If she went to junior college, I would assume that's her "college GPA" and supercedes her high school GPA - no matter which one is higher.

So a humdrum GPA high school GPA can be completely obliterated by a couple of underwater basket weaving classes taken at the local community college that summer?

That's not the case at the schools where I've advised. They didn't even allow second semester summer school grades taken there or at a CC count towards the GPA.

She doesn't say whether her daughter is a Freshman but if I'm reading between the lines (daughter is a freshman and took summer school) I agree with Greek_or_Greek. I believe those grades go to the college as credits only she has no university GPA so the HS transcripts is all we have to verify GPA. It might also depend on how many credits she took. I'm thinking the dd might have a low GPA and this was the way they were going to get around that by the dd taking summer school and doing well. Probably not a bad idea but I don't think it is going to work at a competitive school where they have tons of qualified high GPA girls going through.

The best bet would be to ask the Greek Life office at the college where the PNM will be rushing.

OSU recruitment follows the classification status as set up by the universtiy office of admissions. If you are attending in the fall and just graduated high school and have duel credit or some junior college you would be classified as an incoming freshman with some college and both GPA's will be required on the recruitment application.

Any advice on appropriate attire for Pref? On some threads I see recommendations to wear a black dress, but not sure if this applies at OSU. She is a huge Lilly Pulitzer fan, but I'm not sure if that is dressy enough.

Lilly would be more appropriate for earlier rounds. You can never go wrong with a "little black dress".(The figurative concept of the LDB, not the literal).
This comes in a myriad of colors(from J Crew):

http://www.jcrew.com/womens_category...5118/65118.jsp

OSU uses GPA from core courses. Does anybody know if that's weighted or unweighted? I'll call tomorrow and ask but since I'm here I thought I'd ask.

It is unweighted. What qualifies as honors varies greatly among schools, so this is meant to level the field.

Thank you. It varied greatly among the teachers at my school too.

This, one thousand times over.

Yes, the SEC is competitive. No question, no debate. However, there are many, many, many other schools out there that are also quite competitive and in which you will be promptly dropped after first round without a rec. I understand the PC/NPC (ha!) aspect of saying that they aren't required but sheesh. It is SO misleading to those who are not in the know.

And again, FSUZeta comes through with sage advice. I would extend this to university Panhellenic pages as well. I have seen several schools where the infamous line of "not required" is immediately followed up with addresses for every single sorority on campus.

OP- glad to hear that you have heeded your mother's and GC's advice. Best of luck to you this fall.

Blondie93, your post is exactly why it's a little confusing for PNMs. School website says you don't need it but if you get it send it with no hard deadline. Recruitment book says you can get them and each chapter's website says send recs "here". All a little confusing especially for newbies with no family history. Google and GC are my friends (along with mom).

Regarding recs: I thought I only knew 2 alumnae. They both gladly helped me with the first two recs. Then I reached out to my local Alumnae Panhellenic. They were very nice and helpful, even reviewed and helped me edit my resume. They sent out my edited resume and headshot to their group. Unfortunately I wasn't able to track who did or didn't do a rec so I felt that was up in the air. So I did more googling, found contacts for the local alumnae chapters and started sending out emails. I didn't know what to expect and WOW WOW WOW. These women were fantastic. They all responded within a few days and were extremely kind, generous, and helpful. One even responded while she was at the Natl Convention to let me know she'd help me when she got back and she did (rec has already been sent). I had a few in-person and telephone interviews and recs have been sent on my behalf. I have all my letters but 2 and I'm doing interviews this weekend for those. Once that's done on to shopping. YES!

Not that I'm an expert at all, because I'm definitely not, but be polite when you ask for a rec especially from a complete stranger. Thank them when they say "yes" and thank them again when they say they sent it. Even thank them when they're considering it because they don't have to do anything for you. If you're meeting for an interview, dress nice (not wedding dressy) but not beach dress either. Get to the meeting early, offer to buy a drink (although mine bought me a drink instead which was nice). Followup the meeting with a thank you. I guess I'm trying to say be polite and appreciative. My mom said it best "these are complete strangers doing you a favor, you accomodate them, you make it easy for them".

Thank you for your good wishes.

P.S. Thank you to greekdee who helped me with a rec for Phi Mu. I told my mom she can close her FB account now.

^^ You are kind and gracious, which makes it a pleasure to continue to write recs year after year. I always tell my PNMs that some (unseen and unknown to me) alumna took the time years ago to do my recs, and thus it is my turn to repay them. I do appreciate the values that you mother has instilled in you, and your insight that we often can't just drop everything at a moment's notice and do a rec. For Bama. When recruitment starts in 5 days. (yep, it's happened). You also give great advice when meeting an alumna for the first time. If only every PNM could read your post and take it to heart...

Again, best of luck. Hopefully the only ice cream and chocolate to be eaten will be done so with brand new pledge sisters. Please come back and let us know how things go for you!

It's because NPC as an entity doesn't honestly know what each sorority/chapter requires for membership and they can't say "you need recs or you will be cut." It's kind of like a mall's management can't enforce a mall-wide sale because the corporate HQ of Forever 21 or whoever might not be down with it.

A friend and I were talking about recruitment. She's going to a different school so we were comparing notes about the different recruitment books, houses, GPAs, etc. On GPAs, if a chapter lists a minimum and you don't meet it does that mean you're an automatic cut? Is it set in stone or is it a gray area decided individually?

From what I've read cuts are easiest based on GPA and recs (or lack of) in the first round. We were wondering how black and white that is. I'm ok but she misses a few at her school (PAC-12).