gatorgirlie,

you will need recommendations at u of f. if you are from a large town/city there may be an alumnae panhellenic association there. you can go on the national npc website-there should be a listing for alumnae panhellenic chapters/associations. if your city does have one, get a name and phone number and contact that woman. tell her you are a local girl who will be participating in formal recruitment at u of f in august, and you were wondering if they(the alumnae panhellenic) had a recommendation board-that you are trying to find recommendations. if they do not have a board, this lady might(and i said, Might) offer to assist you. then again she may not. if you get nowhere with this avenue, contact your former teachers(h.s., m.s. and elementary). some of them might be sorority alumnae, or may know someone who is. ask even your male teachers-their wives may be a sorority alumnae. have you parents ask co-workers. ask your neighbors. ask your friends moms. ask ladies in your church. if you know girls in sororities, ask them to help you get recs. find those recs. it will be very hard on you, especially as a sophomore at u of f, if you do not have recs.

alphafrog, i really think that your post was uncalled for. pnms come on this site for recruitment advice, not critiques of their writing style. if her style(or mine, for that matter) disturbs you, put her and/or me on ignore. let's all try to play nice.

From someone who graduated from UF:

No. It won't completely kill you.

At some houses, it is a ticket to be asked back to second round - "for another look" at you. But getting a rec for a house does not guarantee you'll be invited back to second round at any of the houses... though as I mentioned some will honor this old school courtesy.

If a sorority is interested in you long enough to bring you back to Prefs (4th round) - and if their sorority requires it - they'll get the rec - without you knowing anything about it.

But DO try all the options the previous posters have given you. All it takes is sending out some more emails, in a timely manner.

BTW, when you chat with other PNMs, you'll see that MANY of them have no idea what recs are.

As a recent alum from UF I would say you need to try to get a rec for most sororities there. I can think of 7 where without having one will probably get you cut after 1st round and the only reason being is that there are anywhere from 1200-1600 girls rushing and the trend is more and more PNMs are starting to have recs which goes to what kdonline was saying about honoring the automatic invite tradition for having a rec.

Honestly, if a PNM is doing enough research on her college and sorority life, she should know whether recs are necessary. If you're not sure-- get them anyway. I think it is better to be prepared and feeling confident coming in.

but in defense of the pnms,

if they have visited their schools panhellenic website, and also visited each chapters local and national website, they attended the greek informational meeting during orientation and read any recruitment info. mailed to them, and none of that information tells them that at their school they need to have recs., but in reality they do, whose fault is that?

NPC's for not having the balls to admit that at big schools (and even at small schools sometimes) rush can be cutthroat and stressful and elitist and not all fuzzy puppies and cupcakes.

YEAH I SAID IT, IT'S FRIDAY! :)

AAAAAAAAMMMMMEEEN:)

Recs are a way of showing a sorority that you have taken the time to contact sisters which shows that you are interested in learning more about their sorority and the others. Get all the recs you can. I would work till I had two for each house, personally.

Good luck with recruitment! I'm very exited for you!

Good luck with recruitment!

Next month will be 35 years since I pledged! I have a daughter who is a university junior, talk about feeling old!

DaffyKD

BUT... what if you come from an area of the country where fraternities and sororities aren't popular, and then move to a school where they are? As I stated in another thread, I live in the northeast, and literally didn't know a single soul who was in a GLO. I didn't know the first thing about sororities and quite frankly, had no interest in them because I had never been exposed to them....

... until I transferred to UF.

Fortunately, when I rushed, recs were not a requirement. I think recs put young women who grow up "sorority geographically challenged" at an unfair disadvantage.

And, secondly.. many people write recs for women they have never met. So, what good is a rec anyway?

It's paperwork that bumps your visibility up over those who don't have it. And if the majority of PNM's coming through recruitment have recs, you should, too.

And if the majority of sororities require that their new member class have alumnae recs before they can be initiated, it only makes sense that the chapter is going to kill 2 birds with one stone and invite back girls with recs during recruitment so they don't have to do the work later.

Chapters want PNMs with stellar grades and activities. An overwhelming majority of PNMs possess such attributes. If they also have recs, that is one less chore the chapter has to complete.

ETA: I can understand coming from an area where recs are not very important and not knowing. However, with the amount of information available on the internet today, student orientations and campus visits, any PNM who is committed to becoming a sorority member should quickly get a sense of what needs to happen.

I'll ask again, because no one answered... What about those like me... I went to school not thinking about joining a sorority and went through on my mom's wishes and realized I was wrong about the stereotypes.

Is there no place for women like that at some of these schools?

Some PNMs aren't PNMS until the last day of signup for rush.

They're going to suffer where recs are the norm. They may want to consider sitting it out until the following year or doing CR after formal recruitment. At other schools, they'll have a competitive recruitment without the recs. It just depends on the campus.

You're missing my point. How does one get recs when one knows NOBODY in a GLO? It seems that people who are "geographically challenged" in this manner now have the disadvantage of having to pester people on the internet who they've never even met! And doesn't having strangers write you a rec defeat the whole purpose for a rec?

It may be hard to believe for those of you who live in areas where it's a big deal.. but I literally knew no one in a GLO. Now that I'm back up in the northeast --I still literally know NOBODY who has ever been a part of a GLO outside of my alumnae chapter. It just isn't big here.