Are recs obsolete?

[AnchorAlumna]

I am a firm believer in using sponsor forms - alums (not collegians) sending them and chapters paying attention to them. Personally, I think sponsoring is even more critical now that new member periods are short.
it.
But with Facebook pages available on the one hand, and schools demanding more privacy on the other, is sponsoring new members obsolete?
What do you think?

[FSUZeta]

oh, i don't think so. the significance may change, but i feel they are still inportant. just as a great letter of recommendation from a hs teacher might help get your application a closer look at a prestigious college,so a great recruitment recommendation may get you a closer look from a sorority.

last night, a friend who is a member of another sorority and i were discussing how important a recommendation can be, based on the release figure protocol that came out three years ago from npc. her sorority emphasized that with the release figures that some chapters must use, a well written recommendation may just get the pnm the invitation back so that she can dazzle them with her personality and accomplishments, thereby getting another invitation.

[Little E]

[QUOTE=FSUZeta]oh, i don't think so. the significance may change, but i feel they are still inportant. just as a great letter of recommendation from a hs teacher might help get your application a closer look at a prestigious college,so a great recruitment recommendation may get you a closer look from a sorority.[QUOTE]

I totally agree with this, but at the same level do we miss great women because the system (when recs are vital to getting 2nd round invites) requires a bit of knowledge? I like/support the idea of recs as enhancement, not be-all-end-all.

[carnation]

I don't think you can trust facebook for information on PNMs because people lie. Though I hear from many collegians that facebook helps them decide who to cut...

I have mixed feelings about recs. They can be very valuable, especially for out of state girls whom nobody knows. And in these days of early and massive cuts due to release figures, they can be a help. On the other hand, a chapter never knows whether to believe the glowing information that many recs contain. I think a lot of chapters just say,"WTH", throw up their hands, and keep the girls they knew beforehand.

[kddani]

There are so many schools that function perfectly fine without recs being a big deal. Even larger recruitments- for example, Penn State. To my knowledge, I don't think recs are really required there. In my 3 years of being an active collegian at Pitt, we received ONE rec that entire time. I wonder how many recs even get read at some schools, or if they just get it and check off a box next to the girls name that they have one? It seems like a waste of a lot of energy and time. IMO, recs fall into the category of "this is the way it's always been done so we're going to keep on doing it". I can sympathize with having to make a lot of cuts early on, but you can easily cut for grades. And then you'd really have to trust the instincts of sisters who met the PNM during first round for the rest of the cuts.

[PhoenixAzul]

No offense, but it seems like a great number of PNMs are getting them for the sake of having them and not getting dropped from recruitment, not because they personally want to be recommended and highly touted to a particular sorority. That girls have to seek recs from alumnae panhellenics is sort of weird to me...like asking a professor you've never talked to to write you a law school rec. If the use of recs was reduced, I think that their impact would increase. If they weren't necessary (i know Panhel sites say "recommended" to have, but reading between the lines of certain rush threads, they may well have said "required").....getting one particularly well written, detailed and personal recomendation from an alum close to the PNM would be more, I dunno, powerful?

"recs" at Otterbein are usually only used when we have a girl who is a legacy/indirect legacy, just to let us know who she is, but if an alum wrote us specifically about a girl (example: a former student), we'd definitely be inclined to ask more about her.

Here's something that's been digging at me...on your recruitment materials, is there any sort of personal statement?

[33girl]

I would NEVER put facebook or anything like that in the same category as a rec written by an alumna. If I really wanted to, I could probably figure out how to be a "fake" student when I obviously am not. If the sororities are using facebook for anything other than remembering names/faces, and thinking it's a "shortcut," they're going to end up in a real jam sooner or later.

To me recs are like fancy parties - some places have embraced the NPC "no frills" resolution, some basically thumb their noses at it and still spend tens of thousands of $$$ on rush, because those are the large chapters that bring in big bucks. It's the same with recs. Even if NPC passed a resolution tomorrow that they were obsolete and no one should pay attention to them any more, there would still be chapters and schools in the country where you can't get past rush orientation without a rec.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

No offense, but it seems like a great number of PNMs are getting them for the sake of having them and not getting dropped from recruitment, not because they personally want to be recommended and highly touted to a particular sorority.

You don't know which sorority you want before you go through rush. Recs are "insurance."

[honeychile]

I would imagine that, prior to the printed rec sheet, Mrs. Smith would call XYZ chapter of her sorority, and tell them that Pammy & Patsy PNM would be coming to school that year, and would the chapter please give them extra consideration. I've also heard of alumnae in the past (like 1940's-50's) show up at a chapter with cakes or other gifts with the PNM's name on them. Since that was happening, I can see that getting a rec in the mail is a thousand times better than hundreds of phone calls. Even though schools such as Pitt didn't get as many as other schools, we did get about 20-25 a year, and local ADPi moms would bring their daughters to visit the Suite about a year prior to their freshman year.

