<p>Thanks for the input ahpimommmy – It may be different for public schools, but the policy at our private school is that any transcript given to a student or parent will be stamped “unofficial.” (I would assume this is intended to maintain the integrity of the school’s transcripts.) I actually ran into this issue when nominating a girl last week for a national scholastic honor. As required by the organization which gives the award, I had asked her parents to provide me with a copy of her official transcript to transmit to the national organization. The school said that they couldn’t provide an official transcript to the family, but since it was a scholastic honorary, they would be able to mail the nomination packet, including an official transcript, directly from the counseling office – so I just took all the other nominating materials to the office to mail instead of mailing it myself. (I don’t think that they would be quite as accommodating for a request to mail out sixteen official transcripts to sororities, however!)</p>
<p>Thanks for the report from personal experience collegebloom!</p>
<p>I just quickly browsed through each chapter’s website (using the links found on uapannellenic.com) and only saw one that requires an official transcript be sent in with recommendations (Kappa Delta). I don’t know what I saw this morning that made me think there were more, but I had only had one cup of coffee when I was doing it so that may explain something. There may be more, but I didn’t see them this go-round. I’m going to check with the high school in the morning to be sure of their transcript policy, and I’ll pay for the extra(s) if I need to, but it would seem that a copy marked unofficial would be sufficient.</p>
<p>I think Chi O also wants an official transcript. I can sympathized…I am no good on one cup of coffee :).</p>
<p>It could also be that I’m no good late in the evening when the day before was filled with prom excitement. I’m exhausted. I bet if I look again tomorrow, after two cups of coffee, I’ll be able to find again what I though I found much earlier today. Make sense? </p>
<p>Also, I emailed the guidance office and asked them about the transcript policy. It doesn’t matter what they might cost - if anything - but knowing how many I need is a biggie!</p>
<p>Alpha Chi Omega is another that, I’ve been told, wants an official transcript. </p>
<p>Those Texas panhellenics know all the details, though. I’d go with what they say. I’m thinking more and more that a COPY of the official transcript would work for the sororities, but if I can check with my friends in those sororities, I’ll report back.</p>
<p>I just checked again and went to that chapter’s website at UA. It doesn’t say anything about needing an official transcript, just that recommendations should be sent to a certain address. Of course, I realized just now that the the link provided is to all the chapters’ 2011-2012 profiles and they may have updated (hopefully) since then. The more I read, the more I think individul chapters may be the ones asking for official transcripts, not the national office. That appears to be the case with with the one I mentioned before. If anyone finds anything different, please let me know. And if you know for sure the UA chapter needs the official one, tell me that as well. Again, though, copies marked “official” should suffice.</p>
<p>pay4collegex4…you are right about contact…PNMs should send nothing to the sororities that is a correspondence. I have checked and sending the transcript (just the transcript no note ect.) is not a violation. The concern about mail contact after May 1st is because alums, legacy parents and yes even PNMS have, in the past, reached out to sororities with little reminders during contact season. an example is a couple of years ago a house had a basket of cookies delivered from an alum…the cookies had a PNM’s monogram on them and a note attached that said remember “ZXY PNM”.<br>
Even though there is a “no contact” policy in place there has still (and will still be) PNMs and sororities who violate this. I know of several instances last year where PNMs were on campus for one reason or another and had lunch/coffee/dinner with sorority members. Panhellenic asks members to submit to them a form that indicates if they will be in contact with a PNM(s) over the summer due to family ties, work ect. If reasonable these requests are usually granted with the understanding that while together the subject of recruitment will not come up. I wish I could tell you that all sororities at UA strictly adhere to this policy, unfortunately they do not.
I too am a huge fan to Texas Panhellenic and agree with southlander, they most certainly do it right!!</p>
<p>ahpimommy – Thanks for confirming that sending a transcript without an enclosed note isn’t going to be considered a contact violation. That sounds like the way to go – maybe even leaving off the return address. (Believe it or not I’ve actually had alums offer to send treats to their houses on my daughter’s behalf. While definitely well intentioned, that has been a rush violation at Alabama for over 30 years!)</p>
<p>Okay got a question:<br>
Being in Texas and having to do this a bit different I’m not real sure on one thing.
