Alabama Rush and First Cuts: Predetermined?

[DubaiSis]

I think the take away here is 78 girls were released completely out of 1710, which is 4 1/2%. This needs to be kept in mind when people talk about Bama being super competitive. If you want to be in a house you are ALMOST guaranteed a spot. 4 1/2% isn't zero, but when we have to assume at least a few girls who didn't want to be there and behaved appallingly or showed up with bad breath and gym clothes - or in otherwords intentionally torpedoed their own rush - then you end up with an extremely small number of girls who have all the desire in the world and it just doesn't work out.

This is where I think there could be discussion of going back over those 10 girls after philanthropy round and see if 1 or 2 chapters can't give them a second chance. Quota additions, if you will. Not mandatory, but requested. If each chapter took 2 girls who were released completely (maybe in order of where they fell on the flex lists), maybe that 10 would be cut down to 1 or 2 girls who were just snotty and deserve to be denied. I really think this is something that could be done by the computer with no muss/no fuss to the chapters. There would just have to be a line on the list of "we absolutely do not want back any girl below this point on our list" and they wouldn't be stuck taking a girl who they really think could harm the chapter.

[Hartofsec]

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

I think the take away here is 78 girls were released completely out of 1710, which is 4 1/2%. This needs to be kept in mind when people talk about Bama being super competitive. If you want to be in a house you are ALMOST guaranteed a spot.

I was a little surprised by that number myself -- it does seem lower than I would have expected (especially considering the super competitive manner in which rush is often depicted at Bama).

I also thought the withdrawal numbers, compared to the release numbers, were interesting. I wonder if withdrawal numbers are higher among in-state PNMs. Just speculating -- but OOS girls may be more open-minded than the in-state girls who are disappointed over being released from certain chapters. Pre-conceived ideas are difficult to dispel -- especially in large high schools -- when the PNMs know where older girls pledged.


Large high schools in Birmingham alone, for instance, may each have 60+ girls participating in recruitment. PNMs may not understand that no one chapter is likely to pledge 15 girls just from their own high school (possible I suppose, but not likely). Being from a large high school in a nearby metropolitan area can actually be a competitive disadvantage in some respects, especially if a PNM has her heart set on certain chapters.

Originally Posted by DubaiSis

4 1/2% isn't zero, but when we have to assume at least a few girls who didn't want to be there and behaved appallingly or showed up with bad breath and gym clothes - or in otherwords intentionally torpedoed their own rush - then you end up with an extremely small number of girls who have all the desire in the world and it just doesn't work out.

And there also may be upperclassmen in that number -- who were at a disadvantage out-of-the-gate due to their graduation date.

No doubt that many PNMs who are released are great girls who deserve a Greek home -- which sort of blends into the conversation on the UGA quota thread regarding the threshold for expansion. I would also like to see sufficient expansion to reduce the size of the pledge classes -- probably questions for more knowledgeable and statistically-savvy minds than mine!