<p>I have heard that it is standard practice for girls to get "dressed up" for the football games at Vandy. Is this a sorority thing? How common is this practice? Can a female student fit in and not participate in Greek life? I have heard that Greek life dominates the social life on campus, and that the sororities are pretty competitive. Would love to hear some feedback on this. Would a down-to-earth, casual, non-dressy female from the Northeast fit in?? Thanks!</p>
<p>I went to Vanderbilt in the 80’s, also a girl from the Northeast. Shock would be a mild description of my reaction to football game attire. However, I quickly realized that the only people who dressed like that for games were the Greek contingent, generally Southern; the rest of us looked like, well, the other team’s fans. So unless you want to get into that whole scene, you do not have to do it, and no one will stare (heck, they will probably look right through you). I found my niche outside of all that, and survived intact.</p>
<p>My D’s game day attire has varied from jeans/t-shirts to dress/heels to sports bra/shorts/gold body paint!</p>
<p>^ Ditto for my daughter at games. She has been very happy there for 4 years outside the greek scene. While greek life is big there it is still less than 50% of the student body… GDI’s are still the majority.</p>
<p>It’s simply a Southern thing. It’s the norm for us to get dressed up for games, and they are a big social event for us. We have functions before and after, and they all center around the game.</p>
<p>From what I understand Vandy isn’t the only SEC school where this happens.</p>
<p>cdcreator is correct. students dress up at many southern schools, especially those in the SEC.</p>
<p>When we toured UVA 5 years ago, we were told that it was fairly common for some students to wear sundresses to football games. My d who is a 2009 Vandy grad loves to dress up and was in a sorority; however, she told me that by no means did she and her friends dress up for every game. I’m under the impression that a group of friends would decide in advance which games were sundress-worthy. 
If wearing pearls, heels, and sundresses was de rigueur at all football games, this kid would know. And the heels aren’t in evidence so much - think dressy sandals.</p>
<p>Its a southern thing sweetie (:</p>
<p>probably not as common as it used to be, its more rooted in tradition</p>
<p>its a shame that a lot of northerners are scared off by this, dont realize that there’s people from everywhere, more than just greek stuff, and there’s a world outside of vandy in nashville.
lots of northerners go greek anyways</p>
<p>im from a northern high school, like 2 people apply to vanderbilt, and both of them usually get accepted every year, I think more ought to</p>
<p>You can go for this kind of dressing up if u want but if u dont want to, its your choice. As a guy I dont care for dressing up in COLLEGE (its college, seriously) so I roll with tshirts/jeans/sneakers to games.</p>
<p>Hmmm…
There are people who paint up, wear a Vandy tshirt, wear sundresses/ties–it’s a mix. Whenever I go tailgating on gameday, I will say that most students stay at the tailgate through the game. Actually going to the game isn’t a big thing.</p>
<p>i’ll def. go with gold paint! :)</p>