blown away by this year's quota number

Who will be doing COB???

That is not always correct. The ultimate goal of recruitment is to place as many women into the system as possible. There are always women with one invitation at preference. They are automatically placed into the one chapter since it is her only option. Even if she is the very last name on the bid list, she will be placed there. This is why some chapters have lots of QAs (quota additions). If girl has two chapters, she will get one of the two of the two. If she is near the bottom of both chapters lists, she will still get placed in the chapter she ranked higher. Again, both chapters could be one where lots of girls have already been placed as a QA, but that doesn't matter. Her matching to a chapter is what matters. This is why some chapters have such high numbers.

The chapters with lower numbers, most likely had a high percentage of women going to three chapters and being listed high on the bid lists because those chapters can only invite a small number of women due to RFM and being a strong recruiting chapter. They have to be good at inviting women who truly want to be there because they have fewer invites to give.

Sometimes retention is an issue, but RFM and QAs are really the main reason.

Hope that helps explain it.

how many did KD get?