The earliest time to start accumulating recs is in March of your senior year of high school/the March before your recruitment if you are an upperclassman already at college. Put together a social resume and a headshot/full body photo for each of your recommenders,as well as the addresses for the sorority chapter where they should send the rec. Begin contacting alumnae within your network and contact the Alumnae Panhellenic in your area to see about obtaining the rest.

If you do not yet know where you will be attending school, it is ok for the alumnae to send recs to the universities you have applied to. Make sure they send the recommendation directly to the sorority chapter at the university. There may be a form associated with the rec; the alumna will get it from her sorority.

Make sure to send a Thank-You note to your recommenders once they send in the rec. You should not have any sort of communication with the collegiate sorority women at your university, even though it may be tempting to check and see if your rec was received. Don't even think about it! You can ask your recommender if she sent it; usually the chapters will send the recommenders a thank-you to let them know it was received.

Update your recommenders post-recruitment with a last thank you note and let them know how it turned out. Whether or not you joined their sorority (or even if you dropped out of recruitment), they will be happy to hear from you.

ETA: The photos you provide your recommender with don't have to be Glamour Shots- just a friendly snapshot - but it does help the chapters to be able to put a face to the name and here in Texas we encourage the women to submit these photos with their recs. It isn't required.

to add on to adpiucf's excellent advice, you might even want to include an addressed, stamped envelope that the alum can put her completed rec. in and mail-might help speed up the process and as an alum., i certainly appreciate and am impressed when a pnm thinks to do this!!

Thank you for your responses--you're very kind! My mother tells me about rush, but I'm sure things have changed since she rushed. I'll be sure to keep all of your ideas in mind. I do have one question about the picture--my mom said that I should use a cheerleader shot and a portrait shot. Is that too much? A friend of mine who rushed last year had the two types of photo superimposed, but you didn't see her as well. I've kept up my grades & activities & honors, but is mentioning a title (Homecoming Court, or a Miss Small Town) bragging? It seems like such a fine line to me.

I pretty much like all the schools equally, except I live too close to the one! I love my parents, but don't want them breathing down my neck! I went through all the college websites, and wrote down all the sororities each has--I have some of the recs figured out (from church & school), but my mom's been taking me to Panhellenic events since I was in middle school, just in case there are some ladies who are in sororities I don't have covered yet. We visit every table, and I've seen some of the ladies filling in forms which look like the recs my mother has filled in. I'm afraid it might be seen as rude if I contact someone just for a rec, when she doesn't know me beforehand. I'm also going to visit the friend I mentioned for a weekend, to see if I like the campus--but she said she can't give me a rec for her school. Sometimes I feel like my mother & I are planning an Army manuever!

WOW.


ETA: Why did you say in this post from last April that you were going to rush last August, and your profile says you are only 16....?

I'm embarrassed. I've been lurking a long time, and didn't want you to think I'm too young. But I guess I am. I'm just so excited about it, going away and all. I'll come back when it gets closer. Sorry.

Don't be embarassed, just don't lie.

A cheerleading shot is fine, and so is mentioning any pageant titles or high school courts. You have plenty of time if you are a HS junior-- don't worry about this stuff until next March! And don't worry about approaching strangers for recommendations-- many alumnae write what are called information-only recs. They do this after an in-person meeting with you. You can take this year to get to know some new alumnae, maybe do some volunteer work and keep in touch with emails, Christmas cards, etc., so they remember you when you come to ask them for a rec. Most alumnae are happy to help an enthusiastic PNM provided she gives them adaquate time-- at least 6-8 weeks prior to the deadline. Do try to have your alumnae send their recs in by July 1-- again this is for the year that you are rushing. You are still very young. Take this time to get great grades, volunteer and assume positions of leadership at your high school. An outstanding resume with excellent grades and activities (sports, leadership, well-rounded community volunteer) will grab a sorority's attention and the way you conduct yourself in-person will help them see if what looks great on paper is someone they would want in their organization.

Overall, don't stress out too much. Get your recs and wardrobe when the time comes, learn a little about each sorority's mission and works, but don't try to know it all or come across that way when you get to recruitment. Everyone gets cut from somewhere, and I think the uber-overprepared PNMs end up being the most disappointed-- recruitment is a little like a job interview combined with cheerleader tryouts. Not everyone will get a spot, but they'll make sure you have a good time while you're there and ensure you make some new friends in the process. Just be yourself, have a good time and assume the expectation that it's a great collegiate activity with the potential for lifetime friendships and service.

Have a great rest of your junior year-- focus on living your life in high school, being with friends, doing well in school, your SATs and getting into college next fall!

Recs
 

I did not know what reccomendations were until a few days ago. My parents were not Greek so I contacted my local alumni association and everyone I have contacted has been sooo helpful! Do not be afraid to contact listed alumni, they are very nice and helpful.

How does one go about discovering if recs are a big deal on their campus? I'm in an odd situation as I'm going to be a grad student and I wonder if it would really make a difference for me.

One of the purposes of a recommendation is for a member to introduce you to the chapter prior to recruitment. It doesn't hurt to have one. They best way to find out the extent of their use at your school is to talk to someone there.

Do you mind if I brag a little? I've been lurking a bit, but studying a LOT, and have a perfect GPA going into the end of the school year! Which means my parents are a lot less worried that I'm going to ruin my life if I continue cheering and all in my Senior Year!!!

And, I think I will have recs for the sororities where I'm applying--or at least, I should, after all the socials I've been to! To how many schools did you all apply? My list just seems to get longer, not shorter!!

I guess I'll see you all in less than a year, for last minute advice!

You've been actually posting a lot and lurking only a bit...I want to caution you to be DISCREET from here on out.... I think you know what I mean.

Work on getting into the best college you can with your GPA. Greek life comes later. Don't worry about how many socials you've been to or how many connections you have to GLOs. If you have a perfect GPA (I'm assuming you mean a 4.0 on a 4.0 scale) you should be applying to top tier schools. Worry about Greek life after you're actually accepted to a university.

Just to be a little cautious info...there will be LOTS of girls with your same credentials.

In our area, the top echelon of hs seniors tend to apply to 6-8 colleges, usually broken down into several reaches, several matches, a couple of safeties. According to our cousins, this is the case in their Boston suburb as well. A lot of kids who are shooting for an Ivy may apply to all the Ivies just because admissions is such a roll of the dice at those schools. There are so many applicants with perfect GPAs, 2400 SATs, multiple 800 SAT IIs, who also have amazing ECs.

Alum: same here. In my experience, too, colleges will take a kid with a 3.4 and multiple AP or IB classes over a kid with a 4.0 who slid by on all lower level classes.

And if your ACT and SAT scores don't back up that 4.0, too, then it won't count for much.

But, good luck and have a good day :)