Is there really such a thing as "competitive" and "non-competitive" recruitment?

[VioletsAreBlue]

I think that there's an angle to the smaller schools that sometimes people forget. And that's the fact that by the time you get to rush - often in the spring of freshman year, or fall of sophomore year - a lot of relationships are already established. You have been in class with greek women, traveled together on sports team, worked together in clubs or on student government, etc. So it becomes a different type of competitiveness. One house may be the "athlete" house, but with only 30 spots, they aren't taking all of the freshman athletes.

For example: If you are a freshman on the girls swim team and you simply love the gamma phis on your team (for example) because you've practiced 4 days a week with them, you've traveled with them, gone through team bonding with them, etc. So you get to rush, you go through rush with your other swim team freshman friends, and you feel great about gamma phi, everybody is excited that it's the house they want, you love the sisters you know and then bam. Gamma phi isn't going to take the entire girls freshman swim team, and you and 2 others get cut and suddenly you are devasted, feel betrayed, don't understand why the others got in and you didn't, ewonder if your friends like you as much as you thought, feel left out, etc.

Yes, of course as adults, we would argue that you should never think anything is a guarantee, keep an open mind, give every house a chance, and don't put all of your eggs in one basket. But when you are a freshman going through it and all you hear about is how these relationships matter, the competition gets pretty intense, even if you aren't aware of it at the time.

Would I compare it to an Ole Miss or Bama rush? No. But there's a different type of intensity there and one shouldn't underestimate it.

[BlueBayou]

Originally Posted by VioletsAreBlue

Would I compare it to an Ole Miss or Bama rush? No. But there's a different type of intensity there and one shouldn't underestimate it.

You have elaborated on what I was trying to say. An SEC type school has recruitment that is way more intense and there is a pressure on the PNMs who feel like they have to get into the greek system. At many of the less greek focused schools - there is not the added pressure of what people might think if you don't join a GLO.

The point I was trying to make is that there may be more value, stress, pressure placed on PNMs at SEC type schools, but the actual statistical ability to join a sorority is probably the same. It may not feel that way - but I suspect the NPC data would support that.

My daughter went through fall formal recruitment at a school that I thought was going to be very "easy." It's not a small liberal arts college like many of the schools with small greek systems are. It's actually a mid-sized, highly academic state school with a diverse student population. In this case I think academic performance and achievements are weighted very heavily. (example Ole Miss has around 30 national merit scholarships - my daughter's school has over 140). At her school - the sororities compete for NMF PNMs. While any of us who were in the greek system know grades and scholarship are important - there seems to be a heightened focus at this school.

So what sororities look for in a sister is not necessarily the same at different schools. But there is still the membership quota set by RFM.

In my daughters Rho Gam group they had one girl upset with her day two invites. She went to the parties but did not rank afterwards (Withdrew). And they had one girl SIP and not get placed. There were about 200 PMNs. So either my daughter had an unfortunate Rho Gam group - or things probably played out similar to the UGA stats. Since the attrition in my daughters Rho Gam group that I know about (I believe there were more - these were just the two she was close with, she tried to talk the one that withdrew into sticking it out) would be 1% of PNMs.

And according to NPC placement of PNMs that attend round one parties is 80% nationally. I think you probably won't find much deviation from that statistic - from large schools with huge greek systems to smaller schools with a handful of chapters.