Major Help Needed for Panhellenic Rec Letters
 

Hello all,

I am an incoming freshman and plan to be rushing at a big name SEC school in the fall. Recruitment is very competitive and I was told that recommendation letters are very encouraged. For the past few months I have tried to get a hold of family friends, relatives, and former teachers in hopes of obtaining at least one recommendation letter, but unfortunately nobody I have talked to has been involved in greek life. Being that I come from a major military family, the greek world is very foreign to them and there are absolutely no connections thus far.

I am now in the process of contacting my local alumnae chapters but this method is also not looking promising. I live in a very rural area where such alumnae chapters are very unestablished or hard to get in contact with.

If anyone could give me any sort of advice of what to do at this point or if there are any DG, KD, ADPi, Tri-Delt or KKG alumnae who would be willing to help me out with these rec letters, that would be great! I was very involved in high school and cannot wait to get involved in college. It seems that recommendation letters seems to be the only thing hindering me at this point. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. If you want to get to know me better or want more information, feel free to inbox me:)

Thank you!

Please check your PMs.

So you don't have any rec letters, but you only want rec letters to those 5 groups?

Have you asked any of the rec writers you have lined up if they know anyone in these 5 groups? It's perfectly OK to do that.

I'd recommend pursuing recommendations for all sixteen chapters rather than just focusing on five!

If you have a lot of military connections - all officers went to college, and most of the wives of male officers also did. After I went in the military, I was constantly hearing "Oh, my wife's sister is a DG" or similar.

Really?

http://www.currentobservations.us/im...now%20that.jpg

You learn something every day on GC.

All commissioned officers have a college degree. Non-commissioned officers, not necessarily so-they most often gain their position of authority by rising through the enlisted ranks. At least that is the way it was when my husband was a commissioned officer in the Navy.

Same for my experience with husband who was a Marine and one who was an Army Green Beret.

If I am reaching out to my local Panhellenic for help with with houses that I do not have recommendation letters for should I be contacting each of the chapers seperately or do I contact the office and they will put me in touch with alum who are willing to help? I have secured over half of the letters needed but I'm short on 5 houses.

If the alum group has a web site, contact them that way. I'm president of mine and have gotten several emails from PNMs this year. Surprisingly, when I ask them if they know so-and-so (based on my knowledge of their school/area), they've all said yes but they never thought to ask them for a rec. Hmm...and both were teachers in their HS.

Great! Thank you. They do have a website so I will do that.

Hey everyone! :)

I seem to be in the same type of pinch. I do have recs for some chapters, but the ladies I know in the remaining chapters have either not been responsive or are quite busy and I feel they may not have time to write a recommendation for me. This is completely understandable as everyone is busy, so I have contacted local alumnae chapters. Unfortunately, I haven't had many responses and I'm getting a little worried!

I have been contacting each alumnae chapter individually by email, is there a better or different way to go about contacting alumnae chapters to connect with an alumna?

That can be a tough one. Doubly so since the alum contact on the web site might actually end up asking the alum you know to vouch for you and the orginal alum may get a little huffy about it.

However, I'd try to contact them by email or see if you can find a name and track them down that way. Do any of the rec writers from other groups know anyone is these particular groups?

Also, all of your high school teachers have a college degree and have friends from college. Many of them are either in GLO or know people who were in a GLO. Ask your favorite teachers.

(Although this is probably better advice in May, than the end of June.)

in need of help as well!
 

Hey everyone! I am also a PNM for this fall 2012 recruitment and I am in desperate need of guidance in regards to recommendations. If anyone knows where I can get recommendations for the following sororities at my school please let me know! Im really excited to rush this fall, and i want to do everything i can to really make myself stand out in the most positive & respectable way :) much love!

The 16 sororities at my school:
Alphi Chi Omega
Delta Epsilon Phi
Alpha Delta Pi
Alpha Omicron Pi
Chi Omega
Delta Delta Delta
Delta Gamma
Delta Phi Epsilon
Delta Zeta
Kappa Alpha Theta
Kappa Delta
Kappa Kappa Gamma
Phi Mu
Pi Beta Phi
Sigma Kappa
Zeta Tau Alpha


I am going into rush very open minded. So any letters are of help :D

Please do not solicit recommendations on GreekChat. Contact your local area Alumnae Panhellenic.

