Perspective from upperclassman

For any PNMs reading this — because I know I was when I was a high school senior — here’s what I didn’t know when I was in your position.

Top house doesn’t mean best house. Top usually means hard to get into. Each house gets a number of girls they can cut during recruitment. The bigger the cuts the harder it is to get in. They don’t have as many spots to fill, so it ends up being mostly girls they already know or girls that have some kind of connection. This makes the exclusive/hard to get into rep continue year after year.

I’m in what most consider a top house. I love my house, but I knew a lot of girls going in. What I’ve seen in my house and other top houses is girls that are not from Arkansas or don’t have lots of friends from camp or whatever going in have a harder time fitting in. Not saying it can’t be done, but it is just naturally harder.

I’m gonna give a high school analogy. If you move from OOS into a high school where you know no one your senior year and everyone else has been friends since elementary school, it’s gonna be harder to fit in. It can be done, but it’s harder.

Top doesn’t mean friendliest or happiest or best sisterhood. It just means hardest to get into. In fact like the high school example you’ll probably fit in better with other people who haven’t known each other and who have also recently moved.

The top houses in general don’t have as many OOS girls. The mid houses have more OOS. I predict things are going to change big in the four years you’re here because starting next year UArk is making it harder to get in if you’re OOS, so that means a higher % of Ark girls, which means us Ark girls are going to be spread through all 11 houses, even with connections.

Go where you feel comfortable. Harder to get into doesn’t = better. It’s math.