Should Legacies omit That Fact on Recruitment Applications?

[princessnerdy]

at our school there are several national groups that started out as local and community organizations before the university had ANY greek organizations on campus. Legacies to these now NPC groups do track their "lineage" all the way back to these local groups--so much so that there are 5th and 6th generations of girls rushing their particular group.

This does create the problem of having too many legacies for each chapter to take and as a result some do go to other chapters. It can also be a problem for newer chapters on campus that may not have the sheer number of legacies rushing, and so they may have low numbers because chapters with a high number of legacies tend to keep them around as long as possible during recruitment in order to make sure they will make quota. However, this problem will (hopefully) start to be remedied this year when the university changes to the new system of release figures to allow for more equal figures for every group.

[Erik P Conard]

seems like the legacy dilemmas and recommendations are mostly
in the sororities. The "rec" bit is the epitome of hypocrisy, and is
abused almost everywhere. When a really good candidate is on
the rush scene, many seek alums who will write a rec without even seeing the girl....
Fraternities rarely have legacy problems, for what reason I know
not, but think about this:
If you cut a legacy you can damned well forget about his dad or
other kin. This is not to say they will step up with big bucks at any case, but failing to bid a legacy will close the door on that
family for sure.
And, think of the squirrels you pledge who are not legacies; you
have but a short time to know them. And there is still the length
of pledgeship to decide...
The fraternity numbers, 'cept perhaps in dixie, are not that large,
and most of us are hardly exclusive. I think Abe Lincoln could've
been a Beta but the Dekes would not take him.
Do not deny a good man a chance...
Disclaimer...I am not aiming this at any group other than the traditional IFC-type system, so please don't pitch a hissy fit.

[ThetaPrincess24]

I can see where this would be a problem at some schools especially SEC schools. However at my school we didnt cut girls just because they were a legacy somewhere else. if we really liked them, we tried rushing them harder so they would pick us over their legacy chapter. A lot of the time it worked too!

[annmarie3]

I think it's absolutely a disadvantage to be a legacy if you are not a direct legacy to THAT chapter. My cousin went through rush as a legacy to XYZ. After her first day of Rush, she felt very strongly that XYZ was the place for her, and was very excited because the girl rushing her had said things to her at the party which absolutely should not have been said if they were not 100% sure she was going to receive a bid. After encouraging her NOT to get recs from other houses to "show her loyalty to XYZ,"over the summer, they cut her, along with every other respectable house. My cousin is a beautiful girl who has always had tons of friends, good grades, lots of extracurriculars, and an impeccable reputation, so this was not an instance of "QR." The only explanation that anyone could come up with was that they had so many legacies to that chapter going through, that they weren't able to honor legacies from any other chapter, even after dirty rushing them all summer. Apparently, her mother, an XYZ, contacted nationals about this, demanding an explanation, (as I think that any parent in this situation would) and the members of XYZ found out about it and made her freshman year a living hell. She ended up going into a severe depression and almost dropping out of school. When I went through Rush, because of what had happened to my cousin, my mom (also an XYZ) wouldn't allow me to pledge XYZ.... not that I would have wanted to after that!! I've talked to other people and from what I hear, this isn't as uncommon as you might think.

Anyway- I would say that unless you are a legacy to that chapter (Your mom was an XYZ at ABC University and you are going to ABC University), you have 2 choices:
1.) don't list it
2.) list it, but go into rush with the knowledge that it's very likely that they will cut you anyway, as will other top houses who don't have the space to waste a bid on a girl they believe will pledge XYZ.

[33girl]

Why didn't your aunt tell her daughter to go ahead and get recs for the other chapters anyway? Didn't they use them at her school? I mean, I would think she would have known better than to agree w/ her daughter following such questionable advice.

[adpiucf]

I think that if you're a legacy, that is your legacy house's business and no one else's. And no one else needs to know how many recs you had to rival houses or if you're a multiple legacy at several houses.

That being said, a PNM can feel uncertain at recruitment. I would venture to say it helps boost her confidence to get recs to feel she did all she could to appear prepared, interested and serious about sorority membership--- regardless of how the chapters at her school may regard receipt of a rec. Even if a chapter who doesn't traditionally get recs were to receive a rec for a PNM, I would hope that they would say-- wow, this is a girl we should really look for at recruitment and get to know her-- and for the chapters who are accostumed to recs-- they should treat their legacies and recs with the respect accorded to the alums who endorsed those women-- from there on out, it is up to the chapter and the PNM to determine if there is a lifelong bond and match ahead.

[pinklady117]

wow thats horrible to hear. i know that in my campus the competion is so much that we have to work just as hard if not harder to rush our own legacies just as if they were normal pnms.
this year we got one legacy but lost another one to another organization. and as a matter of fact my chapter has legacies from just about all organizations in our campus.
our recruitment is EXTREMELY competitive so it becomes like the ultimate prize to get someone elses legacy. sounds somewhat harsh but thats how it is.

[annmarie3]

Originally posted by 33girl
Why didn't your aunt tell her daughter to go ahead and get recs for the other chapters anyway? Didn't they use them at her school? I mean, I would think she would have known better than to agree w/ her daughter following such questionable advice.

I guess that they really didn't think it would be necessary since they had been led to believe that she was going to receive a bid from XYZ and they didn't want to do anything to screw that up.

[WCUgirl]

Originally posted by annmarie3
My cousin is a beautiful girl who has always had tons of friends, good grades, lots of extracurriculars, and an impeccable reputation, so this was not an instance of "QR."

What is a QR?

[annmarie3]

we say it to indicate that a girl has a questionable reputation (usually meaning that she's promiscuous, but also that she's just not a quality girl.)

[carnation]

Bump! So pertinent right now.

[pibetaphi2013]

I don't really think there's any reason to list it. The extra competition or automatic cuts both hurt the PNMs and the chapters.

Also, regarding alums who may not know about legacy introduction forms:
At my school you would just list
Pi Beta Phi- mother and grandmother
Kappa Kappa Gamma- sister
Chi Omega- grandmother
etc.
No names of relatives. Without names it would be difficult to verify the validity of these statements, and therefore it seems unlikely that we would give a PNM without a legacy form the courtesies that are given to PNMs with the forms.

[CougarGrad]

Our campus isn't as competitive as other campuses (campii? lol) in Texas, so listing yourself as a legacy doesn't really seem to affect much unless you currently have a relative in a chapter at our school. Even then, I haven't heard that the houses automatically assume that Polly PNM wants to join her older sister at ABC.