why grade cuts later?

In order for recruitment to be fair, every girl must be able to see every house - no exceptions. It's the right thing to do. If the PNMs grades were not great in high school, it's unlikely she could get into the houses with strict grade cuts, but there is the possibility of the house making an exception, such as for a legacy or if the girl has several recs that explain why her grades were bad in high school. Also, girl might drop if she is not happy with the houses she's left with, but she could always work hard on her grades freshman year and go through recruitment as a soph with an excellent gpa. Plus, some girls go to high schools with really high standards where it is extremely difficult to get mostly A's, but she might have a great ACT or SAT score or have taken mostly difficult AP classes (in physics, high-level calc, stats, etc.) which would indicate lots of potential.

Some houses allot a certain number of girls who they consider "grade risks" that they allow themselves to take if they really like the girl. My grades slipped my senior year of high school because my mom was diagnosed with cancer and I was driving her to the hospital a lot during that time.

I was a "grade risk" for my sorority by a few GPA points but once they heard why my grades weren't as good, they let me through grade cuts knowing I'd be on a special study program as a pledge. They want to meet everyone to be sure that there aren't amazing girls who had unfortunate circumstances. Grades are very important but it's not the only factor!