fall rush

^^^^^ The above is absolutely correct. If you have decent grades in high school and make a big effort to be amiable and interested in every house, you likely will get a bid. You have to decide going in whether Greek life is for you no matter what houses you wind up with on the last day, or whether you are interested in just a select number. Hundreds of women drop because they don't like the options, but I would encourage you to give it a chance.

Let's tell it like it really is...... the reason girls are left with 2 or 3 particular houses on the list is because 1) they are not a legacy to any other house 2) they don't know anyone from their high school (or from anywhere) that can get them in to any other house 3) they don't have a brother thats in a popular frat and 4) the school really need more sororities since over 2,000 girls rush and there is only space for about 1,400 (blame that on the chancellor & office of greek life which are oblivious to the needs of the students). So yes, you then wind up with 2 houses.
The only house that even comes close to letting girls in on their own merit is Theta (for grades and they better be great).
The above post is correct in saying that if you drop out and don't pick one of the 2 houses left you will not get a bid.
So if you fit the above profile, pick your second choice on your college list if greek life is a must.
Most schools don't rush on the above circumstances, most schools don't just pull people in from their high school, most schools don't always honor legacies. And most people here will deny thats the reason they are in a house and that they got in on their own.
And, if you think about it what would happen if the rest of those 600 girls "trusted the system" those 2 houses couldn't take that many anyways.
This my friend is the reality, you may get cut for grades but truth is if you fit the above your getting cut anyway!!

BS definitely has it right. Most everyone from my high school got into a house because of a friend that was already in there. They all had excellent grades and activities, great personalities, and are very attractive but were still cut from just about every other house except for the one they knew someone in. Yes, houses look at grades abd activities and want high GPAs and involvement but in the end it's not what you know, it's WHO you know.

I call B.S. on this. I came to Mizzou from 700 miles away for journalism. NOT ONE person from my high school attends Mizzou, I have no sisters or brothers on this campus and I am not a legacy. And yet I am in a top house and on my last day of rush my choices were PiPhi, TriDelt and ADPi. I got my top choice and I owe it to 1) good grades in high school 2) leadership roles in high school 3) honors in high school journalism (editor of my paper, which got the Q&S All-America rating) and 4) a very real desire and effort to do well during rush, expressing my interest in the process and showing enthusiasm at each and every house I went to. I think that all of those people who say it's about who you know and where you're from are just coming up with excuses about why they didn't do well during rush. I truly believe that if they had tried harder during rush and had done better in high school, they, too, could have had their choice of houses. That's MY reality and now that I have been on both sides of rush I can tell you that's how it really works.

BS mentioned the fantasy notion that there is some magical number that a house can accept, and anyone else doesn't fit. That's not the way it works. If 3000 women attend preference parties and maximize their options, quota will be 200 (3000/15) and every house will have 200 new members plus their current active members. Would that be insane? Yep. But quota is a function of how many women there are left at the end of the week, not of how many women the houses want to take. If quota is 150 and a house doesn't want to take that many, you can bet their national organization will raise hell about it.

If everyone who signed up for recruitment stuck it out, and if they met the voting requirements of those houses, they would all end up in a sorority. They may end up being quota additions, but they will end up somewhere.

Should we have more than 15 houses? Yes. Are we likely to get another house so long as this campus is so unpanhellenic as to tear down anyone who isn't in a top house? No. We have very little real estate available, and we are a very unpanhellenic campus, and those are two huge obstacles to getting another house here.

I 100% agree with the poster above. I came from out of state and knew only one person here at Mizzou who graduated the year I went through recruitment. On my last day I had Chi O, Tri delt and Gphi. Not even the house of the girl I knew. I had good grades in HS and I would consider myself outgoing/funny and that is why I think I got the houses I did. Who you know DOES have a little bit to do with it, but a lot of the times who you know can actually hurt you.. It really only matters if you are from STL/KC, other than that it doesn't. It's not like they don't give bids to the out of state girls. Anyone saying otherwise is just bitter about their recruitment.

BS is one of those sorry girls who blames all of her flaws on someone else. I can assure you that knowing someone in a house can work against you as much as it works for you. I can assure you that being a legacy means nothing at all after the second round of parties. I can assure you that many more houses than Theta judge a woman on her merits and I can assure you that having a brother on this campus most likely will work against you, not for you, considering the sorry state of many Mizzou frats. How do I know? I am a former rush chair in a mid- to upper--tier house (and a former member of PanHell) and it really makes me angry when uninformed loudmouths spout off about something they know nothing about.

Quota gets higher every year because more women want to be Greek. And yes, that actually is exactly the way the system works. It's not about exclusivity, believe it or not.

From the NPC Manual of Information:

The goals of quota-total are to:
• Give each woman the maximum opportunity to pledge.
• Provide the sorority experience to as many women as possible.
• To assist sorority chapters in achieving parity.

Right there, it says that a goal is to provide the sorority experience to as many women as possible. So as long as more and more women want to be in sororities, the houses will be taking more and more new members, and quota will continue to get bigger.

A 31 ACT, a good GPA (I assume your 4.2 is on a 4-point honors scale, not a true 5 point scale) and leadership in a meaningful extracurricular won't guarantee you a spot, but I would say your chances are good. Working that many hours certainly is commendable, but it probably won't come up during rush (unless it was a cool job and something worth talking about). The job thing is more meaningful when you apply for scholarships, and I hope you have. Between now and rush you might want to beef up your volunteer efforts. Do you have time this summer to do some building with Habitat, for example. We look for smart girls who are well-rounded and whose heart is in the right place, if you know what I mean. That counts for a lot more than superficial stuff. Good luck to you.