The "dropping a good word" isn't going to stop, IMHO, so I see the rec sheet as the better option.

[adpiucf]

Recs and recruitment help give alumnae means to stay connected to the sorority.

In applying to law school, some schools require a Dean's Certificate. This is really just a form that states you have never been placed on any sort of disciplinary probation by the college. However, when the DC first began, it was in the days where the dean knew you by name and could personally vouch for your character. Today, it's more of a hold over-- how many deans actually know their students on that level?

I think recs are the same-- part of the sorority culture. They were probably more personal and more closely scrutinized in the past than today. Alumnae life is so limited as it is; I see recs/legacies as being more vital to the alumnae retaining their interest in the sorority world than anything else. And if the culture is such that PNMs need them on certain college campuses to be on an equal field with the other PNM's, then so be it-- the alumnae will feverishly write the recs all summer long. They are happy to help.

ETA: I live in TX right now. I am amazed at the activity of the APs and individual AA's in supporting rising college freshmen's persuit of sorority membership. Not only do the area AP's put on huge informational sessions for parents and students, they also have an extensive network of recommendation writers, a brochure and a website. Our AA is so meticulous that we are developing a database of area legacies so we can track where they're going to school and send congratulatory notes to their mothers when these women receive college acceptance letters, pledge a sorority, etc. I realize sorority life is very different in the northeast, midwest, west coast and the south-- but in some places, this isn't just a "college culture"-- there are alumnae women who LIVE this.

[alum]

Originally Posted by honeychile

I would imagine that, prior to the printed rec sheet, Mrs. Smith would call XYZ chapter of her sorority, and tell them that Pammy & Patsy PNM would be coming to school that year, and would the chapter please give them extra consideration. I've also heard of alumnae in the past (like 1940's-50's) show up at a chapter with cakes or other gifts with the PNM's name on them. Since that was happening, I can see that getting a rec in the mail is a thousand times better than hundreds of phone calls. Even though schools such as Pitt didn't get as many as other schools, we did get about 20-25 a year, and local ADPi moms would bring their daughters to visit the Suite about a year prior to their freshman year.

The "dropping a good word" isn't going to stop, IMHO, so I see the rec sheet as the better option.

I think you are absolutely right. It used to be that one needed a letter of introduction to open doors of society when visiting or relocating. It makes perfect sense that today's reference has evolved from that.

We visited a LOT of schools in the past 2 years for the daughter's college search and if there was a chapter of my organization on campus, we definitely visited. We were treated extremely well by all the chapters.

We didn't get a lot of drop-ins at my school either but always welcomed the ones who did. I think it's a great way to show how extensive a national GLO can be, simply by seeing all the different chapters at different schools, or while you are an active, having an older woman come by your chapter with her legacy saying I was at such and such school and was a member there.

[GeekyPenguin]

I agree, for some schools recs are pretty useless. I know that at one of the chapters up here they don't know what to do with recs. However, I'm writing a rec for a local girl going to Kansas State next year. I think recs will definitely help her doing recruitment simply because when you have to cut 300 girls after the first round and you've only talked to them for 10 minutes, it'll be pretty easy to cut a girl from out of state rather than a girl who is from the hometown of a lot of girls in your sorority.

I think recs can be helpful at a lot of SEC schools for the same reason - it ensures that the girl will get another look by the chapter.

[carnation]

Originally Posted by kddani

I can sympathize with having to make a lot of cuts early on, but you can easily cut for grades. And then you'd really have to trust the instincts of sisters who met the PNM during first round for the rest of the cuts.

But see, there are schools where it's so selective to get in--plus their recruitment is competitive--and there are no grade cuts. It's so hard to get into UGa now that there's no way there are any freshman grade cuts! That leaves the sororities with hundreds of girls they must cut in a short period of time and no easy way to choose who to drop. Georgia Tech has no freshman grade cuts either.

[kddani]

Originally Posted by carnation

But see, there are schools where it's so selective to get in--plus their recruitment is competitive--and there are no grade cuts. It's so hard to get into UGa now that there's no way there are any freshman grade cuts! That leaves the sororities with hundreds of girls they must cut in a short period of time and no easy way to choose who to drop. Georgia Tech has no freshman grade cuts either.

So then why should something ridiculously arbitrary, like the lack of a piece of paper, be a reason to cut a girl? Why not go on first round impressions, resume, etc.?

Especially when everyone says "oh recs aren't REQUIRED, it is the sorority's responsibility to get them". Panhel pages and sorority HQ pages say recs are the sorority's responsibility to procure. It's talking out of both sides of your mouth, which is what I really hate about recs. You're giving misinformation to girls, then punishing them when they follow what they were told.

[33girl]

Originally Posted by kddani

So then why should something ridiculously arbitrary, like the lack of a piece of paper, be a reason to cut a girl? Why not go on first round impressions, resume, etc.?

Because when you have 3000 girls going through, there's NWIH you can remember them all.

I'm sure groups do look at certain things on resumes, but to get too into that on here is a little dicey.