quota

They shouldn't force top houses to cut so much in the beginning. If girls go only get a glimpse of a house, they don't get to know the lower houses. If they have stay in recruitment because they are getting invited back to houses, they get to know and see the lower houses are great options as well. When they are released from the top, they still feel like they have places they are interested in to join left instead of going off of reps and stereotypes.

No.

They went as far to say the current Panhellenic president had no rec letters during recruitment. IMO, that's telling the audience reference letters aren't required and in the end have no effect on the outcome.

I knew a rushee who had recs - not just the find a acquitance who your mom Babs knows generic rec...recs from alums knew her well and wrote detailed, honest recs about what a great member she'd make. Their impression was it must take knowing someone in the house and that recommendation letters don't mean much anymore. Do the rushes need to personally know a current house member for recruitment? If that's the case, say so and save everyone time, heartache, and money.

But also, even if refs make a difference, it's very rare to see an alum write a bad recommendation letter. My house personally paid more attention to the rec letters that said "heck no y'all don't need this girl," than to the letters that talked about how great the girl was, just because it's so common to get a letter like that. 8 times out of 10, a girl that is harder to talk to than a brick wall has a rec letter saying how great they are. Of course we care what our alumni think, but if we don't like a girl we are going to cut her, regardless of what an alum that probably doesn't know her too well said. Yes, the letters are important but it's more important to be yourself during rush so you can find your home.

Does Panhellenic make these numbers/percentages public for each house at some point?
The method for requiring houses to cut a certain # of girls each day is something large Greek systems have been using for many years. I don't think that was the cause for low return rates. Lots of PNMs dropped out early (wasn't interested, didn't think they could get house they wanted) or prior to pref (didn't get an invite to ones they wanted). That would explain low retention rates and 75-77% is low, Imo.

Does Panhellenic make these numbers/percentages public for each house at some point?
The method for requiring houses to cut a certain # of girls each day is something large Greek systems have been using for many years. I don't think that was the cause for low return rates. Lots of PNMs dropped out early (wasn't interested, didn't think they could get house they wanted) or prior to pref (didn't get an invite to ones they wanted). That would explain low retention rates and 75-77% is low, Imo.

No. Panhellenic doesn't make these percentages public information. However - I can tell you in my experience last year less girls when went through recruitment and the average pledge class size was 62 and this year we had about 50 more girls than last year and assuming no one dropped we were supposed to have PCs of 73 girls.

This has everything to do with Panhellenic giving chapters super high cut rates(60%+) . Because of this it is literally impossible for most of the girls to get a bid.

The numbers that panhellenic requires houses to cut are about the same percentage each year because they're based on acceptance rate. If a house has has close to 100% acceptance rate, they get to only invite back around the number of girls they can have at the number of parties for that day. If fewer girls accept their invites, they get to invite more so that they have full parties. When girls drop out because they don't like their choices, it means fewer girls for all the houses because of quota. Panhellenic takes the number of girls going to pref and divides it by the number of houses. If girls have dropped out, quota is lower.

It was Panhellenic's initiative this year to try and take the negative connotation away from COB by forcing more houses to go through. The way they did this was by giving us super high cut rates so that over half the houses wouldn't make quota and chapter total so that they would be forced to pick up girls during COB.

In my opinion – it ultimately hurt our Greek system and lowered so many girls confidence that dropped by making them feel like they weren't good enough to get in. And it is absolutely never appropriate or justified to them feel that way. I understand it may happen to a few during recruitment and that is just the devil of the process– but to make it an initiative to hurt the PNMs and our Greek system is ridiculous. Panhellenic majorly screwed up.

Τοtally agree!!! Should've had quotas of 72 not 54!

Does anyone know the percentage of girls who dropped out? Some girls dropped, others pledged, and some just didn't get a bid. I just wonder about the percentage of each of those.
If quota was 72 this year, the top houses would have pledged 72 and the bottom houses would have had to go through COB to find more members. The bottom tier might never reach total. So, in theory, if that were to continue for several years, the difference in membership would be great. Some houses would have huge numbers and others no where neare total. This has been a system that has been in place for many years.

