<p>Back to the white dress issue-- an inexpensive solution is to get a white skirt (end of season sales are on now) and a cute white tank or tee. We hunt down cocktail dresses all the time since Ds sorority has many dressy parties. Many on sale at Nordstrom anniversary sale. Just got a $300 dress at Macy's for $74.</p>
<p>Definitely varies from school to school, so it may not help to hear what other schools do. </p>
<p>Your Rho Chis/Rho Gammas/Recruitment Guides (sorority members who lead small groups of potential new members around and just assist with the process) will be able to give you a better idea of what to wear and when.</p>
<p>The general rule, from schools that I'm familiar with is that you tend to start casual but still nice (jean skirts being fairly popular - but definitely not regular jeans) and work your way up to more dressy clothes (like what you might wear to church during the summer - being fashionable of course). </p>
<p>The white dress is usually not a requirement for bid day, but for the majority of sororities will be for rituals and initiation. </p>
<p>For sorority formals, you usually get a chance to break out those prom dresses again, and a lot of girls actually share/borrow dresses as the year progresses.</p>
<p>My D, who ended up pledging after swearing she'd never join a sorority, has had great luck with basics--black & white dresses--and White House, Black Market. They're online too if there's not one where you live. She found a fabulous strapless black dress on sale for $35. She also found a great solid white dress on sale as well. </p>
<p>She was concerned about the white dress thing, but this particular store usually has several styles in white, or off-white, even in winter.</p>
<p>Dillards has some really cute dresses that aren't all that expensive even as full priced. I'm pretty sure this is about the time when stores start getting their fall stuff in, so you should be able to find some great sales on sun dresses.</p>
<p>I plan to rush, and for the events, there is an Ice Water Social with casual dress(ie khaki pants and summer top); a skit night with Sunday Dress (ie floral dress or skirt and nice sandals); preference night with formal dress (ie cocktail dress or "little black dress"); and bid day, with jeans/shorts and a tank top that you can put a t-shirt over.</p>
<p>What abt ppl who are pretty much broke, not bringing much clothes and dont think they'll be able to shop for those many kinds of outfits too soon?</p>
<p>NOT meant to sound mean, as I am not exactly rich, but if your so poor you can't afford clothes like jeans/t-shirt/nice pants/skirt, can you really afford to join a sorority?</p>
<p>Agreed w/ equine. Dues here are about like buying a new high-end laptop every semester!</p>
<p>jcrew have marked down some of their dresses reg. $225 to 49.99 + an additional 20% ($39) off until 11:59 tonight .</p>
<p>On your college website, there is a link to greek life and some schools have suggested outfits posted.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, you should be more worried about your sorority recs as opposed to what you're wearing to the recruitment parties.</p>
<p>Be concerned with sorority recs at some schools... definitely. At others, I don't know how much it matters. We invite anyone with legacy status or a letter of rec back for round 2, even if we don't like them much since we have to honor our sisters who took their time to do something.</p>
<p>Anyway-- your schools panhel website should have a blurb about dress requirements for recruitment. For us when you're going through recruitment, round 1 is sort of casual. Of course, casual is interpreted by girls trying to make great first impressions, so there were naturally plenty of black pants and stilettos or other pointy toed shoes, lots of cute sweaters, lots of jeans, lots of blazers (we do recruitment in January)-- most girls dressed up more than they would for class. Round 2 for us is philanthropy round, so it's more wear jeans and sneakers than anything else (still there were those rocking stilettos). Being in a sorority, I love Round 2 since I got to wear jeans a great tshirt (honestly wearing it now) and letter flip flops. Round 3 is skit night so people tend to dress up-- there were some girls in skirts and dresses, and some in nice pants and a dressy top (I remember I went this route). Pref Night/Round 4 is semi-formal attire, wearing a cocktail dress. </p>
<p>My school doesn't require that you wear anything special on Bid Day, but it's generally recommended to wear a white longsleeved shirt so you can put your bid day shirt over it (it's cold in January!). We do ask our girls to have a white dress for initiation-- some sororities have their new members wear white to their first formal as members + initiation. My tip, is just start going to stores now... everyone is putting summer stuff on sale, and every store seemed to have lots of white dresses this season.</p>
<p>bluestar what sorority are you in? and im guessing you go to school in the south because your rush sounds very formal.</p>