retention - what is the big deal?

Crickets.......more crickets....looks like nobody is going to touch this topic with a 10 ft. pole. Wonder why? Who has something to hide?

This is the elephant in the room issue (well one of them at least as there are certainly others). The numbers exist but won't be discussed or released as there is little support for transparency. I don't think this is a Cal issue per se but our system has its head in the sand on many issues relating to transparency I think. I don't see the big deal releasing and discussing the numbers at all. I truly think many things might change with more transparency in the statistics of our community. In the meantime for those PNMs that are interested you can get an idea by looking at avg. pledge class size by year and then looking at graduation pictures by class on instagram. Or, you can read some of the comments on this site which are surprisingly accurate.

From what I know, most of the 'top' houses recruit for freshman, meaning they want girls who can stay all 4 years/a more traditional house. Other houses don't care as much- for these houses they will have to recruit more often or in higher volumes (do spring recruitment, have bigger pledge classes) because their members join older and therefore leave/graduate quicker.

The bad thing with houses that recruit for freshman is that things will be skewed for younger members, meaning that in these houses freshman are encouraged to live in ASAP (spring freshman year) and priority may be given to freshman/sophomores to live in houses before older members. I know of a couple houses where they had seniors drop because A) they have established friends/can get into parties without house name and B) don't live in the house. I would not say this is a majority behavior at all though.

Also a thing to note is study abroad. The majority of people study abroad Spring Junior year and they may decide to drop entirely to avoid paying dues. I know some houses have reduced dues for girls abroad, but there are still houses that require dues as if you were staying in Berkeley, which can be financially burdensome for something you're not immediately benefitting from.

Like mentioned above, there are no published numbers. Photos are not that accurate, since houses can refill numbers with spring recruitment, taking in older members during fall, etc.

Who stays in a house and why or why not drives the issue of retention. Its a super important issue for many reasons but its a good indicator of how people feel about their house and sisters. People dropping is rarely a good thing but it does happen due to financial issues (houses are expensive especially those the charge full dues etc. for junior year abroad), poor fit, academic challenges, and other sisterhood issues. To PNMs I wish that as you go through the houses try to get a feeling about not only how you are being treated but how the sisters are treating each other. Respect of each other, as well as respect of guests/PNMs, is super important. So many comments in the dorm last year revolved around these issues as PNMs didn't feel consistently respected by the houses which was very sad and disappointing to hear. I think these stats should be available and I'm not sure why we don't trust the members of our system to use the information to improve and grow in a positive way. Secrecy is always a bad thing and unfortunately, this is a 'secret' in our system. Its not really a secret as people talk. You just have to listen to what is being said.

Juniors have gone abroad, and seniors have gone to alum status, in sororities for likely as many years as there have been sororities. Women attend college to become educated, training for their futures, and sorority is but one component of that collegiate puzzle for a minority number of female students.

Colleges lose students all the time for many reasons. Have you ever seen a report by a college listing how many students have dropped out, and their reasons for dropping? Did you look at those types of stats before deciding to enroll at Cal?

If one sorority house is always full of junior women who enjoy studying abroad, the house may choose to inform pnms of that fact but not release their exact number of juniors. Women going abroad is a voluntary action that affects retention number.