Biggest chapter? - Page 2

sigmagrrl · #16 11-03-2000, 11:01 PM

My chapter at its highest was about 75. I think this was the best amount. I cannot see having a pledge class that size. I mean, I had the largest pledge class at the time (16) and I felt that that was even too big. Try fitting 16 girls in 2 compact cars in winter in New England!!!!IT WAS AWESOME!!!
I can't see having 200 women in a chapter and having close bonds...

ADPiKnight · #17 10-04-2001, 04:40 PM

Last year our quota was 71 for the fall at U. of Central Florida which made our chapter to have up to 175 sisters.

ADPiKnight · #18 10-04-2001, 04:42 PM

Our sisterhood is absolutely incredible too! I know everyone in my AC class and above.

lifesaver · #19 10-04-2001, 05:39 PM

I knoe this is primarily about the ladies, but my chapter has just exploded in size and its wierd for me to see. When I came to this chapter they had just done a house cleaning, and were down to 14 members. We had our ups and downs, but now are at 70. And with growth projections are looking to reach our goal of 85-90 men by next fall. Quite a change from the 14 of "back in the day." We are the largest our chapter has ever been in its 25 year history. Also we are pretty much tied with the Kappa Sigs and Delta Sigs for largest chapter. (We are only 1 or two people away from each other, but we have the highest retention rate on campus, so I am sure we'll pull away from the pack as the semester rolls on, and the Delta Sigs are only a colony, so that doesnt even count. At my campus its all about how long you've been here - we're second oldest)

Its cool to see the largest meeting room on campus (thats not a ballroom) filled with my brothers. Also theres always guys on campus, thats cool too.

I have seen my chapter as big and small and my $$ is on the big chapter. My reasons are many. Anytime you are over 15 guys, youre gonna have cliques, because 20 people all cant get together in a car and go to a movie, so if there are cliques, I'd rather have a big chapter. Secondly, if you are a big chapter, you can absorb some of the punches you cant as a small chapter. If you are 20 and graduate 8, thats a big blow. But if you are 80 and graduate even 30 thats not that bad. ALso the buying power of a large chapter is awesome. THeres stuff the undergrads are doing now that I only could have dreamed of back in the day. Destination unknown to New Orleans or Skiing in Colorado (all expenses paid), Spring breaks in Mexico, spending $15,000 on formal and the like. Man that was a dream in the day. Yeah, I woudnt be tight with everyone of my brothers, but I also dont have to be worried about being closed in a heartbeat either. Between the two, I'll choose having to work to get to know my brothers ANYDAY!

SoCalGirl · #20 10-04-2001, 09:21 PM

I've been thinking about something.

If a chapter routinely has quota at 60, shouldn't there be about 240 sisters in a chapter.

I've heard of chapers close to 200 but never 240.

So what happens to these girls. I can't imagine having 40 girls a year disaffiliate. So what's going on?

aephi alum · #21 10-04-2001, 10:55 PM

I just can't understand how you can have a true sisterhood with 200+ active members in just your own chapter... At my school, total was 80... I just can't get my head around a quota of 70!

ADPi-EE · #22 10-04-2001, 10:58 PM

ADPiKnight
wow thats HUGE! When I was at Tech chapter total was around 110 but I think its now about 120--which we are over! Quota this year was 50-something I think but we took 62 (and paid over total fees). When I was at Tech, quota ranged from 40 one year to 62 one year. I've heard that KKG at Tech has almost 200 members now.

I know with ADPi, we split into smaller groups called "Prides" which gives you a small group to get to know. Prides change every semester so you eventually get to know everyone pretty well. For me, after Rush and all the practice, I felt like I knew all 100 really well..he..he.. We did alot of sisterhood activities during the week before Rush which really brought us closer together.

SoCal girl--
There are various reasons why chapter total might be 150 but quota is 60. Every group is bound to have some girls depledge. Especially at larger schools, many girls can't keep up their grades. I know at Tech several sororities didn't initiate until second semester and if a girl didn't make her grades she couldn't be initiated. For example, quota might be 60 but only 45 made their grades. With ADPi, we initiate during first semester so we never had this problem. Also, at Tech, many girls were intimidated by the size of the university and distance from home (we're out in the middle of nowhere)....so ended up moving closer to home or to a smaller university. These are the reasons I can think of off the top of my head..I'm sure there are others :-)

#23 10-04-2001, 11:57 PM

At Michigan about 85% of the house have pledge classes of 40+ girls. The largest I ever heard of was Theta with 51 in a pledge class.
Ive heard one girl say that about her sorority when she was a soph that she barely knew the Juniors in her house and didnt know the Seniors at all. Then one girl told me that b/c they had a class of 51, initiation took 8 hours to get through. It got so tiring that the Seniors and some Juniors got up and left. I mean its sad that they barely know each other, but your only required to live in 1 or 2 years so when your a junior and senior your not really in on everything cuz your living out the house. There could still be a strong sisterhood with 200+ girls (as Ive seen on my campus) it just depends on how active people want to be in their house. Small and big have its advantages and disadvantages

