<p>I know at my kid’s school, sororities are ranked as upper, middle and lower tier. There are 3 in the upper tier and they compete every year to be the first. One sorority is for wealthy Jewish girls, one is for WASPs, and then there is one which takes in all the mutts. My kids were cut from 2 of them very early on.</p>
<p>My S was choosing between bids from two houses, one of which was considered stronger than the other. We told him to follow his heart. He happened to choose the one that was stronger, but it wasn’t to impress anybody! I still think as long as a house is decent and you find friends, that’s all that matters. </p>
<p>Sally btw - son’s house does tons of stuff with yours 
</p>
<p>"I know at my kid’s school, sororities are ranked as upper, middle and lower tier. There are 3 in the upper tier and they compete every year to be the first. "</p>
<p>First in whose eyes, though? Only the eyes of the people who care about that kind of thing in the first place!
If someone’s in a “lower tier” house but they enjoy it and they have friends, it seems to me it’s the exact same experience as someone who is in a “higher tier” house who enjoys it and has friends. </p>
<p>There are definitely tiers at my d’s school. I don’t really believe there is any difference in experience. And honestly it seems the girls in that dreaded lower tier have a very tight bond of friendship. And that’s what it’s all about. Just think back to high school. If you had a good group of friends, involved in activities, etc what did it matter if you were deemed popular or not. Same thing with this, in my opinion. I haven’t seen nor does my d believe she has gotten any advantage to being in her particular sorority vs another one.</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl You’re correct, there are no official social rankings of any fraternities and sororities. It’s all perception, strength of last rush, word of mouth, and horrid sites like Greek Rank. </p>
<p>The only true “ranking” would be the yield rate for bids given out versus acceptance rate by rusheee rank, and Panhellenic and IFC keep those numbers closely guarded. I was privy to ours as a sorority adviser and had to sign an NDA. Some houses need to ask 50 to get 40; others need to ask 120 to get 40. Same as colleges. </p>
<p>The OP is correct that Southern houses are a phenomenon all their own. </p>
<p>Well, all rankings only matter to the people who care about rankings but there are people who care about rankings so it’s not as though they are meaningless. The same could be said about schools in general. Or being popular in high school. In other words; having the popular kids or the students who got into the higher ranked school or top frat patting you on the head and telling you not to worry about it, you’ll be just fine is not all that helpful, really. The question was are there rankings and the answer seems to be yes. And, everyone knows whether there is an official list or not according to my kid who chose to pass on the whole thing and still has friends and an internship offer so its all good.</p>
<p>"The only true “ranking” would be the yield rate for bids given out versus acceptance rate by rusheee rank, and Panhellenic and IFC keep those numbers closely guarded. I was privy to ours as a sorority adviser and had to sign an NDA. "</p>
<p>I was a rush counselor jr year and assistant rush director sr year and we didn’t even know that. We just knew which houses made quota and who didn’t. Of the dozen or so houses at the time, both “top houses” and “mid-tier” houses equally made quota. Maybe only 1 house didn’t, and that was a house that was obviously already weaker (=much smaller). So making quota wasn’t really a differentiator for the girls. </p>
<p>Marie - rankings on colleges are based on things that make at least somewhat difference to the quality of the academic experience. Rankings on Greek life are based on subjective popularity. So yes, if I’m happy with my friends, it matters not a whit whether the “popular kids” approve or not. This isn’t high school where there is that kind of a pecking order.</p>
<p>Oddly, some of this varies from campus to campus. I was a freshman at one college. The Zetas were really considered the tippy top sorority at that school (e.g. The then president of Pan Am’s daughter was in that chapter). KD was sort of mid range. Pi Phis were the bottom of the heap.</p>
<p>Than I transferred…Pi Phis were the most highly sought after sorority with KD right behind. Zeta was bottom of the heap at this school.</p>
<p>Well, then why are people competing to get in and why are people judging them to figure out whether or not they are worthy? And, this is a real question since as I said my kid chose to skip the whole thing due to lack of interest.</p>
<p>Let’s just take the sorority side for a moment. It’s a very, very bad idea for a girl to decide upfront that she “wants to be a Theta” (or whatever) and go through rush ignoring everyone but the Thetas. The better strategy is to say “I’m interested in joining a sorority” and keeping an open mind as to which set(s) of girls you wind up clicking with and think you can be friends with. And there can certainly be multiple sets. </p>
