Recruitment UT Austin
 

Hi!
I'm a current CAP student at UTSA and am planning to rush at UT the following year. I've read a bunch of the stories on the internet, and formal recruitment sounds to be extremely competitive. I was wondering what is the difference between a letter of recommendation, a reference letter, sponsorship, and a letter of support?

All the terms containing "letter" are the same. Sponsorship is Delta Gamma's term for a recommendation.

Placement rates at UT Austin are excellent, as long as you stay in to the end. It is only very competitive if you restrict yourself to a few chapters. Be open to every chapter and presuming you have the grades and some social skills you should be fine.

Don't pay attention to tent talk. It is particularly vicious at Texas, but all of the chapters are terrific.

As KDCat said, don't listen to tent talk and go with where you fit/click best.

I was unsure of rushing since I do not have a 3.5 gpa since I took some hard classes and did not do too well for example calculus and biosciences, but I have above a 3.0. I am still pretty open minded just so I can experience formal recruitment and have no what ifs

And btw what is tent talk? does it have to do with the tents in front of each house?

"Tent talk" is idle gossip and nasty rumours. Take it with a grain of salt

It's the talk that happens in those tents before each party. "This is the best house on campus." "This house is the worst on campus." "I heard they're about to get closed." "My sister's friend is a Delta Nu at UCLA and said this house has actual hookers in it!" "This is the drug house." "This house will only pledge you if you're blonde." "This house has a scale under the welcome mat." "If the president introduces herself to you, then you're getting cut." "If the president introduces herself to you then you are definitely in." "This house hazes."

If you are one of the girls standing out front waiting to get in, you don't know jack about squat, regardless of what you think you know. Keep it to yourself and seriously try to not let the negative and sometimes seriously nasty stuff interfere with your process. They're all good; they all have positive and negative qualities and they all have a range of girls. And nobody is a hooker, nobody has slept with the whole football team, all of the houses (sadly) have girls with drug and alcohol problems and none of them are pervasive problems. They all have great grades and have a few members who just can't seem to get it together. Just like your friends in real life. No one is perfect.

and as you said the placement rate is pretty good? So as long as i stick it through ill maybe have a shot at being at one of these great houses hopefully

There are no guarantees, but that is the idea.

You'll need to be a lot more than "pretty open minded." Your 3.0 college GPA is not competitive for a sophomore in UT recruitment. The average UT sorority GPA is usually above a 3.4, and even the "worst" house GPA is usually around a 3.2. Grades are a really competitive thing and there are many chapters that will immediately drop you because of your GPA. You need to be prepared for this reality and understand that any sorority that invites you back is interested in you. Get your LOSes lined up, be yourself, stay open minded and keep a positive attitude.

Yeah that's what I was worried about but i guess I can't change my gpa that is above the CAP which is 3.2 but a little below 3.5

Take a deep breath. You can't change your GPA. So, change the things you can change. Do lots of reading in the recruitment forum - it's a gold mine of tips and ideas. Prepare as best as you can, and let the chips fall where they may. Good luck to you!

And another question do we have to be registered for recruitment at the university before we can send in our letters of reccomendation or the recommendation form to each house? or will they figure out that the recommendation will be attached to me after i register with my university?

and Thank You I will try my best to not let the nerves get to me, and I've been researching through this break trying to understand the process:)

Your recommendations will be submitted directly to the chapters by the alumnae. For Kappa Alpha Theta, it's online (although there is a paper option). Makes it very convenient.

There are threads about how to prepare packets for your rec writers. I'm not great at searching and am hoping KSU Violet is around to help (she seems to be great at suggesting threads to read). Also, in the recruitment forum, there's a fantastic stickied thread and I will go look for it now.

ETA: here's the thread from adpiucf

Go ahead and work on getting recommendations secured now. You won't be able to even register with UT for recruitment until late May (I believe, not sure of the exact deadline this year). Chapters typically receive recommendations/letters/references (whatever they call them), starting in May or June and then can match them up to registration later when they are given that information.

Alright thats great that I can send it in or have the person writing the recommendation send the form in because I wasn't sure if we could. And if I don't have recommendations for each house the local alumni panhallenic should be a help I heard? I'm just worried because I emailed them and it's been a couple of weeks and they haven't responded to my question about registration

Check their website for a college information day. Most have one in the spring. It's best that your recs come from people who already know you. Don't expect to use alum PH for the majority of them. Do your networking...

Titchou is right, the recommendation writer sends the form/letter into the chapter, not you. It is better to have a recommendation from someone you know even if it is through others (friend of a friend), but you can register with your local alumnae panhellenic. Each city/area has a different process for this and some are more organized than others. Typically, they hold an information session and you can register with them and they'll help you find recommendations that you are missing. Please remember, if you do register with a local alumnae Panhellenic group, that registration is separate from the UT registration and don't forget to do that!

If you have some leads on recommendation writers already, ask them if they know anyone from the other groups you are missing. Often times they do.

What happened summergal? Did you participate in UT recruitment? Come back and tell us the rest of the story! :)

I have lined up recommendations for most chapters and am wondering about "letters of support" that I have heard are suggested at some chapters (Tri Delt, Pi Phi, Zeta, Theta). Is this correct and if so, can the person who writes a rec also write a letter of support? I am OOS and do not have any local alumni contacts and would appreciate any information!

