[SigmaCat]

I always had an ambivalent sense of the whole tier thing, probably because I went to Berkeley, land of the Greek system that defies categorization. We both did and didn't have a culture that encouraged competition and tier-oriented thinking, and that confused the hell out of a lot of us.

Granted, I graduated before Greekrank and social media were things, but we did all develop at least a vague sense of which chapters were considered "top." That said, even members of said "top" houses might have a hard time articulating why, because most of them simply joined the chapters they liked best, usually where they already had friends.

Honestly, we had quite a few chapters that always met quota and campus total, had high GPAs, and attractive, kind, high-achieving members. It never really made sense to me to try to split hairs on rank, because most chapters were functionally alike. Certainly, they all tapped into different regional networks of friends and acquaintances, and people who were in activities together outside of the house tended to follow each other into one sorority or another, but since most chapters benefitted from the phenomenon, it wasn't exactly an advantage. Honestly, the one thing we could really point to was numbers, and as someone else mentioned upthread, it's not really being judgey or elitist to say that you like a chapter but don't want to be strapped to a sinking ship.

End of day, if you want to be in a sorority, then join one if the opportunity presents itself. If you're so concerned about getting into the "top" house that you'd rather drop out of rush than pledge a mid- or bottom-tier house, then you really weren't all that into Greek life anyway. You wanted to win a popularity contest.