Oh MAN, I'm dying, another thread about badges, be still my heart.

PiPhis - does anyone have a photo of the turquoise pin? Maybe you could post it here and we (me, anybody) could post it over on Badge Trends?

That legacy arrow is gorgeous. Theta doesn't have anything like that.

KSUViolet, there's no way around it: if you can afford 14K, go for it. It's so rich looking and ages beautifully. Yes, yes, yes it is expensive. That's why I said "if you can afford (it)".

As I have frequently griped, I wish AEPhi had a white gold option.

As it is, our only option is guard or no guard. (There are now two badge options, but they are all but identical.) You could order a chapter guard later on if you didn't want to spring for one right away - as we all know, the new member semester is the most expensive (setting aside costs for living in-house in a housed chapter). In my case, I had to wait for my guard, because I was initiated while my chapter was still a colony. Only when we were chartered and had an actual chapter designation could we get guards.

I don't think I would have gone for bling as a collegiate even if we'd had the option. I would have been paranoid about losing it, or about pinning a little sister with it and having her lose it.

If AEPhi announced a white gold option tomorrow, I'd be first in line. But since it will never happen (we all have identical badges for a reason), I suppose I will have to live with the badge I received at my initiation. :)

I do also have one other piece of jewelry with my letters. My school has a very distinctive class ring, but women also have the option of a dinner ring. (I got both.) The dinner ring can be white or yellow gold. On one shank they engrave your class year. On the other shank, you can choose your sorority letters or "MIT". I went with my sorority letters, and white gold(!). I've frequently worn this ring to events such as weddings.

Ya know, I forgot you went to MIT, but as soon as you mentioned the Brass Rat I remembered.

I feel you on the opals. I was just looking at two of those sites and on one I saw several with opals. I think I would die for the opal/pearl or the opal/emerald options. Trying to stop myself from trying to get it right now.

I'm trying to get my fiance to "ahem--take the hint" and consider getting me the one with opals and sapphires on that site. Wish me luck, sister. :)

This is the mother's pin. Also, when I described the legacy pin, I could not remember whether it had one or two pearls -- thanks for looking & posting. I like to look at the new pin options from time to time & that is how I found out about the turquoise pin that was a limited edition. I don't have a picture (sorry) but it was really pretty & I was tempted. The other thing is that supposedly you can special order a Pi Phi arrow and have it custom-made with almost any type of jewel that you want.

Consider the possibilities- alternating diamond & opal, pearls & turquoise, garnets and sapphires, etc. The possibilities are endless! I have mentioned this on this thread before, I think, but one of my roommates had a custom made arrow with fire opals and a diamond point. It was amazing, and I'm not even an opal fan.

The other thing is that the arrow point can have several styles - plain point, several kinds of engraving (sometimes you can date a pin by engraving style), diamond point, jewel point, etc. So many pins, so little time! :)