letters of recommendation

[emsy]

haha. so i was watching the new TV show GREEK and there was a group of rushees and the rusher (i think..?) was like "so you all have your letters of recommendation? save it for your house of choice." and they all pull out their letters...

so i was wondering...do you like really need letters of recommendation??

[KSUViolet06]

Depending on the school, yes you do.

It's a bit different than the show portrays them of course.

At the more competitive schools where lots of girls are going through recruitment, girls need at least one letter of recommendation for each sorority on campus. These are written by alumna members of that particular sorority.

The rec just tells the sorority chapter some info basic info about you.

This thread has alot of info about how sorority recruitment (that's the actual term for it, it's called "rush" for short) really works and about letters of recommendation.

http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/sh...ad.php?t=54403

[exlurker]

If I'm remembering the scene in the show correctly, it showed a bunch of guys being escorted from house to house and the escort asked about their letters of recommendation, which many of the guys pulled out and waved.

That is not usual. At most campuses, recommendations aren't especially important for the men going through rush / recruitment. (On some very traditional campuses, especially in the South, recommendations for guys can be useful, though.)

In any case -- men or women -- the rushees or "potential new members" would not be holding copies of the recommendations. As KSUViolets said, recs are sent in by alums (some sororities and fraternities allow members currently in college to write recs, too). I think it's fair to say that most of the time a young man or woman will never see what someone wrote as a recommendation for him or her.

The TV show is a TV show; it's for entertainment, not necessarily a reflection of real fraternity and sorority life.