tradition vs. today

A nice post, well said!

depends on what you define as best AEPhi, DG and ADPi have the top grades, but they aren't necessarily th top socially speaking. There are a lot of features that someone could look for in a sorority, and while philanthropy and grades are certainly important, they probably aren't item number one for a lot of PNMs joining a social sorority. The Big 6 have the highest member wealth overall and generally come from a lot of the big feeder high schools and are the most difficult to get a bid at, and many of the lower tier sororities seem to have even better sisterhoods than a lot of the top and middle tier sororities. Grades and philanthropy are great things, but these aren't service of honors sororities, so there are many other factors in play, and honestly given how formal rush is leveling the playing field it would be hard to make a trully objective rating with all factors accounted for.

GRADES - When one reads this kind of post, one might think "WOW! I want to be in a smart sorority." I was a little shocked to see your highs were only 3.5's. Hell, the lowest was just a 3.1. Thinking that probably overall the .4 difference between top to the very bottom is minimal.
PHILANTHROPIES - Don't know one sorority that doesn't promote their philanthropy and spend money and time to contribute. Hell, we contribute to yours too.
WEARING LETTERS - And judging those in letters,really? We can tell you stories about your own kind in letters also. We all have them. You do too.
DIVERSE- You promote grades??? And you call your sororities diverse. Call that flat out selective.
WELL MANNERED - judging others is equal to any other crime.
CLOSE SISTERHOOD - not all your sisters are super happy with their sisterhood but are making the most of what was given to them.
AND to be honest, your post was great until you added "the best overall".

Spot on. It's hard to believe these girls are super happy where they're at when they're always running around protesting about how tradition doesn't matter. They protest a little too much.

When you have a 3.5 as opposed to a 3.1 or 3.2 that is a big difference when over 200 people per sorority are in the statiscal survey. Grades do count.
Grades aren't the only thing, social prestige counts as well. So does sisterhood, program etc. I really think most of the sororities are pretty similar,except at the level of SDT. Most everyone had good grades So many more quality girls when 1200+ go through recruitment as opposed to 700-800.ADPI has gotten better,DG has gotten better even AZD is better.The only real difference is social prestige.By that measure some difference remains, although not as much as you would think.

sorority GPA's are NOT a huge secret. And to Observer, I think a 3.5 sucks too. LOL!

there it is

Grades do matter. Maybe not to every PNM, but the fact that some sororities on campus focus more on grades and others focus more on social just goes to show the diversity even among the sororities on campus. The moral of the story is the 1200+ girls that go through rush are not all the same. They didn't all go to high school in Houston. They don't all drive Range Rovers with monogram bumper stickers on the back. They don't all wear Nike shorts and big t-shirts every day. Some do, and some don't.

The fact that among our 14 Panhellenic sororities on campus we can offer such a spectrum of girls a home among the greater UT community is a great thing that we as members of that community should celebrate, not tear down. Good for you, Big 6--you're in high demand and serve as the face for sororities on campus. Good for you, DG, AEPhi, and ADPi--you show that as sorority women we are the smartest group of girls on campus.

Let's not get down on one house or another because we don't like that they have more boys floating around than we do or because they have better grades than we do. Your house is special because it isn't exactly the same as all the other houses. Celebrate what your house is special for instead of worrying about how it negatively differs from anyone else.