Ballpark Figure for Recruitment?

[gee_ess]

I second the suggestion to look at the Greek websites/info for each prospective school. Taking a look at the pics of the suggested outfits (then, keeping in mind that those pics usually represent the low side of what the outfits usually look like) will give you an idea of what you are looking at for cost. During both of my daughters' senior years, whenever we needed a dressy dress, I always stipulated that whatever we bought needed to be something they would wear to an event at college.

Also, as a parent, I was surprised at how much more it costs for the 'incidentals' for my daughters. Their campus loves themed functions/mixers and it seems there is always a costume to buy or 'create' to attend. Plus, there is a t-shirt favor for every single event on campus. And of course, my daughters love those.

I may get flamed for saying this, but I am pretty sure a Greek daughter costs more than a Greek son! A good pair of khakis can get a lot of wear but a darling cocktail dress has limited shelf life (or so they think).

[Texasmom15]

Eightisgreat....

Like you, I knew waaaay ahead of time that my daughter wanted to go through recruitment. Knowing in advance allowed us to shop for her graduation/banquet/etc dresses with recruitment in mind as well. So that dress that was a little more expensive for graduation festivities got to play double duty at recruitment.

We looked at the recruitment dress recommendations and found that she had most of what she needed in her wardrobe but really wanted a special dress for pref night.....she wore the same dress she wore to the scholarship banquet.

She did buy a skirt and a dress at Plato's then added slightly nicer jewelry to round out the outfit. Oh yeah....she also bought a new pair of Sperry shoes a few weeks before recruitment started (but she will use them a lot all year).

[Texasmom15]

One other bit of advice.....

Shop early for suitable shorts. It was very difficult to find shorts even in July because stores were starting to get their "fall" merchandise. Also, since the style of shorts this year as quite "short" it was difficult to find a more conservative cut of shorts that didn't have a waistband that looked "momish". My daughter needed two pairs of shorts, one for the first day and one for bid day.

My husband also likes to budget in advance so having one of the dresses count as a graduation requirement instead of a recruitment requirement helped make our spending look quite reasonable.