Rec letters

[tallgreekalum]

My cousin is potentially attending UNC this fall. My fraternity does not have much of a presence in the South(although we've been working on it), so I have very little experience with rec letters. She is already getting local ladies to write letters for her, and several friends of mine who have been active in NE and national sorority alumni activities are willing to write as well. I have been Vice-president of my fraternity, as well as expansion director. Would a letter from me pull any weight? She is a great student and a wonderfully happy young woman, and she is the kind of person I look for when starting a new chapter(just with different plumbing and I want to do the right thing. Would it be considered odd?

[Titchou]

Yes....at UNC it would be odd. As long as she has one for each group on campus, she's good.

[PittDZ]

It is kind of you to want to help your cousin, but sorority recommendations are only to be submitted by alumnae in good standing to their chapters on that campus or to their national. It helps, but is not necessary, that the writer personally know the PNM. Most sororities have forms for this purpose that are accessed by password online. They are generally not letters and I am afraid that a chapter getting a letter from a PNM's uncle touting her qualifications might subject her to some ridicule. Sororities, after all, are women's organizations and Panhellenic guidelines even prohibit fraternities from participating in Panhel recruitment. You can best support her by helping her identify alumnae women from each of the sororities present on that campus, if you know any in her area. She can also get them through an Alumnae Panhellenic in her nearest city. One to two per group is all that is necessary.

[AnchorAlumna]

At the University of Alabama, PNMs who don't know alumnae of some of the chapters on campus are encouraged to submit what they call "academic recommendations" from teachers, principals, coaches etc., but honestly they do NOT take the place of a sorority alumna recommendation.
You are doing they right thing by connecting her to sorority women of your acquaintance - good job, uncle! But a letter from you won't help.

[tallgreekalum]

Thank you all. Rec letters are so not a New England or a fraternity thing, so it's all terra incognita to me.