<p>I don’t mean to be nosy, but how much did your class ring cost if you got one? I’m about to spend $1000 :/</p>
<p>Never bought one. I never even bought my Phi Beta Kappa key. (I’m not sure I could have afforded either.)</p>
<p>When would you wear a class ring? I would rather buy a school chair.</p>
<p>I don’t get the class ring appeal - I have never seen one I would wear. Maybe someone can explain the appeal. Even the high school rings - and I really don’t get wanting one of them - are ridiculously expensive.</p>
<p>Never bought a college ring either…not enough money back then…wouldn’t wear it now. High school though is different. I bought one, wore it for several years and then my D wore my old ring. She gets hers this year (as a junior). At her school it symbolizes becoming an upperclasswoman and is given out at a special ceremony.</p>
<p>My D’s college ring (she insists it is more “college” than “class”) was approx. $400. It is a modest signet style ring in 14 karat gold. No stone. She is thrilled with it and thinks she will wear it for many years to come (unlike that gaudy thing she got in high school:p).</p>
<p>I’m reasonably sure I paid around $300 for a gold ring plus a less formal siladium ring. I wear it every day. :)</p>
<p>I’ve had my HS ring for about a year. My mom paid half and so did my dad (300ish). I love it. It’s not awfully gaudy, its the traditional type, but half the size. Plus it’s white gold instead of yellow. I am still in High School of course but I wear mine almost every day unless I am dressing up (dances) or if I know I’m doing something messy… </p>
<p>I think I’ll wear it atleast through college. My mom wanted me to have it because I had just moved schools and she really wanted me to try my best to feel apart of High School… </p>
<p>I don’t think I’ll get one in college… If I want a ring I may just invest in a ring I think is gorgeous, not so much a typical ring… Perhaps a tanzanite one for graduation or something that is special to me that I can enjoy forever, that symbolizes my life then, not so much college in general… just my $0.02</p>
<p>mini-- those PBK keys are only something like $12 for the gold plated ones (although the plate does wear off, sad to say). I always promised myself I’d buy a good one to go to my 25th reunion, and of course it ended up that I neither bought another one or went to the reunion (and my college is about 5 miles away, how shameful is that!)</p>
<p>The only grads I know who wear rings are Texas A&M. Nobody else wears college rings that I know. Maybe some athletes who get bowl rings etc.</p>
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<p>The Service Academy graduates are a major group that wear their rings proudly! I don’t know what USNA or USAFA does, but I know West Point has a whole weekend devoted to the Firsties getting their rings.</p>
<p>MIT students also proudly wear their “brass rats” (so called because they always contain a design of their beaver mascot).</p>
<p>son doesn’t want one. it would run $700+</p>
<p>Aside from grads of the service academies (“ring knockers”), I know very few people who wear their college rings. YMMV.</p>
<p>My FIL still wears his MIT ring.</p>
<p>But I wouldn’t get one from any other college, and certainly not HS. Nobody wears a HS ring in college, in my experience!</p>
<p>Those Texas A&M rings are a huge deal too (understatement). The Aggie ‘network’ is big and powerful and wearing the ring is proof you are a member. I believe a program was recently funded to help those grads with a financial need acquire their rings free or at discounted cost.</p>
<p>My dad started wearing his Virginia Tech ring again at about age 75, after I took it out of the safe deposit box where my mom had stashed it.
I have both a high school ring, (which I wore only in high school) and a college ring (which I really never wore)–but I have to say, I’m glad I have them. I like to peruse them every once in a while.</p>
<p>I see a lot of people- of all ages- wearing college rings. My daughter got her college ring at the end of junior year and loves it. I think it was about $400- maybe less. It is a tasteful signet ring.</p>
<p>I can’t picture my dad’s hands without seeing his West Point ring. Its been on his finger for almost 60 years.</p>
<p>The MIT ring–the brass rat–has a huge set of traditions associated with it. Getting one is a big deal. They are customized by each class and there are all sorts of hidden symbols that require a magnifying glass to see (the year is indicated in Roman numerals on the Great Dome, for example). They come in extra small (which was only added for my graduating class, the first one to include a lot of women) through extra large. There are stainless steel and gold versions; the gold ones range from 10K to 14K, in white or yellow gold. Prices range accordingly from a few hundred dollars to a thousand or so. Some people buy two, one stainless for everyday and one gold for dress. </p>
<p>When I lived in Massachusetts, I wore my brass rat (10K white gold, small) most of the time; now that I live in the Seattle area, I only wear it when appropriate (i.e., to gnurdy functions where it might be recognized). My son, newly graduated, wears his (large, 14K yellow gold) all the time.</p>
<p>In 1974 or 75 a brass rat was made for John Harvard’s statue, and a few years ago one was made for the CalTech cannon. <a href=“http://www.mitcannon.com/[/url]”>http://www.mitcannon.com/</a></p>