My lovely Greek Chat ladies,

One my students that asked me for a letter of recommendation is going to UT-Austin. I am totally unfamiliar with the Texas system, but I know by reading here and on other threads that it is totally different than the one I am used to in Florida.
I am currently trying to help her and her mom get information on recruitment and what they will need. If you have any advice, please let me know.

Thanks,

It's all pretty much summed up in this thread. Reader's Digest version-

Try to get a rec for every house. The Texas girls are generally sending 1 formal rec and 3 letters of support. With the rec, send a head shot, and a full or 3/4 body shot, neither of which need to be professional pictures, just something posed out in the yard or somewhere, also include a resume, listing activities, awards, community involvement, etc,. Being from out of state, these recs can be mailed directly to the houses, and the addresses and websites can be found here:

http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/gli...ble.php?id=upc

She needs to register with UT panhellenic too, and that can be done here:

http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/gli...pc_recruit.php


During her orientation, tell her to get to know some other girls who are going through recruitment, and tag along to events and parties. Rush chairmen from each of the sororities are all staying in Austin this summer and will be meeting girls during this time.

They've been meeting this spring with the fraternity rush chairmen to coordinate events, so it should be a fun summer!! (I've got the down low because my son and many of his friends, girls and guys, are rush chairs this year)

Then, follow all the other advise about what to do/what not to do, clothing choices, etc. that are spelled out in GC!

Good luck to your student!!

Thanks for the advice! I just got her packet today, and it had the resume and a wallet size photo. Is the other size mandatory?

What do you mean by 3 letters to one rec?

You also need to send in when she will be going to orientation. Texas "summer rushes" and will need to know when to invite her out during her time there this summer. Also, that reference needs to be in the hands of the chapter asap. I think I repeated what srmom was saying but it is very important for the girls to know when you will be there this summer.

also, let your student know that the sorority members will be checking out all the pnms during orientation, so should she attend a summer party, she needs to be on her best behavior.

Aren't summer parties with sororities against Panhellenic rules? They were when I went through!

The "letters of support" are just informal hand written letters that basically say, "I love Susie Q and think she'd be a great XYZ, I've know her for x years and can say without question that she's GRRRREAAAT!" Then hit on some of the highlights in the resume, blah di blah, etc. They just let extra information be passed along to the chapters outside of the official fill in the blank recommendation forms that we get off the org. websites.

Does that make sense?

Silence at UT doesn't begin until mid August, right before rush (I think it's the 12th this year, but you can check on the website). The rush chairs will be working all summer during the orientations getting to know girls, taking them out to eat, meeting them at parties, etc. It's all informal stuff. They don't send out invites or anything like that, they just get to know girls through girls they know from their hometown or highschool, etc.

The sororities don't hold the parties, the fraternities do, and they are held during the orientation weeks. Each of the fraternites have late nights on certain nights, and then they each will have big rush event parties a couple of times during the summer, like Foam, or Fiji Island, etc.