  We present new multiwavelength submillimeter continuum measurements of the
circumstellar dust around 48 young stars in the $\rho$ Ophiuchus dark clouds.
Supplemented with previous 1.3 mm observations of an additional 99 objects from
the literature, the statistical distributions of disk masses and submillimeter
colors are calculated and compared to those in the Taurus-Auriga region. These
basic submillimeter properties of young stellar objects in both environments
are shown to be essentially identical. As with their Taurus counterparts, the
$\rho$ Oph circumstellar dust properties are shown to evolve along an empirical
evolution sequence based on the infrared spectral energy distribution. The
combined $\rho$ Oph and Taurus Class II samples (173 sources) are used to set
benchmark values for basic outer disk characteristics: M_disk ~ 0.005 solar
masses, M_disk/M_star ~ 1%, and $\alpha$ ~ 2 (where $F_{\nu} \propto
\nu^{\alpha}$ between 350 microns and 1.3 mm). The precision of these numbers
are addressed in the context of substantial solid particle growth in the
earliest stages of the planet formation process. There is some circumstantial
evidence that disk masses inferred from submillimeter emission may be
under-estimated by up to an order of magnitude.
