[BigRedBeta]

I agree with this from the experiences I had at my campus. The houses that routinely took the largest pledge classes seldom had the "best" overall pledge class. In order to reach the largest numbers, they were willing to bid guys that the "best" houses wouldn't touch.

I know of at least one house where their rush strategy was seriously "once we get 3 or 4 really good guys, just do what it takes to fill the rest of the class" Early on in the summer (we do summer informal rush almost exclusively), lots of good guys would be fairly high on this particular chapter, and then by the end, top guys who had waited to sign wouldn't even be considering them, and their remaining signees were pretty poor in comparison to the guys they were signing early on.

The top houses at my campus were consistent year to year in the number of guys they pledged, regardless of how many guys went through rush. The bottom houses were affected most by rush numbers, going through some really lean years when numbers were down. The largest houses were simply content to lower their standards to ensure getting a large class, and b/c of their size they were able to attract a fair number of guys who were between them and the "lower" houses.