And by that you mean Florida and some of the less-competitive (comparatively) SEC schools.

annie,

just as you feel that we are stressing the pnms out telling them they need recs., i feel that you are gravely misleading them by saying that they don't.

many of us on greekchat are active advisors for chapters, and believe me, we advisors share the info. we know, not just with sister chapters but with advisors from other sororities. the word on the street-okay, on sorority row-is that on campuses with competitive recruitments, you are more likely to be dropped early on if you do not have a recommendation.

i hope that you do not really know alumnae who are conversing with pms at recruitment parties-i believe they are violating npc rules if they are. alumnae may attend recruitment parties to assist the chapter, serving food, punch, clearing dishes, etc., and they can say "hello" to pnms, but no conversations.

recommendations are not the key to a perfect recruitment and they will not guarantee you an invitation back to the next round of parties or a bid to the sorority of your dreams, but on some campuses, it will be more difficult to receive the maximum amount of invitations each round if you go into recruitment with no recommendations. should you not participate in recruitment if you cannot find recommendations or if you do not have recommendations to all the houses on campus? certainly not. but realize that you may be going in with a disadvantage-give it your best shot anyway. you might be the exception to the rule!

If I knew a young woman interested in recruitment, I would strongly encourage her to get a rec especially if she were in a school with a competitive rush.

Annie, I agree with FSUZeta that your posts can mislead these PNMs.

EW: if you say so.

FSUZeta: Yes, you're right about the conversations during recruitment - I was incorrect stating that. Sorry.

PnC: Of COURSE we all would tell a PNM @ a competitive school to get a rec. But the way you all pound it in...it's really unnerving. Sure she should know what she's getting into - or, how the competition (other PNMs) are jockeying for that coveted bid. But we shouldn't scare PNMs into thinking that just because they don't have a rec to one sorority, doesn't mean that they will 100% get dropped.

I think we all agree about EDUCATING everyone about how recommendations can help...but from the way everyone here is INSISTING, a PNM would think she has zero chance of getting asked back to any sorority. Yes, she can be the exception to the rule - but it happens.

My main gripe is the frenzy that you all get worked up into, regarding recommendations. It's enough to scare even a triple legacy.

Anyway, too often, a majority of recs are simply a re-telling of the PNM's resume. A recommendation should be more than that.

Rather than telling PNMs to ask an alumna for a rec, we should be looking at the quality of our recommendations (and yes, I'm speaking for myself too). Instead of a PMN saying, "Can you write a rec for my sorority?" we should reply, "Why would you want me to recommend you to my sorority?"

People here are trying to be honest and not blow sunshine up pnm's asses. Yes there are schools where things like recs are completely unnecessary. But there are also schools where recs are pretty much a requirement, especially if a pnm wants to be able to look at all of the sororities fairly. It's nice to sit here and think that a sorority at Ole Miss is going to go out of its way to contact alumnae in a pnm's town and get a rec for her if she doesn't have one, but let's be realistic here, there are like 900+ girls rushing at Ole Miss, most of which have 2-3 recs. At that point it becomes an unnecessary hassle for them and it gets to be easier to just cut the girl than worry about getting her a rec.

Okay, time to cool down for a bit! :)