Since your recruitment starts in less than 2 weeks, eeeeeeeeeesh.

And you probably don't know a soul who ever went to college - even your HS teachers were just dropped into place without going to college - and no one ever met or made friends with anyone who ever was in a sorority or fraternity - because the guys don't know any sorority women and aren't related to any and all the friends of your parents and neighbors and friends from church and work never went to college and don't know any Greeks either.

Please.

Okay thank you! Yeah, it was a very last minute decision which is why I'm reaching out wherever I can. But thank you :) Also, i dont really understand why its necessary to be sarcastic and rude.. I mean, you could just simply say hey why dont you try asking everyone you know! which i HAVE been doing. im no one to judge, but dont you think its just more effective to speak to people the way youd like to get spoken to? we arent kids.

thanks again

Do a search on here and you will find some really good threads that discuss how/where to get recs, tips for ways to ask and ways to thank the ladies afterwards. They will be very helpful.( look at the bottom of this page for a list of some threads similar to this one)

We get a ton of pnms who come on here asking the same questions without first doing any searches to see if their question has already been asked and answered. Those same pnms usually tell us they know NO ONE who was in a sorority. The threads on recs address all of those obstacles.

Best of luck to you!

thank you so much! honestly, i appreciate your help! :D After looking at some of the threads ive realized the best thing i can do is continue to ask people i know. its not worth asking random people who MIGHT not be trying to actually help me. if its meant for me to find letters of rec, i will. and if im meant to be in one of the sororities at my school, ill get in. ill leave it in Gods hands. thank you guys for all of your honest opinions! ill let y'all know how it goes :)

much love

I pm'd you.

camom, were you speaking to me when you said you pm'd me? im not sure i received any messages. if you werent speaking to me i apologize haha

If you can share where you are from, I could help you to locate the nearest Alumnae Panhellenic who could help you to obtain recs for all of the sororities. There are some areas that are not covered and it is a bit late, but either post or PM your hometown and high school and I'll see what I can do.

Log on to your facebook page. Search each sorority by name. Look to see if any of your friends have liked that sorority's page and contact them. My daughter did that on her account, I did it on mine and my husband did it on his. We were able to identify several people that we did not realize were alums.

Thank you so much guys! i actually dont have a facebook which makes it that much more difficult! BUT good news! i found 1 recommendation by asking my brothers if they knew anyone! haha hopefully i can obtain recs from my hometown sorority woman!


thanks again :)

Ask that woman if she knows anyone in the other groups. That's OK to do.
She probably will.

Have your parents ask their freinds/coworkers and make sure you have packets with your resume/photos/ stamped envelops ready to go.. And ask your friends mothers and do a search on alumnae panhellenic and your town on google. That is the best place to start.

oh and if you have any friends going thru recruitment at any school ask who wrote their recs!
Unfortunately you are really far behind..

Hey guys! Just wanted to to fill you in :) Ive literally contacted about every single person in my phone book and asked them if "you know anyone, or anyone who would know anyone, a family member, and old friend, a teacher, ANYONE who was in a sorority in college" hahaha. im surprised at how many results ive gotten! So far ive secured 2.. which isnt a lot but hey, its something. Those are just secure.. i have at least 5 other potential ones! hopefully it works out please keep your fingers crossed :) Again, im grateful for all of your help guys! thanks!

You could look in one of those old school paper telephone books. They have a lot more numbers.

I doubt your parents' friends, preacher's wife, high school teachers, etc are in your phone. But they probably are in the old school phone book....

Youre 100% correct. Im taking this old school. Haha. I actually thought to look on my High Schools website to find email addresses for my old teachers! Ive also looked on Yellow Pages for phone numbers of old friends moms! Now that I think back, I am pretty sure at least a few were in sororities or know women that were. I feel like SUCH a creeper. But you gotta do what you gotta do right? Thanks everyone :)

It's called networking!