<p>This is very analogous to college, insofar as it’s a bad idea to decide upfront “I want to go to Harvard” but it’s a great idea to look at all the top schools and figure out which one(s) might be possible fits for you and your interests.</p>
<p>That is helpful. Thank-you.</p>
<p>First of all we’re talking 18 yo kids. But if it’s a social organization you want people in your organization you want to hang out with after rush. You pretty much get one shot to figure out who fits, and fits the particular culture of your organization. And every sorority wants to keep a good reputation. High grades, involvement, etc. Some party more than others, some have the outdoorsy types, etc I don’t necessarily think it’s judging worthiness (though I’m sure when we’re talking about a large group of girls that exists), they want to get the girls they like. Whether that’s completely based on superficial things or deeper things is up to the individual house at the particular campus. </p>
<p>And it’s pretty easy to see during rush week what’s what…there will be a huge amount of girls going to the less popular sororities and fewer girls going to the most popular ones. And that’s because as mentioned above, some have to invite 500 to get a class of 75, some may only need to invite 100.</p>
<p>In the case of the rush system I am familiar with, the houses had the same number of invitations back to the next round. And it was the <em>less</em> popular houses who had fewer girls going there, not more girls. </p>
<p>“Here in the south, kids that are in top frat/sorority are usually kids from prominent families. I wonder what the parents of these kids do for a living, neurosurgeons?”</p>
<p>I think your concept of “prominent family” is likely a regional (perhaps southern) construct, too. Here, someone who is a neurosurgeon - well, then, that’s simply what they do for a living, it doesn’t make them or their family any more “prominent” in any way than anyone else.</p>
<p>“The same could be said about schools in general” - Yes, but college rankings are done mostly with quantitative data. This thread makes frat/sorority bidding sound like the mean part of middle school. </p>
<p>I have no feedback myself. Just listening to learn more since our niece is in a southern sorority. Talking my sister, it seems to have a lot o positive aspects. </p>
<p>sorority and fraternity rankings are not published. They just “are”. I want to add that membership is just that…membership. It is the friends you make and retain. Did one of my children get his or her job lead from another member? Yes. Notice I said “lead”.</p>
<p>The South and southern culture is, from what I understand very traditional. But I truly think that not every family has a neurosurgeon as a parent. Not even close.</p>
<p>The South and southern culture is, from what I understand very traditional."</p>
<p>I know you’re not saying this directly, but I don’t get why the southern Greek system is supposed to own the patent on “more traditional” than the northern Greek ones. My house was the second chapter of the sorority, and it was established on our campus in 1881, so that’s what, roughly 130 years ago? Indeed, many of the sororities on this campus started before 1900. So they are just as “traditional” and “rooted in heritage” as the southern ones, if not more. </p>
<p>Really to all this? I had no idea. I had no desire to join one personally and ds joined a service frat. I’m not surprised to hear this about the deep south though. They are practicing for country clubs and Junior League and that sort of thing.</p>
<p>VaBluebird is woefully uninformed about Greek Life today and it really is lazy to compare sororities to some out-of-touch idea about Junior Leagues. Yawn.</p>
<p>Let’s just take the sorority side for a moment. It’s a very, very bad idea for a girl to decide upfront that she “wants to be a Theta” (or whatever) and go through rush ignoring everyone but the Thetas. The better strategy is to say “I’m interested in joining a sorority” and keeping an open mind as to which set(s) of girls you wind up clicking with and think you can be friends with. And there can certainly be multiple sets."</p>
<p>40 years ago I remember my friends going thru rush and needing to get into a particular sorority because they were a “legacy” and I thought “oh dear, what if you’re not that kind of person and you really don’t want to”. I know one girl I sincerely had doubts about but we lost touch and I always wondered if she could really be happy with those girls. What if you really aren’t like your mother and grandmother and aunts and cousins?
And two friends whose hearts were broken because they didn’t get chosen by the Kappas. At that time at UNC, the Kappa Kappa Gammas were top, according to the girls I knew who were rushing.</p>