I will give you my OOS perspective - my daughter went through Rush at UT in 2014 and she did not submit any letters of support (that we know of). No one knows what those are around us. However what we did do is reach out to 2 or 3 women for each sorority and asked them to send in their recommendation form. So she had 2 or 3 "recs" for each sorority.

A local Texas person can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we accomplished the same goal. From what I have read, if you are working with a local Panhellenic Organization to submit recs, there will often be a "sponsor" who completes the sororities official rec form, then attaches the letters of support. Basically, the sorority only needs 1 official rec form, but in my daughter's case they got 2 or 3.

Of course you never know how things would have worked out differently, but my daughter was very happy with how Rush went for her. Best of luck with your Recruitment!

Thank you for the info. At this point we have not asked for a third letter for any houses though can ask more people- Is it necessary? Also, most forms ask for one photo but I hear that a full length and head shot should be included in packets, should we always use the same pics or alternate so a given sorority might receive several different pictures? Also, if a PNM is a legacy does she also need recommendations?

Yes even a legacy will need recommendations as some groups will not offer a bid without one. As for the question about the photos I recommend using the same full length and head shots for all of the groups.

I heard from a few sources that 2 recommendations per sorority were fine. I think we only got 3 when someone volunteered to do one after we already had 2 - I figured it couldn't hurt.

I would send a 1 head and 1 full body shot to your rec writers. Better to have both - they can decide if their sorority only needs one. You can use the same ones for all sororities.

Is your question should you include an additional recommendation beyond the legacy recommendation? I'm pretty sure my daughter did that, mostly because a friend really wanted to send one in. Again, it can't hurt if you have someone available to do it.

Even if you are a legacy,you still need 2 recs. As far as I'm concerned, I owuld assume you are getting a good one from the relative so it's just a check in a box to me.

Yes, a legacy definitely needs a rec. And be sure the relative through whom she is a legacy (grandmother, sister, etc) alerts the chapter that the legacy is going through recruitment. Most sororities have a "legacy information form" or something similar that the relative fills out & sends to the house. Do not assume the house will just "know"! Also- be sure that your daughter actually is a legacy. Some sororities do not acknowledge grandmothers or step relatives; almost no one recognize cousins or aunts.

FWIW, Alpha Xi Delta counts nieces as legacies. Don't think cousins or step family are looked at as such. I'm pretty sure granddaughters are legacies.

Didn't we have a thread on here about which relationships each NPC sorority regards as legacy relationships?

Not sure if there is another thread, but these are the legacy polices of UT's NPC sororities:

Alpha Chi Omega: great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, or sister. Step and half relatives IF the member considers the PNM to be a legacy.

Alpha Delta Pi: grandmother, mother, sister

Alpha Epsilon Phi: grandmother, step-grandmother, mother, step-mother, sister, half sister, step-sister

Alpha Xi Delta: grandmother, step-grandmother, mother, step-mother, aunt, sister, step-sister, half-sister

Chi Omega: mother, sister

Delta Delta Delta: mother, step-mother, sister, step-sister

Delta Gamma: great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, sister. Includes step and half relatives.

Kappa Alpha Theta: great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, sister. Step relatives of the member considers the pnm to be a legacy.

Kappa Delta: grandmother, mother, sister. Step and half relatives if the member considers the pnm to be a legacy.

Kappa Kappa Gamma: great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, sister.

Pi Beta Phi: grandmother, mother, sister

Sigma Delta Tau: great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, sister. Includes step and half relatives.

Zeta Tau Alpha: grandmother, mother, sister.

A long-time family friend was recently very delighted to have her granddaughter join a different chapter (at a southern school) of the same sorority she had 60 years ago. Even though grandchildren are no longer considered legacies in that NPC group, the fact they were related within the fraternal bond was happily noted on the chapter's online newsletter when the granddaughter initiated. None of this family friend's daughters or other granddaughters had joined her sorority; she still has one more granddaughter in high school.

Many chapters value "special relatives" very much; they just aren't guaranteed the benefits of being a legacy, whether that's a guafanteed spot on the first bid list or a courtesy call to the relative before the legacy is released. Our God-daughter pledged a house at UT last year where she was not a legacy, but where her three cousins had all pledged in recent years. The chapter recognized her special family connection even though she was not a technical legacy.

Legacy thread
 

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=18486

This seems to have a good number, but not boiled down into one posting as above.

You forgot one of the NPC Chapters at UT Austin and it's legacy policy in your list. As Alpha Phi also has an active chapter there. Alpha Phi's legacy policy considers any granddaughter, great-granddaughter, daughter, stepdaughter, sister or stepsister.

Thanks for catching my mistake! I don't know how I missed Alpha Phi!!:eek:

Does it matter if letters of rec are sent in piece meal? Or should we send them in all together? My niece has started the process and it's really slow going.

You don't send them at all. The alumnae writing the recs send them in, following the process for their organization.

Well this would explain not getting much back after sending 5 requests. We did get one recommendation sent to us but from what you're telling me, it should not have been. Should I forward to the chapter or headquarters?