House Numbers and Retention

I'd encourage you to rethink your position about publicizing your membership. Being in a Greek organization, especially holding a leadership position, at Bama, displays A LOT of qualities that companies look for in new hires. Use your membership to your advantage, and remember, your membership is for a lifetime, not just 4 years.

I do put the leadership positions and service work on my resume but if I did not have those, I would not include my Greek affiliation at all. I am applying to grad schools in the East and Midwest with a hope of working in a major city in those regions.

NOBODY sees my Greek affiliation as giving me a professional edge on its own and some interviewers have negative connotations about it because everyone knows a major part of Greek life here is wearing fun costumes to over the top parties, drinking, paying big fees, etc. I've enjoyed all of the that but I know no employer sees that as being valuable.

Unless you are applying to some position in the South that has a pick me Bama sorority alum doing the hiring, the Greek affiliation is not an edge. That's a fact. It's 2024.

Agreed up north Bama overall is seen as a party school and then when you say you are in a sorority there, people don’t always think the best. I keep it off mine too.

You are wrong again.

1) You take only one semester in one particular year. This is skewed and not a fair representation of any situation. This small sample size of ONE out of "APhi has the lowest retention rate every semester" comment would be not considered as any criteria for any research paper. Many semesters need to be added to the analysis for any valid conclusion to be reached. But you know this.

2) You subtract the cob number from the total chapter total. This is also a misrepresentation. The ability to recruit is a strength - not a weakness. The conversation is retention of size as determined on a date certain by the UA admin. Not the middle of the month. But at the end. There needs to be a consistency of data. The admin has selected a date each semester to publish a snapshot of each group's situation. The correct number to use for APhi for Spring is 414, not a number you have decided to use.

You fail.

My numbers for an entire academic year of 2023/2024 (2 semesters) for AXO and APhi show that the retention rate is:

AXO = 88%

APhi = 84%

A 4% difference in total retention for the academic year 2023/2024.

Give it up. You are biased. You select biased parameters and don't conform to any statistical norms.

I think you are confused at what cob is. Aphi began spring 2024 with 398. They extended spring bids to 16 girls I believe around February 12, 2024. Now sororities don’t really want to be on cob list at all. Old row sororities are never on it. So it’s not a flex to have to cob and recruit. If you look at the gpa of those members they extended bids to that was horrible. I would just stop because aphi stan you look foolish as we students here know this about aphi. Stop talking and this whole thread will stop. That’s how it works. Just ignore.

I know what cob is. I am not calling it a "flex". But if a group can recruit anytime they want and get a reasonable number of women to respond then that is not a weakness either - even if they only have a low gpa. Maybe they are great humans. Nothing wrong with that.

You are making up your own definition of retention. Replacement is not retention. Sorority retention is specific NPC terminology and does not and never has meant maintaining a certain numerical chapter membership. It means retaining the individual sisters initiated within the chapter. A chapter initiates their chosen new members and they stay in the membership as sisters, i.e. the chapter retains those individuals. Members being lost and gained in a constant stream to keep up numbers is not sorority, it is a drop-in social club. That is why retention of sisterhood members is a distinct and defined NPC value. Whatever you think you are doing is only reiterating the need for a chapter to replace members because it can't retain them.

also aphi has fewer members anyway because of the revolving door, so comparing a retention "rate" using an already diminished membership is not a relevant comparison. aphi is only eligible for cob every semester because they can't retain members and maintain campus chapter total.

If you want to do as retention vs. loss. Axo retained 96%, aphi 90%. But to keep fair you have to think about the size of house say in fall axo was 484 and aphi 443. (Including mc). However remember because of system of bids, some mc will be larger than others so that’s tricky too. So fall numbers may be inflated. The number of girl changes makes most sense to me aphi losing 45 was pretty high. I don’t think anyone is arguing that we know they have bad retention. It is what it is.