Tier status

[dzsaigirl]

I come from a greek system that has no true "tiers". I transferred from a school that had pretty distinct "tiers" but I did not rush while I was there.

This is my question. Why is this so important to people? It seems to me that the tiers are either self imposed or they are just the perpetuation of a perceived status. Kind of like how people always say that the popular are only popular because the other people let them be...you know what I mean? If I am not making sense, please tell me! It just seems that any sort of tier system would undermine the purposes of being greek.

[lyrelyre]

You make total sense. I think there are a couple reasons people care. One is just curiosity. I love AXO no matter what people say about it. But I only know my chapter so I'm curious what they are like other places. Just like I'm curious where I might have pledged had I gone to a different school. Another reason is that people have a tendency to live up to their reputation. I guess like a self-fulfilling prophecy. If things continue to go around about a group of people it is nearly impossible to dispel them. Finally, it matters at many universities (mine included) because rush is before school starts or soon after. Many times reputation and social rankings are all PNMs have to go by. I do not, however, support a deferred rush because I don't think it really helps much. In my experience it makes people even more close-minded. Just my opinion-I know from another thread that everyone has their own ideas about that.

[carnation]

When I was at Auburn, nobody actually discussed tiers but just about all incoming rushees knew which 6 of the 14 were considered tops. This was aggravated by the fact that the 8 oldest sororities had chapter rooms in the then 8 new dorms on top of the Hill and the others were located down in the old Quad. Very frustrating for quad sororities.

Luckily, all the sororities have been able to move to the Hill with the construction of new space and things seem to be much more equal now.

[justamom]

My daughter is HOME! She has very finite ideas on this subject. Here, two of LSU chapters are at the local college.
They don't have any knowledge of other chapters. When she goes to N.O. there is a whole different attitude. Alums from LSU have a different attitude as well. In her opinion, she is in THE best sorority because the way she places a "value" on a house may differ from how a rushee places a value on a house. Then,there is something called Old Row and New Row...I have no idea what that is all about. She was talking about such things as drinking in letters, pictures on the web with girls smoking, STANDING while smoking, drinking and dancing at the same time... Her values of judgement boil down to how her chapter presents itself in public, GPA, alum org, involvement in the community etc. Inside the system, I think a lot of people rethink their prior opinions, and, much IS self propagated.
If you asked around here what DG was like, only those who had interaction through LSU, Baton Rouge or N.O. would have a real opinion. Go to N.O or Baton Rouge and it's considered pretty darn good. So, I guess the whole thing boils down to who you ask AND if you care. Her best friend went to three pref parties.
If you assume LSU has three tiers, you could say each one was represeted. The funny thing is, she considered DG above the other, but then she is from N.O. Here, the "other", that is reresented at our local college, cut several of our girls and they felt like nothing else mattered. My daughter specifically didn't want to share her letters with some of the local girls because of their reputations. She just couldn't call them "sisters". They knew who pledged because it was published prior to LSU rush.

[shadokat]

hehe...i wonder who made that standing while smoking rule. i know it's "unladylike" or what not, but gosh that's funny. On one of the campuses i advise, one of the sororities has to stand outside of the back of their house and smoke. and let me tell you...it looks like an ashtray out there! Glad I didn't have to sit every time i smoked

[aggieAXO]

I was in the smoking crowd-about 10 of us and we all had to stand (or sit)outside of the back of the house and smoke-it was like a party and it took the edge off before our lovely 2 hr Monday night meetings.

[justamom]

Of all the rules I remember two stick out more than any.
1. NEVER chew gum in public.
2. NEVER wear rollers in public.---This was before hot rollers and it took HOURS to dry hair-even under a "home" hairdryer!

I will say that with all the antismoking rules, and having to go outside, it might be a bit more realistic if they said JUST DON'T SMOKE AND WALK! Now, think about it...haven't you seen women with cigs dangling out of there mouths, walking down the street. That's pretty "lowlife" looking even by the slackest standards. Sometimes people don't see what others see.

Sorry off topic.

[dzsaigirl]

Never chew gum in public? Strange.

People who smoke (yuck) cannot smoke in their letters or while standing and of course, you can't drink in your letters. Not even your drop! And if you smoke at the house it has to be on the back porch.

[KappaStargirl]

very interesting manners discussion!


for more on this topic read The Southern Belle Primer: Or Why Princess Margaret Will Never be a Kappa Kappa Gamma by Maryln Schwartz, it talks about a lot of that stuff.

a message from your friendly GC neighborhood librarian

[LexiKD]

Back to the original question...I feel that tiers are not a bad thing. I would want my chapter to be measured by the chapters on my campus and would use it as a motivation tool if nothing else.

Status changes year to year, we all want to be #1 and we all cannot be #1 at the same time. I think it keeps chapters on their toes and that is great during recruitment if no other time. If your chapter isn't top tier, then don't take offense, do someting to change it. Even if you feel the top houses are horrible, they do get the great PNMs and have a good reputation. I don't mean the houses that think they are top tier and have no issue with saying so, I'm talking about really strong chapters that are well rounded in membership, social activities, grades and campus activites...

[AchtungBaby80]

I don't understand the whole "tier" thing because it seems to be practically nonexistent at my school, but I don't think it sounds so bad. I think it would encourage sororities to make progress if there was a little friendly competition going on. However, being locked into a certain label wouldn't be good, and I guess that's a possibility. Here we have the "top" groups, but they are different now than what they were when my sister was in school, so it does change over the years. But I think I can safely say we have no "bad" sororities--meaning, ones that all PNMs would avoid like the plague--they're just all different versions of the same.