You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. You sound like a lower house alum who is trying to make up a reason for your poor showing. Grow up and stop pretending.

^, I didn't drop out, I am already a member. We are discussing why the retention rate was so low this year compared to last year. I don't need an explanation, with enough information, I can figure it out myself.

It is a two way street, you shouldn't join a Sorority just because they want you.

It looks more like Panhellenic trying to push PNMs the direction they want them to go for balance purposes. Disclaimer: Many moons ago, I was a member of a smaller fraternity with no regrets.

It is a big decision for a bunch of "high schoolers".

If you are uncomfortable with your options then you should get the chance to drop, join COB, and get to know a few more people in a house you were uncomfortable with before making that decision.

Panhellenic mandating drop rates that result in a turnout like this, hurts the whole Greek Community and also hurts the budget to run these houses down the road. How do you think these results will look next year at Greek Discovery Day?

Do you mean to come off sounding like a hateful, bitter hag or is that just your personality?

Excellent points @ancient1 and @wondering. Panhellenic is doing no one any favors by having such small pledge classes.

If all the strong recruiting chapters (SRCs) have to make 60% cuts in the first and second rounds, that means a lot of PNMs open their invite lists and find none of their favorites on it. A devastating blow like that can encourage PNMs to drop out.

Meanwhile, even if just one or two SRCs invite a PNM back-- even if the SRCs end up cutting her anyway-- at least the PNM sticks around for another round. And if the PNM sticks around, she'll have a chance to visit other sororities again and maybe find a home.

If people are so stupid that they drop out because they open their schedule and they don't have a SRC left, no one can help them. They generally know which houses are more preferred because of sites like this as was said above. Panhellenic can't help that. Panhellenic rules make it as fair as possible, using return rates from the year before to force top houses to let girls go since they can't bid them all. In the old days, top houses were able to keep all the pnms all the way through up to final bids when they dropped 90% of their pnms. So lots of girls would drop lower houses then end up with nothing.

If girls open their invite lists and find none of their favorites on it, they should go to the houses they do have with an open mind and choose a new favorite or two by the end of the day. Not every house is right for every girl and the actives generally know which girls they need/want to complete their sisterhood.

No, Miss Millennial, not every girl needs a trophy just to remain in recruitment. Every girl needs to grow a backbone and a sense of her own worth and stop listening to rankings that mean nothing.

No it was more than that after he first round atleast 1/4 of my gamma chi group were only going back to 2 or 3 houses. And a lot of girls were left with only axid who doesn't have a true house and are still working on colonizing.

Not all PNMs want to step into a chapter where it's still new and they have to be involved in everything because they don't have the numbers to allow members to pick what they're passionate about. That's why a lot of girls dropped this year.

Girls can only accept invitations issued by houses. They do not get to add back in houses that have released her.

Some houses have fewer parties because their return rates are so high that panhellenic knows that most of the girls they invite will accept. A house with lower rates might have to invite 500 to get 200 acceptances.

OMG--please read my post again. I didn't say that should or does happen at OSU. I said that a friend at a different university said they let girls add back houses that she previously cut!! They have a much higher retention rate and even the lower houses have full pledge classes. However they also require all houses to do COB.
Typically houses don't ask back the girls they cut but gives the girls that cut them a chance to give them a second chance. I think this would work for those girl who cut a house like phi mu, KD or zeta and then got cut by all of the top houses by round 2 or 3. I am sure a lot of girls would love to have a scone look at some of the other houses instead of having nothing!

You don't know if you had a rec there or not. I didn't know about several recs that alums I knew sent in. The house I ended up in I thought I didn't have a rec but a lady from my church called my mom after bid day to congratulate me and said she'd sent in a rec for me and was so happy I had chosen her house. I didn't even know she was in a house.