The most Ive heard about fraternities is Beta at my school. I think its said they have 100+ living in their house and 200 who dont live in. Dont know, but they do have a huge chapter.

aggieAXO · #24 10-05-2001, 12:14 AM

At Texas A&M I think quota has been from 71-mid fifties the last 3-4 years, most chapters have over 200 girls. When I pledged in the early 90's, we had about 140, with my pledge class being 52 (quota was 52 + you could take 3 juniors if you wanted too). I loved being in a big sorority-more diversity in my opinion. But I also loved A&M where class sizes were often 250-300 students-
I think University of Texas is about the same-sororities may be a bit smaller?

ADPi-EE · #25 10-05-2001, 08:04 AM

aggieAXO,

do you know anything about the ADPi chapter at A&M? A woman I work with was a XO there in the 80's and said the ADPi chapter was really bad--but wouldn't tell me why.

thanks!

ADPiKnight · #26 10-05-2001, 08:52 AM

You are so right about having our prides to get to know each other better. We make a strong push to stay active and participate in the pride activities. I had always thought that it was impossible to know 100+ girls too but trust me, after spirit week and rush and all the sisterhood activities you do, you become close with girls you might never had even talked to before. Of course you're not going to be BFF with every single girl but I know I could call any of them up if I need anything. I have to say that one of the biggest things is on who your leaders of the chapter are. That can make all the difference. Girls do move back home and to community colleges often or disaffliate because of finacial reasons. Just this year we have like 30 girls gradutating.... so sadly, you do lose a lot of girls each year. I don't think that we'd ever hit 200 but I guess you never know.

ADPI_ZL · #27 10-05-2001, 01:14 PM

I am new to this site, and just happened to see the posts about Texas A&M. I pledged ADPi at A&M in '94. I'm a bit surprised that someone would call our chapter "horrible", but I guess everyone has their own opinions!

When I pledged, the chapter was one of the largest at A&M. I know this because I was EVP and had to submit all the paperwork to Panhellenic, etc. I think we averaged about 190? We were always highly involved in campus activities and always did well in grades. In fact, I believe ADPi, ChiO and Theta were the first chapters colonized at A&M in the 70s. For those of you who don't know, A&M was an all-male military school up until the 60s. My next door neighbor was actually the first ChiO pledge at A&M--I think that means she was the first "match" in the process the first year that had rush!

The chapter was very diverse, and still is. We were called "the girls next door". Some thought we weren't as "social" as other in regards to fraternity relations since many of our members seemed to date only members of the corps of cadets!

I can tell you that the year after I pledged, we did not make quota, but were able to snap bid to make up for it. For the next 2-3 years, the chapter did extremely well in rush. I do know the chapter has had trouble making quota for the last couple of years, partly due to the colonizations of DG and KD.

Overall, I think A&M has a pretty competitive rush process. It's spread out over 5 days, and most of the rushees have multiple legacies. We always had several in-house legacies rushing. By the way, my younger sister pledged TriDelt at A&M when I was senior. Ouch!

Anyway, the chapter does have a website: www.aggieadpi.com.

XO_Princess · #28 10-05-2001, 04:12 PM

my soon to be sis-in-law was an ADPi at A&M-but I really don't know much about their chapter....

when I pledged, there were about 80 girls in my sorority-and there were 16 girls in my pledge class. I liked the small number, because we really got to know each other-there's such a difference in the bonds you can form with 16 girls, and the bonds you can form with 50+

XO_Princess · #29 10-05-2001, 04:19 PM

by the way ADPi_ZL, my future sis-in-law pledged in '94 also..I think..

ADPi-EE · #30 10-05-2001, 05:01 PM

ADPi-ZL-
Thanks for writing back. I didn't think ADPi had a bad chapter at A&M and was surprised when the woman I worked with said it. I've gotten the feeling that she was more of a "partier" and really into the social scene--which is cool and all, but she probably wouldn't have fit in with ADPi. Actually, she transferred to Baylor a year later and didn't affiliate with XO there because they were more conservative there.

I've always heard that the ADPi's at A&M were into the Core guys---which is cool with me because my brother-in-law was in the core :-) One thing I always liked about our Nationals is that they were more into grades, campus involvement, leadership, than the social scene. I have a feeling if I went through Rush at A&M I still would have pledged ADPi :-)

What was DZ like at A&M in the early 90's? One of my very best friends from high school pledged DZ in'92.

Thanks for the scoop!
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