Life is life! Life during your college years is full of drama, no matter WHERE you are - believe me, I saw plenty of drama in the dorm before I pledged. Everything is so amped up compared to how dull life eventually gets.
The lows are lower, but the highs are higher.
If you are in a smaller chapter, you can't hide whatever drama there may be from the pledges. If you do hide things from them and they get in and are upset, you haven't opened up to those women. You haven't truly thought of them as your sisters. If you keep your chapter a sterile environment where no one ever gets upset or pissed off, or where people might have those feelings but are afraid to share them, you have a very very shallow sisterhood - if it can even be called a sisterhood. I'm not saying more drama = closer sisters, but if you are trying to be perfect all the time it's hard to be real with anyone.
This is a big reason I have a problem with how watered down the pledge programs have become. For their whole pledge time the girls are told they are perfect and special, they don't HAVE to do anything, and anytime they are upset someone will handle it for them. Then they initiate and find out they have mandatory events, some people don't like them, they have to fight their own battles. Pledging should not be unnecessarily hard, but to make it too easy misleads a lot of people.
As for $$$ - that really depends on your school. Most groups now have payment plans. It is up to us to make rushees comfy enough to ask about that, or better yet, to provide the info through the Greek life office or on the website.