When I was a collegian in Maryland it was common to go for the blinged out badges. Chapter guards were pretty common as well but dangles were not. My badge looks like this:
Twenty years later I worked with our UCLA chapter and the collegians all just wore the plain gold-filled badge that comes with our initiation fee. The girls rarely wore their badges or had any interest in them. I found it really sad.
This is the type of badge they got:
ETA: Emeralds, diamonds and pearls are the only jewels that are allowed on our badges. This rule was put into place sometime around 1913.
