a different kind of recommendation question
 

I'm still intrigued by the idea of recs since I didn't have any when I rushed and I don't think that any of the girls in my new member class did either. I don't know about girls in the other sororities. For the schools where recs are a necessity- does it matter who writes the rec? Is it better to have an alumna of your chapter write one or can anyone do it? What about if a member of your national council or headquarters staff or another high-up within the sorority wrote one? Would it be looked at more than one that was written by any alumna?

A friend of mine who went to a super-competitive school said that recs from alumnae of the chapter carried more weight than those from other alumnae and alumnae recs carried more weight than collegians. That was not necessarily my experience. Different types of recs didn't carry extra weight with me in anything other than maybe "Oh, I love Suzy Recent Alum! She recommended Polly PNM? I'll be sure to keep an eye out for Polly, then!" At least not for me.

I think it really depends on the chapter and the school. It also kind of gets into the whole "MS is secret" business so it's possible that if the tiers of recs were important in a chapter a member might not be able to say so.

Of course they hold more weight coming from National Officers. Let's say you applied to college, and had a letter of recommendation from your senator, who used to be your high school teacher. Don't you think that would hold way more weight than a letter from your high school teacher who isn't a senator?

In my experience, the recs that carry the most weight are those of alumnae who have known the PNM for a long time, and actually give you some concrete reasons why PNM would be a good member.

Quite frankly, it might have to do with the relationship your chapter has with National HQ or that particular officer. If that NO called your chapter out for your low GPA at a conference or something, you're probably not very high on anything she has to say.

I don't know how a rec coming from a chapter member - especially if it's a recent alum that many of the collegiate sisters participating in rush know - COULDN'T be looked at differently than a rec from Jane RandomAlum from ChapterAcrossTheCountry. Just because someone's your sister doesn't mean they think as you do or find the same things important in a prospective member.

I think it would depend on the relationship of the rec writer to the PNM. When the daughter of a friend of mine (who is a LONG time Gamma Phi IO) goes through recruitment she will have a lot of recs from other IO's but most of them (myself included) have known her since she was about 2 (or longer).

Ditto - second 'best' would be recs from someone associated with the person that knows the you. For example, you already got a rec from your ballet teacher (a member of ABC) and she arranges for her best friend (an IJK) to write one, too.