Winter Sorority Recruitment Outfit Guide (pt. 2)

When looking through my analytics to determine blog post ideas for this year, I noticed that for the last two years, my most popular post has been my winter sorority recruitment outfit guide! I shared this the winter of my sophomore year, a year after I had gone through winter recruitment myself, and I feel that now it could use a little update provided that it's so well-loved amongst many of you going through the process year after year!

I personally think winter sorority recruitment is a fabulous way to approach recruitment; it gives girls a semester to settle into their school and really understand each house before jumping into one! Since I went through the process three years ago, I don't remember every detail, but I do remember being really happy that I occasionally recognized girls in the houses from parties the first semester, and having a better idea of what each house was really like. The only downfall of winter recruitment is standing in the cold waiting in line to go in each house ;)

In my original post, I explained in detail each round, and feel it would be redundant to do that again. Everything I said there still holds true, except for now the outfits are a little bit dated! I wanted to publish this round two in case any of you need a little help outfit planning, and the outfits in the old post have since sold out.

Let's jump into it!

Preparing Your Outfits

I went into detail in the original post about this! A few key takeaways:

Accessories are a great conversation starter! Someone can compliment your necklace or earrings, and that can be an easy, light way to kick off a conversation. Just remember: at most schools (or maybe its a panhel rule?) you are not supposed to talk about brands, so try to avoid anything with a big logo, or at least just don't refer to it during a conversation!

Jeans are definitely okay during first rounds! I would just avoid anything overly distressed... though that is probably obvious to you already!

Keep in mind: it's ok to rewear things! You are allowed to rewear your favorite pair of jeans or boots! Especially in the winter, I think it's just realistic that you won't have 5-6 pairs of comfortable, warm, cute shoes, so of course, it's okay to rewear your favorite (or most comfortable!) things. At the end of the day, outfits seem far more important than they actually are. It sounds so cliche (and probably sounds like a lie, unfortunately), but if your personality is a great fit for the house, no one is going to care what you're wearing.

That said, it is important to showcase your style and put your best foot forward, but don't stress over your outfits! I know that I personally over-stressed about what I was wearing, ended up giving up and wearing really average outfits all throughout recruitment, and it worked out just fine!

With the outfits below, just keep in mind that they are heavily relatable to things I would personally wear... like, all of these outfits are combinations I could see myself putting together

First Rounds

Most schools give the PNM's t-shirts to wear during the first round, and I think this is a great idea because it puts the focus on the girl instead of her outfit during her first impression. However, when I went through rush, my school didn't do this, so our rule of thumb was to dress how you would for class, but a bit more elevated! Maybe like an outfit you'd wear to go shopping or to brunch with your mom on the weekends... casual, but cute and shows off your style a bit!

outfit 1: boots // leather puffer (i have this jacket and get SO many compliments on it! -- it's 50% off here!) // oversized sweater

outfit 2: earrings // sweater // jeans

outfit 3: keep it simple with all black! honestly, if I were going through recruitment again today, this is what I would do on the first round... oh, how I've changed in the last few years, haha. 

mock neck sweater // black jeans // dr. martens

Second Rounds

Second rounds can be tricky because there are quite a few routes you could take! This round usually means going to a few fewer houses, and dressing up a bit more without looking overly fancy. This could mean nicer pants, a skirt, or even a more casual dress!

outfit 1: sweater // skirt // booties

blouse // earrings // sweater dress

outfit 3: // blouse // skirt // over the knee boots

Preference Round

Ahhh... preference round! You've made it and this is the fun part! I remember pref being less stressful in terms of actual experience in the house. For the most part, now is just the time for the house to convince you to pick them, and you just get to enjoy the presentation! Dressing up is also fun, too!

little black dress // black wrap dress // lace dress
 double strap heels // snakeskin heels // tortoise heels // platform heels

Best of luck to anyone going through recruitment in the next few weeks!

xoxo