recs
 

you dont need recs

since i haven't actually performed rush myself, i dont know how big of a part they play...but i did just fine without any recs or legacies at USC...id say dont stress about it

You should change that to "you don't need recs at USC".

I'm guessing this is Southern California based on your location, shorty :) There's USC==California and USC=South Carolina.

I'd like to post that many, many girls do go through rush at USC with reccomendations, and it can be helpful...esp if you dont know any of the girls in the houses yet.

I just want to stress again that at some schools they don't matter. At many smaller or northern schools, as many GCers have stated, their chapters wouldn't even know what to do with a rec had they gotten one. But, every school is different. The important thing to do is check with the panhellenic office. Many times, they will give a vague response such as, "They're not necessary but they're good to have." The next best thing would be to ask your friends who are in sororities at that school or ask alums in the area. If you're still unsure, remember that a rec can only help you. It is better to go into rush with recs than without them and find out later that they were necessary.

Amen!

I found out the hard way that recs were necessary at my school after the fact. It was said that recs were optional so I assumed they weren't important or looked at closely, but I later found out recs are very important for fall formal rush. I wish I had known about that then.

If they're so all-fired important, why don't the schools REQUIRE them instead of just suggesting them, and using the lack of them as a reason to cut girls?

While I don't think a school could require them, I do think that, IF this is a school where a rec matters, it should be STRONGLY recommended.

STRONGLY!!!! As in, "if you can't find a rec on your own, please call So-and-So and she will help you find the proper sources."

Why can't the schools require them? I had to have recommendations from faculty members to join certain community service organizations, why is a sorority any different?

I think it is up to the individual sororities as to the guidelines they use for accepting new members. I don't believe that a campus can require sororities to use guidelines that the school feels are important. If you had to have recommendations from faculty to join a community service organization, then that was a requirement of that organization, not the school.

Well then, why can't the individual organizations or the Panhel require them? My example, which I guess I need to make more lucid, was to say that organizations can and will require recommendations, what makes a sorority any different?

Let's not mislead girls over needing recommendations, okay? If they need them, why can't we say that? Or is it just an easy way to cut women?

Some organizations do require them. Several people on this thread and other similar threads, have said that, in their sorority, they are required to have a rec on everyone to whom they offer a bid. Other organizations (mine, for one) do not have that policy and the weight given to a rec is strictly at the discretion of the chapter receiving it. As to Panhel requiring recs, that would be the same as the school naking such a requirement. Sororities have different ways of choosing their members and they are allowed to do it in the way they feel is best.

I wholeheartedly agree with you that if recs are really necessary then the PNM's need to be told this. It is going to differ from school to school, however. Many of the members of sororities requiring recs have stated that a rec will be found for anyone they really want to bid. To turn that around, if a sorority does not wish to offer a bid to someone, they can come up with 100 reasons that have nothing to do with recs or the lack of them.

re: collegiate panhellenic requiring recs

While its not a unanimous agreement there is an NPC written policy that states ("green book" page 39):

Letters of Recommendation

The responsibility for providing letters of recommendation for prospective new members rests with the members of NPC fraternities and recruitment information distributed through College and Alumnae Panhellenics shall contain nothing that infers that letters of recommendation must be secured by the PNM.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong. But *I think* I have read at one point that another reason that panhel and sororities can't require them is because of a NPC unanimous agreement stating that in the spirit of equality it is up to each sorority to aquire a rec on a pnm.

I so agree that at schools where a rec could make a difference the importance of recs should be emphasized. My mother was anti-greek, so I had no help or information on greek life. As a freshman at UNT it might not have mattered. But the way they did sophmores back then, I was dropped immediately by all the groups where I didn't know someone personally.

*edited to add - I posted at the same time. Thanks for the NPC clarification AZ-AlphaXi. :)