Question about dues in the future
 

hi. i have a quick ? about dues. i went to a small school where we didn't have houses or anything so our dues were relatively inexpensive. my ? is how much can dues be when houses etc are included? are they really outrageous? i understand they can vary from school to school etc but could someone ballpark it for me? thanks!

Here's a link to the Uof Arizona's greek life guide for 2004 recruitment. It has a chart of dues estimates for both NPC and IFC groups. The NPC chart has estimates for both NPC chapters and the non-NPC chapters that are associate members of the collegiate panehellenic.

http://www.union.arizona.edu/csil/gr...GreekGuide.pdf

When you look at the differences between the housed and unhoused chapters you go WOW look the the difference. But then you start to list all the things you are getting, like 10 - 15 meals a week, use of the house, room and board if you're living in ...

The key difference for housed chapters is that the you need to think of it as the same as if you were paying for the dorms. I think a lot of people don't think about that, so when they see the average cost for a sorority house at Nebraska is $4900 a year they get a little surprised. But considering the average cost of the dorms with a full meal plan is $5400 a year it makes sense.

As for me, I don't live in the house any more, so my live out fees are $375 a semester. I have no idea if you consider that high or not. I also pay $175 a semester for a meal plan at the house, which is a lot cheaper for me to eat at then anywhere else.

I graduated from Georgia Tech in 2001, and lived in the house for two years prior. Our dues/rent total was $3000 a semester back then. Real estate is really expensive in downtown Atlanta, and our house was pretty new (built for the 1996 Olympics). It was actually less expensive to live in the house than to rent an apartment on or off campus, and having all of the conveniences of being on campus made it worth it.

In my chapter dues kind of varied if you were living in the house or not:

* if you were not living in the house, you would have to pay a "parlor fee" that is considered part of the dues

* if you are living in the house, you do not have to pay that "parlor fee" so dues are actually lower. The reason you do'nt have to pay the parlor fee is because you'd be paying rent on a monthly basis, which was pretty cheap compared to the amount I was paying in the dorms. Not only that, but it was cheaper than most all of the apartments *right* by the campus.. so that was pretty neat too :)

So you could pay regular dues + parlor fee + rent for whereever you're living =or= pay regular dues + rent for living in the house.

My campus has "lodges." Which means that it is basically a meeting place. Our average 1st semester dues are about $500. Monthly dues are $65.

Quick comparison:

A friend of mine here in Gamma Phi pays just under $600 a semester in dues (No house, but chapter room and a designated floor for them in the dorm).

Another friend of mine that was a Gamma Phi at Alabama paid closer to $2400 per semester, which she said were the lowest on campus (but they have a house).