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I guess I can understand both sides of the coin here.
Prior to sorority life, when I was in high school, my best friend knew she was going to go to college and join a sorority. She knew she was going to join AAA because that's the one her mom was in and that's the one her neighbor was in. She went to college and, fall semester of her freshman year, went through rush and (surprise!) became an AAA. She went to a larger school in Florida and, to my knowledge, did not require any recs. However, she was a legacy, so I don't know if that made a difference. None of my other friends in sororities at Florida schools ever mentioned anything about having to have a rec, but then again, it might be standard so not something worth mentioning.
I on the other hand never had any desire to join a sorority. I went to a school in NC and freshman year I had several girls who lived on my hall in the dorm who were in sororities and I hated them. Then, during the summer b/w freshman and sophomore year, I befriended a girl who was in BBB sorority and I resolved that I wanted to join a sorority. I signed up to go through the recruitment process (so, yes, I was just a girl off the streets, so to speak), but noone mentioned that I should get a rec for any one of the groups on campus. So, I guess all the girls going through recruitment were girls off the streets. However, it was a smaller school, with only 60 girls to a chapter and about 125 rushees. So maybe that makes a difference as well. But our rush was definitely very competitive.
It just seems wrong to me that you're going to exclude someone because her mother/sister/someone she knows never joined a sorority. My mother did not join a sorority in college, and neither did my sister. I did not grow up with knowledge of sorority life. Had I gone to a school where I was cut from most of the groups merely because I did not have contact with someone who was a CCC at some other school 20 years ago, I probably would have dropped out of the whole process and been bitter about the whole thing for the rest of my life. Whenever my daughter(s) gets to college and expresses interest in joining, I probably would have discouraged it.
I can, however, understand how you would want to get a reference from someone saying "hey, I know this girl, she's great" or whatever. BUT I just lean towards the idea that a recommendation just solidifies the stereotype that sororities use shallow judgment when deciding to whom they extend bids. It seems to me that it is more of a negative thing than a positive one, and I would tend to agree with James that it is a barrier to entry.
But I really can't pass judgment because this whole concept is foreign to me.
So then, I have some more questions.
If I have to get a rec for AAA sorority, does the rec have to come from someone in AAA sorority? What if my neighbor was a BBB and sends in the rec to AAA? Would the girls of AAA accept a rec from another sorority woman?
Does the rec have to come from someone in a sorority at all? What if I am rushing AAA and I have a rec from my senator because I've known his family for years? Would it have more or less value if the senator was in a fraternity?
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