Quote:
Originally Posted by DubaiSis
I have wondered, and this is just speculation not any sort of background knowledge, if some chapters who have in the past considered them mandatory won't be diminishing their importance. If EVERYONE has them, then they really don't have any value except in the case where it is a GLOWING recommendation full of information the chapter wouldn't otherwise know. At these particular schools, it's been discussed ad nauseum about how the chapter has a good idea of who they want before rush even starts, that if every girl in the chapter has only 1 girl they want and are prepared to fight for, that's 3 X quota without a single girl walking through the door. Doesn't that make the hassle of processing recs kind of time consuming and superflouous?
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Really the benefit to the chapter is having them early enough to get an idea of who the PNM is, pair her with the right active during first round and make a quick judgement about each PNM when you have so little time to meet them and so many to cut first round. In my experience it's not like you're literally sitting around and saying "no rec! no second round for you!" but if a PNM doesn't have have one then she isn't going to get much attention at most houses. If someone gets a no rec, or has one written by someone very important, or if there's something funny or unusual about it like her photo or the fact that she had 28 recs come in, then that might be discussed.
Also it isn't completely unusual for a PNM who thinks she doesn't have a rec to actually have one. Alumnae will automatically write them for hometown girls they know and like without the girl asking or knowing. She may think she got a bid without a rec but it really was there.