I'll bite
First, mellymoo - that is very exciting! I hope that you will make a college visit this fall to Fayetteville! I loved my 4 years there, and it is beautiful in the fall!
Second, as far as the questions "Do Arkansas sororities treat recs and letters of support equally and are letters of support equally important" - my first response would be that it boarders on membership selection criteria, and as you will read all over GC, that is not something that we talk about - because it is specific to our chapters and our membership procedures are private and only discussed during selection by the active members of the collegiate chapter.
However, what I will say is that in the Little Rock Alumnae Panhellenic, this was something discussed quite extensively, and we wrote the following in our Greek Life booklet this year: "You may find that you have more than one member of a specific sorority who would like to write a recommendation for you. Because each specific sorority’s recommendation form contains standard information, many times one sorority alumnae will write the official recommendation, and then attach additional alumnae’s (from that same sorority) letters of support to the official recommendation. These letters of support just give additional information to the chapter concerning character qualities and individual knowledge of the potential new member. In most cases, this is a good way to save paperwork and is useful to the sorority chapter; however please check with your college/university’s Greek Life office to confirm that this is an appropriate practice on a particular campus." (from this link:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bw_o1msD5zEILXJXWXdUdXZVVjg, pg. 5)
Yes, for most chapters on campus this is a normal practice (have a recommendation written, and then the rec writter will attach letters of support from additional alumnae from that same sorority). This happens when you have chapters on campus for over 100 years and large alumnae support/involvement = lots of alumnae who may know a PNM. However, it seems to me it is much more helpful to have recommendations and letters of support from alumnae who actually know the PNM, and not just something to "check off" the recruitment prep check list. Remember, there are close to 1500 women going through recruitment - even if only 50% of the PNMs had recomendations to a chapter (this is only an estimate, and I would contend a
very low estimate), that is stil 750 recommendations. Now, multiply that by 2 or 3 letters of support, and that is a bunch of paperwork, and still a whole lot more recommendations than spots open from quota for the chapter to take. As all have said, recommendations are a tool (as well as letters of support), but they are just a door opening. Set yourself up by getting good recommendations and letters, but also prepare for recruitment in all the other ways listed on GC. IMHO.
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