PHA Recruitment Data

AEPhi made quota and so did others

A couple corrections:

1) quota was 31, not 30, in Jan 2023
2) several other chapters made quota…I think only five did not. I know SDT and SK for sure didn’t
3) ADPi never had numbers as low as SK

Chapters go through cycles. I’ve heard in the 2000s, Zeta was the house on the very bottom. Then DG and ADPi struggled. Now it’s SK, maybe D Phi E and SDT in there too. You always want to make quota, but it’s really hard to do that when the number of women going through recruitment overall is way, way down and when people drop out throughout the process.

I agree that losing chapters is a bad thing – a rising tide raises all ships and when one of us fails, we all fail. It’s never good to lose a Panhellenic chapter bc of a numbers issue. I don’t know what’s going to happen with Sigma Kappa, but I have heard the terms “close” and “recolonize” floating around recently. Wishing nothing but good things for Sigma Kappa, though.

keep hearing that adpi didn’t make quota this year… again im not sure cuz diff sources

This doesn’t seem right. Pretty sure Gphi, DG, and Deeph all made quota. Most houses are posting their PCs and I haven’t seen anyone under quota yet except SDT and SK. SDT was close and only under quota by a couple of girls.

How many girls went through and actually signed a bid card? I'm wondering how many dropped out of the 667 that were signed up originally.

Thanks to social media some PNMs have made up their minds before even arriving on campus which few chapters, ie the most popular, they will accept bids from. It doesn’t matter to that PNM that she has nothing in common with the members, or that she will be miserable there, she wants to be in one of the top groups, as determined on GR. And for some reason, in the recent past. PNMs have begun to think that if the few chapters they deem acceptable don’t invite them back, they can drop out of recruitment and get a snap bid from their faves( not gonna happen, because those chapters reach quota) or they can just get a COB bid from their top choice if that chapter is below total, not realizing that IF their favorite can COB, they most likely have just a few spots to fill which greatly reduces the odds that they will be the lucky ones who receive those coveted few bids. That is the problem.

There's some interesting information from the Greek Life office that people should question.

#1. What was campus total for Fall 2023? From the looks of it, every sorority did informal recruitment except one. But if total was set properly, even if it was set at Largest Chapter Size plus 5, even the largest chapter could only take 5 NMs in the Fall. On a campus with a Greek System the size of Maryland, that likely WOULD NOT be the recommendation for total. But knowing that number is important.

#2. If 1/3rd of PNMs are dropping out before the end of recruitment, there are two issues that could be at play. The first is that women just aren't happy with their final choices and choose not to join. That option seems less likely. The second issue is that sororities are telling women "hey, we know we are going to have open spots after formal recruitment, so just drop out and we'll COB you." It HAS happened at other large Greek schools, and it is destroying their system as well.

#3. Looking at the historical numbers of SK, Between 2020 and 2022, their membership dropped considerably. Almost as if they didn't recruit any NMs for a whole year. In the same time period, ADPi grew by over 50 members! In Fall 2020, SK was at 105, and in Fall 2022, SK was at 80. In Fall 2020, ADPi was at 65, and in Fall 2022, ADPi was at 111. That's a BIG OLD SWING.

#4. No national sorority with a house wants to close a chapter at a flagship university. SK is struggling, but there is absolutely room for them to right the ship. If they're smart, they'll come in and help restore this chapter. ADPi proved it can be done.

Quota and total are two separate things. One does not affect the other. Total is an arbitrary number set by Panhellenic for the maximum number of members a chapter can have. It might be based on the median chapter size, or as mentioned above largest chapter plus 5, or something else. On most campuses it is reset yearly after formal recruitment. On the other hand, quota is the maximum number of new members a chapter can pledge. It is typically set after the PNMs sign their MRABAs ( bid cards) and in its simplest form is the number of PNMs who signed the MRABA divided by the number of sororities on campus. So, it 350 PNMs signed MRABAs and there are 10 sororities on campus, quota will be 35. It doesn’t matter if campus total is 100 and the largest chapter has 90 members during formal recruitment. They can still pledge 35 girls and they will be over Total. Formal recruitment is the only time a chapter can exceed Total. If there is a chapter that has 50 members and they pledge quota(35) they can COB until they get to Total, because they are 5 below total, but they have to stop once they reach total. The problem is a low number of girls participating in formal recruitment and PNMs determined to pledge only a certain few chapters.