Top tier Mid Tier what?

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by ADqtPiMel
what's up with your obsession with kappa sig, sae, sigep, and sigma chi?

I don't know, maybe its who he likes to date.

[carnation]

People, I want to echo Penguintrax's warning about not slamming any GLOs. She and I have been around long enough to see weak and strong chapters of every GLO and have been on GreekChat long enough to see what happens when the GLO insults start...big flame wars and hurt feelings.

[mu_agd]

Originally posted by ADqtPiMel
and at my school the Kappas and DGs would most likely never mix with SAEs or SigEps. Believe what you want, it's different at every school.

ETA: No offense to any SAEs, SigEps, Kappas, or DG's...I love you all

oh man, how true is that!

and i would like to repeat her sentiment of no offense to anyone!

[kdonline]

Getting back to (what I think) was the original intention of this thread...

Top tier, middle tier & bottom tier:

Someone had made a comment that top tier sororities were snobby & bottom tiers "actually like each other" - women in top tier sororities DO like each other & believe in their sisterhood, just as much as the bottom tier sororities do. And of course, as I always say, in any group of women, you will find women who hate each other & women who love each other. Plain & simple. No one can tell me that 100% of their sisters actually truly really love everyone in their chapter....that's baloney!

Now, on actually describing a tier system..or the sorority system in general:

The quote "from the outside looking in, you can't understand it' from the inside looking out, you can't explain it" (however it goes) comes to mind.

And finally, once again, I think this thread is getting more confusing because fraternities are being discussed. Sorority & fraternity membership/functioning/etc. are two totally separate systems. As much as you want to say they're alike, they're not.

While it's nice that many men here want to try to "understand" it, there is certainly no way a man can "explain" it.



And FYI, Kappa Sig has never been "top tier" at Florida, at least in the past 20 years since I have been a greek.

[PenguinTrax]

Originally posted by Tippiechick
Just a note for those who read the thread and wondered what the difference between alumni and alumnae is:

Alumni refers to a mixed group of men and women or a group of men, a single post-collegiate member would be an alumnus

Alumnae refers to a group of women exclusively and a single post-collegiate member would be an alumna


Barbara, am I correct in my explanation?

Correct on all accounts!!

[shadokat]

EXACTLY!!!

Originally posted by xp2k
yeah, but its the STRONGEST fraternities that are smart enough to have the best time and stay out of trouble.

IU's strongest fraternity (I wont mention their name, but everyone knows who they are) parties...but I've never heard of them getting busted....of course...that could be an entirely different thread

[IvySpice]

Just wanted to throw in some more data points from the east: DU is basically the only house that was strong enough to survive the near-death of the Greek system at Swarthmore. Chi O is not in the top tier at Penn. Sigma Chi is about 50 tiers beneath the locals at Harvard.

[33girl]

Originally posted by IvySpice
locals at Harvard.

Do you mean the things like the Porcellian Club, or honest to God Greek groups with letters?

[WCUgirl]

Originally posted by sugar and spice
I agree with most of the rest of your post but I am calling bullisht on this one. Either she made this statistic up or it was taken from an extremely limited sample size of a survey of her own design. I kinda doubt there's any national sorority out there who's taking surveys on whether or not their chapters are viewed as "top houses," especially since most national officers realize the irrelevance of this statistic. What could pass for "top chapter" on some campuses wouldn't even pass some sororities' minimum member requirements. Other times a house could be considered "bottom tier" and still have girls who with extraordinarily high GPAs and good looks who are very involved on campus and do lots of philanthropy, but compared to other groups on campus they are just not "as good."



I thought we were all mature enough to handle this discussion, but apparently we aren't. And really, the turn this debate has taken makes us look like idiots. Clearly Kappa and DG and Tri Delt don't comprise the top tier at every university out there. Some? Sure. Lots? Maybe. All? Nowhere close. The same goes for Sig Ep/SAE/Kappa Sig/Sigma Chi on the fraternity side. For anybody who thinks that they do, it just makes you look extremely ignorant of Greek systems outside your own. What goes for your campus or your state or even your entire geographic region varies drastically.

I think this is the best post in this thread so far!

I believe that it is possible to separate sororities on each individual campus into "tiers" based on any number of factors. In fact, depending on what the individual seeking to make the classification is using as their criteria, you could come up with several different results! How do you define each tier - who is the best? Is it the sorority that everyone wants to join on that campus? The one with the most members? Is it the sorority that has the best looking girls? Is it the sorority that wins Greek Week every year? Or Derby Days? Or Homecoming? Or has the Homecoming Queen every year? Or has the most campus-wide accomplishments? Also - who is the judge? Is it the other sororities? The fraternities? The independents on campus? The faculty/administration? There are so many angles to look at this question from, and each person is going to have a different perception of what they think makes a group the best.

Nationally speaking, I think it would be pretty much IMPOSSIBLE to try to define the 26 NPC groups into tiers, and one would be a fool for trying. IF someone had that much time on their hands to go around to EVERY SINGLE CAMPUS to observe Greek life, well, by the time they finished their study, it would be changing again!

[xp2k]

Thos are all really good points AXiD670...

At greek awards...you often see a house that not's known as the top house on campus snatching up all of the greek awards.

So I guess this thread all depends on your definition of top.

P.s. ...I'm glad it has moved away from slamming specific GLOs on Specific campuses

[Sister Havana]

Originally posted by xp2k

IU's strongest fraternity (I wont mention their name, but everyone knows who they are) parties...but I've never heard of them getting busted....of course...that could be an entirely different thread

Not everyone from IU.

Of course, the strongest fraternity could have changed since I was there.

[IvySpice]

Do you mean the things like the Porcellian Club, or honest to God Greek groups with letters?

I mean things like the Porcellian Club, etc. None of the local groups at Harvard currently use Greek letters, as far as I know, but many of them did in the past -- some used to be affiliated with national groups. IMHO, they're no different from locals at other schools except for the style of their names.

[PhiPsiRuss]

Originally posted by IvySpice
I mean things like the Porcellian Club, etc. None of the local groups at Harvard currently use Greek letters, as far as I know, but many of them did in the past -- some used to be affiliated with national groups. IMHO, they're no different from locals at other schools except for the style of their names.

There is now a NIC & NPC greek system at Harvard. In addition to Sigma Chi, Harvard has chapters of Alpha Epsilon Pi, Delta Upsilon, Pi Kappa Alpha (Al Gore III is an active in Pike there as I write), and Sigma Alpha Epsilon for the NIC groups, and there may even be others. The NPC chapters are Delta Gamma, Kappa Alpha Theta, and Kappa Kappa Gamma. None of these groups are recognized by the school.

[IvySpice]

There is now a NIC & NPC greek system at Harvard.

Yes, there is. And when we're talking about "tiers," however you measure them -- popularity, resources, size, prestige, visibility, stability, attractiveness -- the locals blow the nationals out of the water, especially when it comes to guys' groups.

FWIW, I'm a member of the "who gives a F*&$ about tiers" school of thought, but I stand by the point I was originally trying to make, which is that national powerhouse groups like Sigma Chi and KKG are NOT at the top of the totem pole on anything close to every campus in the East.

Also, because of their gender exclusiveness, the locals aren't recognized either, with the exception of two co-ed societies.

[NutBrnHair]

There used to be a man who sent surveys out to all of the sororities on all campuses & asked the presidents to rank the other groups on their campus (excluding their own). Anyone remember this or know what I'm talking about? I think it ended about 20 years ago.