Rebel Mom

[thetalady]

Originally Posted by OleMissGlitter

Ahh so there are 3 quotas? I guess what I was told was right, because the numbers are based on each chapter's numbers from previous years. So do the stronger recruiting houses get to say, "this year we would like a lower quota because our retention rate is so high?" Or does Panhellenic "tell' them?

The RFM/ NPC team sets quota. The chapters and collegiate Panhellenic have no say in setting quota.

[Herbie]

Originally Posted by k2hh

@Herbie
The old way in which Nebraska set quota was HORRID. SO many women were cut out of the recruitment process completely by setting an "artificial" total to try and achieve chapter size parity. It was done by arbitrarily deciding what the size of every sorority should be. A chapter's quota was determined by how many new members they could take to reach this size. So if campus total was set at 100, and one chapter's returning size was 75, their quota was 25; a chapter with 50 returning members had quota set at 50. Therefore the number of bids that could be given by all sororities was limited from the start. The amount of fabulous women that were not able to be a part of the Greek system was tragic. Under RFM, the strength of every sorority has improved by leaps and bounds. After 2017 recruitment (and since the inception of RFM at Nebraska) almost all chapters are above or very near campus total and only two did not make quota in 2017. (And one of these two missed quota by a very small number.) Nebraska's old system was very much like IU's "bed rush." RFM was a godsend for both sororities and PNMs.

This is simply not true. Nebraska used RFM with a variable quota. A lot of women would drop out if they did not get invited to the chapter that they had hoped for and this is still true today.

[OleMissGlitter]

Originally Posted by thetalady

The RFM/ NPC team sets quota. The chapters and collegiate Panhellenic have no say in setting quota.

You would think I would know this being a past Chapter Adviser, past Network Volunteer, and now a past committee member for AOII! I feel like it all changes so much. But I'm glad to be on an AOII sabbatical to enjoy my sweet girls

[k2hh]

Originally Posted by Herbie

This is simply not true. Nebraska used RFM with a variable quota. A lot of women would drop out if they did not get invited to the chapter that they had hoped for and this is still true today.

RFM was first used at Nebraska in 2010. I would have to go look at the numbers from that year, but I am pretty confident every chapter was given the same quota. However without the information in front of me right now I cannot be 100% certain. (For sure by 2012 every chapter was given the same quota.) You are absolutely correct that women still drop out if they are not getting the chapter(s) they hoped for! However with RFM more women are staying in the process than before because they are readjusting their thinking as the week progresses. Also, going to a 2 party preference this year reduced the number of Intentional Single Preferences by quite a bit, so this is really great!

When I was on campus back in the late 70s/early 80s, quota was set they way I described it. They may have used a different method of setting quota when you were on campus.

[DaffyKD]

Originally Posted by k2hh

@Herbie
The old way in which Nebraska set quota was HORRID. SO many women were cut out of the recruitment process completely by setting an "artificial" total to try and achieve chapter size parity. It was done by arbitrarily deciding what the size of every sorority should be. A chapter's quota was determined by how many new members they could take to reach this size. So if campus total was set at 100, and one chapter's returning size was 75, their quota was 25; a chapter with 50 returning members had quota set at 50. Therefore the number of bids that could be given by all sororities was limited from the start. The amount of fabulous women that were not able to be a part of the Greek system was tragic. Under RFM, the strength of every sorority has improved by leaps and bounds. After 2017 recruitment (and since the inception of RFM at Nebraska) almost all chapters are above or very near campus total and only two did not make quota in 2017. (And one of these two missed quota by a very small number.) Nebraska's old system was very much like IU's "bed rush." RFM was a godsend for both sororities and PNMs.

k2hh, this method is similar to the quota system when I was in school. We had chapter caps. Every chapter had a minimum quota (say 15). If cap was 60 and you only had 40 current members, you could exceed quota to reach that cap. If you had 60 current members, you could still take the minimum 15 quota and exceed the cap.

DaffyKD

[Cheerio]

Originally Posted by DaffyKD

k2hh, this method is similar to the quota system when I was in school. We had chapter caps. Every chapter had a minimum quota (say 15). If cap was 60 and you only had 40 current members, you could exceed quota to reach that cap. If you had 60 current members, you could still take the minimum 15 quota and exceed the cap.

DaffyKD

DaffyKD, those cap numbers are so familiar! It was a system that produced wildly uneven chapter numbers and became the origin of plenty of chapters closing. So glad they are no longer in use!

