Fall recruitment. Everyone loves to hate it, but the truth is most of us couldn't stop thinking about it. For weeks, months, maybe even years, we planned our outfits, we gathered our rec letters, and we went to awkward and uncomfortable dinners with strangers -- all to ensure we got the house of our dreams.
But what did we think we knew as high school seniors? A whole lot of nothing was true for most of us. Sure there are your sitting sisters, and your girls with over-involved mothers who thought they had the inside scoop, but most of us came in with nothing more than what we learned on Greek Leak or what we heard from those overly friendly fraternity bros your brother brought home last Thanksgiving.
However most of us rushing here at UT quickly became aware of one phrase: “The Big Six." In all of its glory, what is it really? A ranking, a hierarchy, a measure of size? We all came to understand that for whatever reason, it was a social standing and it's been that way for all of humanity as far as we were concerned.
An article from Texas Monthly is attributed with making the phrase public and really quite famous. The article was entitled “Sisterhood is Powerful" and it was written by Prudence Mackintosh. She eloquently describes the beautiful houses, frantic nerves, and depicts basically what most of us experienced during recruitment. She also only mentions six out of the 20 sororities on campus at the time: Pi Phi, Kappa, Theta, Zeta, Tri Delt and Chi O.
The article made the big six famous with lines like “For some girls, accepting a bid from other than the big six was apparently unthinkable." It reads the way most of us thought at the start of recruitment. There was some apparent line up and it was some kind of crazy important thing that people were dropping out of recruitment entirely for. The article comments on that too. Girls dropping recruitment because they didn't land in the “big six."
So what's the point of all this? Does it make us shallow to concern ourselves with some silly ranking? Aren't we all here for friendship and are we all horrible if we base our sisterhood decision off of a hierarchy? No. We're just girls. For centuries girls have obsessed over our social lives, and have been making life decisions based on what people say, even if it is some silly ranking. Does it mean that if you “go big six" your college career is made and that the rest of life will be a breeze? No. It just means what pledging any other sorority means. You'll find yourself standing on some lawn somewhere with 70 strangers, about 20 crying mothers and lots of sweaty awkward photos pretty much any way you slice it. There is no real way to determine “the best of the best" because every house has something different to offer, and every house is the best house for someone.
Will more and more generations of PNMs continue to fret about rankings? Yes. But why not? It's tradition, and if you're going to worry about something silly at least make it a tradition right? Most likely all of those PNMs will find what a lot of us have, Greek life is a community. You hang out with each other. There is no line in the sand or a velvet rope somewhere. The big six is just a coined phrase for mothers to fuss over at their weekly bridge game, and for high school girls to gossip about at lunch tables.
As for us? We all think we're the best; ask any sorority girl and she will justify (or try to anyway) why her house should be top house. Because each of our respective houses is the best, for us, regardless of a rank, reputation or size.
