how important are recs?

honestly they don't help that much, more important to know girls in the houses

adding on to my previous comment, they are not required but PNM's usually send 2-3 recs per house. But in all honesty, 100 recs won't help if they don't want you.

Although a recommendation may not help you get into a house, an alumnae recommendation is usually required for a rushee to receive a bid from a sorority. It is required by the sorority's national headquarters. When I went through SMU rush, I had a rec for every house ... don't leave a house out because you don't think you'll be interested ... you never know where your rush journey may take you.

Panhellenic cannot pretend to offer 360 memberships to over 600 powerful ladies without dissent. Being from one of the 1-6 sororities, I heard first hand many verbal offerings of membership. Many of these were not possible due to legacy bid rules and quota limits.

I encourage these ladies to make suggestions on how we can better prepare them for the disappointment of us giving the vast majority of bids to our legacies and then we must deal with quota limits. Being a GDI in such a socially Greek Life controlled financially expensive university is hard to validate.

There is so little that a pnm can control about their rush. The two things you can control are 1) getting good grades in the fall semester and 2) having a rec for each house. Chapters have to release a lot of women during rush; don't make it easy to cut you by not taking care of those 2 things.

Recs are required by at least 1 chapter's nationals in order to pledge. They are also the way a chapter finds out if you are a legacy to the chapter.

Do girls have successful rushes without a rec for every chapter? Sure, probably some do. Is it worth the risk? Nope, get your recs lined up soon.

I agree with the above poster... You can control whether you have a recommendation, get good grades first semester and get out of your dorm room and get involved in every campus organization possible and make contacts in ALL groups. You can control a lot of your destiny. Don't believe the troll who is spewing lies. When you know members of each group, you will see for yourself that each group offers their membership sisterhood and a lifetime of opportunities. Don't let others feed you lies. If you were accepted to SMU, obviously you have brains. Think for yourself. Don't be led by trolls.

Only at SMU Freshmen recruitment takes up 2 semesters. Freshmen recruitment begins in the Fall semester and completes after the second week of classes in the second Spring semester.

Freshmen only learn of their finalist on pref day, after the first week of classes during the second Spring semester. After learning of their final bid options, freshmen were given 3 short days to drop all classes and move out of their dorm or face a 50% refund cut to their fees paid in advance to the university.

Panhellenic cannot pretend to offer 360 membership openings to sororities 1-6 to over 700 powerful freshmen ladies without dissent. Being from one of the 1-6 sororities, I heard first hand many verbal offerings of membership. Many of these were not possible due to quota limits.

Very few freshmen drop from the university after their first semester because they are given false hopes, encouragement and often verbal bids from sororities 1-6. Then in late January, reality hits at pref day. Over 200 ladies shunned from the sororities that told them they would be a great fit for their sorority.

The 2018 Freshmen Fall Class MUST be given the results of the 2018 Spring recruitment. Each sorority MUST give the number of legacies and non-legacies that were given membership. Also breakdown this number by freshmen and sophomores. The sophomore number must clarify if she was a transfer student or a repeating PNM for the past year. Sophomores repeating recruitment must be aware of their limited changes for a bid from sororities 1-6.

This data will disclose the harsh reality SMU sorority pledge classes 1-6 mostly consist of legacies. The newly arriving 2018 freshman PNM will be aware of her limited changes for a bid from sororities 1-6 unless she is a legacy.

She then must realize the pressure she will be under in the Spring semester to join sororities 7-8 or be a GDI. Continuous Open Bidding, COB was another ploy after Pref Day by sororities 6-7 to corral shocked, shunned freshmen ladies into their sororities.

Being a GDI in such a socially Greek Life Controlled financially exorbitant university is hard to validate.