<p>For some reason your post was heavily edited but seems line you are on the right track. We visited Wake, have a good friend’s son who chose Wake (very rigorous) and my Dad attended Medical school at Wake…Despite all the my D chose TCU. Best decision ever for her. Good luck!! You can rest at night knowing these are both wonderful schools. …</p>
<p>SourthernFriedmom, could tell me about the bid basket info, I tried to PM you but I was not able to. I am knew to this whole thing and have D starting next year at TCU</p>
<p>We are also from the West Coast. DFW is super accessible from all over the country. Lots of flights and inexpensive ones. Wake Forest seems super hard to get to.</p>
<p>My son is a sophomore. Definitely does not need a car! </p>
<p>And to comment about Greek life: yes, recruitment is serious. Even at Wake. It is more casual at TCU than at a lot of schools but girls all need letters of recommendation and pictures to accompany them - no matter how casual you hear it is. ;)</p>
<p>Right. Not casual.</p>
<p>Thanks to all for the information. We are in Virginia so Wake is a 4.5 hour drive, much more appealing than 18 hours. Good thing there are lots of flights from Dulles to DFW. My daughter fell in love with TCU so will definitely be applying. I will have to get over the distance thing as we will let her make the final choice. 
I can say that I have talked to different teachers and friends about her visits and I have not heard a single bad thing about TCU! For parents of rising juniors, I think spring break visits during junior year are wonderful. It gave my daughter extra motivation to finish the year strong and continue to study for the ACT and subject tests so she can apply early in the fall. She is normally a very focused student but now she has very specific goals she has set for herself.</p>
<p>My D is a junior currently exploring TCU. She is interested in fashion merchandising. Can anyone comment on TCU’s program? Also, how will a girl from the north (Minnesota) fair in rush? We have been told it is highly competitive and that many girls at TCU hire rush coaches to advise them on the rush process. Is this true and necessary?</p>
<p>I have a sophomore son who rushed as a freshman but is not in a fraternity so I can only comment on that. The OOS kids do fine with rush at TCU, especially the girls. There is some “good ole boy” thinking behind a lot of the fraternities which makes the number of frats open to OOS boys very small. I would say take a great photo of your daughter and send it in to all houses with your recommendations. But I haven’t heard of rush coaches at TCU. Anyone else care to comment?</p>
<p>I graduated from TCU a million years ago and the fashion merchandising school was good then but I cannot comment for today. One of my friends graduated from there in Fashion Merchandising and did go on to have a great career in that field. Another friend got that degree but later got a teaching degree and is a teacher today.</p>
<p>A rush coach? Oh my gosh that is a new one and I am well-versed in rush. I am the Recommendations Chairman for my city (meaning all girls’ resumes from my city come through me and I get them references and send them straight to the different universities). </p>
<p>Yes, I think rush is very competitive at TCU but the girls from my city all seem to be able to join one. TCU Panhellenic will tell you how many girls went through rush and how many of them were eventually pledged.</p>
<p>You will need references for each sorority, of course. Are you from a big city?</p>
<p>Sisterrita - I didn’t realize some sororities had Recommendations Chairs for specific large cities. Maybe mine does too! HAHA! </p>
<p>Does this mean if my D is from L.A., and I reach out to a girl friend who was in a specific sorority, her rec for my D goes to someone like you first? And then onto the college? Or do PNMs contact you if they don’t know anyone and need to find a rec?</p>
<p>For my sorority, if someone asks me to write a rec, I send it straight to that PNMs potential chapter house.</p>
<p>Sisterrita, we are from Minneapolis. I know several people I can ask for references for my daughter but there are some chapters at TCU where I don’t know any alums. Thoughts about that? I have never heard of a rush coach as well, and I have been pretty involved in my sorority.</p>
<p>ca1996, Do you have contact with your Alumnae Association in your city? </p>
<p>This is how it used to work in our city–Alums wrote a rec/reference for a rushee/PNM and mailed it straight to the chapter. That’s probably how it’s done lots of places and that is just fine. Our system makes it a whole lot easier for the PNM and her mom.</p>
<p>We streamlined it and organized it in our city through our Panhellenic organization. The potential new members for the whole surrounding area come to an informational meeting in mid-April. They bring with them a resume, with two photos attached, for every sorority at the school they plan to attend. The Panhellenic divides them all up according to the sororities. They give me the resumes for every girl going through rush at a school that has Kappa Kappa Gamma. I then reach out to our alumnae, at first at a meeting where we find out who knows the potential new members and would like to write the reference. Usually, no one knows about half the girls so I then send out an email to our alumnae association (over 100 people) asking for help writing the references. We will write a reference on any girl, even if we don’t know them. Some girls know tons of people and their mama’s ask all their friends to write letters for them. Some girls I might have 3 or 4 letters to send. I hear that some schools don’t want tons of letters and then I hear some of them look closely at them. </p>
<p>To answer your question–I am not sure how the recs are handled in L.A. We are in a small southern city of about 250,000. I know that in Dallas, for example, they have a chairman for every high school rather than the whole city.</p>
<p>I hope I answered all your questions. For TCU, I think I might get several letters to go along with your reference, if you can. It can’t hurt.</p>
<p>Northernmom57- I googled Minneapolis Panhellenic and found this website
[TCAPA</a> : Home](<a href=“http://mntcapa.efoliomn.com/]TCAPA”>http://mntcapa.efoliomn.com/) which is the Twin Cities Alumnae Panhellenic. I wonder if they could direct you to a member of that particular alumnae association? I think they have a Facebook page too.</p>
<p>The idea of a Rush Coach made me fall out of my chair!!</p>
<p>My daughter is rushing at TCU. What info can you give me in regards to the “bid basket”?</p>