When we pre-address the envelope for our REC writer do they send it back to the area Panhellenic group that the PNM is registered? Or, to their own area Panhellenic chapter? </p>
<p>On the list of contacts for our area Panhellenic on a few of them it says, “send directly to the university chapter”. I’m assuming for those chapters the REC writer sends the final packet onto the UA chapter?</p>
<p>TXNewCollegeMom – if you are in a fairly large urban area of Texas, in most cases your rec writer will be sending her recs to the rec board for her own alumnae group, not to an area Panhellenic. If your rec writers write a lot of recs or are active in their alumnae club, they will know exactly where they need to send them. (For instance in my sorority, I send my recs to the person on our rec board based on the university the PNM is attending. In my friend’s sorority, she determines who to send the rec to based on the high school the girl attended. The alumnae groups usually send an email to their dues paying members with all the necessary information. When in doubt about the process for a particular group, I provide postage and a blank envelope or my daughter asks her rec writer how to pre-address the envelope.) There are only a few sororities that absolutely require a rec to go through a local alumnae rec board, but many which use an optional local alumnae rec board process in larger, urban areas. In most instances with optional rec boards, it is to the benefit of the PNM to go through the rec board if available.</p>
<p>Last year (my D is a current freshman), we were all put into crazed mom mode when UA panehellenic added the requirement of final transcript to the rec packets.</p>
<p>I don’t remember at what point this was…but it was a bit later in the year…maybe early May 2012. I went to our schools guidance office and was given an unofficial copy of my D’s transcript and I made the copies myself at Kinko’s with no problem.</p>
<p>They wanted them attached to each rec so I added the unofficial transcript to each packet. </p>
<p>I had a couple of houses that we had already sent the rec’s in and I knew they would not have the transcript. I just put the transcript in the mail…wrote on a Post-it note: D’s name, hometown, date of birth on it. And I highlighted her name on the transcript for easy reading if it was seperated. That was it.</p>
<p>We did wait to send out most rec’s until we had our final transcript. It was May 17th. I had all the packets completely ready and all I had to do was add the transcripts and send them out.</p>
<p>busymom3, that’s exactly what I had planned to do. DD will graduate May 19 and I think transcripts will be ready the week prior. I got panicky thinking we had to go ahead and get them in. That being said, I emailed the guidance office and asked about the policy and telling why I was asking. Would you believe that DD brought home 3 official copies of her transcript? The guidance counselor was so nice about it, too. Now I hate to ask again when final transcripts are ready…</p>
<p>YUCK! Our graduation is not till June 8th this year. Was trying to get the rec packets out by this week due to all of the other end of the year events going on right now.<br>
Guess we will send the current transcript now and then the official “last transcript” in June. We won’t even be home the next week after graduation due to being at BB that week. This is gonna be fun…</p>
<p>paying4collegex4, can you tell us which groups require the rec to go through the local alumnae board? I know Chi O does, but am not aware of others.</p>
<p>The only one I know of is Chi O. It is stated very clearly on the chapter website. I did not find any other chapters that stated that recs had to go through the alumni group.</p>
<p>Local to the PNM or local to Tuscaloosa? Or to the rec writer?</p>
<p>I’m so lost on all of that ^^^ Then reading the whole thing on the local Panhellenic “send only this”, “3 sets of 3 pics”, “paper only”, “digital/internet only submission”, “mail straight to school”, and tons more. </p>
<p>I’m sure it is No-No, but at this time I’m ready to pay someone to figure this out. All I’m doing is getting the instructions for D. She is the one writing her resume, letter, etc. So lost, so lost… off to my ladies Bunco group and much needed drink.</p>
<p>We asked all of the rec writers to send directly to the chapter except Chi Omega. Our rec writers for Chi Omega said “local” means local to the PNM, not the writer. Hope that helps.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure Chi O recs go to the alumnae board that is local to the PNM. SIL is Chi O and keeps me straight on that one. </p>
<p>This is all a lot of information and it’s quite confusing. It’s no wonder that many are lost - and some, like me, are feeling around in the shadows. Sent D1 through recruitment 3 years ago and, compared to what I know now, was quite ignorant about the process.</p>
<p>TxNewCollegeMom, have fun with your Bunco group! That’s the best way I know of to forget your worries for a little while and have fun with the girls. And ask some of them - they may be great guides for some of this!</p>