'Sorority Life' affecting rush numbers?

VT Tri-D · #1 11-19-2002, 01:13 PM

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carnation · #2 11-19-2002, 01:54 PM

It's sure not nationwide. Rush numbers have been up hugely at the universities and colleges I know of.

VT Tri-D · #3 11-19-2002, 02:05 PM

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33girl · #4 11-19-2002, 02:12 PM

If they are so clueless as to think anything on MTV is true to life, you might not want them to pledge.

Did your school's enrollment go down? Are they enrolling more students that are on financial aid (and might think it's too expensive)? Is there new housing that is nicer than the fraternity/sorority housing? Did anything happen with any of the chapters there recently?

carnation · #5 11-19-2002, 02:18 PM

In the Southeast, it's mostly the private schools who have winter rush and I don't have any stats. However, at the SEC schools, the sisters could have danced nekkid in the streets and mooned national TV cameras and there still would've been massive numbers of PNMs. Every PNM I met--well, anyone from around here--just thought the girls were illbred freaks and few bothered watching more than an episode or two. It's why you hardly see SEC sororities haze--it's considered low-class and illbred.

violets · #6 11-19-2002, 02:19 PM

Let's not forget the impact of "Legally Blonde" which was a huge movie for women of all ages but especially popular with teenage girls. I think it was a great movie for turning all the stereotypes inside out. I think it's the combination of many depictions of sorority life being marketed to adolescents...I hope we all reap the benefits with a huge increase of motivated young women in our organizations.

violets

Edited to add:
The above statement is based on the fact that even in the Northeast, where I live and advise and which doesn't usually see big rush numbers, the numbers of women who have gone to "interest meetings" for January rush is way up. Hopefully their expecations can be met with the reality that is sorority life.

VT Tri-D · #7 11-19-2002, 02:20 PM

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AlphaSigLana · #8 11-19-2002, 02:27 PM

I think the numbers is just like houses, sometimes houses do really well and other years they don't do very well. So maybe it is just a bad year for recrutiment and next year will be awesome.

#9 11-19-2002, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 33girl
If they are so clueless as to think anything on MTV is true to life, you might not want them to pledge

I've heard this statement many times before, and I have to respectfully disagree.

While this may be true in areas where greek life is prevalent, where girls (and boys) know about greek life before college, definitely.

But there are many areas, such as where I grew up (and now live), where most kids haven't ever heard of fraternities and sororities before they go to college - if they even do go. I know that I only had the vaguest idea of what a sorority was when I left for school, and that was just that it was a bunch of girls who were in some sort of club and wore wierd letters on their shirts. Most of my now-sisters have said the same.

If I had seen something like Sorority Life (which, I have to admit, I've never seen, I'm basing my judgments off of only what I've overheard) before I went to college, I wouldn't have touched sororities with a 10-foot-pole. It wouldn't matter that they could be the greatest girls on campus, I wouldn't ever know because my judgment had been clouded.

So it may be a little hasty to say that girls who think that sorority life (small letters) is like Sorority Life (capitals) aren't worthy of joining our bonds... first impressions are everything.

chideltjen · #10 11-19-2002, 06:15 PM

not sure... here in CA, numbers for fall formal recruitment were down a tad... maybe only 19 girls per house was quota... it's usually a lil under 30. however, our number of PNMs coming thru this semester skyrocketed. We have about 26 some odd girls or so... but still.

i have no idea

Glitter650 · #11 11-19-2002, 06:49 PM

Our numbers were up this past fall semester as well... usually quota is about 12 or so this year it was 18... we also had about double the number of girls sign up as interested..(about 400) Even though not all of them came to rush... almost double were interested...

oceanphi01 · #12 11-19-2002, 08:58 PM

I go to school at Florida Tech and the Greek system is really small. Only two sororities and six fraternities. Numbers were WAY down this year for formal recruitment. Only 8 girls finished the whole process when the year before we had over 20. We also do spring informal rush here because it's so small and also because not everyone wants to go through the formal part. It does have it's ups and downs, but we just got a new school president so the Greek system will get bigger.

ChiOqt · #13 11-19-2002, 09:16 PM

VT Tri-D...i remember my year at tech rush was a huge deal. everyone in the halls would talk about it from the beginning of fall sememster on until it started. our numbers here were at GMU were the higest they have ever been, therefore our quote and house totals went up. However, things did start out extremely slow for us as well. All the girls waited until the last possibel minute. I know that when I went to tech I was encouraged to rush because of all the amazing things that I heard about all the chapters and their memebers. Don't be discourages, ou all have some amazing Greek Women down there and I'm sure girls are just haven't gotten around to it yet!

James · #14 11-19-2002, 09:52 PM

I doubt that the show by itself will have any "real numbers" impact on recruitment. Across the board.

It would have to be a series of good or bad programs, movies etc.

MoxieGrrl · #15 11-20-2002, 09:19 AM

I can't say whether or not the show will have an impact on the number of PNMs...it looks like there are mixed results. But along the same lines as 33girl's train of thought, maybe it's the bad state of the economy? Parents might not have as much money to spend on "extras"?