Rush season is slowly making its way upon us. Meaning, girls in schools all across the nation will soon have the ~*pleasure*~ of meeting sisters from all different sororities and having a process of elimination to decide which one they’ll soon belong to.
As if the recruitment wasn’t enough of a confusing time, everything kicks up a notch when Potential New Members (PNM’s) have to decide what to wear for each round. If your school’s anything like mine, then your Panhellenic Council will most likely give you a pamphlet to try and guide you in deciding what outfits you should wear for each round. But with such a little description, and such a big internal conflict of obviously wanting to look good, deciding what to wear can absolutely be a bigger pain in the ass than it needs to be.
Needless to say, I don’t miss this time.
But on the bright side, I’m here with this post today to give you some outfit inspo to make your life a little easier!!
DISCLAIMER: These are inspirations for outfits that I believe look cute and be easy for each round. However, I am NOT saying that just because you wear something specific, that you will get into a specific sorority. Nor should your outfit affect your rush outcome in any way. Wear whats comfortable, what makes YOU feel like your true beautiful self — I’m just here for some extra ideas!
Most sorority recruitment processes go as follows, but there is a possibility your school can do things differently. I advise you find out about the rounds with your Panhellenic Council to fully be sure. For my school, it went as follows.
Round 1: Open House
For round 1, my school gave us a Panhel T-shirt, meaning all we really had to style was our bottoms. Typically, this round is pretty casual, and if your rushing in the Fall its probably still pretty warm outside. All the walking you’ll be doing, combined with how much talking you’ll be doing, you’ll want to wear something cute but still comfortable. In my personal opinion, some cute jeans, skirts or shorts does the trick, paired with some sneakers or sandals. But if you do decide to wear shorts, PLEASE choose the ones that DON’T show any cheeks. Im usually all for a good risky moment, but theres a time and place for everything, and rush is the time to show class, not ass.
Your school may or may not do something similar as far as giving you a T-shirt — I would check with your schools Panhellenic Council.
Round 2: Philanthropy Round
In this round, you go from being hella casual, to still casual-but-a-little-nicer. Think of it as something you would wear to a nice lunch. Some ideas can be a romper with sandals or some neutral sneakers, or a nice top with some neutral pants and sandals.
Round 3: Sisterhood Round
Round 3 is where things start to get a little more serious. In this round you’ll start to learn more in depth of each sorority’s sisterhood. Here is where you’ll want to go with maybe a nice romper or shift dress, some wide leg pants, and some wedges or simple sneaker (if you want to dress down your outfit). When I rushed, I saw lots of girls wearing florals — the print helps to make dresses and rompers less serious, to keep it from being a “Pref Round” outfit. For more inspo on how to wear florals, click here.
Round 4: Preference Round
Okay ladies, if there was any time to go full out glam during rush, this is the time. For pref, sorority sisters will for the most part be wearing dresses and heels, and Panhel will tell PNM’s to do the same. So today is the day you wear something you’d wear to a nice dinner date, along with some nice makeup. Personally, I would try to stay away from dresses that are too body-con; remember, you want to keep it cute and classy. Here are some options:
Bid Day
Bid day is the last day of recruitment, where each girl finally finds out which sorority they’ll get to soon rep all over campus and find all her new sisters at. Each sorority will have a secret theme that you won’t find out until bid day. But once you open up your bid card and run home to your new sisters, they’ll provide you with a shirt. Meaning, just like round 1, all you really need to worry about styling is your bottom. And it should be something pretty basic that you can easily pair to go with any theme, just like I did for my bid day (as seen in the photos on top of this post — our theme was army).
Happy Rushing! And to URI PNM’s, I can’t wait to meet you!
xo,
Gabby Sinn
GABBY SINN 