are there really significant drop offs between tiers?

Fiji rho sigep zbt kappa sig ka delt machi

I wasn’t ranking those, just listing them out because these 8 compared to the others you can see a big difference. Fiji and rho are considered their own tier (because they attract the old money crowd), but in Greek life these 8 are noticeably different compared to the others. Reason is, more money, more members, and their members are guys you’d typically picture when you think of “Texas frat boys” They have better builds (more manpower, time and $), formals, date events. They attract wealthier guys meaning more alumni $ and the guys spend thousands in dues and extra for even more events. all except machi have a long history at UT (meaning their events and parties are traditions that have in some cases been going on for 100 years+). Having status and cool actives attracts cool rushees. the hardest part for fraternities below these to rise up is getting cool actives, because houses full of awkward-ish kids will just attract more awkward kids. Also, most of the recruiting in these fraternities is done through networking. almost every guy in these pledge classes will know at lease one active from high school, and often pledge with their friends from the same high school

Don't worry about the tiers too much unless it's a very small chapter. Most fraternities have a good social schedule. As for the guys, all of the "top" chapters still have a good amount of awkward guys. You wouldn't think so but they force it upon themselves since they set dues so high and can only rush guys that can afford it. Of the guys that can afford it, not all of them are socially skilled. If they can't fill their pledge class, a lot of them are like Rho and resort to rushing ACC guys. Just go with a group you like and somewhere you can afford