[APhiAnna]

One of my absolute favorite quotes I read on this board deals with this...I want to say it was 33girl but if not then I am sorry that I forgot who said it. It went: "Guys think they make the fraternity and girls think the sorority makes them."

Tiers for guys are just as established as tiers for girls on a year to year basis. But I feel like guys are infinitely more likely to join a lower tier house where they click with the guys and then work their butts off to turn it around. Whereas girls, even the ones who work hard for their sororities, don't really see it that way. At my alma mater, the fraternity tiers completely re-shifted in the 4 years I was there, while the sorority tiers didn't even budge. I think if girls took the "guy" mentality more often during rush, you would see more dynamic changes in sorority reputations.

I do not agree whatsoever with the statement that said that top tier chapters are less close, disorganized, etc. There are clicks and internal problems in EVERY sorority chapter over 7-8 members. There are "top tier" chapters with great sisterhoods and "bottom tier" chapters with terrible sisterhoods, so be careful making blanket statements. That is just as un-Panhellenic as making fun of "lower tier" houses.

And lastly, at my campus in the last few years there HAVE been many girls who have been in the position deciding between a top tier and a "lower tier". With top tier sororities required to make huge cuts early on, and enough legacies, recs and "high-school friends" who are going to make that first cut, cuts can be severe. We were always competitive in recruitment, and we had many girls who preffed our biggest competitors, but also many women that were cut by the other really competitive chapters. And I remember seeing our competitor's pledge classes and recognizing half the names, and for the other half I'd be like "Who is this girl? I don't even remember her coming through!" I even know of one girl that ended up at the "best" sorority, and she had been cut by every other sorority within the first few days except for the "worst"...and she was not a legacy and had no connections that I know of. I think the new release figures are making this phenomenon much more common than it used to be.

ETA: I am familiar enough with a couple west coast schools that had rush threads posted on this board, and PMed them (haha, I know everybody hates when people mention PMs) asking for the codes. The PNMs at these schools tended to have surprisingly varied rushes...being dropped from lower tier houses on the first day only to end up in "top tier" houses, preffing drastically different sororities, etc. So this is definitely a common thing at Pac 10 schools, but I can't say anything about other regions. I think it could probably ring true for SEC as well, but I am not that familiar with those campuses.