^^^ It depends on the size of the school. In the example with only five chapters it is easier to see how changing quota will work.
I have often argued that for the all but the lowest recruiting chapters, you want quota to be as high as possible. The top chapter gets their top girls.
The middle chapters may not get all of their top girls, but they will only need a couple of girls to catch up at COB. They also don't get as many girls "cried" by the top chapter wandering around pissed off on bid day.
The problem is when there is a big disparity between the chapters and then the lowest chapters have to do a lot of catching up in COB. Making quota lower so everyone gets quota doesn't really help if it means one or two chapters wind up with a TON of QAs. (more than 4 or 5). They might not have to have COB, but they will have to work really hard to keep those girls (some of whom may not be all that happy bid day).
In the example with 15 schools - you also run into problems like this skit night. Suzi Q ranks her top 6, and gets them, but then finds out that her friends are all excited about her number 7 which is their number 2 or 3).
Number 7 is better off focusing on the girls that ranked them higher than to try to get more girls to their parties.
