When I was in college, you couldn't get into the house until your senior year, unless you were an officer, so everyone looked forward to living together in the house senior year! So I guess everyplace is different!

This quota system seems really brutal when so many girls are left out even after going all the way through rush and preffing - and this year it was 150 people??? WOW!

My daughter will be a freshman at IU this fall and is very excited about going through rush (sorry, recruitment). The houses on your campus are beautiful. I was in a house many years ago at University of Oregon where it wasn't competitive at all, so the IU process is quite intimidating. We've been told letters of reference are extremely important at IU. Could you ladies give us some advice on how it works? To whom do we have friends send letters (local chapters? your panhellenic group? local alumni organization?)? And when should they be sent? Does she need a letter for every house if she has any hopes of being asked back? And also, is she at a disadvantage not being from Indiana (we live in Northern California)? Thanks for any help you could give us as we figure this all out.

The person writing the recommendation should know when, where, and to whom to send it.

Well actually, if someone asked me to write a reco I'd have absolutely no idea when, where or to whom to send it. Where does one find that info?

sometimes the collegiate chapters list an address where you could send recommendations on their chapter website.

definately try to have a recommendation to each of the chapters at IU. you never know which chapter your daughter will fall in love with during recruitment.

Personally I didn't find rec letters to be an issue, but that was just with my experience. Also, being from out of state doesn't matter, I've found. I know girls in chapters from TONS of different states

Yeah we're definitely not concerned about where you're from haha.

But on recs- all houses deal with recs differently. I didn't have a rec to the house I ended up joining so it isn't the number one thing on our list when we're rushing girls.

But it's a good idea to get has many recs to the 19 houses as possible. It can only help you!

I'm going to be a freshman @ IU in the fall and will definitely rush!! I'm really excited, but there's not much info on the IU Greek Life website...i know we rush way later then most schools, so that may be why there's not a whole lot of info for formal recruitment 09-10 right now. However, I need let all my sponsors know when & where to send their rec letters. I've looked at all the chapter websites & not all of them have been updated recently. Are there any current students at IU right now that could tell me just the general time I should send in letters? I'd also like to know where exactly to send them...is it the sorority house, the national headquarters? Thanks so much!

All you need to do as a PNM is provide an alum with your resume and picture(s). A copy of your transcript may be encouraged depending on the particular school. Also providing a pre-stamped envelope would be thoughtful so she doesn't have to pay for postage.

The alums send in letters of Rec, not the PNM. They should be be sent to the Chaptes, not to I/natl headquarters. ALums should be able to find the correct mailing addresses on their I/natl website or their I/natl magazine. They ought to be able to find the appropriate form(s) there too.

Don't worry, alums should know all this. (If they don't then it's time they learn. :))

They should be sent to the chapter at its official address on campus. And I would say that they could be sent starting now. That way they can look for you on campus this fall and perhaps some will already know you by recuitment.

Information about where to send everything should be on the house's National Organization page.

So kappakappagamma.org
not
http://www.indiana.edu/~kkg/

All of the above advice is definitely correct, and you can send them up until I'd say a month before 19 party...which I'M not entirely sure when that is yet, haha.

IUGreekGirl--Interested in doing a recruitment story this fall from the other side? I'm pondering it...

Haha I'm trying to keep my affiliation a secret on here so we'll see.

Considering the cost of competitive housing, adding new chapters is not very likely. Having just participated in building a brand new, very large chapter house (at a different campus), I can tell you that it potentially strains the entire international organization to achieve such a feat. My educated guess is that only one NPC not presently at IU would have the resources to even consider this. It is a huge gamble to invest so much into a new, unproven chapter.

I'm not sure how I missed this thread.

I've posted before in previous threads and I'll post my opinions/advice again as an alum of the IU greek system.

To me, its not the quota or system that is failing, its the PNMs going through recruitment that are doing it to themselves.

Many have commented on adding a house or getting rid of the bed quota. I don't think that's the right solution at all. The biggest issues are with PNMs not presenting themselves in the best light or giving up because they only got invited back to one or two houses each round. If people only took the advice of some of the women on this board and would read recruitment stories about how opinions of houses change each party, then maybe some would stick around long enough to explore the houses that they did get invited back to.

Many PNMs take the process seriously and are respectful to all houses, but some aren't and are just flat out rude. In fact, having been on multiple sides of recruitment, the attitudes of women have just gotten increasingly worse over the years. Rumors fly or they think they have bids easily to houses, only to get discouraged. Having friends or being a legacy does NOT guarantee you a bid. Being wealthy or skinny doesn't mean you'll get into a house. PERSONALITY is what does it.

Some houses are in high demand and have no issues with quota. Others are struggling now or barely miss quota but have no problems making it up with snap bids or COR. Eliminating the bed quota would just increase numbers to houses already bursting at the seams. The unique aspect of the IU system is that houses are just the right size for a big campus, not so large where you barely know anyone in your pledge class. The idea is to have all houses full -- eliminating the quota would surely squash all chances of that happening. Also, grade drops are another high number that few girls take into account. Here's where word of mouth gets people trying to do the popular thing -- a friend may not continue with recruitment saying the process is dumb or they don't want to go Greek when they actually didn't make grades. The person's excuse gets another girl thinking and they end up dropping. It actually happens a lot more than people think.

Almost all women have the potential to get placed, its just that many choose not to continue with recruitment or suicide during pref. The approx 150 without bids will suicide a house instead of maybe receiving a bid from a house they didn't love. Everyone should at least give one house a try. Who knows, it may be completely different when you're actually going through your new membership period and see the women in a different light than you did during rush. It happened to me and many others.

The greek system is a huge deal at IU and I agree that many are bitter about not getting bids, but mostly for the wrong reasons.

Hope this makes sense. Its ridiculously late, but I couldn't go to bed without clearing up some of the "advice" that some so-called experts are giving. Yes, times have changed in the few years that I've left IU, but the basics are still the same and I've still been around rush lately.