Ditto!!! I go to a fairly small university, only around 16,000 students. Greek Life is considered competivie, but I was able to get a bid being an upperclassmen transfer, and someone with no letters of rec. In fact, I didn't even know what a letter of rec was until after I joined my sorority! Part of me misses the chance to be in a large chapter with a house at a bigger school, but it does seem very competivie for someone who does not have recs or transfers in. Good Luck though!

For what it's worth...

A few years ago I received a request for a rec out of the blue from a young woman from Vermont who was going to be a freshman at Ole Miss. She got my name from NPC. There's no Alumnae Panhellenic in the here, and I was a Province Director for the New England area at the time. Her mother and sister were in the same NPC group, though it didn't have a chapter at Ole Miss.

Though she didn't pledge Kappa, she received a bid from another fine organization. (It's Ole Miss Glitter's. :))

Good luck!

LOL I have to laugh when I see people on here say things like this. To me, 16,000 students is a BIG university. There are a ton of colleges in this country that are my school's size (3,000 undergrads) or smaller.

Agreed. :D My alma mater is about 2,000.

Thanks for the encouragement! I really appreciate everyone's help and advice. I have been in contact with the Greek Life office at Ole Miss as well as begun searching recs.

I do have another question though - what exactly are the steps I should take to ask for a rec? I know that pictures/resumes are usually sent, but are those sent right off the bat or what?

Thanks again in advance :) You've all been beyond helpful.

(Ole Miss) Panhellenic Sorority Recruitment Registration

Please have the following items ready to go when you register.
DO NOT PROCEED WITH REGISTRATION WITHOUT THE FOLLOWING ITEMS

Ole Miss Student ID number
Ole Miss email account
Residence Hall and Room number (if you will be living on campus)
Final High School Grade average (GPA--"grade average")
High School Grade Scale (GPA scale--"grade scale")
Digital photo—head shot only (must be in .jpg format)
$75 registration fee--Must be paid with credit/debit card or electronic check
$90.00 registration fee after August 24th, 2007.

Your application CAN NOT be saved at any time. Please make sure you have enough time to fill it out in one sitting or you will have to start over.

***You must have a final, cumulative GPA of 2.5 or higher to register for Recruitment. If you have under a 2.5, please click here.

Important!!!!
Each sorority asks for the following items:

Picture
Final transcript (this does not have to be official)
Alumni recommendation

(This is a letter or form that comes from the sorority alumna. You can contact an alumni chapter in your area if you do not know an alumnus personally. Alumni chapters can be located through the sorority’s national website. You can also search on the National Panhellenic website

http://www.npcwomen.org/alumnae/a_directory.php)

***These items should be sent to the individual sorority. You can find each sorority’s address and information by clicking on the link below:

http://www.olemiss.edu/greeks/PHC/contact.htm

I know who you are talking about :) She's a doll, just graduated this year :)


Out of staters do have a chance but it is just harder and you need to have recs like we all have said.


ETA: There are more and more women from California and New England states coming to Ole Miss. They are going through recruitment and they are receiving bids from any of the 9 sororities. There is even a member who is from Europe in one of the sororities. If you have yourself together and your recs, it can be done, but like I've said before, it might not be easy and you need to come into recruitment with an open mind!

FYI: 2006 undergrad enrollment at Ole Miss was 10,661

Thanks OleMissGlitter, for your encouragement. I definitely will have an open mind coming in and am doing all that I can to prepare.

Also TSteven - thanks for your response but I was asking more along the lines of how should I go about contacting alumni for recs? What are the steps for this process?

I addressed this in my monster thread regarding the basics of general recruitment advice. Wade through it and look under the section about recommendations.

I would first start by asking your current teachers, high school teachers, mentors at your church or synagogue, friends of your family, etc. Also contact the Alumnae Panhellenic in your area to find out if they have a recruitment info session.

Also, check the post I made a page or two back and I mentioned the two local alumnae panhellenics. The Overlake one has a sorority forum every spring but it's directed to high school seniors going to in state colleges.

Another quick question - like I previously stated I do volunteer work on my own, but do you think it would be beneficial to join a Junior League? I am researching options and it looks like there ia a junior League of Seattle that is right around the corner from where I live.

I think you may be too young to join Junior League, not to mention if you are leaving town for school, you won't be there long enough for the probationary period, training, etc. that goes along with JL, not to mention the cost.