Is 1200 pretty high for the campus?
If it is, it may be a way of telling people to get their stuff turned in ASAP without really having the effect of restricting the number very greatly.
I also happen to think that having a numerical cut off really close to the actually events makes a little sense in terms of recruitment planning by the groups. I don't know how frilly they are, but adding a 100 girls at the very last minute could be hard at a campus that does food and stuff.
And they allow registration until August 14th when recruitment starts on the 18th. So while you can't register the day of, it's not like you have to know too far in advance.
ETA: looking at the recruitment thread
http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=97907, it looks like fewer than 750 girls were placed with quota at 11 chapters last year, so maybe 1200 gives a lot of cushion before any cap would really kick in. 450 would seem like a lot of PNMs not finishing recruitment if they started with 1200.