Quote:
Originally Posted by Munchkin03
Right now, a lot of families thought they'd be able to take care of dues--but scholarships and loans are much harder to come by, so family budgets and college funds are stretched to the limit. Even families of modest means, who expected to be able to take care of something like Greek Life because their kids got Bright Futures or HOPE scholarships, can't do it for myriad reasons.
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OP, I definitely understand where you're coming from, and I think it's great how supportive you are of your daughter going greek despite the cost. When I entered college in 2006, my parents had enough money in stocks to pay for 4 years of college and few years of grad school for both my sister and I. Even though I received some financial aid, Hopkins is a pretty pricey school. Today, their financial situation is at a point where they can only pay for less than one year of college tuition for one of us. We're taking out loans, getting a bit more financial aid and making it work, but it's not easy.
As for being Greek - they were never terribly supportive of my going greek. But while they were happy to help me out with dues for the first few semesters, dues are now entirely my responsibility because they have become a luxury. We have had a few girls leave the chapter or depledge because of financial issues, and it breaks my heart. But these are the times we live in - and our dues are FAR less than Alabama's. We don't have houses, and at their highest (as a new member) my dues were ~$550. So, I work 40 hours a week in the summer and 20 hours a week during the year to afford my dues and the optional extras like t-shirt orders, dresses for formals, gifts for Littles and Little-Littles, etc.
My point is, I don't think it's at all unreasonable to expect your daughter to work a part-time job to help cover her dues, especially if she ends up in one of the more expensive sororities. At least, I would expect her to cover extra sorority-related expenses. Obviously it's your family's decision, but if I were you I would tell her that you'll be happy to pay the average cost listed on the website (since that's what you budgeted for), and have her make up the difference if it's going to be more expensive. It probably would have been better to have this discussion earlier, but if you didn't have that information until now, that's not really your fault.