Yes, and yes.

This is beautiful. (It also sounds like a really good idea for a recrutment t-shirt. :) )

I have a question maybe Pineapple or someone familiar with UT can answer. If a PNM attends 3 pref parties and lists them all on her bid card, isn't she guaranteed to match to one of them with the system that is in place now? I know that's the case at many other schools but I wasn't sure if UT adhered to that? I have a rec girl that it happened to and when her mom told me, I just didn't know what to say.

The process is called RFM. Virtually all campuses with Panhellenic do use this policy, including UT. RFM has been discussed here hundreds of times. Just do a Google search (Greekchat + RFM) for all the information you ever wanted to know about RFM. :)

Although nothing is every a 100% guarantee, yes, a girl should receive a bid IF she went to all of the pref parties that she was invited to AND she listed all of those chapters on her bid card after attending pref. I am really skeptical if your rec girl did not receive a bid after following this process. Sometimes girls won't admit that they did not follow those rules. What do you think?

Any chance that she matched to her last choice & chose not to accept, but didn't want to tell her mom?

Hypothetically, if Suzie PNM went to all 3 of her pref parties, and listed all 3 houses on her pref card, but was low enough on the B list of every house that she didn't match, wouldn't she still be placed as a quota addition because she maximized her options?

i.e. isn't it basically impossible not to receive a bid if you honestly maximize your options, barring some crazy info coming to light during/after pref?

Exactly right. This is why I question if things really worked out the way CMDelta was told. I think something isn't right with the information that she got....

Just making sure :)

Now I am curious. What do you ladies think would happen in this totally hypothetical situation?

Polly PNM goes to 3 pref parties. At Omicron Mu Gamma and Lambda Omicron Lambda , she says so sweetly, "Ya'll are just the lovliest girls, but I just know that I already have a home at Kappa Mu Alpha." She probably even wears KMA's colors & a little pair of their mascot earrings to all 3 pref parties, just to be sure everybody knows where she intends to pledge.

Now because she knows the rules, she puts all 3 chapters on her bid card, smiling smugly to herself because she knows that no way will she get a bid from OMG or LOL. She made sure of that.

I think we can understand that she might not make it onto the bid list at all at OMG or LOL. Even if she does, it will be as the very last PNM on the list.

And even at KMA, she falls below quota, way down on the 2nd list. They were unimpressed with her wearing their colors, mascot & the little tiara with their letters that she pulled out of her purse as she entered the pref party.

So.... does she get a QA bid at KMA, even though she very purposefully and clearly tanked any chance of getting a bid at OMG and LOL?

Theoretically she could end up at OMG or LOL if either of the two have not made quota once KMA's first list fills. If all three have made quota and she still has not matched, she could be placed in any of the three based on the campus policy. Some campuses give the PNMs their first choice when possible. Some campuses give the QA to the smallest chapters first which may be OMG or LOL. So, yes, there is a pretty good chance should could end up in one of the other two, just as easily as KMA.

LOL dying :p

But, good question. I thought QAs were determined by the RFM specialists and advisors and that sometimes they were placed with their first choice, sometimes they were placed with the group that had the smallest total number.

Personally, I think QAs should be done such that she goes where she's ranked the highest.

Ignore the possibility of her moving up b/c enough girls from the A list were matched elsewhere...

Polly is on the 2nd bid list for all of the groups.
She's 30th on OMG's B-list
She's 8th on LOL's B-list
She's 12th on KMA's B-list

So, she matches to LOL

I wonder if OMG or LOL have a justifiable basis for refusing to offer her a bid or "refusing" the QA? Just a rhetorical question. I know we don't really have much of a basis for an answer for that one....

In this example it matters who she preffed first KMA, if her number comes up in the computer and they still have open spots, she is matched with them. Once they fill, it goes to her second choice OMG. If OMG is filled, then we go to her third choice, LOL. If LOL is still open that is where she will match.

I was in a situation where we hand matched the bids. It's not as complicated as it sounds, most of the time.

I can see both sides, that she's being honest with the chapters about where she really wants to be, but on the other hand, that she's kind of being rude to LOL and OMG. Not sure what the best thing to do would be in a real life situation. When I went through recruitment my Pi Chis told us to keep our "favorites" to ourselves, and to not tell the houses our other pref party, etc.

Also, I mean.... if they invited her to pref night, obviously the liked her enough for her to potentially become a sister.

Well, I was assuming that since she's a QA, she was not matched during regular matching, that the groups had all already filled their quota. Is that incorrect?

The intricacies of RFM confuse me. Every time I think I understand, some other situation comes up.

QAs are matched at the regular time. They are just the names the computer tells you are unmatchable. Usually there are only a handful. You look at their preferences and decide as a group which way to go. 1. Match PNMs with their first choice even if it make a huge difference in the pledge classes. 2. Match PNMs to the smallest chapter they ranked. 3. Attempt to see if all of the non matched girls can be evenly slotted into chapters based on how many women and different chapters are involved.

That is exactly the hypothetical that I posed... Polly was either very low on all 3 bid lists (or perhaps not on the bid list for OMG or LOL at all). All 3 houses filled before any group got to her name. She made sure that she was very low on 2 of the lists because of her behavior at those pref parties.

Personally, I do not think that she deserves a QA bid to KMA. I think she violated the spirit of RFM by trying to game the system.