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Originally Posted by NUBlue&Blue
I think we've discussed this conflicting information before--wasn't the conclusion that perhaps they have to say "recommendations aren't necessary" because that's what they are supposed to say (per NPC? I don't know).
We could put a giant sticky on here that says for SEC recruitment, you must have recs, you must have recs, you must have recs....but unfortunately, most people stumble on this site after things have gone south and at that point it's much too late.
I handed out info about the Atlanta Panhellenic info session to all my daughter's friends' mothers and only one took me up on it and went to the session. They broke the girls up into groups for their prospective schools, but we left so I don't know what the girls were told in those sessions. During the large group session, I wanted to scream when they answered one mother's question "panhellenically" rather than with what most of us with experience know is the truth.....NO, it is NOT better to wait until you get used to school and rush as a sophomore at Alabama! In the craziness that is SEC rush, you need every advantage, and being a sophomore is not an advantage. I really don't know how this can be improved until we can tell the truth without sounding like harpies, gossip mongers or scaring every girl out of even attempting recruitment, but somehow it needs to happen.
I really didn't have a lot of perspective on the numbers until Sunday night when my daughter was corresponding with one of her friends at UGA. They have to cut 1,000 girls for the next day--that's why open house is done at noon. Those girls have to go to work, fight for the hometown girl, try to remember who they met, etc. Then in the next three days, they somehow have to whittle it down to a pledge class. Deserving, smart, nice and wonderful girls are going to get cut and that's just the reality of working with those kinds of numbers.
Last year when so many sweet girls from our HS were disappointed, I wondered what the heck they were looking for in sisters at UGA, too. It's a tough situation, and it seems like a heartless process, but we have to remember it's tough on both sides...and we're talking about 18, 19 and 20 year old girls having to make these kinds of decisions under extreme pressure.
It's no consolation when it's your daughter in pain, but it really isn't personal in most cases, sometimes it's just the luck of the draw on who you talk to when you walk in the door.
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Our ASCAPA info session does "tell it like it is" and makes sure all the girls who attend "get it" and we encourage them to spread the word to their friends. We want them going in with their eyes wide open - their moms too! So far of the nearly 40 rec requests we processed this summer, none of the girls have dropped out: at GaSouthern we had 2 Kappas, 2 AOPis and 1 Zeta; at Auburn, we had 1 TriDelta, 1 Kappa, 1 DG, 1 AChiO, 1 ChiO, 1 KD, 1 Gamma Phi and six DZs. Waiting to hear how the four we did recs for at Valdosta (2 girls) and Bama (2 Girls) do and esp the 13 we did for UGA girls!
One of the other past ASCAPA presidents and I plan to appeal to the new UGA Greek Life director to include our website address and that of Atlanta Panhel in their recruitment guide and mention us on their website - similar to what they do in Texas...wish us luck!
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