50 shades of greek

Interesting question. I just know rumors I’ve heard. Like, I think Alpha Xi Delta was here once before but can’t ever come back.

No, it's not that they can't ever come back. It's that they've been here twice and folded both times, so trying a third time doesn't seem like a good idea for now.

DG has only been back for 6 years and this will be APhi’s 10th. Recolonizing is hard but they have seemed to survive. Only time will tell about APhi.

The brothel thing is an urban legend. They closed due to low numbers.

Adpi came and went once

Also, because of the expense of having a successful house at Alabama, the school is picky about who they let colonize so SK colonizing obviously means their nationals and Alabama Panhellenic are very confident they’ll be successful

Why was ADPi only on campus for two years to begin with?

Wasn’t it the low enrollment of women when they were first at Bama?

Best comment ever!

It just comes down to who is considered to be desirable. Houses with less history are less “desirable” than older houses.

To be fair, gamma phi was a decent choice until the machine destroyed them in the early 2000’s, so there are extenuating circumstances there. It’s honestly kind of a miracle they made it through that. And aopi was a solid middle house until recently when they fumbled a little.

Alums perpetuate these myths because they were salty when new houses dared to come into their social circle and try to compete with tradition. They pass this along to their daughters and granddaughters when they are headed to rush. They sit on Panhellenic alumnae boards and write recs. All the while telling young girls which houses are "top" at bama according to their campus view from 1988 or 1975.

The old guard hates that so many out of region girls are here outside of their influence propping up houses that they decide are inferior. They create rumors and doubt about so many good houses that then circulate during rush creating a buzz around calling good houses bad leaving girls to drop or crying about their cards. This props up the image that their houses are better and their daughters and granddaughters are obviously superior for getting in. This swirls around and around year after year and yet the targeted houses remain and continue to recruit amazing women to keep proving these old rumors and outright lies wrong. The campus is changing with so many OOR girls who don't know or don't care about tired old ranks. Girls willing to leave home and travel across the country from CA, the upper Midwest, or the Northeast have confidence and a sense of self that isn't easily swayed by whispers and rumors of tradition and social climbing.

When these so called inferior houses do great in grades or leadership or have beautiful girls in national pageants they still insist that they are bottom. Any ranks or discussion about NR climbing or any OR house falling is met with cries of jealousy and a little bless your heart don't you know your place talk. Look at the numbers. Look at the measurable GPA for proof of great academic leaders on campus. Look at the measurable qualities of a great sisterhood like the numbers in a house and the retention numbers. Look at the houses that have 400 members each, amazing grades, tons of leadership, reps of being kind/ friendly/ inclusive, and you will see the houses that are thriving. Ranks are manipulation. They speak to social standing and groups of woman that now have their own kids and grandkids.

People get so up in arms about Alabama having such a rigid “tier” system or whatever but literally every school with a large greek system has the same exact thing. We are not special. At the school most people from my HS go to in Illinois, it’s literally the same. Old houses=more desirable for Illinois.

To be fair, I’ve never actually heard anyone be so dramatic about it in real life. No one who goes to UA actually cares as much as @alum. It’s just on this board that people get weird

@Alum has described bama ranks exactly. This is why there is such a shock when PNMs get on campus.

It sucks, but equating tradition/history to worth is pretty standard at most southern schools. There’s a little merit to it, because typically older houses had a stronger local alumni network which can mean better external connections, more help fundraising, and a more reliable pool of pnms to choose from since girls whose families have 4’generations of history with Bama and XYZ chapter will likely always pay their dues on time and remain an active alum. That being said, even the “new” Alabama houses aren’t brand new, and you’re going to get a really similar experience regardless of what row your house is. You’re still going to swaps, you’ll have a bid day retreat, you’ll get a big and hang out at your house. Unless you’re going SK, but even then that’s an opportunity for a unique experience and that doesn’t mean it’s bad, just different.

All fine and good, but the old row houses are (agd included) of higher quality across any measure than the top new row.

Tri Sigma

Give them a shot. I haven’t heard of half the sororities you listed, and DPhiE and AXiD are terrible nationally. Not that Tri Sig is any better, but I say give them a chance.

Probably tri sig or dphie. Dphie has opened a bunch of chapters in recent years including one at UGA which is helpful if they ever wanted to come here. Tri sig is probably the only other one that could afford it, unless we want to pull an Indiana and have unhoused chapters.

We really can’t use Indiana as a litmus for having unhorsed chapters at Alabama. At Indiana, girls have to live in-house for 3 years, but at Alabama, if you don’t want to live in-house you don’t have to. I totally get not wanting to live with 100 other people, but that option is already in place. Besides, not wanting to live in-house is not a good reason to pick a chapter, and if only one chapter doesn’t have a house and never intends to get one, it will likely harm that chapter’s rush because Alabama makes the huge luxurious mansions part of the sorority experience.

An unhoused NPC chapter wouldn't survive here, no ifs, ands or buts. SDT would probably be long gone if they hadn't found alternative housing after losing their original house on the row -- while they were unhoused and based out of Hillel, their numbers got down in the single digits. Even Kappa Beta Gamma is planning to secure an off-campus house.

unhoused chapters, even though with the crazy housing rules they fill a rile at IU, are still considered less desirable than the housed chapters. It is generally a bad idea to try to use IU as a comparison for anything in greek life because they have a lot of weird rules and history.

Wow. We have some real knowledgeable actives and pnms posting on this board! Impressive.