Thought I'd help clarify things since it looks like I'm the only recent NPC Greek from UF...
Quota is NOT set yet. Panhellenic sets quota after the end of Round 3. Total # of rushees divided by # of chapters. Problem is many rushees drop out in between Round 3 and Prefs (burnt out, tired, sick, not happy with the houses they have left, etc.) I think they take this into consideration in their calculation somewhere, but it still ends up that some houses will make quota (or even quota plus) and a few will be far below.
Regarding invitation percentages, each house is told the max # they can invite back, based on their return rates from this rush and previous years. For example, pretend Sorority ABC is just the nicest, most wonderful sisters ever, and 90% of rushees they've invited to Round 2 for the past couple years chose to return, and Sorority XYZ has terrible sisterhood and most rushees hate them and only 10% that they invite actually choose to return. Panhellenic will allow XYZ to invite back pretty much everyone, since very few will actually chose to, while ABC will only be able to invite back a few, since pretty much all of their rushees will return.
Those are extreme examples, but it works. The method to the madness is that the party sizes need to be manageable. If you have 100 sisters rushing, you don't want only 10 rushees at your party; they'll feel outnumbered and intimidated. You also don't want 150 rushees at a party - it will be too hard to manage and to get to know the rushees.
Also, since Panhellenic theoretically wants every house to succeed (I'm not getting into my personal feelings that the quota system is BAD BAD BAD now, but anyway...) setting up the invite percentages helps the chance that each house will have the opportunity to have about the same size pledge class, since they are trying to all have about the same size parties each time.
Also, if a house can invite back, say 75% of the rushees, they don't have to - they CAN invite less. Some chapters have very strict rules on who they can invite back (i.e. GPA) and will invite a little less than they are allowed.
I can tell you that GPA is huge at UF. It was when I rushed in 1996 and is even more so now. UF as a university is proud to have the highest academic standards in the state, and the sororities follow that. The competition to have the "highest sorority GPA" is intense, and houses don't want to take a grade risk. And yes, a 3.0 can be considered a grade risk if that's a high school GPA and there's no indication that the person took honors/AP/etc. classes.
Usually any mandatory cuts would take place in the beginning rounds. A sorority doesn't want to lead on a rushee that they know they can't bid, and don't want to waste a spot on someone that they can't bid too. So for any rushees that have GPA problems, you will pretty much know how much of a problem you have by Round 2 or 3 at the latest. GPA is a simple objective # to use to quickly narrow a sorority's numbers.
OK, sorry for long post, back to studying! The luxurious life of a law student...
GOOD LUCK GATOR RUSHEES!
G8Ralphaxi
|
Threaded Mode