, the more similar they become. In a sense that whether you join ABC or XYZ, you're still going to have a comparable Greek experience.

I have this crazy idea that we could randomly place PNMs in chapters at some large schools in it would work out just fine.

[DGTess]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

This is why I get slightly annoyed when PNMs from these big Southern schools say things like "I dropped out of recruitment because I couldn't see myself fitting in with those groups."

Um, every group on your campus has 150 women. How does one "not fit in" with 150 people?

The more women a chapter has, the less you can look at a chapter and say you "don't fit it." If a chapter has like 30 girls and you said that, I would argue that you might not fit. But not when they are all nearing 200.

I also feel like the bigger groups get, the more similar they become. In a sense that whether you join ABC or XYZ, you're still going to have a comparable Greek experience.

I have this crazy idea that we could randomly place PNMs in chapters at some large schools in it would work out just fine.

I think I disagree with this - to a degree.

Chapters have personalities. If you have a chapter of 200, and 40-50 of them are involved in athletics, and most are fans of/cheerleaders for a nearby team, it stands to reason the chapter will do things to support their sisters, and the programming is going to be slanted toward sports/athletics. Likewise with other endeavors; it needn't be sports.

Will you find friends? Of course. Will the symbols and ritual be meaningful? Of course. But chapter personalities may not fit, though the sorority certainly would.

These things are certainly more pronounced with a smaller group, but they exist in all organizations. Like begets like - that's how humans associate.

Which is why I have problems with those who castigate women who say a chapter "just isn't a fit". It may not be as common as using that phrase for "it's not one I wanted", and I can certainly be convinced by those who have experienced it significantly more than I that it happens, but I cannot make myself jump to that conclusion.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by DGTess

I think I disagree with this - to a degree.

Chapters have personalities. If you have a chapter of 200, and 40-50 of them are involved in athletics, and most are fans of/cheerleaders for a nearby team, it stands to reason the chapter will do things to support their sisters, and the programming is going to be slanted toward sports/athletics. Likewise with other endeavors; it needn't be sports.

There is no way that, in a chapter of 200 women, enough are going to be cheerleaders, or in athletics, or band members, or campus crusade, or any single activity to pull the entire chapter in that direction. Sure, women involved in an activity may attract other women in that activity, but often the hardcore members of X activity are too busy to be part of the chapter's leadership as well.

Now, obviously the historically Jewish chapters attract mostly Jewish women at certain schools, but that has a) a long history of discrimination behind it and b) a lot to do with Jewish social networks in high school. That said, I think a non-Jewish woman could be perfectly happy in most of those chapters anyway.