I felt the need to use this, again.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...h/how_rude.jpg

In my personal opinion, OP has been the only poster who has been rude in this thread so far. Many of us have dealt with balancing finances while in college. The OP asked a question and involved her family's personal situation, and we gave her the best advice we could based on the information provided. If that's not good enough, well, you got what you paid for it - it is free. There's no reason to get all up in arms. This was a pretty open and honest and thoughtful thread. There's no reason for OP to insult the members of GC and complain about the reactions given. They were very honest and up front.



Now I will go wait for the flounce to be followed up by a return visit after daughter goes through cuts.

I can understand that wanting to know what to expect when it comes to dues is important. I'm sure most of us will agree that it is important to find out, especially before joining a sorority, no matter which college you attend. However, like many other posters have said previously, set your budget high because now that she is going through recruitment, there is no way to know which sorority she is going to join if one at all. If she winds up getting a bid to a sorority that is less expensive then that's great. I hope your daughter finds her home in any one of the great sororities at Alabama.

Wow. I haven't updated my profile in about 5 years; even then, it was an inside joke between me and people who rarely post on GC anymore.

I'm not being rude at all--if you read my second post, you'll see where I explained that it's not just "upper middle class" people feeling the brunt of this recession and having to make a decision between paying sorority dues and paying for books.

In before the flounce and lock!

off topic: my sister was a Phi Mu at Ole Miss! /backontopic

To the original poster: I can give you the costs of one of the houses that is old row. She lived in the house last year and this year so my comments are based on the actual costs we have paid. Nat. Dues, Local Dues, Housing, Meal Plan, $200 in her purchase account = $3400/semester. We have found that to be much cheaper that when she lived in Campus Housing.

I think I, and maybe some other gcers, were confused about what the intent of the original question was being used for. Was it for budgeting purposes or was it for mom to tell daughter "you need to rank XYZ and ABC lower because they cost too much." Which looks from the outside like sorority shopping based on cost. Also, I think posters were also concerned that should daughter accept a bid and then drop out because of finances, she may have taken the spot of someone who could afford it and was possibly left bidless.

To be honest, when I went through recruitment I know the costs were told to me in some parties, but probably if you asked me right after the party I wouldn't have remembered. As an 18 yr old I was far too concerned with making a good impression and learning about the sororities.

I think that this is a good thread for any panhellenic to see in this type of economy if they need to inform parents of correct costs prior to recruitment begining.

I definitely agree with your last statement! Costs were not discussed during my recuitment, and at school such as Bama (as with mine) it's considered taboo to ask about costs during rush parties. Unfortunately, it's just not something that you do.

When I read the initial poster's thoughts, I felt she wanted to know total costs of each organization as she would be paying the bill. She appeared to me as if she was doing her research beforehand and felt what she was finding were extreme costs from low to high. I applaud her for being concerned and wanting to be ready to fulfill a contractual obligation. She is wise to be concerned and I wish many more people would be like that. I have witnessed so many poor instances when girls/moms/dads should have done more research. When people are not well informed it does hurt more than just that one member. It is a problem for the whole organization.

ITA with MaggieXi that panhellenic should see a thread like this. I feel in a good or bad economy people should be well informed. Of course, you can't account for every single penny that will be spent, but you can give a very solid figure for every organization based on the prior year. It can and should be made available for each group. It should be posted or readily available if anyone needs to reference it.

At the very least, maybe we can learn from this thread.

I can understand how the costs would be a concern. However, this question has been answered and people have even shared their own personal circumstances. Littleowl's situation is a great example of how our older children can respond in an adult manner to changing circumstances. (Littleowl- your parents have raised a smart girl!)

The poster from Bama who posted the price of approx. $3500.00 sounds quite realistic. This is what we paid (for living in the house) at a major university in neighboring Florida.

I can understand how you would be apprehensive about calling the Greek Life office and asking in the middle of rush. However, in this economy I don't think you would be the only one.

For heaven's sake, why? I don't think they're going to notify the sororities that Zsa Zsa's mom called about costs and they're going to freak out and cut her. I'm sure that the fwap fwap is in the air and this would be one of the LESS annoying calls they would get.

if the op wanted to phone panhellenic, she wouldn't necessarily have to identify herself(or her daughter) by name.

however, i have a feeling that panhellenic would say that that information will come from the chapters. it is certainly worth a try though.

It did seem to me also that if she found out that certain ones were much higher, she would have instructed her daughter to drop them. Perhaps that was not her intent but it came across that way to me - hence the "train has left the station" comment. I can't imagine a parent doing something like that to her child int he middle of recruitment.

She also asked what she would tell the 2 younger sisters when their turns come if they could not afford a group as expensive as their sister's. I don't feel we're qualified to answer that. We don't know the other girls and what they can handle,etc. And they may decide not to go thru recruitment when their turns come. It just seems to me that all this should have been decided before the young lady signed up for recruitment....not while she's in the midst of it.

hijack/

I know in my org (and others that are similar), dues will change from year to year, but not by much ($10-50 tops). Do your (NPC) change dramatically from year to year (I'm sure this is a "varies by org" topic, but just in general)?

Also, couldn't someone ask a current member how much they were charged in dues (ex. I walk up to a KD active and ask if she could let me know approximately how much dues are)? Or is that taboo?

If this has already been answered, sorry. I don't want to go back and read through this thread.

/hijack

National ASA (or KD or KKG or whoever) dues are the same at every chapter - the difference here is in the local chapter's dues and housing costs. There are probably NPC groups whose national dues are higher than other groups, and who have different sorts of payment plans, but that's not really what's creating the issue here.