Why are recs absolutely necessary at some schools, while not expected at others?

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

I just want to point out that there are schools (like my alma mater, though I know the SEC has dwarfed us since my day) that have huge numbers and very few recs sent in advance. Certainly we managed to figure out how to get from 1200 women to around half that after the first round.

I'm not going to get into MS details, but it's not as though you have NO information on a woman before she walks in the door. Everyone fills out a rush application with high school activities, awards, honors, etc...the same stuff you'd probably find on a rec from an alumna who just met the PNM. You obviously have GPA's and class standing, as well.

(NB: I still maintain that, once chapters are 100+, you could do a random draw of names and everyone would be just fine.)

So what is the rec really doing?

1) Showing that the PNM did her homework in advance. Are women who haven't done this more likely to drop out? Will they be surprised by the financial or time commitments? I have no idea; it would be an interesting thing to find out, though I can think of almost no way to do so.

2) Making sure she doesn't have an arrest record or anything. This is a good thing, I think, but again, I don't think that getting a rec from an alumna of every group is necessarily necessary to accomplish this.

At the same time, I see some major downsides. For starters, it perpetuates a class eliteness that I personally find to be one of the most objectionable things about the Greek system. Obviously, that's inherent in recruitment anyway, but let's be honest that women from less-privileged backgrounds are going to have a very difficult time finding recs.

This. It's just tradition now and changing to a system without recs would be as likely as SEC chapters giving up their tailgating spots on gameday.