does reputation matter?

It depends if the actives like them or not. If someone in a house knows and doesn’t like her/that group of friends then it will known to that sorority’s rush team and it will be “noted” for rush. If girls in that house DO like her, then it’ll probably never be discussed about how they are, at least not with people on the rush team. I know girls who had gotten arrested that ended up in top OR houses and girls who are some of the worst people I’ve ever met in top OR houses too. These kind of girls will end up in “bottom” houses also, just saying it’s possibly that those actions won’t effect their rush experience.

It is so frustrating. I would not expect squeaky clean but taking girls with terrible reputations only brings more in down the line. If that’s what they want, that’s what they’ll get. That’s what brought several former top houses down, and continues today.

These are all very good and honest responses so far. TBH, girls should not "cover" for anybody because they are just going to hurt the house's reputation. I am an OTM in an OR and can say that a member that puts a QR on her top list and seems to want to cover up for a bestie loses all credibility and will lose relevance in the recruitment discussions. I have seen it happen. But sometimes it can happen and it almost always comes back to haunt, not only in hurting the houses' rep going forward but also in changing the connections between a house and a highschool (taking it the lower quality direction). This is why you see different houses trending up and down and in different directions in different areas that supply pnms to the process

Finally, to the OP -- don't you worry about the others, but if you see those girls at pref and it is obvious that the mean girls are getting them in, then you need to make a different decision. You will be miserable as they mean girls from your school keep their little scene going and you can bet they will not change. But chances are, if the sorority is a place where you will want to be, then they will be cut somewhere along the way. The worst thing you can do is try to impact the outcomes. Just roll with it and adapt as it plays out.

I'm trying to say this in the nicest way possible but "They're just mean girls" isn't gonna cut it here. That was high school, don't try and go after girls during rush just because you're jealous of them because it won't end well for you, especially if these girls have a lot of connections and attention this early on. Focus on being true to yourself, if they really do have bad reps it'll be exposed on it's own, it is NOT your place to intervene. I know it can be upsetting to see girls that were popular in high school with possible bad reps being in the spotlight again but unless you know these women personally and know every side of a story I'd suggest you not post on here about how you're insecure. They're getting rushed hard because they most likely already have friends in the sororities, and if their reps are as bad as you spout then the actives just don't care. You will find an amazing home here all on your own, so unless it's really you having a bad rep don't worry about them.

I do know girls personally who are being rushed by high school friends in OR sorotities , who are also not the best reputation wise. The alums and other girls from different places have no clue bc sororities are so big... but these girls will affect the rush decisions of future legacies and higher caliber girls coming.

Finstas are very telling.

Not the OP and I don't have any kind of hit list against anyone, but I know of some private Finstas that are pretty questionable that while not straight up illegal, if they got out to SJWs and anti-Greek "woke" people would be very embarrassing. Usually these girls are popular, rich, and pretty enough in high school so that these kinds of videos won't hurt their reputations even though "everyone knows" but if it gets released as a representative of University of Alabama ABC sorority, the Twitter brigade's going to try to hit us with it again.

Two years in a row, there were groups of in-state girls who got arrested. They still got bids to OR houses because of their family ties/friends already in the house/etc. We all knew they'd still be fine and get bids to those houses, but it did suck knowing that a lot of other girls would be dropped from rush completely if they had mugshots online. but these girls were fine because of "who they were."

bump

Rep matters. Actual personality and morals, less so.