Quote:
Originally Posted by bruinlove13
Thank you all for being so nice and giving me advice! It was much appreciated  I've looked on the website and everything but there's no date for the last day they accept rec letters. Should I assume it's July 15th like many other places? |
I'm an alumna of UCLA and was recruitment advisor for my chapter up through 2010. In my experience, maybe 10% of the PNMs sent in letters of recommendation. That very well may be different for other chapters and may have changed, but I doubt it has changed drastically over the past few years.
I do want to point out that UCLA always seems to have a sizeable group of women who sign up for recruitment when they get to campus, and many of them will find a home they love, despite having done little prep for recruitment. It's a campus that very much looks for personality, poise, and fit over connections or recommendations.
I personally think that part of that dynamic helps produce a healthy Greek system at UCLA: not every PNM knows the reputations, and many will go through driven purely by their personal fit and interactions with each chapter.
All that being said, there are always well-prepared PNMs and legacies who are disappointed. There are a lot of women who go through recruitment, and many times the cuts at each chapter can seem arbitrary - the margin between the last invited and first declined will be razor thin.
Bottom line:
Practice your conversation, plan cute outfits, be up on pop culture and current events, be excited but (if you can) minimally nervous, be gracious, be your best self, and be open-minded. You'll find a great home, I promise.