why did i not get a bid from a top tier?

I don't think grades, high school honors, service...matter much here. I'm in the exact same boat as you. Top of my class at a huge school, loads of honors, service, UT scholarships...and got cut from all 'top tier' (and was a legacy to one). I pledged a 'mid tier'. The girls from my area that pledged top did not have near the gpa...as i did, and I was considered pretty at school but never 'hot'. I mean frat boys aren't going to be like 'such and such has a GREAT pledge class because of her' and that's what seems to matter most now if you are unknown. The plainer girls that I knew personally who got in top had friends in the chapter, which i did not. So prob out of state didn't help either.

As time goes on you will see that "top tier" is way overrrated unless you are simply just into perceived status. Is there anything wrong with the house that you pledged? Are you better than the girls in that house? A LOT of girls go through recruitment and many sororities target certain areas and you almost always have to have friends in certain houses pulling for you. I personally know girls who only cared about getting into a "top" houses. Once that was accomplished they admitted that it just wasn't that important anymore and that they would probably have been happier in houses that were lower in the pecking order. Not putting top houses down, but people seem to wise up with maturity. Make the most of the situation you are in. It's not a bad place to be!

Being out of state probably didn't help you. If you haven't noticed a lot of the girls already know each other from high school and it can be very cliquey. Not saying most aren't welcoming to new people but when so many of the girls know each other its hard when you are out of state and have zero connections. Unless someone really took a liking to you, or you are really gorgeous, like eye catching make a guy stop and stare (sad but true) it is really tough for out of state girls to get a bid from a perceived "top" house. As others have said, forget tiers because its all different depending on who you talk to and as girls mature they realize (I hope) that this should be about making good friends and being in a house that you fit in best. Every house has positives and negatives and pretty and not so pretty. Don't get sucked into it. If you make quality friends isn't that all that matters?

Were you engaging in conversation and asking questions to the girls? A valedictorian that had lots of activities both inside and outside of school, was ranked really high at first. But after the second round we cut her. Answered yes or no to our questions. It was like pulling teeth. She too only went to one preference party and to a bottom house. And we went to the same high school, so it's not just because you were out of town.

Thank you all for your input. I'm Happy and am most certainly enjoying getting to know my sisters and making friends in the other houses as well. That is definitely what it's about!

The reason you didn't get a bid from a top tier house is because all pnms think they want a top tier bid whether they liked the top houses or not. I know girls who would rank those top houses high in hopes of returning even when they liked other houses better. So that's on them. You wanted a lable. The fact that ALL but one house dropped you shows that you did not "rush" as well as you thought. Any house would have jumped on a girl like you with your amazing credientials but unfortunatly your social skills weren't that great. You are still an awsome person so be THANKFUL a house gave you a chance. With a resume like yours maybe you can be the next chapter president. Stay with it and good luck.

Don't be offended with what I am about to say because I don't know you at all and I am not saying you aren't smart, articulate, pretty and involved. However, a graduating class of 3,000??? Is that a typo? I thought you meant a high school size of 3,000 students. Either case that sounds like a very large public high school and maybe you were/are the "cream of the crop" among that group. But realize there are a lot of girls that come from extremely rigorous, academic private schools where the graduating class size is a lot smaller but the academics and workload is EXTREMELY competitive. I went to a school like that. Many in my graduating class went to Ivy league schools or to a nationally recognized college/university. I did not have a 4.0 gpa but the academic rigor and competition at my school was very different from the public school system where I could have gone and gotten a 4.0. I am just saying that when the level of competition was raised, maybe you didn't stand out as much as you were used to. I am not putting you down, I am sure you are wonderful but there are ALOT of attractive, smart, fun girls out there and college is very different from high school.