Out of state pnms
 

This is really for all posters.
Zillini, in a different thread in the last few days (dealing with difficulties of smaller chapters ) in discussing the use of release figures, you mentioned that ''There is less chance for those unknown "discovery" PNMs (especially out of state) to be invited back, someone who the chapter didn't know squat about before Recruitment ". In a thread from last winter there was a comment by one poster about a cousin pledging a sorority that was having problems because "It was her only shot at a sorority because she was from out of state."

Can you give any kind of realistic assessment about the difficulty of an out of state pnm being successful in recruitment at a large Southern school like Auburn or Florida? Will she get cut heavily because she is from out of state?

Should she just settle for what she can get?

actually
 

The post I referred to was in the Quota thread. Sorry . dazed and confused.

With the big SEC schools, it's not because those PNMs are from out of state so much as the sorority members have all these girls they know really well and would love to pledge. Out of staters really have to stand out.

I wrote a rec for an out of stater for Auburn rush yesterday and I hope we do get her! She's a real star and knows no one at Auburn.

Co-sign. I have friends from all over the country in my chapter and in other sororities. I remember last year there was a girl who went thru rush and was from a small town in Alaska and she recieved a bid. If you're from out of state it doesn't matter, just stand out in a good way and people will notice!

What she said.

We send references every year to SEC schools and hope our chapters will notice these outstanding young ladies from out of state but in reality the chances are slim to none. It's really a toss up. All I can say is that it is a win, win for every sorority. There are so many outstanding pnms and they really need to find the group perfect for them.

Given a cute girl with high grades, lots of activities, community service and recs(along with 1200 other girls that are cute with high grades.......etc.), will they cut her solely because she is from out of state?

From what I know (obviously I'm in a fraternity and not a sorority) there are some chapters at SEC schools which take a lot more out of state girls than others. And there are some who will only take out of state girls from within the SE (Georgia, SC and Virginia girls seem to do better as out-of-staters).

NO, but they will pick someone they know from home over someone unknown from out of state. It 's not really even intentional, but it is easy to relate (not the right word) to someone when you recognize her school name or the summer camp she went to was the same one you went to, etc. All comments above about the out of state pnm needing to stand out are right.

My advice to anyone going out of state - whether the rush is competitive or not - is always, always, always get recs. Recs cannot hurt and the more alum endorsements and letters an out of stater can have, IMO, the better. At the very least, this makes the chapter say, "Wow, we have a ton of correspondence on this pnm from Timbuktu. Let's get to know her."

Better the devil you know than the devil you don't!

It is just safer to pick girls you know a lot of times because you can better predict how they are going to react to college life and represent your chapter. It is easy to fool a group that you have been around for 4 hours in 1 week.

it can be done
 

:)I can only say from our experience...my girls went to a very large southern (not SEC) school, we never even thought about recs, except my legacy to ZTA, did not get "cut" from any groups, had a full schedule every round, and got their first choice sorority....I know that this is probably not the usual recruitment experience, but it can be done.

Maybe my rec theory is overkill (as evidenced by ZTA72's experience, which was a good one) but I think anyone who is in doubt at all could benefit from recs. That said, I realize I am heavily influenced by my SEC roots and the type of recruitments take place there.

Also, re Cracker Barrel's comment, I don't think any groups actually decide they are/ are not going to take large numbers of out of state girls, but that might fall under Membership Selection info for some groups and not be open for discussion.

From what I've noticed it tends to be houses which are good but not the absolute top that end up with a lot of girls who would have been in the top houses had they been from in-state.

I'd say that would be very likely and makes sense. I just don't think they go into recruitment with the plan to pledge a lot of out of staters.

Wow, a comment from me prompted a whole new thread. I'm flattered. :)

I want to make sure everyone understands exactly what I was saying that prompted this. My point was that with the Release Figure system, large successful chapters are required to make big cuts early on. Often these chapters look for easy cuts, such as GPA and not having a Rec. Out-of-state PNMs that nobody knows can be considered an easy cut. Why? Because nobody knows the girl well enough to fight for her.

All I'm saying is this can be one of the drawbacks of system. These successful chapters don't have the luxury of large numbers of invites to each round. Therefore harsh decisions must be made early with little information and they simply don't have time to get to know some of the out-of-state girls.

Having said that I'm not going to say it's impossible for an out-of-state PNM to get a bid at a highly competitive SEC school, but there are obstacles to overcome if she doesn't know a soul on campus or in the chapter. She needs to make herself "known" before recruitment starts. Recs are vital, in general the more the better from alums who know her well. This tells the chapter "Ya'll might not know her, but here's a slew of your alum sisters who do. She's a great person, would be an asset to the chapter and you should get to know her!"

Also at Bama there's a spring Panhellenic weekend, basically a meet and greet for actives and all upcoming fall PNMs. This would require travel for out-of-state PNMs, but it's a great way to become "known". Do other campuses have something similar? Bama has been doing this for maybe a decade now. Every year the number of PNMs and their parents attending gets larger and larger. That first year I remember there was maybe a couple of dozen. This last spring there were several hundred. (Sorry, I don't recall exactly how many.)