[DTD Alum]

Not a PC post in any way, but....Ole Miss rush is crazy to me. With almost any school in the country, while "tiers" are not the be-all-end-all of your experience in a GLO, simply by comparing even social media against each other, you can usually get a sense of where a chapter falls in the hierarchy. Not to mention, despite the mantra "all chapters are strong", at many schools that isn't quite the case, and there are chapters with more members, better events and houses, etc.

Not remotely at Ole Miss. I swear when you look at photos, you can't tell a thing. Recently I saw photos of a chapter where every single girl looked like a model, seemed to be in intelligent majors, they seemed to be doing tons of really fun and well planned things as both a chapter and individuals, they seemed well represented in campus honors and positions, their house was drop dead gorgeous, only to learn they are considered one of the "bottom" chapters. I had to laugh because that chapter, if transferred to my alma mater and if their photos were even half truthful of what the sorority would have been like, would have easily been one of the strongest chapters and would have been able to pull almost any girl they wanted.

It seems to be that there are chapters that pledge MS girls, chapters that pledge OOS girls from close by that still have connections, and chapters that pledge OOS girls from farther away with less/no connections, and that the primary differentiation of "tiers" is whether you are from MS or not. I really cannot imagine another school where the chapters seem so equal in just about everything...involvement, looks, activities, beautiful houses, etc. It seems like wherever you landed you'd have an unparalleled experience.

Not that I would expect that to affect tent talk in any way whatsoever, and not that I'd expect that those from MS who were born and bred to be in one specific chapter would agree. Just a "left coast" Yankee's perceptions from the outside looking in.

[TLLK]

^^^I agree with you DTDAlum. Coming from a West Coast commuter campus with a small Greek system, Ole Miss recruitment is nothing that I or my sisters ever experienced. A year ago one of my sisters announced that her daughter would be attending Ole Miss and wanted to go through recruitment. She joined her legacy house and has enjoyed her time there, but it is such a completely different experience than the one her mother knew decades ago.

[Titchou]

Even for those of us who grew up with Ole Miss/Alabama/UGA recruitments, it's mindboggling. The only saving grace is that we have been here as it grew...so we never noticed how big and crazy it all got until it was just THERE.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by DTD Alum

Not a PC post in any way, but....Ole Miss rush is crazy to me. With almost any school in the country, while "tiers" are not the be-all-end-all of your experience in a GLO, simply by comparing even social media against each other, you can usually get a sense of where a chapter falls in the hierarchy. Not to mention, despite the mantra "all chapters are strong", at many schools that isn't quite the case, and there are chapters with more members, better events and houses, etc.

Not remotely at Ole Miss. I swear when you look at photos, you can't tell a thing. Recently I saw photos of a chapter where every single girl looked like a model, seemed to be in intelligent majors, they seemed to be doing tons of really fun and well planned things as both a chapter and individuals, they seemed well represented in campus honors and positions, their house was drop dead gorgeous, only to learn they are considered one of the "bottom" chapters. I had to laugh because that chapter, if transferred to my alma mater and if their photos were even half truthful of what the sorority would have been like, would have easily been one of the strongest chapters and would have been able to pull almost any girl they wanted.

It seems to be that there are chapters that pledge MS girls, chapters that pledge OOS girls from close by that still have connections, and chapters that pledge OOS girls from farther away with less/no connections, and that the primary differentiation of "tiers" is whether you are from MS or not. I really cannot imagine another school where the chapters seem so equal in just about everything...involvement, looks, activities, beautiful houses, etc. It seems like wherever you landed you'd have an unparalleled experience.

Not that I would expect that to affect tent talk in any way whatsoever, and not that I'd expect that those from MS who were born and bred to be in one specific chapter would agree. Just a "left coast" Yankee's perceptions from the outside looking in.

I have a theory that you really could randomly sort PNMs into chapters by names from a hat at schools like Ole Miss and no one would be the wiser because there is basically nothing different about the experience in each group. They're all great. None of them are so small or so much different from the others that you are "missing" something if you join it.

The perceptions and geographic sort of tent talk is what separates them. Without that, you could totally do what I said and everyone would be fine.

[NYCMS]

Did anyone ever hear from Rebel Mom (OP) about how her daughter did at Ole Miss? She only posted once or twice after starting this topic.

[LuvMyPNM]

I just came on to check on the same -- where did her daughter end up? Didn't she also have friends?